Shanghai Mar. 23.—In these days of national economy, preserving crops for prosecution of the war, and whatnot, the old question has once more been raised as to whether or not scarecrows actually do scare crows....and the answer seems to be that, on the whole, they do not: this fits in with my observations very well, as I have often seen rooks and other birds sitting on the shoulder of a scarecrow and polishing their beaks on its hat. I am sorry about this because I have an old affection for scarecrows, probably dating back to the time when we had one in our garden and I used to hide all my ill-gotten gains in its pockets: I found out from simple observation that nobody would think of robbing a scarecrow, and my little belongings were as safe in its old coat as if they had been in the Bank of England. But this is beside the point; the question is, how can you keep birds off the crops if labour is scarce and scarecrows are no use? I think the answer is that you must have something which move, for birds very soon get used to anything which is stationary: a mechanical device such as a
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