Cat-Shaped Bird Scarer

Farmers have gone to great lengths to deter birds, from scarecrows to new inventions of ultrasonic sound emitting devices and radio controlled air craft. In Victorian times farmers paid children armed with wooden clappers five pence a day to protect their harvest. Gardeners have always been forced to improvise, and cats have always been popular: the Museum has three examples of bird scarers in the form of cats. This is a silhouette cut out of tin, painted, and finished with glass eyes.