The Crow

This cheeky crow comes into the garden everyday and particularly enjoys pecking at the fat filled coconut. If it takes anything from the bird table it will take it to the bird bath and soak it before eating it or hiding it under a pile of horse poo in the field.

Several sayings are associated with the crow:

As the crow flies - distance between two places measured in a straight line.

In Scotland the term 'the crow road ' has been used to suggest the most direct route. It was actually noted in the 1795 statistical account of Scotland that a crow road could be a way of reducing the costs of road maintenance by 'eliminating numerous winding roads'.

'Crows feet '- wrinkles around the eyes supposedly looking like ugly crows feet, I prefer to call them laughter lines.

To 'crow' - to boast about something

'Crows nest' - a structure used as a place for a lookout on a ship, usually an enclosed platform near the top of the main mast.

'crowbar' - A long bent metal bar used to pry open - the end looking like a crows beak.

Scarecrow - in the novel ' Robinson Crusoe' the main character wants to stop birds eating his corn so he shots some crows and hangs them up and no birds come anywhere near his field although the modern day scarecrow is somewhat different
Robinson does say ' I could never see a bird near the place as long as my scarecrows hung there'.
This is thought to be the first time the word scarerow was seen in British literature.
One of the most famous scarecrows must be the one from The wizard of Oz where he searches for a brain.

Stone the crows - exclamation of surprise or shock , a way of expressing astonishment. Children used to be paid a small sum to frighten crows from the farmers field. They would use anything that was close at hand which would mainly be stones. The exclamation of surprise might have been for the measly sum they were paid.