Little Care Crows for the Scare-Crows

Jemima Blackburn (née Wedderburn) (1823-1909),

1862

From an online version at (Project Gutenberg

The artist's initials appear at bottom right.

This illustration depicts the crows enjoying the farmer’s crop once they gleefully discover that the scarecrow “’Tis nothing but a man of straw.” Blackburn depicts the crows in various sizes and movements—some perching, others flying, and still others pecking on the ground—with the same authenticity evident in her magnum opus, Birds Drawn from Nature. Did Beatrix Potter, a fan of Blackburn’s artwork, have this drawing in mind when she designed her picture of the blackbirds pecking at the ineffective scarecrow in Mr. McGregor’s garden in The Tale of Peter Rabbit?

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