The pole is about 20 feet high, and is stuck in the earth at such
an angle that the swinging figure attached by a line at the top of the
pole hangs well over the sementera and about 3 or 4 feet above the
grain (see Pl. LXVII). The bird-like ki'-lao is hung by its middle,
at what would be the neck of the bird, and it soars back and forth,
up and down, in a remarkably lifelike way. There are often a dozen
ki'-lao in a space 4 rods square, and they are certainly effectual,
if they look as bird-like to ti-lin' as they do to man. When seen
a short distance away they appear exactly like a flock of restless
gulls turning and dipping in some harbor.
FIGURE 4
Fig. 4. -- Bird scarer in rice field.
The water-power bird scarers are ingenious. Across a shallow,
running rapids in the river or canal a line, called "pi-chug'," is
stretched, fastened at one end to a yielding pole, and at the other to
a rigid pole. A bowed piece of wood about 15 inches long and 3 inches
wide, called "pit-ug'," is suspended by a line at each end from the
horizontal cord. This pit-ug' is suspended in the rapids, by which it
is carried quickly downstream as far as the elasticity of the yielding
pole and the pi-chug' will allow, then it snaps suddenly back upstream
and is ready to be carried down and repeat the jerk on the relaxing
pole.
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