Note E92 — [16 contd.]
Reading edition
Forby (Vocab. 1830) says: "Crow-keeper, a boy employed to scare crows from new sown land. Lear, in his madness, says: 'That fellow handles his bow like a crow-keeper.' Besides lustily whooping, he carries an old gun, from which he cracks a little powder, and sometimes puts in a few stones, but seldom hits, and still seldomer kills a crow." Cf. Romeo and Juliet, Act i. sc. 4: "Scaring the ladies like a crow-keeper."