[Sca-cooks] pie bird/pie funnel?

[Devra at aol.com]

A pie bird is a hollow ceramic item, usually made in the shape of a  
blackbird, with open mouth (kind of playing on the '4 & 20 blackbirds'  joke.) It is 
placed on the bottom crust of the pie, and the filling is piled  around it. 
Then the top crust is put on, and vented over the bird so that the  head and beak 
poke out. Then you bake the pie. The bird functions to vent steam  and also 
extra liquid; it helps keep the pie from boiling over. I guess a pie  funnel 
would serve the same function; never seen one of them, though...
    Devra, who thought she had one of them there things  here somewhere