Call me an odd bod but I've always been fascinated by crows of the genus corvus and in particular ravens, who are the most sinister but also the cleverest of the wild birds we get in the British Isles (their brains are even bigger than those of parrots). Crows can recognise human faces, perhaps even letters of the alphabet and young crows have been known to indulge in play activities such sliding down snowbanks and jumping in and out of sprinklers. Crows are clever, curious and downright weird. When I used to cycle to school the same crow would follow me along the same bit of road every day for a year. It knew me and I knew it and we seemed to get along. This may be an Irish thing....
But maybe not. Crows crop up everywhere in sociology, literature, music and folkways. In the GPO on O'Connell Street in Dublin you'll find the famous statue of the dying Cuchulain, but many people miss the fact that he's not alone. He's got a crow perched on his shoulder. This is supposedly Badb, the goddess of war, who takes the form of a crow, but I think it could be any old crow who just likes hanging out with humans.
...
These reflections have been stirred up by a wonderful book I've just read called Crow Planet by Lyanda Lynn Haupt which looks at the biology, behaviour and intelligence of crows. There's a nice review of the book in the NY Times here and if you click the above link it will take you to the Amazon listing. I enjoyed it thoroughly and although I'm not expert enough to comment on the science of her observations Ms Haupt makes a pretty convincing case for the smartness and ingenuity of our corvus pals.
27 comments:
I'm fond of ravens myself. Lots of them around my neck of the woods and Brennan is derived from the old gaelic word bran (raven). And I've four of 'em tattooed on me.
Crows and ravens show up quite a bit in the Red Hand of Crime antho too. So there's a good argument for it being an Irish thing.
gb
Ger
Nice plug.
Dont know if you saw this article in the Guardian that claims that rooks are as intelligent as chimps. I believe it, they're the only dinosaur descendants smart enough to survive the Chicxulub Extinction Event.
The plug was a tad blatant, wasn't it? Couldn't resist, though.
Hadn't seen that article, so thanks for pointing it out. Enjoyed it. Video freaked me out a little bit, though. The rook just looked so... purposeful.
I had to google Chicxulub, BTW. An educational night, indeed.
gb
Timely but otherwise irrelevant, "Crow" from the Jim Carroll Band is on my mind today:
http://www.catholicboy.com/cblyrics.php#crow
I read a story about Konrad Lorenz years ago. He had (I think) a tame crow he could feed by hand. The bird would anticipate Konrad taking meat from his pocket and swoop down to peck it from his hand. All well and good until Konrad went to take a leak behind a bush.
You can guess the rest.
I reckon that story proves crows have a sense of humour as well.
Jim
Yeah I was thinking about poor JC last night. My wife's cousin went to Trinity School and they weren't too thrilled about what he had to say about the place. Dont think the film quite matched my expectations of the book, but I still quite enjoyed it.
Mike
I hope that story is true, it will add to my crow lore. Did you ever read Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell? It seems your cup of tea and crows featurely prominently if I recall correctly.
The original Crow movie is one of my favorite films, even helped inspire my book Black Lamb. There ended up being 4 Crow films, and the third, which is decent, boasts a main character, "The Crow" the man, with the name Alex Corvus. Funny how that worked out. Coincidence? I. Think. Not.
Crows are an intersting bunch with all their murders and whatnot. Huge creatures too, a little scary even.
Odd Bod,
Actually, I had been eyeing Crow Planet myself, so thanks for bringing it to mind again.
And, gb, I think that's pretty cool that Brennan derives ultimately from bran or raven. Hope some day to see those tats, if any of them are in a publicly viewable place.
There's a very beautiful book from Yale called In the Company of Crows and Ravens by John Marzluff and Tony Angell which is worth checking out on the subject.
The funny thing about all this is that I've written a couple of novellas about crows, starlings and a kid, among other things. Technically, this isn't shameless and opportunistic self-promotion, because at the moment you couldn't buy them for love or money. I went so far as to make a Lulu book out of the first, which worked out pretty well, but I took it off the site because it needs both proofreading and an editor. I wrote the sequel, but that's only in a first draft form and now I'm thinking about writing the third. I noticed Crow's Planet originally because I thought it might give me some ideas on that.
Here's a crow story for you. One of my friends had a dog that was dying. This was a pretty special dog, and so some of her friends, though not me that time, got together to sort of help the passing. They were out in the backyard with Dottie, the dog, when a bunch of crows descended and started hanging out. At first, my friend was upset and wanted them to get lost. But another friend who knew a bit more about the lore said, don't worry, they are the guardians of the gateway. And then it was all right.
I came into the whole corvus culture backwards. I got an idea for a book and then researched them. But oddly, I think they found me and not the reverse.
And don't get me started on starlings.
Liam
Strange to say I've never see the Crow, but I do think it looks like the Crow informed a lot of Heath Ledger's Joker.
Seana
You should provide a link.
I think a crow was the bird of death in the Omen movies which scared the bejesus out of me when I was a kid - especially the bit where the crow appears and the kid falls under the ice and drowns. Horrifying.
But its miscasting. I dont find crows scary in real life at all.
Crows created the world in some Native American myths, and were the eyes and thoughts of Odin, so it's not limited to Ireland.
And of course in Sandman Morpheus chooses a crow as his companion and messenger. There's also a "Parliament of rooks" issue.
I remember I saw a documentary based on a research from some German university.
Apparently the area of their brain associated with spatial awareness is comparatively much more developed than in other birds or even primates. That's probably the reason why they can remember many different traits at once and come fairly easily to experimenting with tools. One wonders what they could have achieved if they had opposable thumbs.
It knew me and I knew it and we seemed to get along. This may be an Irish thing.
The crow in my grandparents village knew me by name. He called me "mar-koh, mar-koh". He learned that from my granma, who was always shouting for me at the top of her lungs, but he knew it was me.
There's no link, but if I ever get around to getting them back up on Lulu or something, I'll do so.
I think the whole death/crows thing is from the fact that they are scavengers and so aren't above feasting on the dead if presented with the chance. But no, I like them. I think they can be a little bit scary, though, simply because they are smart and are independent of us.
Marco,
I'm beginning to be bit jealous that apparently no crows give a damn about me.
Why was your grandmother always yelling for you at the top of her lungs? What were you up to?
It was more of a village tradition. At certain hours the women began to call back their disseminated children. My grandma's tone was suitably high-pitched and my name was simple enough for him to reproduce, I think. Often when I saw him circling overhead I tried to run and follow and make him descend, but sadly he never landed on my shoulder.
That's pretty cool, shoulder or no. I'm kind of surprised there were no other crows calling other kids names all over town, or maybe there were and you just weren't attuned to it.
No, there weren't. He was the only semi-domestic crow . From time to time we spotted some jackdaws or magpies, though -one once stole my grandpa's lighter.
Although a friend assured me just the other day that there are plenty of magpies once you get inland a little, I have never seen one here on the coast of California, and in fact had to look up their characteristic features once a year or so ago, I don't know why.
As to jackdaws, I realize that they are nothing but a name to me. No sense of them at all.
Seana
I'm shocked by your magpie revelation. I thought the blighters were everywhere. Huh, I wonder has taken their niche in the ecosystem of coastal California.
In Australia instead their pattern of white and black blotches is completely different and they have learned a very unusual cry, the standard version of which you can hear at the start of this YouTube.
Marco
That's crying out to be the opening paragraph of a novel. You've no idea how adorable that sounds to us non Italian. The little boy up in the Tuscan hills with his grandparents and the bird calling his name....
Yes, secretly we would love it and keep our box of Kleenex handy, but of course we would have to decry it publicly as too sentimental. And it would have to end sadly--the lovable old woman and the by now loveable crow calling Marco! Marco! And Marco never coming. Off to the wars or betrayed by some extremist political wing or something.
I did actually take a poll at my book group tonight and no, no one had seen a magpie on the coast, and all of them have lived here a long time. So I feel confident in my statement. Now I have a longing to see a magpie.
It's funny that their coloring is reversed in Australia, although I find myself wondering how you can really tell.
Oh, and the theory, merely observational, that was bandied around tonight was that even some seagull niches had been overtaken by, you guessed it, crows.
Off to the wars or betrayed by some extremist political wing or something.
In a novel, a crow calling the name of a boy would have to be a bad omen, or at least heavily symbolic of something, otherwise readers would feel betrayed in their expectations. Non-Italian readers would probably also expect the old, superstitious, illiterate Italian woman to make plenty sign-of-the-crosses and pray against ill fortune.
Seana
European and Australian magpies are very different, you couldnt mistake them in a million years.
I like your addition to the Marco story. Has to be killed in the war, betrayed by the comrades he saved.
Marco
I think you could do it ironic first person.
"The crow was always calling my name 'Marco' 'Marco'. Now I know what you're thinking, ah this is some kind of symbolic crow which is going to mean something later. No, it isnt. Its just a crow and I thought it was an interesting way to start the book. He doesn't come back later. There's some stuff later about parrots but no crows."
It would be fun if the crow then showed up repeatedly throughout the book, but the narrator was too caught up in his ironic stance to notice.
I like your addition to the Marco story. Has to be killed in the war, betrayed by the comrades he saved.
Thanks for the kind thought.
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