Animal behavior; Animal intelligence; Natural history -- Outdoor books
One of our natural history romancers makes the crows flock in June.
But the truth is, they do not flock till September. Through the summer
the different families keep pretty well together. You may see the old
ones with their young foraging about the fields, the young often being
fed by their parents.
From my boyhood I have seen the yearly meeting of the crows in
September or October, on a high grassy hill or a wooded ridge.
Apparently, all the crows from a large area assemble at these times;
you may see them coming, singly or in loose bands, from all directions
to the rendezvous, till there are hundreds of them together. They make
black an acre or two of ground. At intervals they all rise in the air,
and wheel about, all cawing at once. Then to the ground again, or to
the tree-tops, as the case may be; then, rising again, they send forth
the voice of the multitude. What does it all mean? I notice that this
rally is always preliminary to their going into winter quarters. It
would be interesting to know just the nature of the communication that
takes place between them. Not long afterwards, or early in October,
they may be seen morning and evening going to and from their
rookeries. The matter seems to be settled in these September
gatherings of the clan. Was the spot agreed upon beforehand and notice
served upon all the members of the tribe? Our "school-of-the-woods"
professors would probably infer something of the kind. I suspect it is
all brought about as naturally as any other aggregation of animals. A
few crows meet on the hill; they attract others and still others. The
rising of a body of them in the air, the circling and cawing, may be
an instinctive act to advertise the meeting to all the crows within
sight or hearing. At any rate, it has this effect, and they come
hurrying from all points.
What their various calls mean, who shall tell? That lusty _caw-aw,
caw-aw_ that one hears in spring and summer, like the voice of
authority or command, what does it mean? I never could find out. It is
doubtless from the male. A crow will utter it while sitting alone on
the fence in the pasture, as well as when flying through the air. The
crow's cry of alarm is easily distinguished; all the other birds and
wild creatures know it, and the hunter who is stalking his game is apt
to swear when he hears it. I have heard two crows in the spring,
seated on a limb close together, give utterance to many curious,
guttural, gurgling, ventriloquial sounds. What were they saying? It
was probably some form of the language of love.
I venture to say that no one has ever yet heard the crow utter a
complaining or a disconsolate note. He is always cheery, he is always
self-possessed, he is a great success. Nothing in Bermuda made me feel
so much at home as a flock of half a dozen of our crows which I saw
and heard there. At one time they were very numerous on the island,
but they have been persecuted till only a remnant of the tribe remains.
I
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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