JOURNAL OF ANIMAL BEHAVIOR 



Vol. 5 MARCH-APRIL 1915 No. 2 



A STUDY OF THE BEHAVIOR OF THE CROW 



CORVUS AMERICANUS AUD. BY THE 



MULTIPLE CHOICE METHOD 



CHARLES A. COBURN AND ROBERT M. YERKES 1 

 The Harvard Psychological Laboratory and the Franklin Field-Station 



We have previously reported in this Journal 2 observations 

 on the behavior of crows in certain forms of visual discrim- 

 ination. The subjects of that investigation were transferred 

 from the Franklin Field-Station in September, 1913, to the 

 Laboratory of Animal Psychology in Cambridge, and were there 

 kept until June, 1914, in a cage approximately six feet in its 

 several dimensions. Despite their close confinement and the 

 lack of an out-of-door fly, the birds continued in excellent health 

 and proved themselves able to withstand wholly satisfactorily 

 the conditions of laboratory life. When returned to the Field- 

 Station, they were considerably less tame than during the previous 

 summer. For this reason they were not used further for exper- 

 imental purposes, but were kept for general observations. Young 

 crows were captured for the experiments which are reported 

 in this paper. 



Instead of following up the study of visual discrimination, 

 we devoted our attention, during the summer of 1914, to an 

 attempt to analzye ideatiqnal and allied forms of behavior in 

 the crow by means of the Yerkes multiple choice method, and 



1 The observations reported were made chiefly by Mr. Coburn and the paper 

 was written by Mr. Yerkes. 



2 Coburn, C. A. The behavior of the crow Corvus Americanus, Aud. Journal 

 of Animal Behavior, 1914, 4, 185-201. 



