EASTERN CROW 247 



pinch his ear or run their beaks through his hair. One of them repeatedly 

 tried to dislodge the button from his cap. Each of the crows was differ- 

 ent in its personality and details of behavior. Mr. Criddle presents a 

 multitude of experiences indicating that these crows performed just 

 as they might have done toward their own kind if left in nature. 



Pet crows are known to possess unusual ability to articulate the 

 words and imitate the sounds of the human voice. They readily master 

 such simple words as "mama," "papa," "hello," "howdydo," and others, 

 and human laughter is often imitated to perfection. This presents the 

 question as to how the crow is able to articulate and imitate so well. 

 We should not expect to find the tracheal syrinx and its controlling 

 muscles to be well developed in a bird that is not recognized for its 

 ability to sing. To the contrary, the crow has a complete set of voice 

 muscles. It is these muscles that give parrots and certain passerine 

 birds such a variety of vocal modulations, so that they can mimic other 

 birds or even the human voice. Hence it is not at all surprising that 

 crows exhibit this unusual ability of imitation. 



Pet crows are known to be very adept at learning and to meet new 

 and previously inexperienced conditions. Cobum (1914) has proved this 

 ability experimentally. He found that crows learn very quickly to dis- 

 tinguish the correct exit door when placed in a dark box from which 

 there were translucent and lighted exits, each of the same area and 

 light intensity but of different shapes. In this way it was shown that 

 they distinguished with very little practice between a circle, a triangle, 

 a square, and a hexagon. In this and other tests the experimenter was 

 convinced that the crow's reputation for brains is quite deserved, and 

 that Henry Ward Beecher was correct when he said that if men could 

 be feathered and provided with wings, very few would be clever enough 

 to be crows! 



Voice. — The crow does not excel in its musical ability, but it has a 

 great versatility in- its voice. It has an interesting repertoire of many 

 calls and notes, which serves it well in its interrelations with its fellows. 

 It also has superior imitative faculties, and captive crows have exhibited 

 unusual aptitude in learning new calls. Even human laughter is imitated, 

 at times so appropriately uttered that it is diflficult to think of it as 

 mere coincidence. 



The calls and notes have been subject to diverse interpretations ; hence 

 several representative authors have been quoted to present a better- 

 rounded concept of them. Hoffmann (1904) states: "Besides the 

 ordinary caw, and the many modifications of which it is capable, the 

 crow utters commonly two other striking notes. One is a high-pitched 

 laugh. ha-a-a-a-Or-a; the other a more guttural sound like the gobble of 



