248 BULLETIN 191, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



a turkey, cow cow cow." Knight (1908) interprets the various calls of 

 the crow as portraying signals that have a distinct meaning to their 

 fellows : 



When a band of crows is feeding one or two are generally posted as sentinels 

 and a caw c-a-a-w of warning from these is sufficient to make all seek safety. 

 Their call caw-caw is uttered in varied tones and different accents so tliat it is 

 capable of meaning a great many things from alarm to satisfaction, and one ac- 

 quainted with their ways can usually tell just what they are saying in a general 

 way. For instance I have never failed to correctly judge from their excited and 

 confused cries that they had an owl penned up somewliere and were engaged in 

 "mobbing" it to their satisfaction. The alarm "cazt/' uttered sharply and quickly, 

 which means "look out" is well known to about everybody who has ever seen a 

 Crow. Their prolonged cries of distress when their home is menaced should be 



easily recognizable. The prolonged car-r a c k of a love sick 



individual in spring, uttered in various tones and drawn out into prolonged 

 gurglings, though somewhat like the call of the young for food is still quite 

 different. 



Forbush (1927) writes: 



Some Crows, if not all, are capable of producing unusual, tuneful or pleasing 

 sounds. As an example of the unusual let me refer to an individual that I heard 

 early one morning on Cape Cod repeating for over an hour syllables like 

 clockity-clock, clockity-clock; while as showing the musical attainments of the 

 species mention may be made of a Crow that I saw on the banks of the Muske- 

 taquid, August 10, 1906, which uttered a series of exceedingly melodious, soft, 

 cooing notes unlike any others within my experience. In the same locality on 

 July 14 a young Crow remarked very plainly aaaou, con, cou, cou, aaaoii, coucoo. 

 On October 20, 1903, I heard and saw a Crow give an excellent imitation of 

 a whine of a dog. * * * I have heard from Crows a varied assortment of notes, 

 some of which apparently were imitations, such as the cry of a child, the 

 squawk of a hen, or the crow of a young rooster. The cooing notes mentioned 

 above were similar to sounds uttered by the male in courtship. At this season, 

 also, the male has a peculiar cry which may be an attempt at song and has becti 

 represented by the syllables hollow-ollo-ollo. 



Townsend (1923) gives the following account of the calls of the crow: 



There are many other words in the Crow vocabulary than the simple caav, 

 and I find a number of them recorded in my notes. Many are common and 

 familiar sounds of the countryside, and their recognition is always a pleasure. 

 First, one may consider the modifications of the caw. Of these, orr, orr, are com- 

 mon, as well as ah, ah, the latter delivered at times as with a great feeling of 

 relief. Again, the note may sound like gnaw, gnaw, delivered with a nasal inflec- 

 tion and in a taunting manner. 



On the other hand the notes may lose all semblance of the typical caws, and 

 rapidly repeated and wailing kaa, wha, zvha, wha, kaa, zvha, wha, zvha, may be 

 heard, or, as I have written at other times, ou, ahh, ahh, ahh. Again, a loud 

 and cheerful ha, ha, ha, may be heard, suggestive of one of the calls of the 

 Herring Gull. A despairing nevah, ncvah, is not uncommon. Occasionally one 

 may hear a loud cluck. One of the most extraordinary combinations of Crow 

 notes that I have ever heard was emitted near my house at Ipswich early one 



