Raven encountering a desert tortoise, from 

 In the Company of Crows and Ravens 



classics as Diiiiibo. "We know of no other 

 animal that so consistently and thor- 

 oughly has aliected our art, religion, and 

 science," write John M. MarzlufF and 

 Tony Angell, with a conviction that 

 borders on obsession. 



What makes crows and ravens so 

 special? Corvids have more brain mass 

 per unit of body mass than any other 

 bird group except the macaw, a ratio 

 more in line with that of primates than 

 with that of their less well-encepha- 

 lated cousins. They engage in complex 

 social interactions, teachmg their 

 young survival skills beyond the ones 

 acquired by instinct and communi- 

 cating with an expressive system of 

 more than eighty distinct calls. If 

 trained properly, crows and ravens, like 

 macaws and parrots, can mimic human 

 speech with startling effectiveness. 



Corvids can even do math. In one 

 convincing experiment, an animal 

 behaviorist trained western jackdaws, 

 close cousins of crows and ravens, to turn 

 over boxes covering food rewards until 

 five rewards had been retrieved. That the 

 birds were actually counting became ap- 

 parent when one of the birds 



turned over boxes that revealed one, two, 

 one, and zero items in succession. After 

 obtaining these four rewards it returned 

 to its cage, an apparent failure. But it 

 quickly returned to the box line, sidled 

 up to the original first box and bowed 

 once, then went to the second box and 

 bowed twice, and then bowed once in 

 front of the third box. After these four 



bows, which seemed to repre- 

 sent a mental recounting of the 

 previously obtained rewards, 

 the bird went to the fifth box, 

 pped it over, and got the last tidbit. 



ere there are crows and ravens, 

 doubt, you'll also find avid fans 

 like the authors — at least one of 

 whom, to judge by the pictures 

 in the book, sports a "corvid" 

 vanity plate on his Corvette. 

 Marzluff, a wildhfe biologist at 

 the University of Washington in 

 Seattle, is the scientific heavyweight of 

 the pair, but Angell, a freelance artist and 

 writer and an avocational birder, has 

 contributed dozens of exquisite ink 

 drawings of the black birds in a variety 

 of circumstances, admirably comple- 

 menting the descriptive text. If corvids 

 could read — and it seems they can do 

 damn near everything else — they would 

 surely find this book as entertaining and 

 instructive as this human does. 



Snowstnick: 

 In the Grip of Avalanches 

 by Jill Fredston 

 Harcomt, Inc., 2005; $24.00 



Siiou'strtick, a kind of sequel to Jill 

 Fredston's book Rowinf^ to Latitude, 

 answers a question her earlier knuckle- 

 biter may have left hanging. Why 

 would any sane person spend her 

 summers rowing a small boat through 

 heavy seas along thousands of miles of 

 desolate Arctic coastline? The answer: 

 because, compared to what she does in 

 the winter, a summer dodging icebergs 

 and polar bears is pure relaxation. 



Fredston and her husband, Doug Fes- 

 ler, Hve in the mountains just outside 

 Anchorage, Alaska. Their cabin is so ex- 

 posed to the elements that when they 

 aren't enjoying the view, they are bat- 

 tling hurricane winds and blinding 

 snowstorms. For the past eighteen years 

 the couple has run the Alaska Mountain 

 Safety Center, an institution devoted to 

 training alpinists, assessing avalanche 

 threats, and helping out with rescues. 

 They bring to their work a set of unique 



Go ahead... 

 choose your 

 Belize adventure. 



Belize... a great place 

 to observe wildlife. 

 Explore thousands of 

 miles of rivers, marshes 

 and lagoons. Visit Maya 

 villages and ancient 

 temple sites. Seek out 

 the elusive Jaguar, if 

 you can. Snorkel on 

 the longest barrier 

 reef in the Western 

 Hemisphere. All in 

 a relaxing, peaceful 

 country where the 

 Your people are as warm 



Caribbean and friendly as the 

 Gateway climate. Experience 



to Central of Bpli^g^ 



America, your English-speaking ' 



_ ^ ^ neighbor on the 



^HLI Caribbean coast of 



Vrj^l Central America, only 



fcfc^m 2 hours from the U.S. .. 



