What is a crow court?
Before coming to the main topic mentioned in the title let us gain some primary knowledge: There are about 8,700 types of birds in the world. These are distributed as follows: First into 27 orders and the orders are divided into groups which in turn are categorised as tribes; tribes into sections; sections into family; family into genus; and finally genus into species. The following article is about the ‘Corvus' genus which is the genus of crows and in which there
No crow
can take care of his selfish needs at the cost of the whole group
(flock)FYI: a group of crows is known as a Murder).At the very outset let us
see an example of the rich intelligence of a crow's brain. In April 2008, the
biologists of Max Plank Institute, Leipzig; Germany conducted a simple
experiment to check the cleverness of the rook. They caged two rooks and
arranged a 60-centimetre long tray in front of the cage. On the side of the
tray which was towards the cage there were two strings attached to hooks and
the two ends of the strings were kept in the cage. It was possible to get at
the food by pulling the tray right inside the cage through the slit at the
lower edge by hauling on the strings carefully. But for this it was necessary
to pull both the ends of the strings at one and the same time. If only one end
was pulled, the string would get out of the hook and the tray would not move
but stay where it was. Both the rooks soon realised this fact and so they
resorted to extremely efficient teamwork. First of all, they distributed the
two ends. Each took hold of one end and by pulling it with their beaks finally
succeeded in getting the tray inside and eating to their heart's content. Eight
rooks passed this exam in groups of twos. (FYI:A group of rooks is known as a
Parliament)
The crows of this species (as well as those of other species) are quite famous for forming groups--Murders. The raven may sometimes be seen flying about alone during the day but as soon as it is twilight dozens of such ravens collect at their decided place. (FYI: A group of ravens is known as an Unkindness'). They have come together to search for food. After spending the night in rest, the ravens go their separate ways to search for food. These birds eat everything and anything and so their menu cards include bodies of dead animals and birds too. Should a raven spot a carcass, then according to the laws of the group, it is not allowed to satiate its hunger alone. When at sunset the meeting is held at the usual place it will give the news about having found food to all the
members of the Unkindness. (These ravens have a very specific repertoire of sounds and calls which obviously only other such birds can understand). Once
the news has been conveyed the whole flock will start off the next day to have a feast. If they cannot polish off the whole
animal during the first feed, they leave it and return the next day to consume
the leftovers. Carrion crows also search for food jointly and share the spoils
with each other. Should a member that has taken a bite stealthily without
informing the others about the food be found out, its membership is cancelled
immediately.
Ornithologists
witnessed just such an example of raven unity in
January 1996 in Israel. After sighting a cadaver the raven who had found it
soared high in the sky and gave out their specific cry which alerted other ravens
about the food. Consequently, a totally different group of ravens that was
flying about as far as two kilometres away heard the call and collected there
to satisfy their hunger. The actual group to which the finder raven belonged
reached late and so got nothing to feed on that day. As a result many of the
hungry ravens wounded the culprit by pecking it with their sharp beaks.
The
strictest laws are seen in the society of rooks. These crows live most
naturally in groups so much so that during mating season there are never less
than 2,000 nests in their colonies. A colony with 6,000 nests and another with
9,000 nests have been spotted in Scotland. Such a colony is known as a rookery.
(Just as a group of birds is known as a flock and the collective noun for cows,
etc. is a herd, as mentioned before a group of crows is known as a Murder while
a group of rooks is known as a conspiracy/parliament. These words have not yet
been included in the Primary Oxford Dictionary). Though the rooks are
supposed to be cunning by nature, there is no place for deceit in their group.
Each member has to be very particular in their honesty. discipline and loyalty.
Even a little aberration will bring on the ire of the group and the punishment
meted out is always the ultimate. A meeting which takes place to discuss the
culprit and decide its punishment has been named as 'the rooks'
parliament' by ornithologists; but in actual fact it is a court of law. The
culprit may be accused of having satiated its hunger alone without informing
the others or it may have stolen a few sticks from its neighbours nest. It is
also possible that the crime committed may be grave and it is even probable
that it is not serious at all, but if it is proved beyond doubt i.e. if the
rook is found
guilty as charged, the court gives the only verdict
it knows - the guilty rook is sentenced to death.
On July 14, 1978, an ornithologist named David Morris, a resident of Wales; England got the chance of witnessing a case that was in progress in the rooks' court. According to the study notes he wrote after getting a firsthand view and knowledge of the proceedings, the court was in session near a village known as Abergele. There were about 80 to 100 rooks in the jury. The culprit was in the centre of the circle. Morris has written that the crows were cawing in various voices just as if they were arguing the case with statements for and against the accused. (Not only does the rook also have a plethora of sounds it is, to a certain extent, a mimicry artist too. If it is
Eva
Helmut, a German nature lover has described a slightly different case of the
'rooks' parliament' that she chanced to witness. In 2003, on the outskirts of
Bremen city about 40 - 50 rooks were holding court on two culprit rooks. This
woman bird watcher tried to conjecture at what might happen in the end. The
guilty rooks were quiet. Only the members of the jury were cawing hoarsely as
if heaping all kinds of accusations on the two guilty crows. Finally they were
also silent and giving up the role of jury were now the executors. The guilty
were not ready to die as yet and so they spread their wings and prepared for
flight. The executors divided themselves into two groups, followed them and
with their talons and beaks caught hold of the culprits and brought them down.
Finally both were killed most mercilessly. Eva Helmut noted that after the
judges and executors' had flown away one after the other all that was visible
were two heaps of bloodied feathers.
Another slightly different case was noted in 1975 near a village named Arnold in the Nottinghamshire
county of England: A naturalist named Rose Bridgette got to witness a court proceeding of crows in a local feeding ground. Here too the jury crows were sitting around the culprit crow in a circle. After arguments being conducted in hoarse voices when there was silence, the crows started reducing the circumference of the circle they had made slowly and steadily. Once they were close to the guilty and absolutely terrified crow, they suddenly moved back instead of starting the sentence of death. When the wall of jury members
cleared a bit Rose Bridgette saw that the guilty crow was lying motionless on the grass. The poor culprit crow had died of fear.
During the 1960s decade some ornithologists opined that the death sentence is not given in the rooks' courtroom for breaking the law but in actual fact what is done is ‘mercy killing'. Out of the two possible reasons for such mercy killings one is that
the culprit crow is actually suffering from some deadly disease and so it is released from its pain through death.
The second reason is that there are all sorts of parasites on the body of such a crow and their infection can spread to other members of the group. To stop this happening, the crow is 'sentenced to death'. Albeit there are no concrete proofs regarding any of the above mentioned reasons. On the other hand there are many cases
about healthy crows being killed in this manner.
The most important article about this 'capital punishment is definitely the one published in the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph’which was noted by naturalist and column writer Dr. Robert Burton in 1993. A reader had sent in the description of a scene wherein he had witnessed 30 - 40 rooks sentencing a magpie to death. The magpie also belongs to the crow family, but is has no similarity with the crow as far as looks are concerned. It is actually a very beautiful bird. (In India magpies are seen only in the northern states). The motto of the magpie's life is Thou shalt steal!' Therefore, it is quite possible that the magpie being punished in the rooks' court had stolen some food belonging to the rooks. The group of crows had wounded it to a great extent and whenever it tried to escape the 'murder of crows would peck it and wound it even more.
Stories
like these about the courtroom of the crows have been seen and heard many a
times. But even then ornithologists find this behaviour strange and
mysterious. They think that it is quite impossible that there is not only a
book of law and
order in their society but it is also followed
strictly. Granted that it seems impossible, it is not absolutely improbable.
Where intelligence quotient is considered the Corvus genus is without doubt numéro Uno.
It is famous also for this quality. The bird that takes the cake in intelligence
is the Caledonian crow that is native to Caledonia Island in the Pacific Ocean
and which knows how to make simple tools with its beak and claws.
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