Snails are curled into a hood they wear. Hyenas cackle. Giraffes tower over most of us. And a murder of crows is very interesting! When I read the last paragraph about the crow "bullies" or gang members murdering one of their own I am reminded of the bible where God orders the tribe to murder a hapless man for gathering firewood on a Sunday to warm his family! HEY! Maybe crows are RELIGIOUS!!
This is also known as a murder of Republicans or a Massacre of Fundies! This behaviour may be witnessed whenever one of their own is threatened with REASON!! ;-)
a murder of crows
-This more poetic term for a flock of crows can be traced back at least to the 15th century, when it was recorded as a murther of crowes. Murther is a variant of Middle English murthre 'murder,' though the th sound had begun to be replaced with a d around 1300 C.E. There are several theories as to how this particular term came about, but all of them have to do with the supposed behavior of crows. For instance, crows are scavengers and therefore often seen feeding on rotting bodies of various sorts. Survivors of wars have described how the battlefields were covered in black as crows (and ravens) came down to eat the dead. Another theory hearkens back to old folklore which told of groups of crows essentially holding court over members of their flock that had committed offenses. If they decide against the "defendant" crow, then the rest of the flock swoops down on it and kills it. There are legends outside of the Germanic culture that relate to crows being judges over people as well, and how their appearance is an omen of death.
with an astute comment from a "Laura".
"The groups of crows that pass judgement on others of their kind are also known as a "parliament of crows". It was long considered a piece of folklore, but these gatherings have been witnessed in recent years. There were letters to Fortean Times a few years ago describing these events and someone said the following on the snopes.com message board:
I don't know about the origin of the word, but I would guess that since they tend to consider corpses edible and show up in great numbers around one, they also show up around a murder site.
I do know, however, that the behaviour of ganging up on one crow (which does not necessarily have to be the weakest) is real. In Swedish, it's called "kråkriksdag", roughly translated as "crow parliament" or "bullying"). I've seen it happen, and it is a brutal event. There is some general squaking, but there is no clear target. Suddenly it starts and all of them jump on one crow, picking at it until it is dead, literally tearing it to pieces. They are so focused on this that you have to run straight in among them to scatter them."
word-ancestry.livejournal.com
Penalty for Violating the Sabbath32 Now while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day. 33 And those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron, and to all the congregation. 34 They put him under guard, because it had not been explained what should be done to him.
35 Then the Lord said to Moses, “The man must surely be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp.” 36 So, as the Lord commanded Moses, all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him with stones, and he died. |
