An Intelligent Crow
An Intelligent Crow
The following incident showing good power of adapting means to accomplish a desired end, as exhibited by a captive Northwestern Crow (Corwus caurinus), was related to me by Miss Adelaide King, of the U. S. Biological Survey, at Portland, Oregon. It is hereby presented in Miss King's own words.
“While passing through the City Park in Portland, Oregon, one afternoon recently, I saw a crow in one of the bird enclosures trying to pry a peanut out of a crack in a bamboo perch on which he was sitting. This bamboo perch had a rather large crack in it, and a peanut that had been thrown into the cage had lodged there. The crow worked with his bill for quite a time. unsuccessfully. He then stomped and looked on the floor of his cage. Observing a smail stick he picked this up and flew back on the perch and worked on the peanut with the stick. With this he was able to push the peanut along the crack, but not to get it out. When he had pushed the peanut quite near the edge of the cage, he hopped around to the other side and pushed in the other direction. He finally succeeded, with the little stick in his bill, in prying the nut onto the floor of his cage, where he jumped down and got it.“
Stanley G. Jewett
Portland, Oregon, October 18, 1923
