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To all the crow enthusiasts,
My grandfather insisted that crows could count to 5.
There was a particularly wily old crow which perched all day in a tall gumtree near his lambing paddock, causing havoc with the newborn lambs. It knew what traps were, perched on them at first but after long investigation never entered them.
It knew also what guns were and would not let anyone with a gun anywhere within range. Grandfather built a small hide in the lambing paddock and took his gun with him into it. The crow stayed
at a distance. So Grandfather got my dad to walk with him to the hide and then walk away leaving him there. The crow stayed at a distance, eying them but partly concealed on a high branch of the gumtree on the far side of the paddock.
Not to be outwitted, Grandfather got my uncle as well and the three of them walked to the hide and then two left, leaving Grandfather there with the gun. The crow remained concealed, just occasionally
peeping around the branch of the tree. So Grandfather sent Dad on his horse to get the next-door neighbour. He came and the the four of them walked to the hide. When the three departed the crow remained stubbornly in the tree. Dad wanted to get Grandma but
Grandfather reckoned the crow could tell a woman from a man. So the next-door neighbour got his labourer.
The five of them walked to the hide, squeezed in, waited a minute, and then the four of them left Grandfather there. Everybody waited a long time but at last the crow decided it was safe and flew
down to the fence near the new-born lambs. And there Grandfather shot it. He wore five of its tail feathers in his hat for the rest of his life.
So there you have it, crows can count to 5…or wait a minute, is that actually only 4…?
Cheers
John
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