Thursday, February 21, 2013

corvus


Corvus corone corone probably followed along with the people who came here after the ice melted 12,500 years ago, mainly because it isn't a woodland bird and these islands were originally covered with forest. They prefer clearings with woodland nearby.  As the settlers cleared the forest the habitat became suitable for the carrion crow, so we're old mates really. Why the double corone?  I don't know. Caro - latin for meat. Carrion - dead and rotting flesh. Coroner. Corona - crown.

Crows are able capable of using  tools.  They are very intelligent and are known to live to be twenty to thirty years old, whilst a crow kept in captivity has been said to be aged about fifty nine. In Australian myth the crow is a trickster. In the flood myth part of the Epic of Gilgamesh, Utnapishtim releases a dove, a swallow and a raven to find land after the world has been flooded, but the dove and the swallow eventually circle and return. The raven doesn't return, which he takes as meaning that the raven has found land.