lw0y+@andrew.cmu.edu (Laurie Walz) (12/21/88)
I was wondering if anyone knowledgable about crows could help me out with this, and cast the light of science onto an old European superstition about crows. I am posting this for a friend of mine from Ireland. There is a belief there that crows will leave a farm where someone is about to die. It's common enough folklore, but he was disturbed when this occured to his own family -- the crows that had been living on the farm in some numbers suddenly disappeared, and lo and behold, a month or so later, his father died. He said that the local people kept coming up to him at the funeral and saying, well, we saw that the crows had flown away but we didn't want to say anything.... that sort of thing. Now the crows are back. Do crows sometimes just get up and go for some good reason? -- he wants to know. It's a pretty spooky belief, maybe some strange pagan survival, but observations that may explain this behavior would be appreciated. Thanks. Lars
mjm@oliven.olivetti.com (Michael Mammoser) (12/22/88)
In article <kXfwT-y00Uh-00p24I@andrew.cmu.edu>, lw0y+@andrew.cmu.edu (Laurie Walz) writes: > > I am posting this for a friend of mine from Ireland. There is a belief > there that crows will leave a farm where someone is about to die. It's > common enough folklore, but he was disturbed when this occured to his > own family -- the crows that had been living on the farm in some > numbers suddenly disappeared, and lo and behold, a month or so later, > his father died. He said that the local people kept coming up to him > at the funeral and saying, well, we saw that the crows had flown > away but we didn't want to say anything.... that sort of thing. Now > the crows are back. > > Do crows sometimes just get up and go for some good reason? -- he > wants to know. Crows will typically flock up in the winter; sometimes in huge flocks; and then break up into pairs and disperse for the breeding season. It may be that the death occurred coincidentally right after the start of the breeding season when the crows had dispersed and, of course, now they would be back and flocked up again. Mike