By Donald H. Harrison

SAN DIEGO, Calif. — Coauthors John M. Marzluff and Tony Angell share a passion for collecting bits and pieces of information about crows and ravens, not only from their field observations, but from literature.  They didn't say as much, but I'd guess they are the kind of collectors who also scan the shelves of curio shops, looking for tschotchkes relating to these corvids.

They remind me of a San Diego friend, Sanford Goodkin, who has a wonderful collection of Noah's Arks made from all different kinds of materials and envisioning the old boat and its occupants in a variety of configurations.  He has been able to find these pieces of art and sculpture all over the world, and is justly proud of his collection.

Ever since my grandson Shor and I began reading different versions of Noah's Ark stories together, I have become fascinated by the Genesis figure. Like collectors Marzluff and Angell, I have been collecting literature on the subject of my hobby, finding that the more I read the biblical account of the Flood, the more interested I become in its antecedents and parallels in the mythologies of other nations.  I also like to ponder the many moral questions the episode raises, not the least of which are, "could every human being, whether a child or an adult, really have been so evil that God had no choice but to eradicate them?  And what evil did the animals commit that they too—save for the animals on the Ark—were drowned by God?"

The raven was the first bird that Noah set loose from the Ark in the search for dry land, so on a hunch I picked In the Company of Crows and Ravens from a "new books" shelf of the San Carlos branch of the San Diego Public Library, turned to the index, and sure enough, Noah rated mentions on pages 2 and 111.  Except that Marzluff and Angel didn't mention the "raven" on page 2: Instead they wrote: "We discovered that crows do not affect just us. They have profoundly affected people all over our planet at every step of human evolution. Cave dwellers scratched images of crows on their walls. Early hunters and gatherers built scarecrows to keep crows from their drying fish and carved totem poles in their honor.  Noah counted on crows to find land..."

Crows, ravens, what's the difference? According to the authors, while the term "crow" has been used to describe both of them, ravens generally are larger, "often weighing more than 2.5 pounds...with prominent beaks, diamond-or wedgeshaped tails, and broad wings spanning more than 4.5 feet... Crows typically less than a pound, with shorter and narrower beaks, fan shaped tails, and wings spanning less than a yard...Ravens often soar in flight, but crows usually flap, and their rate of wing beats is more rapid than the larger raven...."

On page 111, I read that ravens figured in Norse myths, Native American myths, and in various flood stories "such as the Christian version in Genesis, in which Noah first released a raven to find dry land during the great flood. The raven appears to have had other business, for it failed to return, so Noah resorted to his second choice, a dove, which proved more obedient and came back with evidence of land.  Jewish folklore tells us that the raven's reputation had already been sullied in Jehovah's eyes because of its repeated violations of a decree against love-making."

So, now the authors were saying it was indeed a raven that Noah released. But with one point of confusion cleared up, I now wasn't quite sure what the authors meant by the "Christian version in Genesis."  I checked two Jewish  translations of the Torah and found that on this point, at least, Jews and Christians agree.  In the Stone version of the Tanakh, used by many Orthodox congregations, Genesis 8:8 is rendered: "He sent out the raven, and it kept going and returning until the waters dried from upon the earth."  It the translation of the Torah by W. Gunther Platt, used by many Reform congregations, it says Noah "sent out the raven; it went to and fro until the waters had dried up from the earth."  In a footnote, Plaut also commented that the Akkadian flood story also features a raven. {However, in the Gilgamesh epic, Utnapishtim (Noah's counterpart) first sends out a dove, then a swallow, both of which return. At last, he sends out a raven, which finding carrion to eat, does not return.)

Perhaps by referring to a "Christian version in Genesis," authors Marzluff and Angell meant to indicate that they had consulted a Bible containing both Jewish and Christian Scriptures, such as the King James Bible, and didn't want to chance that exclusively Jewish sources might be contradictory.

But what was this business about Jewish folklore?  A footnote referenced Angell's 1978 work, Ravens, crows, magpies and jays, published by the University of Washington press.  I didn't have a copy of that work, but did find a folkloric reference to the raven's sexual misconduct on the Ark in the 1983 book, Hebrew Myths: The Book of Genesis by Robert Graves & Raphael Patai, where I also had found the above-mention comparison to Gilgamesh.

The raven in the Jewish folklore reminded me of the tricky little devil that one hears about on visits to Totem Bight Historic Park in Ketchikan, Alaska, where cruise ship passengers and other tourists are introduced to the folklore of the Tlingit people.  Raven, a popular totem pole figure, is described as a cunning, mischievous, naughty bird.

One tale of Tlingit and other indigenous peoples of the northern Pacific Ocean suggests that raven one day tried to steal a large fish from a fisherman, but the fisherman resisted.  They both tugged on the net, with a hook embedding itself deeper into raven's beak. The more they pulled against each other, the more the beak curved from the pressure. Finally raven opened its mouth to let the net go, figuring this was far too much work for a fish.  But his beak flew off, and the fisherman would not return it until raven caught sufficient fish to satisfy him.  Only then did raven get its beak back, but not in its original shape.

Compare that explanation for the curve in raven's beak with this Jewish folktale as retold by Graves & Patai:

"Noah opened a skylight and told the raven to fly off and fetch back news of the outside world.  It replied insolently: ‘God, your master, hates me; and so do you! Were not His orders: ‘Take seven of all clean creatures, and two of all unclean?'  Why choose me for the dangerous mission, when my mate and I are only two? Why spare the doves, which number seven? If I should die of heat or cold, the world would be bereft of ravens. Or do you lust after my mate?’  Noah cried: ‘Alas, Evil One! Did I not order you to see whether the floods have abated.  Be off at once!’  The raven answered impudently: ‘It is as I thought; you lust after my mate!’  Noah, enraged, cried: ‘May God curse the beak that uttered this calumny!’ And all the creatures, listening, said ‘Amen!’  Noah opened the skylight, and the raven—which had meanwhile impregnated the she-eagle, and other carrion birds besides, thus depraving their natures—flew out but soon came back.  Again sent out, again it came back.  The third time it stayed away, gorging on corpses.” 

As sources, the folklorists cited Genesis 7:4, 17, 24; 8:1-7; B. Berkahot 59a; B. Rosh Hashana 11b-12a; B. Sanhedrin 108b; Alpha Beta di Ben Sira, Otzar Midrashim 49a, 50b.  I

My interest in Noah led me in and out of  Marzluff's and Angell's book—such being the fun of  trying to comprehend stories by following  the hints they drop and the questions they raise. I shall have to check why the raven in this folktale described itself as a "clean" animal.  As a carrion feeder, it would more than likely be considered unclean.  But that's an investigation for another time.

In reading In the Company of Crows and Ravens,, I found myself fascinated by the many  facts and factlets that the authors had assembled.

For example, they noted that crows in urban areas exhibit different behaviors than crows in rural areas—the latter apparently having concluded that humans are those dangerous beings with shotguns.  In urban areas, to the contrary, crows seem to regard human beings as special benefactors.  They are the ones, after all, who set out all that yummy garbage upon which they like to feed. 

In either rural or urban setting, human beings also drive automobiles which crows flying over highways have learned how to use as nut crackers.  Up they fly when they see a car coming, drop the nut, the car runs the nut over, and once the car passes, the crow feeds on the meat of the nut.

Marzluff and Angell also told the 19th century origin of the expression "to eat crow."  As the story goes, an American poacher crossed into British Canada to hunt birds, but was only able to shoot a crow.  An unarmed British officer asked to see the hunter's rifle, and once he took possession of it, held it on the hunter and made him eat the crow as a punishment. Then the officer escorted the hunter back to the American side of the line and gave him back his rifle. The American turned the rifle on the officer, and made him dine on the crow.  The authors said "crows are presumed to taste like the offal they often consume." 

However, they added, when prepared correctly, crow can be quite tasty.  They sautéed crow breast in olive oil, garlic, and red pepper sauce and fried it, and agreed "the results were tasty, a far cry from your everyday chicken, but we suspect that it will be a long time before Americans are willing to eat crow routinely."

So, humans have influenced the behaviors, or cultures, of crows and ravens, and these corvids  have influenced ours.  This interaction between species is the reason for the authors' deep appreciation for these fascinating birds.