Have you ever wondered if crows aren't actually black?
The world is as black as a crow", which is indeed a big misunderstanding of crows.
When it spreads its wings, under the reflection of the sun, its feathers can show a brilliant "starry sky color".
They have been maliciously interpreted and reduced to dust because their whole bodies are black.
It's time to get to know these little ones who are not treated well because of their feather color, voice and habits.
The holy bird that was killed.
Time goes back to ancient times, when the crow was completely different from the current reputation, and it was a well-deserved holy bird with a high status.
As early as the Neolithic Age, primitive people began to paint the myth of "Yang Wu Zai Ri" in painted pottery vessels.
What is "Yang Wu Zai Ri"?
In ancient times, people had limited knowledge of the world, only that the sun could bring warmth and life.
The sun became an object of worship.
Through daily observations, it is found that the sun that rises in the east and sets in the west every day is not flawless.
It had a black spot in the middle and a black cloud underneath, as if something was carrying the sun underneath.
What can carry the sun? It must be a flying bird!
As a result, the black crow carried the sun to rise in the east and set in the west, and the myth of "Yang Wu carrying the sun" was born.
The crow became a mythical bird that brought hope to people, and later became a direct embodiment of the sun.
In the mythical story of "Houyi shooting the sun" that we are familiar with, it is the golden crow (another name for Yang Wu, also known as the three-legged black, red black ......) that caused the vision of "ten days together".）
Hou Yi's "Sunset Nine Crows" refers to shooting down nine golden crows and finally saving the world.
In the Qin, Han, Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties periods, the crow had another meaning - "the bird of filial piety".
Influenced by Confucian culture, people advocate filial piety, and stories such as "the crow feeds back" and "the lamb kneels to the milk" are used as educational models.
At that time, the crow was the bird of the annunciation.
Dreaming or seeing crows is regarded as a good omen, and there is even a saying that "when the red crow appears, the king can succeed", it is a well-deserved auspiciousness.
However, as time went on, people began to understand the world more scientifically.
found that the so-called "Yang Wu Zai Ri" and "Crow Feeding" seemed to be a misunderstanding, and his attitude towards crows began to change.
Later, he began to be picky about the color of the crow's feathers.
In the Qin and Han dynasties, black was the color of honor, and the black crow was naturally regarded as a noble bird;
But after the Song Dynasty, black began to become an ominous color again, coupled with the characteristics of crows eating scavengers, which "confirmed" their "ominousness".
And as the economic center of gravity shifted from north to south, southern customs and beliefs became the mainstream of society.
The magpie, which was more popular in southern culture, gradually replaced the crow.
Sure enough, this kind of thing is applicable no matter what era it is.
And the crow who can't speak, what his identity and status are, is just a sentence from the people at that time.
"Einstein" among birds
Humans like to use the term "rabble" to express their contempt for the intelligence of crows, which is actually an insult to them.
Crows are one of the most intelligent birds.
When we were children, we all read the story of "The Crow Drinks Water" in Aesop's Fables, which essentially taught us to think positively and find ways to solve problems when we encounter them;
But it is true that crows drink water, and it is not for nothing.
Some scientists have done an upgraded version of the "crow drinking water" experiment, and the results are jaw-dropping.
The scientists first put the crow's favorite food in a bottle of water and a bottle of sand, and then put some stones around it, and let the crow choose which bottle to throw stones into to eat the food.
As a result, Raven ignored the bottle containing the sand, and instead concentrated on throwing the stone into the water bottle, and quickly completed the test.
Then, the experiment became more difficult.
The experimenters prepared a denser rubber board and a less dense foam board, both of which were exactly the same size and color, but the foam board would float on the surface of the water and could not raise the water level.
The crow picked up the foam board and felt that the weight was wrong, so he decisively abandoned it, specialized in rubber and threw it in, and successfully passed the test.
The difficulty is escalated again.
This time, the crow will challenge the U-tube.
It first threw the pebble into the pipe on the left with its mouth, and after finding that the water level in the middle did not rise, it tried the right side again, and this time the water level finally came up, and then only threw it to the right side and got the food.
I thought these operations were already amazing, but you thought this was the end of it?
Of course not! Next, the scientists took the experiment to the next level.
This time they set up a puzzle with eight steps.
They first put the crow's favorite food in a narrow box, then placed a stone in each of the three wooden boxes in the middle, and a long stick in a transparent box with a trap next to it.
The crow needs to take out the stones from each of the three boxes by using a short wooden stick suspended in position 1, and then put all the stones into the transparent box to get the long stick, and then stuff the long stick into the narrow box to get the food.
How's that, do you get dizzy just listening to it?
See how the crows do it?
The crow first picked up a short stick and tried to reach for food, but failed.
Then he looked around, found his usual tool, the stone, and took it out with a short stick.
As it took out the second stone, it seemed to have an idea in its mind.
It flew to the trap box and threw the pebble in, and the box moved a little, and it seemed to have an effect.
Then it put in a second stone, and the box moved again, but the stick still didn't fall out.
So it threw the last stone into it, and this time the mechanism activated, and the long stick finally fell out.
It excitedly picked up its stick and tried to fetch its food, and this time, the food finally settled firmly in its mouth.
This experiment shows that crows have strong logical thinking ability and reasoning ability, and they can use their familiar things to permutate and combine in an unfamiliar environment, and finally find a solution to the problem.
This way of thinking has even been written into books and has become a scientific book that inspires children to think.
In addition, in life, netizens often capture the "god operation" of the crow.
From the classic stone to drink water, to the ...... of smashing open the husk with the help of external forcesNot only are they smart, but they're also quite persistent.
It was once said that while crows are always disgusted because of their appearance and strange voice, if intelligence is also a kind of **, then crows are undoubtedly one of the most ** animals in nature.
A cheap and cute villain.
Because of its high IQ and good memory, crows also have two significant characteristics, love to "flirt" and "extremely grudgeful".
It is common to see crows "bullying" other animals on the Internet.
Animals that are usually running around for a living don't have this kind of leisure, but crows always seem to enjoy it.
For example, plucking the hair on the butt of a giant panda.
Sneak attack on the dog's tail.
When you see a little hedgehog walking too slowly on the road, you can't help but come forward to help.
If you encounter crows on the road, don't mess with them, as they are quite vindictive and have their own facial recognition system, which can also spread your portrait throughout the local crow colony, so that every crow remembers your face.
An old brother in India was mistaken by other crows for his death when he rescued a little crow.
His nightmare began, and for three years, he was retaliated against by a flock of crows whenever he went out, and finally he had to move out of the area to quell the incident.
I don't have any mercy for the "enemy", and I can't stand a little grievance (although it is a misunderstanding), but the crows with clear love and hatred can also be remembered by those who have helped them.
One day, an American uncle suddenly found two bouquets made of pine needles in front of his house, with a can tab on the tail.
He was surprised who gave it to him, but he couldn't get any results after asking the neighbor's children, until he found the crow's family not far away, silently watching all this, and realized that it was a thank you gift from the crow.
It all started four years ago.
A crow couple made a nest in a tree in front of the uncle's house, gave birth to two babies, and the family of four was happy.
One night, tragedy struck when a raccoon snatched the mother crow.
Since then, the single-parent crow father has been running around all day long in search of food, unable to protect the chicks wholeheartedly, and often hungry for a full meal.
The uncle wanted to help them, so he put some food in front of the door.
At first, the crows were very alert, but when they realized that the uncle had no malicious intentions, they happily accepted the food, and sometimes took the initiative to forage for food.
The uncle also once treated young birds that fell out of the nest, and in the long-term interaction, people and birds became more and more familiar with each other.
Until this day, when I received a gift from the crow's family, it was hard not to think of the allusion to the knotted grass ring, although it was a pull ring, perhaps the highest etiquette that the birds could think of.
Interestingly, many netizens in the comments also posted their experiences of receiving various sparkling gifts from each other after helping the crows.
These clever little creatures, who have experienced all the adoration, misunderstanding, disgust, and indifference, still choose to live their own lives.
They have a clear distinction between love and hate, take revenge, never have internal friction, and always maintain a leading mental state.
They are cute and charming villains, who can live and die without convincing, and also have their own rules of behavior and, affectionately.