. . . for it shows you know some biological terminology.
h/t: Sam
Extra points if you get this one
March 11, 2014 • 10:30 am
Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
A murder of crows.
Give it away, why don’t you?
(Appropriate that you’re the first commenter on this post!)
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I was excited to be the first responder! But, I am worried those are Ravens.
I knew someone was gonna say that . . .
Hey, I was a ruiner too!:D
It’s a rookie mistake…
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Stop. Please stop.
No, Ant. Do not stop.
“Rookie mistake”.
I love it.
Well, I am choughed!
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A poultry attempt at humour!
I am just an avid punster
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PS. Is the offspring of a crow and a raven cowardly?
Maybe. The offspring probably has cravings.
Yes I agree. Don’t stop!
There are never more excellent puns on this site than when Ant is here.
☺️
Greatly Ant-icipated.
PS. Is the offspring of a crow and a raven cowardly?
Maybe. The offspring probably has cravings.
These two take the prize!
What about mine?
Poe is me.
Aw, shoot, have to admit that flew right over my head the first time!
They failed at making a flock
People have been raven about this for ages… 😉
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No caws for alarm.
That one’s something to crow about
Caws and effect. Or affect.
The look more like ravens to me – which would make them an Unkindness.
Ditto.
Parrots in disguise.
Parrots in disguise.
With diamonds?
Very lucid
Mimic octopus.
A “murder of crows” perhaps?
Ceiling Cat is surely wise (though CC’s gender is fuzzy…). By posing this question for us bipeds, the intent was obviously to teach us something about creation, because I learned something in the process. As chascpeterson (#34) noted, it seems that “crows” generally encompass the entire genus of Corvus. I did not know that. (bows to CC and backs away wondering if he has any catnip to leave as a votive offering…)
Yeah… I’m pretty sure these are Ravens…
Not a murmuration of starlings?
Right – not crows.
The collective name for a group of crows is a flock or a murder
Included in this list is “a pandemonium of parrots,” an expression which could not possibly be more accurate. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_collective_nouns_in_English
Here are a few that aren’t as well known:
“a slick of lawyers”
“a sh*tbag of car-salesmen”
Ot a “pedant of professors”
A pound of pianists.
A credulous of theists.
A Wunch of Bankers
One of my favorite books is James Lipton’s An Exaltation of Larks.
Ruth Rendell’s A Murder of Crows is pretty good too, as I recall.
Brad Freeman has a book “A Murder of Crows” as well!
I wouldn’t be at all surprised if there were others — it’s a fairly obvious Good Title!
A Murder of Crows!
Definitely ravens and they are plotting something bad!
Q: Why did the crow sit on the telephone wire?
A: He wanted to make a long-distance caw.
I’ll be here all week, folks. . .
Did you hear about the revolutionary pigeons?
They are planning a coo!
When the raven went to the airport he was asked if he had any bags he wanted to check. Nope, he only had carrion.
😄
Any liquids or gels in that?
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That depends on how long it’s been since he packed it.
Why did the chewing gum cross the road?
It was stuck to the chickens leg…I’ll get my coat
What is everybody raven on about?
Ha, just got a t-shirt with the same joke last month–the two crows on it are drawings, though. 🙂
Dude, I am so totally getting that shirt for my cousin now.
Awesome job everyone with the puns.
Once upon a midday dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious bl…uh, website of evolution lore—
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a pinging,
As of some one gently posting, posting on their website d’or.
“‘Tis a new post,” I muttered, “he’s done it again” I almost swore—
“Only this and nothing more…”
There are several versions at Café Press.
Excellent redo; “website d’or” especially! 😀
Sheer bloody Poe-try!
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I love that poem, just for the sheer craft and command of language Poe shows in getting the metre and the alliteration and the complicated rhyme scheme to work so well. Truly a work of art.
Couldn’t have said it better! It just flows.
Haha, I got a t-shirt like that for xmas!
Of course, some pedants insisted that two crows still constitutes a murder, but they really had no caws to complain.
Don’t forget the somewhat amorous intent displayed by the one on the left. Clearly he(?) imagines starting a murder with that lovely beside him.
Easy one. They are looking to assemble a “murder of crows” . A family or grouping of crows is known as a “murder of crows”.
Do I get an inscribed and autographed copy of WEIT for that one?
John Blase
OK! OK! I get it. They’re ravens not crows.
There goes my autographed copy of WEIT 🙁
John Blase
Crow: A bird that never complains without caws.
Those are actually banded ravens. You can tell they’re ravens because they look like ravens, and you can tell they’re banded ravens because they have bands on their legs.
And you can tell they’re banded two-legged ravens because . . .
Yes, it is a manslaughter of banded two-legged ravens.
They’re really ravens because they look ravenous.
Good one!
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Now, how is a raven like a writing desk?
Easy one, that. Poe wrote on both.
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LOL, a murder of crows (even though they are Ravens); however I would prefer as a caption “2nd degree murder”
Trouble is, as Nathan has pointed out, these are ravens, not crows. The term of venery for ravens is “unkindness” or “conspiracy.”
A conspiracy to murder!
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Two for joy.
“One for sorrow,
Two for joy,
Three for a girl,
Four for a boy,
Five for silver,
Six for gold,
Seven for a secret
Waiting to be told.”
And around here, umpteen in a kettle for a dead cow. 🙂
One for sorrow – that’s magpies isn’t it?
Or ravens. Depends on who is giving the folklore lesson.
fair enough 😉
Eight is a wish And nine a kiss Ten is a bird you must not miss Crow-ow-ow-owowowowoow
Oh. Wait. http://www.televisiontunes.com/Magpie.html
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For a murder of crows, they need at least one more!
Attempted murder with a crowbar!
Mais oui!
Clue for corvids: It was Mr. Black in the aviary with the crowbar.
As in a murder of crows?
I notice one of the crows has been electronically tagged, so presumably a past suspect.
He had been found guilty of jay walking …
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or maybe he just rooked some one…
If the banded bird pursues his amorous intent and engages in foreplay with his female (intended) mate, he may eat crow.
You can find this listed as The Human, or, The End of the Raven by Edgar Allen Poe’s Cat:
On a night quite unenchanting,
when the rain was downward slanting,
I awakened to the ranting
of the man I catch mice for.
Tipsy and a bit unshaven,
in a tone I found quite craven,
Poe was talking to a Raven perched
above the chamber door.
“Raven’s very tasty,” thought I,
as I tiptoed o’er the floor,
“There is nothing I like more”.
Soft upon the rug I treaded,
calm and careful as I headed
Towards his roost atop that dreaded
bust of Pallas I deplore.
While the bard and birdie chattered,
I made sure that nothing clattered,
Creaked, or snapped, or fell, or shattered,
as I crossed the corridor;
For his house is crammed with trinkets,
curios and weird decor –
Bric-a-brac and junk galore.
Still the Raven never fluttered,
standing stock-still as he uttered,
In a voice that shrieked and sputtered,
his two cents’ worth – “Nevermore.”
While this dirge the birdbrain kept up,
oh, so silently I crept up,
Then I crouched and quickly leapt up,
pouncing on the feathered bore.
Soon he was a heap of plumage,
and a little blood and gore-
Only this and not much more.
“Oooo!” my pickled poet cried out,
“Pussycat, it’s time I dried out!
Never sat I in my hideout
talking to a bird before.
How I’ve wallowed in self-pity,
while my gallant, valiant kitty
Put and end to that damned ditty” –
then I heard him start to snore.
Back atop the door I clambered,
eyed that statue I abhor,
Jumped – and smashed it on the floor.
It’s actually from Henry Beard’s Poetry For Cats, copyright 1994
Delightful, superb. Great sense of the language’s flexibility. Cannot be surpassed.
Best smirking answer in kind to dirgeful POE-try.
That’s pretty good!
Thanks for that! Must look up the book.
Just glanced at the Amazon description; I was sold at, “Do Not Go Gentle to That Damned Vet.”
I enjoyed that very much. Great way to end the evening.
achh, the baaad puns;-))
They are trying to lure one or more crows to join them so as to make up a murder.
And two geese are a Guggle
Oh, flock! This whole posting and all the comments are just one big Poe.
I think we should call a gathering of Republican legislators a “Murder”!
Yes, but they’d be adjudged not guilty by reason of insanity.
Here’s a corny one: “See-saw, murder-he-caw…”
There is no “scientific” distinction between ravens and crows; they are all members of the same genus Corvus, and some that are called “crows” are actually more clsely related to some called “ravens”. The larger the body size, the more likely to be called a ‘raven’, that’s all.
Likewise, whimsical terms for groups of animals are hardly “biological terminology” either.
You mean … they are all the same *kind*?!
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three’s a murder…? 😀
You know the saying, two’s company but three’s a murder? 🙂
You know the saying, two’s company but three’s a murder? 🙂
LOL
Three’s a bit kinky …
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Kinky is using a feather…perverted is using the whole bird.
..ing crow’d. As might be the case. 🙂
People, people, enough! Such frivolity, such wit, such bonhomie! Have you forgotten that we are atheists, rationalists, scientists? Don’t you remember that we are supposed to be dour, acting solely according to logic, and without ordinary human emotions? After all, we don’t have a pipeline to the magic man in the sky, so our sensus is not divinitatus, we have no purpose (how could we, since our existence does not go on forever?), our Kalam is mere calamity.
Sheesh, next thing you know we’ll be telling jokes.
Gotta be crows
(without looking at previous posts)
I got it because I saw it on this webpage in the article “More highbrow science jokes” last autumn
:3
Ha! I was just looking at that for entirely different reasons. But it was August not autumn. 😉
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“The one of them said to his mate,: Where shall we our breakfast take?”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three_Ravens
NOT Crows as some have pointed out, but ravens! Crrrraaaaakkkk!
More likely The Twa Corbies.. Or perhaps Three Craws (the third one wisnae there at a’).
I did get this right away, so give me that extra point…..then take it away because I recall the term from “The Simpsons”.
My favorite group noun phrase is the one for a collection of ninjas: “an apparently empty room”.