Crows or Corvus splendens

November 20, 2015.

To reader, if any, it is about crows in Bombay as Edward Hamilton Aitken (EHA) saw and wrote of them. In Zoo in the Garden, EHA elaborates on The Crows: 'The common grey-necked Crow has got the name of Corvus splendens; whether from the glossy blackness of its wings, or the splendour of its impudence, I will not pretend to say. It was once more aptly named Corvens impudicus, and one could wish that name had remained.' As of November 20, 2015, the gentleman or Lady is common; in Borivili the gentleman or Lady is in plenty and that without much of impudence; he or she is not scarce; mostly minds his or her business. For EHA in middle or late 1800s, ' in Bombay, the Crow population has multiplied to such an extent of late years that the competition for nesting materials has become terrible. In Marine Lines, as the season advances, the Crows patrol the road, or the garden-walks, waiting for sticks to fall, or they get up into the trees and tug at twigs which are still green and will not come off. It is not many years since a pair living in the Fort discovered a real El Dorado in an Optician's shop. They worked that mine so stealthily and cleverly that before they were discovered they had succeeded in abstracting about Rs.400 worth of spectacle frames, which they had worked up into a very superior nest, combining durability and lightness like a helical tube. The museum of the Bombay Natural History Society contains a ponderous nest made entirely of iron wire, taken apparently from the ruins of railway fences.' EHA alone can write like that; perhaps, an old gentleman in Sreevatsam in far Alleppey may not have read EHA but liked, rather enjoyed crow company. Morning breakfast was three idlis or three dosas for H.Gopalakrishnan, insists his daughter, Rama. Two and a half idlis or dosas for self; rest for crows waiting in the courtyard; the old man enjoyed the wild moment while wife disapproved. Crows for many of us represent dead ancients, to be fed rice; in Achchan, Tilakan imagines crow calls, of crows to be given lunches; crow is God Saturn's Merc. For sure, the old man H. Gopalakrishnan was aware, says Rama. In a tiny gesture, Rama and me are on trying to study crows; over two days, between 7 and 8 in the morning, me breaks up a Marie buiscuit, places the pieces on the grill of the window sill; wait; two crows, unsure of identity, land; caw; wait; me heads into the morning newspaper; Rama sips Horlicks; me pulls head out, crows and eats gone; for the house sparrows, one arranges broken pieces of Marie on a newspaper or plate; they are not complex as crows; hop in, breakfast, fly off; they are breeding in the loft. Crows are gentlemen; gentlemen are rascals; crows are also ladies; ladies are fair.