Wednesday, 21 October 2009

Mourning Magpies

Talking of funerals, this news should surprise no one who has observed our corvine friends at all closely (see, for example, Mark Cocker's wonderful book Crow Country). All crows are phenomenally intelligent (for birds), with highly developed social habits, and might very well 'mourn' their dead. The magpies seem to be secularists thus far - no croaking choruses of Dear Lord and Father of Magpiekind - but at least they don't have recourse to Wind Beneath My Wings... The man is surely right when he says: 'It's bad biology to argue against the existence of animal emotions.'
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5 comments:

  1. worm21 October 2009 at 11:18

    Have you ever been to Australia, Nige? The magpies there have the most delightful and melancholy warble, somewhat like the sound of a Clanger. In the quiet suburbs it forms a constant burble that weaves through the sound of the lawnmowers.

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  2. Nige21 October 2009 at 11:58

    Too far for me Worm - but I like the idea of melodious magpies. Round my way the raucous din they kick up used to be the loudest bird sound around - but now they're topped by the screeching ringnecked parakeets flying over all the time. And in Richmond Park those green blighters make enough noise to drown out even the overflying jets.

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  3. Susan21 October 2009 at 13:21

    Anthropomorphism or plagiarism perhaps? I'm curious to know... As for Clangers, not sure that either delightful or melodious apply - has anyone got an appropriate word for horribly un-sonorous cackling?

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  4. malty21 October 2009 at 14:11

    The Clangers, unmelodious? now that is an iron chicken too far, Granny Clanger has as fine a Mezzo voice as Brigette Fasbinder, Major Clanger could have slotted neatly into the role of Scarpia opposite Maria and as for Tiny, eat your heart out Cliff.

    Postgate uber alles.

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  5. Ozalchemyst22 October 2009 at 08:10

    I can testify to the attractiveness of the magpie calls in OZ -they persuade many people to feed them purely for the joy of hearing them sing.I found a sample on You Tube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzAa1sqXOik

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