Crow's Court

[mike1222]

Has anybody ever heard of a Crows Court? If so, what is it?

[SteveD]

I am sure someone (Quizmonster ?) will be able to answer this. In the mean time here is an interesting site where there might be a link between one of the collective nouns for agroup of crows (a murder of crows) and a crows' court: http://rinkworks.com/words/collective.shtml

[New Forester]

I don't know, but could it be similar to a magpie parliament?

[Quizmonster]

I'm not familiar with this phrase, but it's clearly a reference to a gathering of these birds. Why 'court'? Probably because their black plumage is reminiscent of the robes worn by judges, barristers and court officials. Their constant cawing might be a reference to lawyers bandying arguments across a courtroom, too. To a countryman, a few crows together doubtless looked just like a city courtroom.

[quattro]

I have heard the term and it was explained that it was a gathering of crows that "sat in judgement" over one crow that had erred in some way and then gave him a good hiding its probably a rural myth as opposed to the modern day urban myth stories

[jenstar]

Is it perhaps just a typo for "Crown Court" ?

[MikeMikeMike]

Quattro, I've heard the same. One crow lands in a field, lots of other land around it and caw for a while, then they either all fly off or they kill it. Not sure what the origin is, but apparently no one knows why it happens. I've got a reference for it somewhere, I'll have to look it up.

[mike1222]

Thanks all, but Mike(x3) and quattro seem to be right(ish) - I've heard that it is a gathering of crows that gather in a field and surround one individual crow, seem to chatter and sit in some sort of judgement on him/her, then either let him fly away or kill him by pecking him to death. Evidently, the circles of worn ground that one finds in the middle of some fields are where this has taken place - but there seems to be a distinct lack of actual witnesses.