| One of the co-founders of the Boy Scouts wrote some books about nature (and Indians), he had years of experience in his nature-related occupation. And was a keen observer of nature.
The book is called "wild animals I have known". Published back in the 1950s.
One chapter was about crows, which are about as intelligent as dogs.
He discovered that they have different codes contained in their ca ca noises. (for got the code so I will use examples).
A group of crows would be on the ground feeding and one (at least) would perch on a high branch as the "watch-bird". The watcher would repeat the same three ca cas over and over as long as things were code-4 (safe and normal). But if a peditor appeared (or a human) the watcher crow would start using 4 ca cas, meaning "be on your alert". If he crow thought the group was in real danger then the CAs would got up to five in rapid sounds. It would also fly down over the group while making the "warning sounds" and the flock would fly away. They also had certain codes used when fighting over food or for mating purposes.
Meanwhile, other animals in the field paid attention to those sounds the crows made and would take advantage of the warming sounds to hide from the preditors.
The indians observed such behavior and would use it or mimic it when hunting or sneaking up on an enemy. The might "hoot" like an owl and others would hoot back, or course the white man just thought he was hearing owls not people. It was an effective way to communicate their positions and to co-ordinate the attack.
Once I was outside and a bird was chriping in a tree and so I made a simular sound, the bird repeated it and would wait until I made the same sound before repeating it again. If I changed the sound a little, so did the bird. I was all meaningless chirping to me but I knew we must be communicating something the bird understood. |