On Fri, 23 Jun 1995, Dennis Paulson wrote:
> Here's another fascinating forward from the dinosaur list!

> >---------- Forwarded message ----------
> >From: VanKathy at aol.com

> >One more example of the intelligence of crows (or perhaps ravens -- it was
> >many years ago when I read this) involves an experiment somewhat similar to
[snip]
> > Furthermore, the water level was set so that it lay just beyond the bird's
> >reach. In a brilliant solution that probably is beyond many human's problem
> >solving abilities, the bird dropped pebbles into the water until the water
> >was displaced enough for it to reach!

Didn't Aesop report on this? Can't remember the date... ;)

> >As far as other birds are concerned, I have heard remarkable things about
> >African Grey Parrots. I read of one bird with a vocabulary of hundreds of
> >words that, it was claimed, idependently developed the ability to construct
> >simple two word sentences (i.e. the bird would say "Go gym" -- a request to

Irene Pepperberg at U Arizona works with this species, but when I last
spoke with her she made no grand claims about the parrots' cognitive
abilities. She described *one* impressive bird, and felt there's reason to
keep the door open on this research, but I didn't leave with the
impression I'd be engaged in discourse with parrots anytime soon.

Scott Richardson
Olympia
richasar at dfw.wa.gov