Talking Crow Had No Comment for Press

 A pet crow supposedly had learned to talk. However, when Ora Ernst showed up at Stafford Hall in Clear Spring to take Jim’s photo for the Hagerstown Daily Mail, the bird had nothing to say.

But he did produce human-sounding remarks like ‘ah’ and ‘uh-huh’ when offered candy by his adopted mother, Mrs. V.L. Ebersole.

The crow was discovered in a nest nine years ago by Bernie Williams, a brother-in-law of the Ebersoles*, who raised him for seven years and taught him a vocabulary which includes “How are you?”, “Hell-looo”, and “Hello” minus the last syllable.

I bet Ora Ernst said “Hello” minus the last syllable, and other things besides, when she got back to the office.

Based on my four years as a general-assignment reporter at a daily newspaper, I have a great deal of sympathy for Ernst, who clearly drew the short straw in the newsroom that day, but I also wish she had pointed out in print that “Jim Crow” was a remarkably tasteless name for a pet on a former slave plantation, even in 1975.

*Here the newspaper spells the name Eversole, which I assume is a typo for Ebersole, the spelling that appears on first reference and in the photo caption.

Source

“Talking crow has ‘no comment’.” The Daily Mail (Hagerstown, Maryland), 24 Sept. 1975, Page 17. Accessed 7 Nov. 2021 via Newspapers.com.

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