As the crow flies

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A crow flying across the terrain

The expression as the crow flies (or alternatively as the bird flies) is an idiom for the most direct path between two points.<ref name="Allen"/><ref name="Knowles"/>

Etymology

The meaning of the expression is attested from the early 19th century, and appeared in the Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist (1838):<ref name="Allen"/><ref name="Knowles"/>

While crows do conspicuously fly alone across open country, they do not fly in especially straight lines.<ref name=BBC>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> While crows do not swoop in the air like swallows or starlings, they often circle above their nests.<ref name=BBC />

One suggested origin of the term is that before modern navigational methods were introduced, cages of crows were kept upon ships and a bird would be released from the crow's nest when required to assist navigation, in the hope that it would fly directly towards land.<ref name="Allen"/> However, the earliest recorded uses of the term are not nautical in nature, and the crow's nest of a ship is thought to derive from its shape and position rather than its use as a platform for releasing crows.<ref name="Allen"/> It has also been suggested that crows would not travel well in cages, as they fight if confined.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

See also

• Displacement (geometry)
• Distance
• Geodesic
• Great-circle distance

Bibliography

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External links

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