På Raymond Z. Gallun s klassiska novelette " Skorens frön " (första publicerad i Förvånande Science-fiction , juni 1938 , tillgänglig på Internetarkiv ) har kråkor utvecklats nära mänsklig intelligens, men har ingen teknik. Kaw kråken är en av huvudpersonerna i denna långt framtidens invandringshistoria:
Kaw, the Crow, recognized in this thing that it was alien — not of Earth — and that, to him, spelled danger to himself and all his kind.
[. . . .]
Kaw felt a twinge of dread. Evolution, working through a process of natural selection — and, in these times of hardship and pitiless competition, putting a premium on intelligence — had given to his kind a brain power far transcending that of his ancestors. He could observe, and could interpret his observations with the same practical comprehension which a primitive human being might display. But, like those primitives, he had developed, too, a capacity to feel superstitious awe.
[. . . .]
They chuckled and chattered and cawed, like the crows of dead eras. But these sounds, echoing eerily beneath cloistered arches, dim and abhorrent in the advancing gloom of night, differed from that antique yammering. It constituted real, intelligent conversation.
Kaw, perched high on a fancifully wrought railing of bronze, green with the patina of age, urged his companions with loud cries, and with soft, pleading notes. In his own way, he had some of the qualities of a master orator. But. as all through an afternoon of similar arguing, he was getting nowhere. His tribe was afraid. And so it was becoming more and more apparent that he must undertake his mission alone. Even Teka, his mate, would not accompany him.