Why do we say eat crow

Some language experts say this expression comes from English writer Rudyard Kipling. Kipling uses an image of eating crow in his 1885 short story “The Strange Ride of Morrowbie Jukes.” Morrowbie Jukes was a European colonist in India. While traveling one day, he falls into a sand pit and cannot escape.

Crows are edible. You can eat them and they won’t make you sick. They taste similar to a goose, duck, or other dark meat bird. … Some people claim they can’t be eaten because of their tendency to eat almost anything but that’s just not true.

The American-English phrase to eat crow means to be forced to do something humiliating—synonym: to eat humble pie.

Here is a good definition from Wikipedia “Eating crow is an American colloquial idiom, meaning humiliation by admitting wrongness or having been proven wrong after taking a strong position. Crow is presumably foul-tasting in the same way that being proven wrong might be emotionally hard to swallow.

Birds with known toxic traits include the Pitohui and Ifrita birds from Papua New Guinea, the European quail, the spur-winged goose, hoopoes, the North American ruffed grouse, the bronzewing pigeon, and the red warbler, among others.

“We (the Chinese) eat nearly anything that moves, but not crows. I wonder why that is? … In old times, it was seen as distasteful to eat them because they are by nature scavengers, often feeding on the corpses of soldiers left to rot on the battlefield.

It had good flavor but was a little tough. I’d say it was comparable to any dark leg meat off of an upland bird. Soon after, reviews from fellow MeatEaters started rolling in.

Pigeons are widely eaten in many countries, including Britain and Ireland. Squab, which is just a young pigeon, is a staple on fancy French restaurant menus. … City pigeons, wherever they live, eat whatever they can, and can sometimes carry diseases. They give the species a bad rap.