It should be "as the duck flies", not "as the crow flies".
Ducks fly like they're on a mission, point to point, no fucking around. Crows fly for fun, chase each other, and just hang out.
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Ducks fly like they're on a mission, point to point, no fucking around. Crows fly for fun, chase each other, and just hang out.
That's not the point of the saying. Birds can fly in a straight line past the kind of obstacles that ground-movers must maneuver around - trees, rivers, buildings, etc. Not sure who picked crow for the saying. I suppose duck works as well, but so would eagle and bluejay. On the other hand, "as the chicken flies" could be a fun way of saying "awkwardly and poorly."
I'm going to start saying this.
It's about 2 hours away, as the crow flies, but 3 weeks away as the chicken flies.
Can, but don't, is my point.
Then you've clearly never seen a crow on a mission. They can fly in a straight line when they want to.
I been using the phrase "Hand eye coordination of a snake"
I was going to say something about head/eye coordination...but the snake I used to have could strike at a dead rodent and miss.
So you have a good point.
Snakes aren't actually well known for being good with their hands. But people tend to miss that detail when they first hear the line, focusing instead on the snakes reflexes.
Good point, but here in Toronto it's the geese that seem the most determined.
Internet says in French they just generalise to say 'bird'.
'Straight as an arrow' , or 'as the arrow flies', might be better though; pretty straight if there's no wind.
I used to have a friend who pronounced "arrow" like "owl" so maybe go with that.
This also has me thinking about making a bee-line for something.
Crows are everywhere. Ducks are only around bodies of water. Crows was used because of their large span of regions they are native to.
Don’t ducks have specific migratory flyaways, so it’s more akin to commercial airlines in that they fly specific routes seasonally? Other than that, I assume they primarily fly between bodies of water. “As the duck flies” would therefore assume that a duck would even fly the route in question, when in fact, a crow may be more likely to fly it than a duck.
I prefer nazghoul, and you better hope we don't have one of those on our tail
As the hummingbird flies.