<Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> Wikisource has original text related to this article: The Crow and the Pitcher </Td> </Tr> <P> The Crow and the Pitcher is one of Aesop's Fables, numbered 390 in the Perry Index . It relates ancient observation of corvid behaviour that recent scientific studies have confirmed is goal - directed and indicative of causal knowledge rather than simply being due to instrumental conditioning . </P> <P> The fable is made the subject of a poem by the first century CE Greek Poet Bianor, was included in the 2nd century fable collection of pseudo-Dositheus and later appears in the 4th--5th - century Latin verse collection by Avianus . The history of this fable in antiquity and the Middle Ages is tracked in A.E. Wright's Hie lert uns der meister: Latin Commentary and the Germany Fable . </P> <P> The story concerns a thirsty crow that comes upon a pitcher with water at the bottom, beyond the reach of its beak . After failing to push it over, the bird drops in pebbles one by one until the water rises to the top of the pitcher, allowing it to drink . In his telling, Avianus follows it with a moral that emphasises the virtue of ingenuity: "This fable shows us that thoughtfulness is superior to brute strength ." Other tellers of the story stress the crow's persistence . In Francis Barlow's edition the proverb' Necessity is the mother of invention' is applied to the story while an early 20th - century retelling quotes the proverb' Where there's a will, there's a way' . </P>

When was the crow and the pitcher written