One of the crows in the Tower of London, the bird conspiracy that is said to be intertwined with that of Britain, is missing and fearing death, the royal palace said on Thursday.
“We have some really unhappy news to share,” Tower announced on its website, referring to the missing corvid as the “Queen of the Ravens of the Tower”. “Our much-loved crow Merlina has not been seen at the Tower for several weeks, and her continued absence indicates that she may have died unfortunately.”
The crows are native to the area and can grow more than two meters in length, with a wingspan of up to 51 inches. According to folklore, if there are less than six crows left to guard the tower, both the kingdom and the country will collapse.
But Yeoman Ravenmaster caretaker Chris Skaife, who takes care of the birds, assured the worried Britons already battered by the coronavirus pandemic and the Brexit divorce that the nation is safe – for now.
“Obviously, as the master of the crows, my concern is with the kingdom,” he told BBC Radio.
“But we have seven crows here at the Tower of London, six by royal decree and, of course, I have one more, so we’re OK right now.”
The decree, supposedly issued in the seventeenth century, provided that there must be six on the spot at the same time. The tower’s website notes that the raven master cuts the flight feathers of large black birds “to encourage them to stay at the Tower.”
Skaife told AFP in an interview in October last year that he usually keeps two as “spare parts”, “just in case” and that Merlina was his favorite.
Merlina, described by the tower as the “undisputed leader of the rooster”, was last seen at the historic Thames River palace a few weeks ago.
Photo by TOLGA AKMEN / AFP via Getty Images
“Just before Christmas, before we got stuck, we put the crows in bed and she never came back,” Skaife said.
He described Merlina as a “free-spirited raven who has been known to have left the Tower on many occasions.”
However, he added, “he normally comes back to us, but this time he didn’t, so I’m afraid he’s not with us anymore.”
Merlina has become an internet favorite in her frequent posts and videos of Skaife on Instagram and Twitter accounts, which have over 120,000 followers.
The seven crows left captive in the Tower are Poppy, Erin, Jubilee, Rocky, Harris, Gripp and George. The tower’s website notes that crows are intelligent birds with distinct personalities that can mimic sounds, play games, and solve problems.
Skaife, a former staff sergeant and drum major in the Royal Regiment of the Princess of Wales, faced an unprecedented challenge that entertained the tower’s famous avian residents during last year’s coronavirus blockades.
The birds suddenly woke up with no one to play with – or rob the food. He raised fears that the birds would fly to try to find food elsewhere.
Photo by TOLGA AKMEN / AFP via Getty Images