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collectively speaking

July 11, 2006

in response to adinfinitum’s ranting on the non-effect of school grammar to his spelling, which is terrible, to say the least (:D), and the amazement of an officemate on the discovery of the collective description for fish…I have decided to post some uncommon collective nouns used for some animals. if you know all of these, go ahead and smirk, you know-it-all!

for the more common tao like me, read below…courtesy of the ever reliable wikipedia.

An aarmory of aardvarks
An army of ants
A herd of antelope
A shrewdness of apes 
A flange of baboons
A congress of baboons
A cete of badgers
A colony of bats
A sloth of bears
A lodge of beavers
A grist of bees
A dissimulation of birds
A volery of birds
A singular of boars
An obstinacy of buffalo
A bellowing of bullfinches
A rabble of butterflies
A rainbow of butterflies
A wake of buzzards
A caravan of camels
A destruction of cats (feral or wild)
A clowder of cats
A clutter of cats
A glaring of cats
A kindle of kittens (cats)
An army of caterpillars
A peep of chickens
A clutch of chicks
A bed of clams
An intrusion of cockroaches
A drove of cattle
A pack of coyotes
A sedge of cranes
A bask of crocodiles
A murder of crows
A cry of hounds
A pod of dolphins
A piteousness of doves
A flight of dragons
A raft of ducks
A convocation of eagles
A parade of elephants
A business of ferrets
A trembing of finches
A shoal of fish
A stand of flamingoes
A skulk of foxes
A woop of gorillas
A cloud of grasshoppers
A siege of herons
A mob of kangaroos
A pride of lions
A mischief of mice
A watch of nightingales
A covey of partridges
A pride of peacocks
An aurora of polar bears
A passel of possum
A gaze of raccoons
An unkindness of ravens –> i particularly adore this.
A crash of rhinoceroses
A shiver of sharks
A sneak of weasels
A zeal of zebra

Posted by mary at 3:49 pm | permalink

Previous Comments

An unknindness of ravens?

wow. thanks for sharing. I thought my grammar skills were excellent til I read this. Apparently what I currently know is not enough. hehe.

Posted by Dan at July 11, 2006, 8:52 pm

a gaze?! a gaze?!

Posted by adinfinitum at July 12, 2006, 9:46 am

good read mary. hope this helps the large populace of the nation who doesn't the difference between mod and mode

Posted by smokers at July 12, 2006, 12:53 pm

ganda mary! some more interesting group names:
A building of rooks
A murmuration of starlings
A muster of peacocks
A peep of chickens
A sord of mallards
A spring of teal
A watch of nightingales

Posted by Edith at July 12, 2006, 4:31 pm

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