Animal Collective Nouns

Collective nouns are a way of describing more then one of something. When talking about groups of animals some of the accepted terms are rather *strange*. For instance,

A business of Ferrets
A prickle of Porcupines
A crash of Rhinoceroses

Anyone want to add to the list?

(Ferrets deserved to be capitalized as well )

an Intelligence of Apes... i think.... unless i'm misremembering

an Intelligence of Apes

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That's a wonderful one! :grin

A murder of crows.
An ambush of tigers.
A skulk of foxes.


More

Geese in the air are a 'skein' I like that one as its so descitptive.

have we had a clowder of cats?

A streak of Tigers

A kindle of kittens.
A charm of goldfinches.
A sleuth (or sloth) of bears.
A parliament of owls.

I love these.

Cheers,
aq

An exaltation of larks.
A cowardice of curs.
A mute of hounds.
A spring of teal.
A true love of turtledoves.
An unkindness of ravens.
An ostentation of peacocks.

Although I started a thread on made-up collectives (a hobby of mine) on the Humor board, these (and hundreds more) can be found in the book "An Exaltation of Larks" by James Lipton (Penguin).

A coven of crows.

Did I actually see that one somewhere or am I remembering incorrectly? hmmm.....

A parliament of owls

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Being Canadian, I don't think this is really fair to the owls.... :grin

PS - I'm so surprised Frank didn't post the obvious: school of fish.

I don't understand 'a mute of hounds' since all the hounds I know are anything but mute. :lol

Think it might be a Brit fox-hunting term. Foxhounds are mute until they see the fox, then they 'bell'.


(Though I may be wrong.)

Cheers,
aq

Ah! Okay, seems like I recall seeing the term 'bell' in an article somewhere. Now I get it. Thanks.