Personally, I know which of those I’d rather be in the middle of, but a glance at my backyard shows that I’m stuck with the crows. Why on earth did we have to decide on “murder” for a group of birds that are kinda creepy and smart as all hell to boot? “Flock” is a perfectly nice name for any group of birds!
Many of the bizarre collective nouns we use for groups of animals date all the way back to the publication of The Book of Saint Albans in 1486, which is believed to have been written at least in part by Dame Juliana Berners, a prioress and the author of the first book on fishing that is known to be written by a woman. Ok, she sounds kind of awesome, so I’ll forgive her for the fact that people who actually use most of the group names below just sound like pretentious assholes. (Maybe that’s just me.) Many animals have multiple group names, so in some cases I’ve just picked my favorites.
Birds[fancy_list style=”star_list” variation=”blue”]
[/fancy_list] [fancy_list style=”star_list” variation=”hotpink”]
[/fancy_list] Farm Animals [fancy_list style=”star_list” variation=”red”]
[/fancy_list] Creepy Crawlies [fancy_list style=”star_list” variation=”coffee”]
[/fancy_list] |
Other Mammals [fancy_list style=”star_list” variation=”yellow”]
[/fancy_list] Sea Life[fancy_list style=”star_list” variation=”teal”]
[/fancy_list] Reptiles and Amphibians [fancy_list style=”star_list” variation=”green”]
[/fancy_list] |
9 replies on “A Murder of Crows and a Kindle of Kittens”
I just watched something on PBS about a murder of crows. I had no idea they were such smart birds.
Flamboyance of Flamingos? Seriously? That sounds like something you’d call a flock of Gay Parade Wagons.
Heh. A pandemonium of parrots. That’s certainly accurate. ONE parrot is pandemonium. Several? LOTS of wild pandemonium.
I don’t care that I might sound more like a pretentious asshole, so many of these are amazing and others just sound like someone was getting bored and a little punchy (possibly drunk?) after naming so many animal collections (a pot of water buffalo…? really?). But there is something infinitely appealing about a phrase like “a company of badgers”, like they’re all in little business suits with tiny briefcases, looking very serious. Or maybe I just think badgers are adorable anyway…
A congregation of alligators! Now I am imagining alligators dressed in their Sunday best all filing into a tiny Baptist church to praise the Lord! Hallelujah!
Of course, I am a wee bit drunk right now, so this could be just me.
Nah that’s an awesome image, drunk or sober.
I really like “a confusion of guinea fowl.” We had one in my neighborhood until the feral cats found them…. But it was fun to talk about our community’s confusion until then.
One randomly popped up in our neighbors’ yard a couple summers ago. Poor thing was quite confused, but we had fun watching it run around.
They’re such adorably kooky birds, and they eat mosquitoes. I wish the feral cats hadn’t gotten a hold of them. Did you ever get to see them when they jumped into trees to roost? That might have been my favorite thing to watch.