Help: Names of Animal Groups

Subject: Names of Animal Groups
From: Davey
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 09:57 AM

I recently came across some colorful, and sometimes aptly descriptive names that we give to groups of animals, and decided to incorporate them into a song. I hope some of you Mudcatters can help me by adding to my list. Here is what I have found so far.

A charm of finches
Gaggle of geese
Murder of crows
Unkindness of ravens
Parliament of owls
Nest of robins
Descent of woodpeckers
Puddle of ducks
Sloth of bears
Skulk of foxes
Husk of hares
Bale of turtles
Shoal of bass
Hover of trout

Looking forward to many more....

Davey... (:>)

Subject: RE: Help: Names of Animal Groups
From: sledge
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 10:01 AM

Whoop of baboons?

Subject: RE: Help: Names of Animal Groups
From: Mrrzy
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 10:02 AM

Murmuration of starlings
Exaltation of larks
Crash of rhinoceros
And the group of ravens in my source, EO Wilson's Sociobiology, wasn't called an unkindness, I don't think, but I don't recall, right now, what it was. I'll look it up...

Note that to have a brace of pheasants, both pheasants must be dead.

What about a passel of kiddies? Or are we limiting to non-human animals?

Subject: RE: Help: Names of Animal Groups
From: sian, west wales
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 10:03 AM

I thought it was a murmuration of *swallows*?

sian

Subject: RE: Help: Names of Animal Groups
From: catspaw49
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 10:11 AM

A Squashing of Possums
A Ka-bonk of Armadillo
A Splattering of Insects
A Flattening of Groundhogs

Just a thought.......

Spaw

Subject: RE: Help: Names of Animal Groups
From: MMario
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 10:14 AM

url=http://trident.mcs.kent.edu/~mscherge/Other/animals.html

Animal collectives

A Colorful List of Collective Nouns for Animals

1.An army of ants
2.A bale of turtles
3.A band of gorillas
4.A bed of clams, oysters
5.A bevy of quail, swans
6.A brace of ducks
7.A brood of chicks
8.A cast of hawks
9.A cete of badgers
10.A charm of goldfinches
11.A cloud of gnats
12.A clowder of cats
13.A clutch of chicks
14.A clutter of cats
15.A colony of ants
16.A congregation of plovers
17.A covey of quail, partridge
18.A crash of rhinoceri
19.A cry of hounds
20.A down of hares
21.A drift of swine
22.A drove of cattle, sheep
23.An exaltation of larks
24.A flight of birds
25.A flock of sheep, geese
26.A gaggle of geese
27.A gam of whales
28.A gang of elks
29.A grist of bees
30.A herd of elephants
31.A horde of gnats
32.A husk of hares
33.A kindle of kittens
34.A knot of toads
35.A labor of moles
36.A leap of leopards
37.A leash of greyhounds, foxes
38.A litter of pigs
39.A mob of kangaroos
40.A murder of crows
41.A muster of peacocks
42.A mute of hounds
43.A nest of vipers
44.A nide of pheasants
45.A pack of hounds, wolves
46.A paddling of ducks
47.A pair of horses
48.A parliament of owls
49.A peep of chickens
50.A pod of whales, seals
51.A pride of lions
52.A rag of colts
53.A rafter of turkeys
54.A school of fish
55.A siege of cranes, herons
56.A shrewdness of apes
57.A shoal of fish
58.A skein of geese
59.A skulk of foxes
60.A sleuth of bears
61.A smack of jellyfish
62.A sounder of boars, swine
63.A span of mules
64.A spring of teals
65.A swarm of bees
66.A team of ducks
67.A trip of goats
68.A troop of kangaroos, monkeys
69.A volery of birds
70.A watch of nightengales
71.A wing of plovers
72.A yoke of oxen

also http://www.hintsandthings.co.uk/kennel/collectives.htm

Subject: RE: Help: Names of Animal Groups
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 10:18 AM

A moron of mudcats.

Subject: RE: Help: Names of Animal Groups
From: Naemanson
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 10:27 AM

I think it's a chorus of mudcats.

And how about a gulp of swallows?

Subject: RE: Help: Names of Animal Groups
From: Mrrzy
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 10:31 AM

Are we having thread creep? I thought the question was for ACTUAL terms (albeit archaic). If we want to invent some, great, and I'd suggest a purr of mudcatters.

Subject: RE: Help: Names of Animal Groups
From: Jacob B
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 11:26 AM

We've got actors at Mudcat. The term for a group of actors is a cry of players.

The term can also be used, most appropriately, for a group of singer-songwriters who sing about their distressing emotional problems.

Subject: RE: Help: Names of Animal Groups
From: SINSULL
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 11:33 AM

tintinnabulation of banjos. (Courtesy of Edgar A. Poe)

Subject: RE: Help: Names of Animal Groups
From: Mbo
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 12:13 PM

A boing of banjos.
A puddle of Mudcatters
A frenzy of parking lot sharks

--M

Subject: RE: Help: Names of Animal Groups
From: Bert
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 12:17 PM

a clutch of eggs.
a shortage of cash
a medley of Mudcatters
a surplus of Spaws
a round of drinks
and shouldn't it be a 'pluck' of banjos

Subject: RE: Help: Names of Animal Groups
From: MMario
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 12:22 PM

I always thought it was a "strum" of banjos

and isn't it a "spew of 'spaws"?

Subject: RE: Help: Names of Animal Groups
From: rabbitrunning
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 12:29 PM

You might check your local library for a book called "An Exaltation of Larks" by James Lipton. There was a 1968 edition, and I believe a revision or update in the early 1990's. Probably the most complete book I've seen on the topic.

Subject: RE: Help: Names of Animal Groups
From: Davey
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 01:04 PM

Wonderful list, and thanks to MMario for the link to the Animal Collective site.

Looks like I'll have plenty of material for the song I'm working on.

I expected some made-up names from such a wonderfully wacky group of people, and I've come up with a couple as well.
A tardiness of turtles
An odor of skunks
A strum of guitars
A spew of spaws
A wallow of mudcats

And the list goes on, and on, and on..*BG*

Davey... (:>)

Subject: RE: Help: Names of Animal Groups
From: MMario
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 01:07 PM

check around, you will also find there are lists of incredible names for various offspring/young of animals, likewise the process of carving at table had (during the medieval days) a different name for different beasts

Subject: RE: Help: Names of Animal Groups
From: GUEST,Animaterra-at-work
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 01:24 PM

Bruce Coville, a wonderful children's fantasy writer, coined "a glory of unicorns".

Subject: RE: Help: Names of Animal Groups
From: SINSULL
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 01:53 PM

A Surplus Of Spaws??? How about a "Surplice of Praise"s"? A little theological humor.

Subject: RE: Help: Names of Animal Groups
From: Mrrzy
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 01:56 PM

Good one, Sinsull! I bet she even has one!

Subject: RE: Help: Names of Animal Groups
From: MMario
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 02:00 PM

a truculence of trolls? (no offense meant ol' troll)

a mercy of medics

and any9one visiting a college campus after a weekend has seen a stagger of students

Subject: RE: Help: Names of Animal Groups
From: Hollowfox
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 03:04 PM

Whoa, rabbitrunning, you're good! I started reading the thread (here at work, in the library), looked up Exaltation of Larks to pass it on to Davey, and you already had it in the thread. Good job! BTW, I had a teacher once who coined the term "dilation of pupils". *BG*

Subject: RE: Help: Names of Animal Groups
From: Bert
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 03:12 PM

A Somnority of Students.

Subject: RE: Help: Names of Animal Groups
From: hesperis
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 03:15 PM

An unkindness of Ravens?!!

It better not be that!

Ravens aren't unkind, just a leetle self-absorbed sometimes...

(One of my middle names is Raven.)

Subject: RE: Help: Names of Animal Groups
From: hesperis
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 03:49 PM

One source says
"a terror of Ravens"
but I don't know where they got it from.

It's more appropriate, at least!

Raven The Northern Bird of Paradox

~*sirepseh*~
(Not that anybody's terrified of ME! *g*)

Subject: RE: Help: Names of Animal Groups
From: Bradypus
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 07:22 PM

My favourite collective noun hasn't been mentioned yet ... A singularity of boar.

Bradypus

Subject: RE: Help: Names of Animal Groups
From: Ebbie
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 08:25 PM

I'd say a 'knowing of ravens'. Here in Alaska we respect our ravens.

Ebbie

Subject: RE: Help: Names of Animal Groups
From: Den
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 08:47 PM

A rash of hookers...Spaw inspired me...so blame him. Den

Subject: RE: Help: Names of Animal Groups
From: Little Hawk
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 08:49 PM

A pounce of wild alligator!

Straight from the pages of Walt Kelly...refers to one lively alligator named Albert.

Subject: RE: Help: Names of Animal Groups
From: Little Hawk
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 08:51 PM

Oh, yeah, and "a gollum of guests". Ha! Preciousssss...where is my preciousssssss...?

Subject: RE: Help: Names of Animal Groups
From: Mbo
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 09:37 PM

Mario, if you also get to campus in the early morning, you may see even more of a stagger of students!

--M

Subject: RE: Help: Names of Animal Groups
From: rabbitrunning
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 11:42 PM

I'm a children's librarian, so I get this question A LOT from small people with trivia papers clutched in their grubby mitts.

A favorite of mine was always a "yawn of sleepyheads."

Subject: RE: Help: Names of Animal Groups
From: GUEST,Rich(stupidbodhranplayerwhodoesn'tknowbetter
Date: 02 Sep 00 - 12:31 AM

I think the guest who threw in the MORON of Mudcats was a real thread creep!

Subject: RE: Help: Names of Animal Groups
From: hesperis
Date: 02 Sep 00 - 03:08 PM

A *knowing* of Ravens! Thanks Ebbie, that's much better.
*Caw*

Subject: RE: Help: Names of Animal Groups
From: Hollowfox
Date: 05 Sep 00 - 01:17 PM

rabbitrunning - another folkie librarian! I shouldda known. I wonder how many other 'Catters are librarians?

Subject: RE: Help: Names of Animal Groups
From: Hollowfox
Date: 05 Sep 00 - 01:17 PM

rabbitrunning - another folkie librarian! I shouldda known. I wonder how many other 'Catters are librarians?

Subject: RE: Help: Names of Animal Groups
From: GUEST,Michael in Swansea
Date: 06 Sep 00 - 04:43 AM

My 38 year old copy of The New First Aid In English lists, which no-one's mentioned yet:
A barren of mules
A plague of locusts
A shoal of herring
A seige of herons
A wisp of snipe

M

Subject: RE: Help: Names of Animal Groups
From: raredance
Date: 06 Sep 00 - 07:52 AM

A parsimony of prosimians?

Subject: RE: Help: Names of Animal Groups
From: okthen
Date: 06 Sep 00 - 12:50 PM

a conspiracy of politicians ? (heaven forfend)