There is a book on this subject, entitled A Crash of Rhinoceroses. Sadly, the collective nouns for birds listed below do not appear. So, once again, we venture into the spoofery. My apologies to my Nearctic and Antipodean readers: I'll get round to your avifaunas in due course, unless, inshallah, you beat me to it.
a rancour of bitterns, a sentence of blackcaps, an envy of blackcock, a corrida of bullfinches, a curse of bustards, a delight of chough, a creak of crake, a rave of cuckoos, a fringe of curlews, a wick of dippers, a nullity of ducks, a duvet of eider, a picnic of fieldfare, a zip of flycatchers, a bother of godwits, a cling of barnacles, a dodder of greylags, a shnozzle of grosbeaks, a jump of harriers, a stew of hawfinches.
2 comments:
Looking forward to your next collection of collectives. Very amusing.
And quite rightly a proud grandpa, your 3 the other side of the pond look like good company, you must miss them. I hope visits are, if not frequent, at least intensive, as ours tend to be when visiting grandparents in foreign parts.
I am right now arranging for my 6-week Christmas visit to the San Diegan tribe. It's a shame we have to enjoy our grandchildren in these intense bursts, but it's better than not seeing them at all.
Glad you like the collectives, Nea. They are just another bit of nonsense that keeps my brain from atrophying even faster!
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