A hawk hunts a flock of panicked starlings.
What, exactly, do we call the massive flocks of starlings we see so often this time of year?
Surely such a thing already has a poetic phrase attached to it? After, all almost every group of animals does:
- It's a paddle of ducks and a flock of seagulls.
- It's a skulk of foxes and a cry of hounds.
- It's a lamentation of swans and a charm of hummingbirds.
- It's an unkindness of ravens and a murder of crows.
- It's a mob of kangaroos and a pride of lions.
- It's a school of fish and a pod of whales.
- It's an aerie of eagles and a wake of buzzards.
- It's a flight of cormorants and a mob of emus.
- It's a mischief of rats and a clutter of cats.
- It's a charm of finches and a hedge of herons.
- It's a husk of hares and a trip of goats.
- It's a band of gorillas and a troop of monkeys.
- It's a deceit of lapwings and an ascension of meadow larks.
- It's a burden of mules and a drove of ox.
- It's a descent of woodpeckers and a kettle of hawks.
- It's an ambush of tigers and a gang of weasels.
- It's a bale of turtles and a knot of toads.
- It's a dray of squirrels and a surfeit of skunks.
- It's a business of ferrets and an array of hedgehogs.
- It's a rookery of albatrosses and a tiding of magpies.
- It's a coalition of cheetahs and a leap of leopards.
- It's a route of coyotes and a packs of wolves.
- It's a cast of merlins and a scold of blue jays.
- It's a ridicule of mockingbirds and an ostentation of peacocks.
- It's a labor of moles and a richness of martens.
- It's a raft of pelicans and a covey of pheasants.
- It's a bloat of hippopotamus a crash of rhinoceros.
- It's a cackle of hyenas and a shiver of sharks.
- It's a flight of pigeons and a wing of plovers.
- It's a clan of badgers and a nursery of raccoons.
- It's a cloud of flies and a swarm of bees.
- It's a circus of puffins and a flush of quail.
- It's a regiment of flamingos and a huddle of penguins.
- It's a sounder of boar and an army of frogs.
- It's a congregation of plovers and a walk of snipes.
- It's an intrusion of cockroaches and smack of jellyfish.
- It's a piteousness of doves and an exaltation of larks.
So what is a huge group of Starlings called?
I would propose a vulgarity of starlings -- a term lifted wholecloth from their Latin name -- Sturnus vulgaris.
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4 comments:
Nice one! A very useful list.
If i could add two more
A business of Ferrets
and
A wunch of bankers ;-)
Cheers
SBW
Just name a bunch of Shakespearean nerds for introducing the vulgarities of starlings to this country!
FWIW- coming up with collective terms like this is the subject of a wonderful book called "An Exhaltation of Larks" by James Lipton, who is otherwise and probably better known as the host of "Inside the Actor's Studio".
I've heard it called a murmuration of starlings.
http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/about/faqs/animals/names.htm
However, I think a vulgarity is a much better term, at least in North America and other places where it is invasive.
Great news about the Michigan cougar(s)!
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