A Murder of Crows

And Other Obscure Collective Monikers

Image by Steven Iodice from Pixabay

INTRO

I don't know about you, but I have often wondered about the odd names assigned to collections of similar animals. I knew of a school of fish, a pack of dogs, and a flock of birds, but my knowledge did not run much deeper.

So I looked into it and found a fascinating array of adjectives specifying animals of a kind grouped together. Some of these attributes make sense, others travel from other languages, and a handful come to us from the past, even antiquity, their meaning lost.

I divided the list into three groups and added my commentary in square bracketed cursive:

1. Those that fly
2. Those that swim, and
3. Those that walk, crawl, or slither.

FLYERS

• Crows — a murder, mob [often associated with the arrival of death]
• Doves — a flock, dule [dule from French~mourn]
• Albatross — flock, rookery, gam, weight [largest seabird, can live to 70 years or more and pares with one partner for life]
• Ducks — a brace, paddling, team
• Finches — a charm
• Bats — a colony, cloud, cauldron
• Butterfly — a flight…