Saturday, January 27, 2007

Animal Groupings

a shrewdness of apes
a colony of beavers
a bellowing of bullfinches
an army of caterpillars
a quiver of cobras
a bed of clams
a kine of cows
a cast of crabs
a drove of donkeys
a pace of asses
a cloud of grasshopers
a tower of giraffes
a cackle of hyenas
a lounge of lizards
a scourge of mosquitoes
a romp of otters
a company of parrots
a gaze of racoons
a crash of rhinoceroses
a run of salmon
a crossing of zebras

some animals depending on type can actually be re-grouped:

deer (general) herd
deer (Buck) Brace or clash
deer (Roe) a bevy

I would like to add:

A consideration of artists.

9 comments:

TheBlueMask said...

"Look! it`s a school of whales!"- Paul
"They look too old to be in school."- Ringo
"They must be in University."-George
"University of Whales."- John

a Beatles Yellow Submarine excerpt.

had to point out the obvious missing one wolfie :)

CaptainGoldStar said...

Take a second and consider the giant beaver that existed in the pleistecene era.

The Giant Beaver (Castoroides ohioensis) was a huge species of rodent, with a length up to 2.5 m (8.2 feet) and an estimated weight of 220 kg (485 lbs). It lived in North America during the Pleistocene epoch, and went extinct during the last Ice Age, 10,000 years ago. The arrival of humans in the Americas is thought to be a factor in its extinction. It was one of the abundant Pleistocene megafauna - a wide variety of very large mammals that lived during the Pleistocene.

Can you imagine the lodges they must have built?

TheBlueMask said...

back when i lived on the outskirts of the city....I saw a rat that was as big as a cat. The hump of it`s back was a foot off the ground. It had NO fear of the car we were in. We pulled up next to it, it was on a mission. It`s tail looked like a rope.
Rodents are in line with the cockroaches i`m convinced. They arre extremeley adaptable. just think of the chain they are in- bunnies, muskrats, wolverines, hamsters, otters, groundhogs, squirrels,bats,etc.

D.Macri said...

Groups of whales are called pods. Silly beatles. Have you ever heard the expression "god must have loved the beatles"? It stems from the fact that there are no other insects with so many different varieties. I learned that on my photography trip to the U of M entomology dept. where the girl showing me around had matched her nail polish with the shell of the hissing cockroach (A big friendly beatle apparently)

TheBlueMask said...

That`s what I get for being educated by the Beatles. I guess money CAN buy me love!

Lorne Roberts said...

insects are "beetles".

the group took the name "beatles" partly (i've read) in homage to the "beat" movement of kerouac, ginsberg, etc.

Lorne Roberts said...

i wonder why it's a "pod" of whales?

TheBlueMask said...

and in homage to Buddy Holly`s Crickets

J C said...

The menagerie continues to grow...