ckck:

Even though I’ve long been familiar with expressions like a pack of wolves, a murder of crows and a pride of lions I never realized just how many of these there were until now. Here’s a selection, with many more at the link:

A congregation of alligators
A shrewdness of apes
A cloud of bats
A sleuth of bears
A clowder of cats
A bask of crocodiles
A badling of ducks
A convocation of eagles
A gang of elk
A leash of foxes
A tower of giraffes
An array of hedgehogs
A bloat of hippopotamuses
A cackle of hyenas
A mess of iguanas
A smack of jellyfish
A leap of leopards
A suit of mallards
A parliament of owls
A pandemonium of parrots
An unkindness of ravens
A crash of rhinoceroses
A scurry of squirrels
An ambush of tigers
A knot of toads

(They’d all be excellent band names too, so dibs on Parliament of Owls!)

A month or so ago I happened to to use the phrase “murder of crows” in re-telling of a story that involved an incident from my childhood to a group of colleagues. Needless to say there were a few interesting reactions just to that particular use of ‘collective noun’.

And yes, “Parliament of Owls” sounds like an excellent follow up band to “Department of Eagles”