re:swoops of martins

["gary" <walela@sccoast.net>]

shantanu wrote (among other things:)
>a parliament of owls (stemming, I guess, from the image of the wise owl)<

uhhh, i believe that's a rip-off of ol' Geoff Chaucer's phrase "a parliament
of fowles" from Canterbury Tales (my alma mater's mascot name was purloined
from that work as well.)

how many crows in a murder, anyway? or geese in a gaggle? more or less than
in a mess or a bunch or a slew?

;-)




Subject: swoops of martins
From: Shantanu Phukan <phukan AT email.unc.edu>
Date: Thu, 13 Mar 2003 21:38:01 -0500 (EST)

Today while looking for the Red Necked Grebe on Jordan lake (in vain, I
might add) I saw a small swoop of purple martins on Martha's Chapel Road.
I had passed by two days ago and checked the martin houses on this stretch
but not seen any. So, they must've just arrived.

Also in evidence were several murders of fish crows cawing hoarsely.

Yes, I am trying very hard to show off my newly acquired vocabulary. I
recently picked up a book on Collective nouns and discovered to my delight
that flocks of crows are called murders (as lions have prides). Some
others for you r delight are:

a mutation of thrushes
a shimmer of Hummingbirds (and we can all attest to this)
a parliament of owls (stemming, I guess, from the image of the wise owl)
a squabble of seagulls (that they should be dignified at all with a
special collective noun!)
a rafter of turkeys
an exaltation of larks (this was also the name of the book)
a scold or a party of jays (I prefer the former)
a walk of snipe
a seige of herons
a gulp of cormorants
an ostentation of peacocks (how apposite if you've ever seen em display)
a congregation of plovers
a sorde of mallards (only, apparently, if they are on the wing)

a descent of woodpeckers (this is a mystery to me, it makes no logical
sense)

and perhaps the most lyrical of all (though not in real life perhaps) was
A MURMURATION of Starlings

I thought this was neat and that others might enjoy this. It certainly
increased my vocablulary in one fell swoop.

So, yes Lake Jordan had swoops of martins and murders of crows.


Shantanu Phukan

*****************************************************
SHANTANU PHUKAN
Lecturer in Urdu-Hindi & Indian Literature
University of N. Carolina, Chapel Hill
Curriculum in Asian Studies
Alumni Hall 413C
Chapel Hill, N.C. 27599

phukan AT email.unc.edu
919-962-6825
*****************************************************


gary phillips
conway, sc
sunset zone 31

"...where is the person, I ask, who, on observing this glittering fragment
of the rainbow, would not pause, admire, and turn his mind with
reverence..." (J.J. Audubon)