Sunday, October 11, 2009

A Vulgarity of Starlings?


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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