Quiz time, girls!
This is a fun one.
We’re all familiar with common collective nouns that describe groups of animals.
Examples: pride of lions, herd of horses, flock of birds.
Photo by Kumon via Wikimedia Commons
But, there are dozens more descriptors out there that most of us have never heard.
A congress of baboons?
Well, now …
if the shoe fits!
Animated image by Edward James Muggeridge via Wikimedia Commons
Seriously, though, I wonder how many of the following you can match up. I’ll list the group names first and the animals below. In some cases, you’ll find that the group name stems from a species’ behavior; in others, alliteration is at work. Of course, some seem to make no sense at all.
Photo by Steven Straiton via Wikimedia Commons
The answers are at the bottom of this post, so don’t peek until you’re sufficiently stumped!
Group Names:
- ambush
- charm
- clowder
- crash
- descent
- grist
- hurtle
- implausibility
- kine (hint: you may have seen this in a previous entry)
- knot
- memory
- mischief
- ostentation
- rabble
- shiver
- shrewdness
- sleuth
- sneak
- storytelling
- zeal
Animals:
- apes
- bears
- bees
- butterflies
- cats
- cattle
- crows (or ravens)
- elephants
- wildebeest
- hippopotami
- zebras
- woodpeckers
- weasels
- toads
- tigers
- peacocks
- sheep
- sharks
- mice
- hummingbirds
Answers:
hurtle of sheep
mischief of mice
sleuth of bears
kine of cattle
storytelling of crows
memory of elephants
shiver of sharks
implausibility of wildebeest
crash of hippopotami
zeal of zebras
shrewdness of apes
grist of bees
clowder of cats
descent of woodpeckers
sneak of weasels
knot of toads
rabble of butterflies
ambush of tigers
ostentation of peacocks
charm of hummingbirds
These are great and I have never heard the terms used before. My favorites are a sneak of weasels and a knot of toads! This was fun to try and figure out and quite interesting to learn for an early morning lesson over coffee.
Too funny! The only one I was positive about was the kine of cattle!
That’s pretty cool- I’ve never half of those before now…
I thought I had a good grasp of the English language until this quiz!
My favorite is a raft of otters. I adopt a sea otter every year to support the Marine Mammal Center in northern California.
I had never heard of most of these however, my history told me it was a “murder of crows” instead of a ‘storytelling’. I did know a congress of baboons though. As you say, If the shoe fits.
I give ! And I thought I was smart. Haha thanks for making me more humble. Grr, it hurts to say it.
I never would have figured this one out. Thanks for increasing our knowledge!