Adam Lusher of the London Sunday Telegraph
LONDON- A headmaster has spent four years scouring the English language to compile what is believed to be the most exhaustive list yet of collective nouns for living creatures.
Steve Palin's quest led him to explore evidence from manuscripts dating to the 15th century, delve into the publications of obscure 19th-century curates, and re-examine long-forgotten hunting books.
He uncovered the odd, like "a smuck of jellyfish", the unfamiliar, "a grist of bees," and the unintended, " a bale of turtles," originally entered into the English language because of a medieval clerk made a bad job of copying the expression "a dule of turtle doves".....
....Palin's new book, A menagerie of Animals, combined with a companion volume-A Dissimulation of Birds- list 423 ways to describe gatherings of 178 different types of animals, including fish, birds and insects....
...."Hounds have probably the most terms associated with them. There are 12,
including a 'brace' , which was first record in about 1452.
"With other words, they re just accidents. There is no rhyme or reason to them. The original terms for herons was a seige, relating to the way they stand, silently, waiting for their prey. But that was miscopied in medieval times as sedge, and now the two terms are both accepted, simply because of a mistake by some poor scribe."
Palin's research has encompassed more than six centuries, and involved scouring antiquarian bookshops for works that have long since gone......
a covey of partridge....
a singular of boars, and a cowardice of cures...
an unkindness of ravens...
...."One of my favourite terms is a richesses of martens. It shows how pine martens used to be valued for their flux, which was regarded as an alternative to sable."
Despite the apparent obscurity of his subject, Martin(??? Palin ??) is confident his book will
be a big success.
(??? Who is Martin ? Probably a misprint in the newspaper.)