James Lipton wrote a book on terms of venery called "An Exaltation of Larks" that contains a bunch of these types of collective nouns. There's even a section of terms of venery that he created. An interesting read for sure!
We must bring our brethren and sisteren up to speed. (I know that that is not a word, but it is very cromulent to the point at hand.)
https://www.amazon.com/Exaltation-Larks-Ultimate-James-Lipton/dp/0140170960
An "exaltation of larks"? Yes! And a "leap of leopards," a "parliament of owls," an "ostentation of peacocks," a "smack of jellyfish," and a "murder of crows"! For those who have ever wondered if the familiar "pride of lions" and "gaggle of geese" were only the tip of a linguistic iceberg, James Lipton has provided the definitive answer: here are hundreds of equally pithy, and often poetic, terms unearthed by Mr. Lipton in the Books of Venery that were the constant study of anyone who aspired to the title of gentleman in the fifteenth century. When Mr. Lipton's painstaking research revealed that five hundred years ago the terms of venery had already been turned into the Game of Venery, he embarked on an odyssey that has given us a "slouch of models," a "shrivel of critics," an "unction of undertakers," a "blur of Impressionists," a "score of bachelors," and a "pocket of quarterbacks." This ultimate edition of An Exaltation of Larks is Mr. Lipton's brilliant answer to the assault on language and literacy in the last decades of the twentieth century. In it you will find more than 1,100 resurrected or newly minted contributions to that most endangered of all species, our language, in a setting of 250 witty, beautiful, and remarkably apt engravings.
Fun fact: James Lipton from "The Actors Studio" wrote a book about these kinds of group terms.
> An "exaltation of larks"? Yes! And a "leap of leopards," a "parliament of owls," an "ostentation of peacocks," a "smack of jellyfish," and a "murder of crows"! For those who have ever wondered if the familiar "pride of lions" and "gaggle of geese" were only the tip of a linguistic iceberg, James Lipton has provided the definitive answer: here are hundreds of equally pithy, and often poetic, terms unearthed by Mr. Lipton in the Books of Venery that were the constant study of anyone who aspired to the title of gentleman in the fifteenth century.
An Exaltation of Larks (1993) by James Lipton is the definitive compendium of collective animal nouns.
This book represents the largest collection in print for these terms:
Damn, I left my reference book back in the US.
He also wrote An Exaltation on Larks
I hope you're referring to this book by James Lipton. I've always wanted a copy myself.
James Lipton (yeah, the warden of Orange Country Prison. That guy.) wrote a book about collective nouns called An Exaltation of Larks.
It includes obsolete terms as well as those that are still in use. Most are fucking dumb, but people were back then. And still are today.