What do leathermen talk about when no one else is around? Group names of birds and animals, of course. Last night, we savored the whimsy of 'a parliament of owls,' a 'pride of lions,' and the like. Here's a website that indicates group names of birds: http://www.birdnature.com/groupnames.html. A 'murder of crows, a cauldron of raptors...' How cool is that? One of our number proposed group names for gay men and lesbians: a 'tool' of lesbians, and, same but different, a 'toile' of gay men. I love that.

Here's a url (http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/Trails/9971/Misc.html) that has a whole list of collective nouns. A 'sounder' of swine, a 'pitying' or turtledoves, a 'murmuration' or starlings, a 'kindle' of kittens, a 'knot' of toads, a 'leap' of leopards. Birds seem to get all the goood ones. Blame those nutty ornithologists.