Skins, wedgies, goggles of geese
May. 31st, 2006 02:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jackI could never remember what the third collective terms for geese was (regardless of which two I thought of first), but looking it up we find:
Gaggle: on water
Flock: on land
Skein: when flying
Chevron: In V formation
But while some people draw these distinctions some people don't. I don't know if they're particularly used by people who talk about geese, or historically, or were just decided by someone who wrote an influential book. Everyone agrees about flying, it's flock and gaggle which get switched in most places.
OTOH, I came across http://www.birdnature.com/groupnames.html. Regardless of how many are really used, *all* the names are beautiful. Picked completely at random:
cauldron of raptors
charm of finches
company of parrots
convocation of eagles
exaltation of larks
raft of ducks
paddling of ducks
I want to be a bird now!
In other news, Dovescape is really cool. This is a magic card that turns any non-summoning spell into doves. How do you come up with that[1]? You'd never think of it, but it's so RIGHT. Can't you just imagine the magician casting, the lights and sounds going off, and then fwoom! A room full of doves in proportion to how powerful the spell was? This is how to make good rules (consider a magic card somewhere between a fluxx card and a penultima rule) -- you never think of it, but go "Ooh!" as soon as you see, and don't have to strain your brian to work out what it's going to do.
[1] Horses mouth
Gaggle: on water
Flock: on land
Skein: when flying
Chevron: In V formation
But while some people draw these distinctions some people don't. I don't know if they're particularly used by people who talk about geese, or historically, or were just decided by someone who wrote an influential book. Everyone agrees about flying, it's flock and gaggle which get switched in most places.
OTOH, I came across http://www.birdnature.com/groupnames.html. Regardless of how many are really used, *all* the names are beautiful. Picked completely at random:
cauldron of raptors
charm of finches
company of parrots
convocation of eagles
exaltation of larks
raft of ducks
paddling of ducks
I want to be a bird now!
In other news, Dovescape is really cool. This is a magic card that turns any non-summoning spell into doves. How do you come up with that[1]? You'd never think of it, but it's so RIGHT. Can't you just imagine the magician casting, the lights and sounds going off, and then fwoom! A room full of doves in proportion to how powerful the spell was? This is how to make good rules (consider a magic card somewhere between a fluxx card and a penultima rule) -- you never think of it, but go "Ooh!" as soon as you see, and don't have to strain your brian to work out what it's going to do.
[1] Horses mouth
no subject
Date: 2006-05-31 07:30 am (UTC)exaltation of larks
Those two at least I know, and have probably used at some point.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-31 10:13 am (UTC)[1] And, ok, vice versa.