(urth) Chrasmologic

[Son of Witz]

On Jan 7, 2009, at 5:40 PM, Matthew Keeley wrote:

> On Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 8:15 PM, Son of Witz <sonofwitz at butcherbaker.org 
> > wrote:
>
>> Alamo Square?  I wish that was the park I lived by. I like it over  
>> there by
>> the Painted Ladies.  I'm next to John McClaren, the huge, forgotten  
>> ghost
>> town of a park, no one there but joggers, dog walkers, and ghosts.   
>> But SF
>> has seen the Raven population more or less dominate the crows which  
>> used to
>> be more prevalent.  They're as big as cats. I remember a story  
>> about 10
>> years ago where a woman walking her little dog to Ocean Beach had a  
>> murder
>> of ravens attack her dog to death while crossing the dunes.  If I  
>> remember
>> right they actually lifted it off the ground.  (wait, wikiP says  
>> it's "an
>> unkindness of Ravens".   an "unkindness" ?  sounds way too polite.)
>>
>> ~witz
>
> I believe it's an unkindness of ravens and a murder of crows. I don't
> know if there's any special name for a group of choughs.
>
> -Matt

now you done made me look it up.
"A clattering of choughs"
"Clattering" is much better than "unkindness", IMHO.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_collective_nouns_for_birds

~witz