A Voyage Through Venery

a herd of horses (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

To people who ask, “What is a group of [insert animals/occupations here] called?”, terms of venery are the collective nouns used to describe a grouping of like items.

While I am familiar with a pride of lions, a murder of crows, a herd of horses, a host of angels, a nest of vipers, a quiver of arrows, and a gaggle of geese, there are more that I was not familiar with, and are apropos or simply curious (understanding the etymology would be very helpful!) Here are a few of my favourites.

Mountain Fire

Here’s one of the Pieris Japonica (aka Japanese Andromeda) shrubs, photographed during a sunny day during the first week of April.  Its other alias of Mountain Fire is well earned.