Marvellous letter in the Guardian last week:
The Somerset starlings were amazing, but the caption a little confusing (Eyewitness, 14 February). It's not that "Flocks such as these are known as murmurations", as you had it, but that the collective term for starlings is a murmuration. These terms were compiled in The Book of St Albans, published in 1486. Here you find not only the terms we still use, eg a bevy of beauties and a pride of lions, but those that have fallen out of common use, eg a crash of rhinoceroses and an exaltation of larks. This last gave the title for James Lipton's book on the subject. One of the many terms Lipton coined in his book was "a slant of journalists".
Richard Humm, London
"An exaltation of larks" and "a murmuration of starlings" are, hopefully, memorable. But I don't think I shall forget "a slant of journalists".
What, though, should one call a group of middle-aged gits chattering about literature, politics and the meaning of life?
A gaggle of geezers, perhaps?
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