John
That is not quite true.
Though most of the collective nouns are, as you say, not words that are, or
were, in actual use, but rather words that appeared in some literary work or
were invented for the purpose, there are more than the two words you
ascribe. For example, it is certainly not unheard of to talk about a covey
of quail or a raft of ducks, at least here in the States. I am sure there
are a few others.
Regards,
Eric Jeffrey
Falls Church, VA
In a message dated 2/19/2006 9:00:40 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
writes:
There
have been various threads on Birding-aus over the years about collective nouns
for groups of different types of birds, eg a 'murder' of
crows.
Birding-aus subscribers should realise that the invention of
collective nouns appropriate to different kinds of birds is simply a literary
parlour game of Victorian vintage, and does not reflect actual usage either
now, or at some time in the past.
The only collective nouns to use for
groups of birds are:
English: a flock of X
American English: a bunch
of X (or in the case of a large flock 'a whole bunch of
X')
