Wisdom Of Wombats

I know next to nothing about wombats- but I remember Fatso The Wombat from Country Practice, the Soap from Oz, that I watched in the 1980s when I was feeding my babies! He was singular- but I recently learned that the collective noun for a group is a wisdom of wombats. A recent crossword in the Guardian featured collective nouns as its theme, and this sent me off into a bit of research. The original name was terms of venery, and it referred to animals [venery is an old word for hunting] I recognised many of these words as still in general use; a herd of cows, a swarm of bees, a flock of sheep, a pride of lions, a pod of whales, a shoal/school of fish

Others are less common, but you still hear them from time to time; a colony of beavers, a murder of crows, a gaggle of geese [on land] but a skein [in flight], a litter of kittens/puppies, a barrel of monkeys, a knot of toads, a parliament of owls, 

But some were new to me. I love these ones

• a prettying of doves
• a busyness of ferrets
• a charm of goldfinch
• a deceit of lapwings
• a congregation of plovers
• a nursery of raccoons
• an unkindness of ravens
• a tok of capercaillie
• a kettle of vultures
• a fluther of jellyfish

You can find comprehensive lists here, here and here - and some modern jokey ones here, here and here. 

Do you have any favourites - traditional, or modern - and has your family made up any of their own? 

How about a blethering of bloggers?
[blether defined here]