So you’re at a dinner party and someone says “The other night I was sitting on my deck enjoying a glass of wine when a kettle of hawks flew by.”  This handy list of the strange names we humans call groups of animal will help you form an appropriate reply, such as:  “Were they in a boil?”

Should the occasion arise, it will also help you identify that you were stung by “a smack of jellyfish”  and that your crazy aunt had a “pomp of Pekingese.”

It might also help you clean up at Trivial Pursuit some rainy weekend.  We hope you enjoy this list.

-The Nest of Toads

Alligators                   Congregation
Apes                              Troop
Bats                               Cloud
Bears                            Sloth
Beavers                       Family
Cheetahs                     Coalition
Clams                           Bed
Coyotes                       Band
Dolphins                    Pod
Elephants                  Herd
Fox                               Earth
Hawks (in flight)   Kettle
Hawks (circling)    Boil
Hedgehogs                Array
Jellyfish                     Smack
Pekingese                 Pomp
Rabbits                      Warren
Raccoons                  Gaze
Rattlesnakes           Rhumba
Starlings                   Dray
Tigers                         Ambush
Toads                          Nest
Weasels                     Gang
Zebras                        Dazzle