A collective noun (or collective name) is a name which denotes or represents a number of individual items. For example, a number of sheep together is known as a 'flock'. The word 'flock' is the collective noun for a number of sheep. Some items have multiple collective nouns, for example a collection of goats can be known as a 'herd', a 'tribe' or a 'trip'.
Ambush is the collective noun for a group of tigers.
Army is the collective noun for a group of frogs, ants,
Array is the collective noun for a group of hedgehogs.
Badelynge is the collective noun for a group of ducks on the ground.
Bale is the collective noun for a group of turtles.
Barren is the collective noun for a group of mules.
Basket is the collective noun for a group of plums.
Battery is the collective noun for a group of barracuda.
Bazaar is the collective noun for a group of guillemots.
Bed is the collective noun for a group of clams.
Bench is the collective noun for a group of bishops, magistrates.
Bevy is the collective noun for a group of quail, roes, swans, pheasants, ladies.
Brace is the collective noun for a group of bucks.
Brood is the collective noun for a group of chickens.
Building is the collective noun for a group of rooks.
Bunch is the collective noun for a group of grapes, flowers.
Bundle is the collective noun for a group of asparagus.
Business is the collective noun for a group of ferrets.
Caravan is the collective noun for a group of camels.
Cast is the collective noun for a group of hawks, falcons.
Cete is the collective noun for a group of badgers.
Charm is the collective noun for a group of goldfinches.
Chatter is the collective noun for a group of budgerigars.
Chattering is the collective noun for a group of choughs.
Chine is the collective noun for a group of polecats.
Clamour is the collective noun for a group of rooks.
Clous is the collective noun for a group of gnats.
Clowder is the collective noun for a group of cats.
Clump is the collective noun for a group of trees.
Cluster is the collective noun for a group of grapes, spiders.
Clutch is the collective noun for a group of eggs.
Clutter is the collective noun for a group of spiders.
Colony is the collective noun for a group of gulls, frogs, penguins, ants, beavers.
Company is the collective noun for a group of widgeon, parrots.
Congregation is the collective noun for a group of plovers.
Convocation is the collective noun for a group of eagles.
Covert is the collective noun for a group of coots.
Covey is the collective noun for a group of partridges, grouse.
Crash is the collective noun for a group of rhinoceros.
The Green Tree Boa is a species of snake of the Boagenus found in South America where it hunts by ambush, waiting in trees. The Green Tree Boa gives birth to live young, not from eggs, and grows to about 3 metres in length. Research Green Tree Boa
The Green Tree Python (Chondropython viridis) is a species of snake found in humidrain forests of New Guinea and north-eastern Australia. The Green Tree Python hunts by ambush, coiling itself around a branch in a tree while it waits for prey which includes birds and mammals. The Green Tree Python grows to about two metres in length and lays eggs, bewteen 11 and 25 at a time, which the mother incubates for about fifty days until they hatch. Research Green Tree Python
Tick is a popular name applied vaguely to a large number of genera of Arachnida allied to the mites. Most of them are temporarily parasitic on animals, whose blood they suck by means of a rostrum or beak, swelling sometimes to several times their original size. In the tropics ticks are a serious pest, as they wait in ambush in homes, under stones and in foliage, waiting for an opportunity to attach themselves to any passing mammal, including man. Ticks convey many germs of diseases, such as relapsing or tick fever and spotted fever in man, Texas or redwater fever in cattle, and piroplasmosis in horses and dogs. The brown tick causes the so-called coast fever in cattle in South Africa. Research Tick
The tiger (Panthera tigris or Felis tigris) is a large Asian wild cat. It is maneless, of tawny-yellow colour with blackish transverse stripes and a white belly. The tiger is one of the largest members of the cat family, the males exceed the females in size and measure about 180 centimetres in length from the nose to the root of the tail - which is about 90 cm in length, and stand about one metre at the shoulder. The hair is short in the Indian species, but longer and wooly in the Siberian or Manchurian variety.
Tigers were formerly dounf throughout most parts of Central and Southern Asia, from the Caucasus to the island of Sakhalien. They were found in most parts of India, but not in Sri Lanka. The fabourite habitat of a tiger is jungle and forest where it blends in with the tall standing yellow grass and is difficult to see. Tigers generally hunt at night, feeding upon cattle, deer and other mammals. Tigers generally avoid man, but having discovered that man is an easier prey than say a deer, a tiger can become a serious threat to local inhabitants.
Tigers live generally hunt alone, pairing up during the breeding season to produce and jointly rear a litter of between two and five cubs, which stay with the mother until they are mature at the age of three.
There were eight sub-species of tiger, however three became extinct during the 20th century and the Amur Tiger became severely endangered. Like some other species of cat, tigers communicate with a complex vocal language, though currently it hasn't been decoded. Tigers not only communicate with each other, but will also happily 'talk' to anyone prepared to lie down next to them. A group of tigers is known as an ambush. Research Tiger More pictures of Tiger
Hannibal or Annibal was a Carthaginian leader. He was born in 247 BC and died in 183 BC after taking poison to avoid capture by the Romans. He was the son of Hamilcar Barca, also a general and leader of the popular party amongst the Carthaginians. He was just nine years old when his father made him swear at the altar eternal hatred to the Romans. He grew up in hia father's camp in Spain, but returned to Carthage when his father fell in battle, in 229 BC.
At the age of twenty-two he returned to the army in Spain, then commanded by his brother-in-law Hasdrubal, and three years after, on the murder of Hasdrubal, received the chief command by acclamation. Hannibal now prepared to carry out his great designs against Rome.
His siege and capture of Saguntum, a city in alliance with Rome, led to a declaration of war from the Romans, who made preparations to carry on the war in Spain. But Hannibal, judging that Rome could be overthrown only in Italy, undertook his great march on Rome across the Pyrenees, the Rhone, and the Alps. He set out with 90,000 foot-soldiers, 40 elephants, and 12,000 horsemen. When he readied the northern foot of the Alps he still had 50,000 foot-soldiers, 9000 horse, and 37 elephants. When he arrived at the southern foot, after 15 days of incredible toils, his force had diminished to 20,000 foot-soldiers and 6000 horse. The point at which he crossed is generally believed to have been the Little St Bernard.
On the banks of the Ticino he first encountered a Roman army under Publius Scipio, and defeated it mainly by the superiority of his Numidian cavalry, 218 BC. Shortly after another Roman army, under Sempronius, was totally routed on the Trebia. After wintering in Cisalpine Gaul, Hannibal opened next year's campaign in 217 by defeating the Roman general Flaminius, whom he enticed into an ambush at Lake Thrasymenus. In this battle half the Roman army died, and the rest were taken prisoner.
Hannibal now marched into Apulia, spreading terror wherever he approached. Rome, in consternation, proclaimed Fabius Maximus dictator, who sagaciously resolved to hazard no more open battles, but exhaust the strength of the Carthaginians by delay. But for some time the wisdom of this policy was not understood by his countrymen, who, dissatisfied with his inactivity, appointed Minutius Felix his colleague. The result was that the latter was drawn into a battle by Hannibal, and would have died but for the aid of Fabius. After this the Roman generals avoided engagements, and Hannibal at this critical period saw his army wasting away in inactivity.
Next year, 216, however, the rashness of the new consul Terentius Varro gave Hannibal the last of his great victories. The battle was fought at Cannae, the Romans under Aemilius Paulus and Terentius Varro numbering more than 80,000 men, the Carthaginians about 50,000, and ended in a total defeat of the Romans, 40,000 or 50,000 of whom were killed and the rest scattered. Instead of marching on Rome, Hannibal now sought quarters in Capua, where luxurious living undermined the discipline and health of his troops.
The campaigns of 215, 214, and 213 were comparatively unimportant. While Hannibal was seizingTarentum in 212, Capua was invested by two Roman armies. To relieve Capua Hannibal marched on Rome, and actually appeared before its gates in 211, but the diversion remained fruitless, and Capua fell. In 207 a reinforcement tardily sent by the Carthaginians to Hannibal, under command of his brother Hasdrubal, was intercepted by the Romans and destroyed at the Metaurus. Hannibal now retired to Bruttium (the toe of Italy), where he still maintained the contest against overwhelming odds, until, in 203, he was recalled to defend his country, invaded by Scipio.
In Africa he was defeated by the Romans at Zama in 202 BC and the second Punic war ended, after a bloody contest of eighteen years, in Carthage having to accept the most humiliating conditions of peace. Hannibal now devoted himself as civil magistrate to restoring the resources of Carthage, and was working at reforms of administration and finance when the jealous Romans sent ambassadors to demand his surrender. He fled to the court of Antiochus of Syria, and offered his services for the war then commencing against the Romans. They were accepted, but Hannibal's advice for the conduct of the war was not followed, and he himself as commander of the Syrian fleet failed in an expedition against the Rhodians. In 190 BC Antiochus was forced to conclude a disgraceful peace with the Romans, one of the terms of which was that Hannibal should be delivered up. Hannibal, again obliged to flee, took refuge with Prusias, king of Bithynia, and is said to have gained several victories for Prusias against Eumenes, king of Pergamus, an ally of the Romans. But the Roman senate once more sent to demand the surrender of their inveterate enemy, and Hannibal, finding that Prusias could not protect him, took poison rather than fall into the hands of the Romans. Research Hannibal
Ambuscade describes the disposition of troops laying an ambush - that is concealing themselves and lying in wait for the enemy. A classic example of an ambuscade occurred at Sanna's Post during the Boer War in March 1900. Research Ambuscade
At Olustee, Florida on February the 20th, 1864 during the American Civil War, Seymour, commanding 45000 of Gillmore's Federal army then operating in the Department of the South, fell in with a Confederate ambush of nearly 13,000 men under Finnegan. Gillmore had ordered Seymour to give up his contemplated expedition to the Suwanee River, but the order came too late. Seymour was wholly defeated in less than half an hour, and had to retreat with great haste, leaving 1400 killed and wounded. Research Ambush At Olustee
The Battle of Ball's Bluff was an ambush by Confederate forces during the American Civil War that took place at Ball's Bluff, Virginia on October 22nd 1861 in which a force of some 1900 soldiers of General George Brinton McClellan's Army led by Colonel Devens and ColonelBaker were set upon from the cover of woods by Confederate soldiers and were completely routed or killed in hand-to-hand fighting, among the casualties being ColonelBaker. Research Battle of Ball's Bluff
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Collective Noun
