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 facial angle is an angle of importance in the method of skull measurement introduced by Camper, the Dutch anatomist, who sought to establish a connection between the magnitude of this angle and the intelligence of different animals and people, maintaining that it is always greater as the intellectual powers are greater. Suppose a straight line drawn at the base of the skull, from the great occipital cavity across the external orifice of the ear to the bottom of the nose, and another straight line from the bottom of the nose, or from the roots of the upper incisors, to the most prominent part of the forehead, then both lines will form an angle which will be more or less acute. In apes this angle is only from 45 to 60 degrees; in the skull of a negro, about 70 degrees; in a European, from 75 degrees to 85 degrees - reinforcing the ignorant racist hypothesis formerly prevalent among Europeans that Europeans are more advanced than negros. In another mode of drawing the lines the angle included between them varies in man from 90 degrees to 120 degrees, and is more capable of comparison among vertebrate animals than the angle of Camper. This angle though of some importance in the comparison of races, has no relationship to the intellectual ability of the individual. Research Facial Angle
Piltdown Man (Eoanthropus dawsoni) was a proposed series of extinct hominid, providing the 'missing link' in the evolutionary chain between apes and modern man. The remains were 'discovered' by Charles Dawson between 1910 and 1912 and taken to the British museum. In 1953 it was discovered that the fossils had been faked, the jaw bone discovered being that of a modern ape which had been stained to appear to be a fossil, and in 2003 it was discovered that Charles Dawson was the perpetrator of the fraud - other 'fossils' which he had stained with intent to deceive having been discovered - which he did for financial benefit, and to progress his career so that he might join the Royal Society. Research Piltdown Man
Apes (Pongidae) are a group of primates closely related to humans, characterised by the absence of a tail and cheek-pouches. As late as 1900 apes were widely considered to be tail-less monkeys. Research Apes
Bimana was a term for animals having two hands. The term was applied by Cuvier to the highest order of Mammalia, which in the late 19th and earliest 20th centuries man was considered the type and solegenus. By 1906 some naturalists had started to classify man as a sub-division of the order Primates, which includes also the apes, monkeys, and lemurs, and the term bimana was passing out of use. Research Bimana
The gorilla (Troglodytes Gorilla) is the largest anthropoid ape attaining a height of about 5.5 feet and is found in west Africa. Although a gentle and vegetarian animal, myths prevailed from the mid- 19th century until the mid-20th century of it attacking and eating the natives.
The erect position is more readily assumed by the gorilla than by most of the other anthropoid apes, owing to the shape of the sole of the foot, which is not inverted, and is shorter and broader;
but the ordinary gait is on all-fours. It has a ferocious-looking cast of features, due to the prognathism of the jaws, the extremely prominent supra-orbital ridges, and retreating forehead. Gorillas make a sleeping-place somewhat like a hammock, connecting the branches of a tree by means of the long, tough, slender stems of climbing plants, and lining it with dried fronds of palms or long grass. This abode is constructed at different heights from the ground, but there is never more than one such nest in a tree. The gorilla, like the chimpanzee, has thirteen ribs, whereas man and the orang have twelve. The gorilla and chimpanzee also have eight bones in the carpus or wrist, while the others have nine. The bones of the arm are much longer than in man, and the upper arm is longer than the forearm; the leg bones are shorter than in man. In the proportion of its molar teeth to the incisors and in the form of its pelvis it approaches somewhat closely the human form. The Phoenician navigator Hanno found the name in use in the 5th century BC in West Africa. Research Gorilla
Primate is the family of mammals that includes humans, apes, monkeys, lemurs bushbabies, lorises and tarsiers. Primates have complete, but unspecialised dentition. A large and complex brain. The eyes are well developed and directed forwards, with the orbit being closed behind by the union of the frontal and jugal bones. They are generally arboreal animals, with a single chamber uterus producing few offspring which require parental care for a long time after birth. Research Primate
Solly Zuckerman was a South African-born British zoologist, educationalist, and establishment figure. He was born in 1904 at Cape Town and died in 1993. He did extensive research on primates, publishing a number of books that became classics in their field, including 'The Social Life of Monkeys and Apes' published in 1932 and 'Functional Affinities of Man, Monkeys and Apes' published in 1933. He was chief scientific adviser to the British government from 1964 to 1971. He was demonstrator in anatomy at the university of Cape Town, and afterwards came to London in the 1920s and soon established himself as a leading anatomist with the Zoological Society. He joined the faculty of Oxford University in 1934 and during the Second World War, as a government scientific adviser, investigating the biological effects of bomb blasts. He was professor of anatomy at Birmingham University from 1946 to 1968, and was created a peer in 1971. As chief scientific adviser to the government during Harold Wilson's premiership, he had his own office within
the Cabinet Office, with direct access to the prime minister himself. He published his autobiography 'From Apes to Warlords' in 1978. Research Solly Zuckerman
Andie MacDowell (real name Rosalie Anderson MacDowell) is an American actress. She was born in 1958 at Gaffney, South Carolina. After leaving college in 1978 she started working as a model with the Elite Modelling Agency and then made her screen debut as Jane Parker in the 1984 'Greystoke: the Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes'. Research Andie MacDowell
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Collective Noun
