A flock of birds even a skein of geese perhaps but a cete of badgers or a grist of bees The collective nouns of animals and birds have long inspired and intrigued us. Many have their roots in medieval times in particular applied to those creatures hunted by man and subject to the etiquette of their proper group names. Author Steve Palin has beautifully illustrated and given the background to about fifty different animals and birds with interesting collective nouns and listed 420 of them in