The Halloween Collective

A Siege of Bitterns – could this refer to a group of Vampyrs holding captive their prey? No, of course not! It’s a group of bitterns. Fun fact – the least bittern isn’t the person whom the Vampyrs failed to get most of their red stuff from… no, its one of the smallest herons in the world. Look*:

A convocation of witches, perhaps? Actually, no, it’s a convocation of eagles. A brood, perhaps in an eyrie. Eerie, what?

A murder of crows. Sinister, with a familiar witch connection once again. Also, some cats are familiars as well, with some being angry; wild even. A destruction of cats. And what would the cats play with given half a chance? A mischief of mice.

Sometimes, I mix or merge words together accidentally, so spine-chilling becomes “chine” for some reason… you know, as in a chine of polecats. (It’s actually “chine-spilling” to give it it’s full term.)

Outside of the Mansion are the Grinds. Out to sea, you may see a grind of bottle-nosed whales. You wouldn’t see any whales in the Grinds, bottle-nosed or otherwise. Other things you wouldn’t see in the Grinds is a crash of rhinoceroses or a bloat of Hippopotami, although you may if you attend at the time of the Convocation (Gathering).

The witches also have cohorts, dark and broody. Not at all black and white, as in a cohort of zebras. These too wouldn’t be found in the Grinds, but you may be able to count your blessings if you saw their distant relations, a blessing of unicorns. They sometimes turn up around here, along with a scale of dragons. That’s what I call them anyway.

A clutter of spiders scutter across the floor. And we’re back with the witches again. In their jars in their cauldron cellars, you may see a knot of toads and a nest of vipers. Sometimes, they need these as props, as an illusion of magicians must always be prepared. And the witches? Obviously, it’s a coven, which is also the case for Vampyrs, funnily enough.

You never know… this collection of nouns may come in very useful if you find yourself caught up in a Halloween quiz somewhere. Well, stranger things have happened. You’ll thank me one day…

*Image for this post from Wikipedia.