Sir, – Siobhán Dowling, press officer for the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Letters, July 23rd), is of course right to highlight the risks of avian flu, etc, associated with the keeping of hens and chickens. However, I would quibble at a description of one or two chickens as a flock. Chickens collectively are a clutch, brood or peep. Then we have a murder of crows, a raft of ducks, a trembling of finches, a skein or gaggle of geese, a deceit of lapwings, a parliament of owls, a committee of vultures, and a rafter or gang of turkeys, to name but a few. – Yours, etc,
PATRICK JUDGE,
Dún Laoghaire ,
Co Dublin.