"Janet Baraclough" wrote in message
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The message
from "geoff" contains these words:

Snip

Snip . . . . . 24 magpies having a meeting . . . . . . Snip

A veritable "tittering" of magpies.

Isn't it called a parliament of magpies? :-)


I think the collective noun is usually given as 'tiding' or 'tittering',
but, as magpies make a lot of noise without influencing Government
decisions, your suggestion is probably very apt. However, 'parliament' is
already taken, as in 'a parliament of owls'.