Walking along the Oldman River in search of a good vantage point for a photo of the train bridge, I saw a bale of turtles.
Although people who keep pet turtles tend to use the collective term “herd” to refer to a group of turtles, the classic collective term is a “bale of turtles.” – Michael J. Connor in CTTC’s Turtle Trivia
But whenever I see a gaggle/herd/bale of turtles, I am reminded of the (possibly apocryphal) story about “turtles all the way down.” When there are various attributions of a familiar story, it’s time to consider that it might never have, you know, actually happened quite that neatly. But I still get a kick out of it. And out of turtles.
My mother was a great collector of collective nouns, but never a “bale” of turtles did I hear of.
Never too old to learn something new (to me)
Jim – What’s the collective noun for a collection of collective nouns, I wonder? I hadn’t ever seen/heard “bale” used in this context, either. My default is “gaggle,” so I’m glad I checked.