By Dahlia Wyllarde
It started out as a lark, so to speak. Cousin Jack (the one who had his ancestors stolen) and I found a new young cousin, Heather, via the
Internet. 
She is related to both of us through our BYRD line. Heather thought it amusing that we had both BYRDs and ROBINS in our family
trees.
To tell the truth I had never thought much about it before — I've been tracking down these turkeys so long that I guess I don't pay any
attention to what their names might mean otherwise. However, her comment got Cousin Jack and me to comparing our charts and databases and we've discovered we have several nests of different
kinds of birds perched upon 
our branches.
In addition to a covey of New England PARTRIDGES (not in a pear tree, thank you very much), we've found a bevy of QUAILS/QUAYLEs, flushed out a
murder of CROWs, and a company of PARROTTs. We had a good laugh about these feathered finds.
Then Cousin Jack chirped, "Don't forget about the SWIFT side of the family," And I said, that's not a bird — that family name comes from an
ancestor who was fleet of foot (probably running from the law).
"Swift is also a bird," Jack cooed, "they build edible nests, 
and besides haven't you ever heard of chimney swifts?" I hadn't, but by
golly, he was right. This old lady learns something new every day in genealogy, so I added the SWIFTS to our nesters.
Then it was my turn to get Cousin Jack.
"Put the GOOSE line into our family aviary," I warbled. He started to twitter, but I pointed out that the name was an old occupational one for a breeder of geese.
And, that they had feathers (the geese, not our ancestors). So into the gaggle they went.
We have now added to our avian: A charm of FINCHes, a watch of a
NIGHTINGALEs, a muster of PEACOCKs, a bank of SWANs, a loft of PIDGEONs, a cast of FALCONs, a herd of CRANEs, plus a CARDINAL and a
WREN
I figure any day
now we're going to turn up some really funny fowls — perhaps a CUCKOO, WOODPECKER, FLYCATCHER or even a TITMOUSE.
However, I'm beginning to think I have gone into ornithology rather than genealogy.
Flocking
Together:
