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Topic: Saint Joseph's Day

Today, Saint Joseph's Day, is the traditional day of return of the swallows to Mission San Juan Capistrano.

According to legend, the cliff swallows—or eaves swallows or mud swallows as they are also known—began building their homes at the mission after a priest noticed an angry shopkeeper knocking down the birds' mud nests from the eaves of his building.

We can't argue with legend, but we can look closely at the question of those returning swallows.

For starters, the sense of return being used here is the one synonymous with recurrence: "a regular or frequent returning to the same place or condition." Each spring, the migratory swallows fly 6,000 miles from Argentina in order to nest in the mission—the oldest building still in use in California, and located near two rivers, which provides the nesting birds with plenty of insects to eat. Seven months later, around Saint John's Day, the thousands of birds return south.

So is there a name for a flock of swallows? In fact, we found plenty, although we can't speak to the frequency with which any are used. Our research turned up sord, swoop, flight, herd, kettle, richness, and, our favorite, a gulp of swallows.

Questions or comments? Write us at wftw@aol.com Production and research support for Word for the Wise comes from Merriam-Webster, publisher of language reference books and Web sites including Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition.