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Quoting David & Alison Webster <dwebster@glinx.com>:
> When making preparations for some multi-step procedure I might
> say "We will get all of our ducks in a row today and then start the
> job tomorrow". If it is raining one might observe that it is "Good
> weather for ducks". But if a quantitative estimate or qualitative
> measure were involved I might use the singular; 12 duck, few
> Mallard. And Snipe always singular; perhaps.
* the convention I was taught in ichthyology was that "fish" was the
plural of individual fish of one or unspecified species, but "fishes"
was the plural of species of fish. Thus: "He collected a whole lot of
fish in preparation for writing 'Fishes of Indiana.'"
fred.
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Frederick W. Schueler & Aleta Karstad
Daily Paintings - http://karstaddailypaintings.blogspot.com/
Vulnerable Watersheds - http://vulnerablewaters.blogspot.ca/
study our books - http://pinicola.ca/books/index.htm
RR#2 Bishops Mills, Ontario, Canada K0G 1T0
on the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain 44* 52'N 75* 42'W
(613)258-3107 <bckcdb at istar.ca> http://pinicola.ca/
"[The] two fundamental steps of scientific thought - the conjecture
and refutation of Popper - have little place in the usual conception
of intelligence. If something is to be dismissed as inadequate, it is
surely not Darwin [, whose] works manifest the activity of a mind
seeking for wisdom, a value which conventional philosophy has largely
abandoned." Ghiselen, 1969. Triumph of the Darwinian Method, p 237.
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