Drones, that is, as in Predator drones and targeted killing. Although my editor is likely to kill the idea, I am considering as a title for something on targeted killing, drone warfare, and covert action, “A [?] of Drones.” Where the bracket should be a newly minted collective noun – i.e., such collective nouns as a murder of crows, a pride of lions, a gaggle of geese, etc. Collective nouns, especially where one is making one up for the first time, are harder than they look. They have to be a noun that is unusual enough that it will signal to a reasonably alert reader that it is a noun being used in its collective sense, and evocative – often ironic and ideally droll – enough to signal something about the nature of the thing. Here is an excellent website with bunches of them. But these are apparently reasonably widely accepted collective nouns – here’s a set of collective nouns that might be – proposed neologisms. So, what should it be for drones? I thought about a “murmuration,” and perhaps that is best, but it is taken by swallows or some such bird. Perhaps a “consternation”? Too obscure? Suggestions, please.