Animal Idioms

Chimps agree: a bird in the hand Is worth two in the bush. When those possessing items of medium-high value, such as carrots, were offered high-value items, like grapes, they kept the lesser food.

The old saying goes "Birds of a feather flock together." They were definitely not talking about birds of the "Eagle" family, because the Philadelphia Eagles just released one of their own.

Forced to play a dangerous game of cat and mouse in the chaos of war, an elite Army bomb squad unit must come together in a city where everyone is a potential enemy and every object could be a deadly bomb.

Hikers are increasingly hitting the trails with devices capable of sending out distress calls, but a liability to the technology has arisen as the inexperienced tend to over rely on it, and in many cases cry wolf.

A man called on the South African Department of Home Affairs to get its ducks in a row after he discovered he was still legally married to his wife, despite the fact that he divorced her two years before.

To many, the Currituck might seem like an odd duck. Not only is it an ungainly craft, but it also flies the Army's jack. Its servile task is to take riverbottom sand from one place and move it someplace else.

As prospects become bleak for Congress's supercommittee to reduce the deficit, many now say that the spending cuts, meant to be a fail-safe, might be a paper tiger.

A small boy has fun with his grandfather. Poppa tells how, at 17, he lied about his age so that he could join the army. Looking at an old photo album, they talk about the soldier’s feelings—proud as a peacock in uniform.

Members of the Penobscot Nation learn to paddle and fish at a young age, which they take to like a duck to water. Now the removal of two dams will restore the traveling route their ancestors used to get to the ocean.

water off a duck's back
Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones described any perceived issues between him and Mick Jagger as "water off a duck's back." The band is clear-eyed and focused on the flurry of activity surrounding their 50th anniversary.