three specie of antelope(s) ??

both

Just as a little, additional info. I've checked the following collocations in The Kenkyusha Dictionary of English Collocations on CD-ROM. (I'd like to quote every related example in case you are interested, Maple!) (I'm not sure if we can infer that there's some rule from these expressions.)

[species of bird]

• classify a species of bir

Hi! Feathers

I'm very interested. Thank you.[D]

These examples seem to support " a species of bird" "3 speices od birds"

They do seem, but look what I've found on a BBC site:

5 species of dolphin, 3 species of whale, 4 species of turtle, 4 species of shark

WinpojThey do seem, but look what I've found on a BBC site:

5 species of dolphin, 3 species of whale, 4 species of turtle, 4 species of shark

And goolge results also support more "3 species of antelop" than "3 species of antelops".

So what's the answer? Both ok? or, say, "3 species of antelopes" is somehow "substandard" which s

Maple,

I am more comfortable with "3 species of antelop". To me, Antelop appears to be a collective noun in this context. The word "species" is a tricky word for it can behave as singular and plural noun and in this case, as "3" already suggested, it's plural. Therefore, "antelop" in my opinion is a collective noun and requires no "s". However, I could be wrong. I would like to hear oth

Hi,
Just a wild guess. The bare singular is used in species of~, customarily, in most cases, just as in kind [type] of~ ....?

(PS. As far as I know, it has little to do with the so-called genericity.)

While antelopes is accepted as a plural, my experience of the word is that people don't use that form much. At least I don't. Like deer, fish, and sheep, antelope serves as both the singular and the plural form.

Many antelope are gathering near the watering hole.

Perhaps I am influenced by a very well-known song in the U.S., "Home on

Thank you for your comments

Hello, CalifJim,

If you say that "antelope" is accepted as plural, let's look at some animals where the plural clearly differs from the singular:

turtle/turtles, lion lions, cat/cats

And now, what's correct or more common: one species of turtle/turtles (lion/lions...), three species of turtle/turtles?