Merriweather Post Pavilion: Solution

By Tom Lamar

Answer: CROW

This puzzle is about collective nouns for animals. This is suggested by the title, which is an album by Animal Collective. For each kind of animal pictured in the pavilion, one image has an enumeration underneath it to disambiguate animals with multiple collective nouns. The number of pictures of each animal is an index into the collective noun. The letters are then ordered based on numbers on the backs of some of the pictures.

O Ostentation of peacocks
N baNd of gorillas
E parliamEnt of owls
O colOny of bats
F Flamboyance of flamingoes
A drAy of squirrels
M Mess of iguanas
U intrUsion of cockroaches
R arRay of hedgehogs
D panDemonium of parrots
E cEte of badgers
R scouRge of mosquitoes
F Family of otters
O cOalition of cheetahs
U troUbling of goldfish
R caRavan of camels

Indexing into the collective nouns gives ONEOFAMURDERFOUR, which clues the answer CROW (with an enumeration).

Acceptance Letter to MIT	Anger Management Book	Architect’s Compass	Bargaining Chips	Broken Twig	Burnt Sulfur Lugnut	Cardiac Devices	Denial of Service Attack Plan
Depression-Era Clothing	Domestic Avocado	Faded Sofa	Fancy Pocketwatch	Harlequin Doll	Iron Shovels	Leviticus Single	Lil’ String Bikini
Little Statue of Liberty	Lottery Numbers	Madman’s Jackal Mask	Mint-Flavored Salami	Mississippi Collectible	Nebular Gloves	Neural Blade	Officer’s Truncheons
Old Deuteronomy Sheet Music	Polyatomic Robot	Red Pinafore	Sega Genesis	Severe Beret	Shield of Judgment	Sienna Notebook	Soldierly Parasol
Sparkling Necklace	Super-Accurate Tri-Square	Tacky Jeweled Helm	Tamil Liqueur	Ultima III: Exodus	Ultrasonic Boots	Unsafe Mtorolite	Worn Loop of Gold
Printable Inventory