The Cockney in the country is perplexed by the countryman's names for
birds and beasts; especially by names denoting gender. The countryman
seems to the townsman to be particular in drawing his distinctions,
and his precise way of referring to an ox or a steer, a bull-calf or a
heifer, is found very puzzling, particularly to ladies--who hold all
cows to be bulls. And when the countryman speaks of a wether-sheep,
a barrow-hog, of a hummel-stag, he is speaking in mysteries. Even
the terms of the poultry-yard--cock, cockerel, pullet, fowl, hen, or
capon--are not always understood.
Custom grants some creatures only one sex. A cat is usually a she, and
a hare nearly always. To be precise, as to hares, one should refer
to the male as a jack and a female as a jill, the terms buck and doe
being more properly applied to rabbits and to fallow deer; red deer
are distinguished by the terms stag and hind. Ferrets in some parts
are known as hobbs and gills. Rats, like badgers and hedgehogs, may
be boars and sows. The males of otters, stoats, weasels and foxes are
dogs, but only the female fox is a vixen. Rams are sometimes "tups."
The terms bulls and cows are applied to many kinds of animals, such as
elands, moose, whales, elephants, and the seals; but the young seals
are pups, and gather in rookeries. The terms for birds offer some
difficulties; all common wild duck are mallards, to distinguish them
from widgeon, teal and so on; but while the male may be called either
the mallard or the drake, the female is always a duck. Grouse are cock
and hen; blackcock, blackcock and greyhen; and all woodcock are 'cock.
No less confusing to the Cockney in the country are the terms
for quantities of game. He speaks of a "brace of rabbits," and
the gamekeeper's eyebrows rise at the term. Two rabbits are a
"couple"--when they are not a pair. Two pheasants, two partridges,
or two grouse are a "brace," three forming a "brace and a half" or
a "leash"; but we speak of a "couple" of woodcock, snipe, duck, or
pigeons.
When the gamekeeper speaks of "pairs" of birds he is referring to
birds that have paired; but a cock and a hen pheasant remain a cock
and a hen. Some confusion arises from the terms applied to gatherings
of birds or beasts. Young families of birds are usually "broods," and
families of animals "litters." One speaks of a brood (or pack) of
grouse, a covey (or pack) of partridges, a bevy of quail, a nid of
pheasants (meaning a young family), a wing of plover, a wisp of snipe,
a team of duck, a company of widgeon, a flock of sparrows, rooks, or
pigeons, a skein or gaggle of geese, a herd of swans or deer, and a
sounder of wild pigs. The gamekeeper knows better than any one else
just what is meant by a litter of cubs. There is a distinction between
a big "rise" of pheasants and a good "flush." If a thousand pheasants
fly up at the same time it is a big rise, but not a good one, because
few can be shot. A good flush does not mean necessarily that there are
many birds, but that they rose, or were flushed, so that most of them
offered shots--a few at a time.
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