64 A GAMEKEEPER'S NOTE-BOOK 



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 eye- 

 brows 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 form- 

 ing a " brace and a half " or a " leash " ; but we 

 speak of a " couple " of woodcock, snipe, duck, or 

 pigeons. 



