EDITOTAL 



In the January number of Recreation, in our 

 enthusiasm for the natural outdoor life, we were 

 led to make some statements about domestic bees 

 and honey which seem to reflect upon the bee 

 culturist, and we want to say, right here, that there 

 is no higher and more respectable calling in the 

 outdoor life than that of the beekeeper. Also, that 

 the bees themselves will not adulterate their honey, 

 and while the taste is largely dependent upon the 

 source from which the bees derive their sweets, if 

 the honey is adulterated it is not done by the 

 producers. 



We have received numerous inquiries as to 

 proper terms to apply to groups of animals and 

 birds. It is customary now to speak of a bunch 

 of cattle, and we frequently see used a covey of 

 quail; but if we go back to the original use of this 

 word, covey is only applied to partridges. In some 

 parts of the United States the Bob White is called 

 a partridge and in other parts a quail, and I sup- 

 pose that in those parts of the country where it is 

 called a partridge it would be perfectly proper to 

 speak of a group of them as a covey, but, if we 

 call the Bob White a quail, according to Hoyle, 

 we must speak of a group of them as a bevy. 

 Bevy is frequently used for a group of young girls, 

 but this is not an Americanism, for it was used in 

 the same sense in mediaeval times in England. 



It may be best to give the old use of these words 

 as laid down in the ancient books of hunting and 

 falconry. When beasts went together in com- 

 panies a group of lions was called a pride of lions. 

 It was also a lepe of leopards. Herd is proper for 

 deer and elk of any sort, and generally used for all 

 kinds of horned beasts, but, if it is a group of does 

 of winch you are speaking, call it a bevy. They 

 also formerly spoke of a sloth of bears and a 

 singular of boars and sounder of wild swine, but 

 a crowd of domestic hogs was called a drift. 



We use the term now, pack of wolves, but the 

 old hunter called it a route of wolves. It was a 

 harass of horses, a rag of colts and a stud of mares, 

 a pace of asses, and a baren of mules; a flock of 

 sheep is the term formerly applied and still in 

 common use, but it was a tribe of goats. Very 

 properly they spoke of a skulk of foxes, a cete of 

 badgers, a richess of martins, a fesymes of ferrets. 

 Now when you want to speak of a great congre- 

 gation of jack-rabbits, call it a husk of jack-rabbits, 

 also a down of hares, a nest of cottontail. If you 

 meet a group of wildcat remember to say, " I met 

 a clowder of cats"; but if you find they are young 

 it is a kennel of young. 



Should you be traveling in the tropics you may 



meet a shrewdness of ape and on your lawn you 

 may find a labor of moles. 



Two greyhounds are called a brace, three a 

 leash; but two spaniels or harriers are called a 

 couple. A number of hounds is a mute of hounds, 

 but when you speak of common curs be sure to 

 remember and call them a cowardess of curs. 



In olden times they applied these sporting-terms 

 in derision or fun to people and spoke of a skulk 

 of friar and a skulk of thieves, an observance of 

 hermits, a lying of partners, a substitute of ser- 

 geants and what might apply to our "400" a 

 multiplying of husbands, a blast of hunters, a 

 draught of butlers, a poverty of pipers, etc. But 

 it was really mean when they spoke of a bunch of 

 wives as a gaggle of women, gaggle being the term 

 used for a bunch of geese. 



Speaking of geese reminds us that it was proper 

 to call a group of herons a sedge. This also applied 

 to bitterns, but when it came to swans it was a 

 herd; it was also a herd of cranes and of curlews, 

 and duck-hunters may take notice that when a 

 flock of shelldrakes appear they must by no means 

 call it a flock, but a dropping of shelldrakes, a 

 spring of teals, and a cover of coots, a gaggle of 

 geese, a badeling of ducks. That is, when there 

 is a group of various or unknown ducks the term 

 badeling is used, but when the mallards come 

 speak of them as a sord or sute; but if you happen 

 to be in India hunting peacocks and run across a 

 flock, by no means speak of it as a flock, but call 

 it a muster of peacocks and a nye of pheasant. At 

 home it is a congregation of plover, a flight of 

 doves, a flight of swallows, a dule of turtle dove, 

 a walk of snipe, and a fall of woodcock, but with 

 domestic fowl it is a brood of hens; a rookery of 

 crows and a building of rooks, a murmuration of 

 starlings. A flock of larks is poetically spoken of 

 as an exaltation of larks, and the sparrows very 

 properly as a host of sparrows. A watch of 

 nightingale is also significant in its meaning, and 

 a charm of goldfinches is charming. 



Now, then, we trust that the readers of Recrea- 

 tion will no longer be confused in the terms they 

 use for the different "bunches" of animals and 

 game they meet, and please do not speak of an 

 afternoon tea as a gaggle of women, or of a bunch 

 of pretty girls as a badeling of ducks. 



Let Us Be Just 



The city-bred man is likely to think of the 

 Western hunter as brutal, but the man of the wilds 

 who lives by his rifle is not "in it" as far as 

 brutality and cruelty are concerned with the city 

 sportsman. In fact, a city man and an Indian with 



