In the "Boke of St. Albans" we read of the vauntlay, relay, and allay. The first was the name given to hounds if they were uncoupled and thrown off between the pack and the beast pursued, the relay were the hounds uncoupled after the hounds already hunting had passed by; the allay is held:
"Till all the houndes that be behynd be cum therto
Than let thyn houndes all to geder goo
That is called an allay."
Instructions concerning when relays should be given always warn the berner not to let slip the couples till some of the surest hounds have passed on the scent, and till he be sure that the stag they are hunting is the right one and not a substitute, i.e. one frightened and put up by the hunted stag. The "Master of Game" is careful also to say: "Take care that thou vauntlay not" (p. 169).
The discontinuing of relays seemed to have been begun first in Normandy and probably about the same time in England.
In France the three relays of greyhounds which were used were called Levriers d'estric—i.e. those which were first let slip; levriers de flanc, those that attacked from the side; and levriers de tête, those that bar the passage in front of the game or head it, terms that correspond with our vauntlay, allay, and relay. In the "Master of Game's" chapter on the wolf these relays of greyhounds are indicated (p. 59).
The "Master of Game's" statement on p. 74 that no other wild beast in England is called ryott save the coney only has called forth many suggestions as to the origin of this name being applied to the rabbit, and the connection between riot, a noise or brawl, and the rabbit. The word riot is represented in M. E. and O. F. by riote, in Prov. riota, Ital. riotta, and in all these languages it had the same signification, i.e. a brawl, a dispute, an uproar, a quarrel (Skeat).
Diez conjectures the F. riote to stand for rivote, and refers to O. H. G. riben, G. reiben, to grate, to rub (orig. perhaps to rive, to rend). From German, sich an einem reiben, to mock, to attack, to provoke one; lit. to rub oneself against one.
Rabbit, which is in O. Dutch robbe, has probably the same origin from reiben.
The etymology and connection, if any, between the two words rabbit and riot is difficult to determine. It is very probable that the rabbit was called riot from producing a brawling when the hounds came across one. The term "running riot" may well be derived from a hunting phrase.
The error regarding the October rut into which G. de F. and the Duke of York fell was one to which the naturalists of much later times subscribed, for it was left to Dr. Ziegler and to Dr. Bischoff, the Professor of Physiology at Heidelberg, to demonstrate in 1843 the true history of the gestation of the roe, which for more than a century had been a hotly disputed problem. On that occasion it was shown with scientific positiveness that the true rut of the roe takes place about the end of July or first week in August, and that the ovum does not reach the uterus for several months, so that the first development of the embryo does not commence before the middle of December.