The Grice family bear a wild boar, formerly called a "grice."
The Winram family bear a single ram, the Ramsays of Hitcham bear three rams on their shield.
A very pretty coat of arms belongs to the Rowes of Lamerton in Devon, "gu: three holy lambs with staff, cross and banner arg:."
Foremost amongst the beasts that have "many claws" is the lion; next to him come the tiger, leopard, bear, wolf, ranking more or less as the aristocrats amongst their kind, whilst the cat, fox, hare, etc., are placed far beneath them. Of all the animal charges, none is more popular amongst the heralds of all times and lands than the lion. Extraordinary care was taken to blazon the king of beasts befittingly. Fig. [38] has already shown you a "lion rampant," and so indispensable was this attitude considered by the early heralds to the proper representation of a lion, that if they were obliged to depict a "lion passant"—that is, "one that looked about him as he walked"—he was then blazoned as a leopard.
That is why the beasts in our national arms, although they are really lions and meant for such, are not called so, because their undignified attitude reduces them to the rank of heraldic leopards! A lion rampant—and other beasts of prey as well—is generally represented with tongue and claws of a different tincture from the rest of his person; he is then blazoned "langued and unguled," the latter term being derived from the Latin for a claw. A lion in repose is blazoned "couchant" when lying down with head erect and forepaws extended; he is "sejant"—sitting; seated with forepaws erect, he is "sejant rampant"; standing on all fours, he is "statant"—standing; standing in act to spring, he is "salient"—leaping; when his tail is forked and raised above his back, he is said to have a "queue fourchée"—literally a forked tail. (This last attitude is not often seen.) But when he is represented running across the field and looking back, then the heralds label the king of beasts "coward!"
A single lion is a very frequent charge, but two lions are rarer. The Hanmers of Flintshire, descended from Sir John Hanmer in the reign of Edward I., have two lions, and we find two lions "rampant combatant"—that is, clawing each other—"langued armed" in the Wycombe coat of arms; whilst one, Garrad of London, bears two lions "counter-rampant"—i.e., back to back, and very droll they look. Demi-lions rampant also occur in armorial bearings.
The different parts of a lion are much used; the head, either erased or couped, the face cabossed, the paws, borne either singly or in twos and threes, and lastly, we find the tail represented in various postures. The Corkes bear three lions' tails.
The tiger follows the lion and has terms of blazon peculiar to himself. Thus, the single tiger borne by Sir Robert Love is depicted as "tusked, maned and flasked." In the arms of the De Bardis family, a tigress is represented gazing into a mirror, which lies beside her on the ground. This odd charge alludes to the fable that a tigress, robbed of her whelps, may be appeased by seeing her own reflection in a glass. A tiger's head is used but seldom as a separate charge.
Apparently the bear stood higher in favour with the old heralds. The family of Fitzurse charge their shield with a single bear passant, the Barnards have a bear "rampant and muzzled," whilst the Beresfords' bear is both "muzzled and collared." The Berwycks bear a bear's head, "erased and muzzled," and three bears' heads appear in the arms of the Langham, Brock, and Pennarth families.
A wolf is borne by Sir Edward Lowe of Wilts, Sir Daniel Dun, and by the Woods of Islington. A wolf's head appears very early in armorial bearings; Hugh, surnamed Lupus, Earl of Chester and nephew of William I., used a wolf's head as his badge.