There was a peculiar kind of language invented by sportsmen of the middle ages, which it was necessary for them to be acquainted with, and some of the terms are still continued.
A sege of herons and of bitterns; an herd of swans, of cranes, and of curlews; a dopping of sheldrakes; a spring of teals; a covert of coots; a gaggle of geese; a badelynge of ducks; a sord or sute of mallards; a muster of peacocks; a nye of pheasants; a bevy of quails; a covey of partridges; a congregation of plovers; a flight of doves; a dule of turkeys, a walk of snipes; a fall of woodcocks; a brood of hens; a building of rooks; a murmuration of starlings; an exaltation of larks; a flight of swallows; a host of sparrows; a watch of nightingales; and a charm of goldfinches.
When beasts went together in companies, there was said to be a pride of lions; a lepe of leopards; an herd of harts, of bucks, and of all sorts of deer; a bevy of roes; a sloth of bears; a singular of boars; a sownder of wild swine; a dryft of tame swine; a route of wolves; a harass of horses; a rag of colts; a stud of mares; a pace of asses; a baren of mules; a team of oxen; a drove of kine; a flock of sheep; a tribe of goats; a skulk of foxes; a cete of badgers; a richness of martins; a fesynes of ferrets; a huske or a down of hares; a nest of rabbits; a clowder of cats, and a kendel of young cats; a shrewdness of apes; and a labour of moles; and, when animals were retired to rest, a hart was said to be harboured, a buck lodged, a roebuck bedded, a hare formed, a rabbit set, a fox kennelled, a martin tree’d, an otter watched, a badger earthed, a boar couched: hence, to express their dislodging they say, unharbour the hart, rouse the buck, start the hare, bolt the rabbit, unkennel the fox, untree the martin, vent the otter, dig the badger, and rear the boar. Two greyhounds were called a brace; three a leash; but two spaniels or harriers were called a couple, and three, a couple and a half; there was also a mute of hounds for a number; a litter of whelps, and a cowardice of curs.—Strutt—Ascham—Daniel—Book of St. Alban’s.
Pianet, s. A bird, the lesser woodpecker; the magpie.
Pie, s. A magpie, a particoloured bird.
Birds of this kind are found in every part of the known world, from Greenland to the Cape of Good Hope; the general character of this kind is chiefly as follows:—The bill is strong, and has a slight curvature along the top of the upper mandible; the edges are thin, and sharp or cultrated; in many of the species there is a small notch near the tip; the nostrils are covered with bristles; tongue divided at the end; three toes forward, one behind, the middle toe connected to the outer as far as the first joint.—Bewick.
Piebald, a. Of various colours, diversified in colour.
Pied, a. Variegated, particoloured.
Pig, s. A young sow or boar; an oblong mass of lead or unforged iron.
This instinctive sagacity, which guides animals who have been taken from their old haunts, in making their way back to them, appears in some to whom we should have been least disposed to attribute it. I have an anecdote from a gentleman, who resided some years on an estate high up the Susquehanna, of some pigs, which, having been brought in a sack fifteen miles through an American wood, by the next morning had found their way back, from their new to their old home.—Jesse.