The _Vair_ of commerce was formerly of three sizes, and the distinction is continued in foreign armory. The middle or ordinary {82} size is known as _Vair_; a smaller size as _Menu-vair_ (whence our word "miniver"); the largest as _Beffroi_ or _Gros vair_, a term which is used in armory when there are less than four rows. The word _Beffroi_ is evidently derived from the bell-like shape of the _vair_, the word _Beffroi_ being anciently used in the sense of the alarm-bell of a town. In French armory, _Beffroi_ should consist of three horizontal rows; _Vair_, of four; _Menu-vair_, of six. This rule is not strictly observed, but in French blazon if the rows are more than four it is usual to specify the number; thus Varroux bears: _de Vair de cinq traits_. _Menu-vair_ is still the blazon of some families; BANVILLE DE TRUTEMNE bears: _de Menu-vair de six tires_; the Barons van HOUTHEM bore: _de Menu-vair, au franc quartier de gueules chargé de trois maillets d'or_. In British armory the foregoing distinctions are unknown, and _Vair_ is only of one size, that being at the discretion of the artist. When the Vair is so arranged that in two horizontal rows taken together, either the points or the bases of two panes of the same tincture are in apposition, the fur is known as COUNTER VAIR (CONTRE VAIR) (see Fig. 39, _l_). Another variation, but an infrequent one, is termed VAIR IN PALE, known in German heraldry as _Pfahlfeh_ (_Vair appointé_ or _Vair en pal_; but if of other colours than the usual ones, _Vairé en pal_). In this all panes of the same colour are arranged in vertical, or palar, rows (Fig. 39, _m_). German heraldry apparently distinguishes between this and _Stürzpfahlfeh_, or _reversed_ vair in pale. VAIR IN BEND (or in bend-sinister) is occasionally met with in foreign coats; thus MIGNIANELLI in Italy bears: _Vairé d'or et d'azur en bande_; while _Vairé en barre_ (that is, in bend-sinister) _d'or et de sable_ is the coat of PICHON of Geneva. "Vair en pointe" is a term applied by Nisbet to an arrangement by which the azure shield pointing downwards has beneath it an argent shield pointing downwards, and _vice versâ_, by which method the resulting effect is as shown in Fig. 39, _n_. The German term for this is _Wogenfeh_, or wave vair. Fig. 39, _o_, shows a purely German variety--_Wechselfeh_, or alternate vair; and Fig. 39, _p_, which is equivalent to the English vairé of four colours, is known in German armory as _Buntfeh, i.e._ gay-coloured or checked vair.