The _leopard_, as an heraldric charge, has been treated with more obloquy than he deserves, from the erroneous notion that he was a bigenerous animal, bred between the lion and the female panther. The _bear_ is generally borne muzzled and 'salient,' leaping, or rather jumping, the posture of the animal most familiar to our ancestors, who greatly delighted in his uncouth dancing. The _elephant_, the _wolf_, one of the most elegant of heraldric devices, the _fox_, the _rabbit_, the _squirrel_, the _monkey_, the _beaver_, the _porcupine_, the _cat-a-mountain_, and many other wild animals borne in arms, need no comment. The _heraldric tiger_ furnishes another proof of the ignorance of our ancestors in the natural history of foreign animals. It is represented thus: [Illustration] Among the domestic animals borne in arms are the _horse_, the _ass_, the _camel_, the _bull_, the _ox_, the _greyhound_, the _talbot_ or mastiff, the _ram_, the _lamb_, the _hog_, &c. The horse, from his associations with chivalry and war, has ever been a favourite charge. The lamb, as commonly represented, with the nimbus round its head and the banner of the cross, is termed a _holy lamb_. The _alant_ or wolf-dog, an extinct species, is of rare occurrence in arms. "Abouten his char ther wenten white _alauns_, Twenty and mo as gret as any stere, To hunten at the leon or the dere." _Chaucer._ The _alant_ was the supporter of Fynes, Lord Dacre. Most of the above were probably borne emblematically, but the _stag_, _deer_, _boar_, &c., seem to be trophies of the chase, especially when their heads only occur. The heads and other parts of animals are represented either as _couped_, cut off smoothly, or _erased_, torn off as it were with violence, leaving the place of separation jagged and uneven. The boar's head may have been derived from the old custom of serving up a boar's head at the tables of feudal nobles. This practice is still observed in the hall of Queen's College, Oxford, on Christmas-day, when an antient song or carol, appropriate enough to the ceremony, though not very well befitting the time and the place, is sung. It begins thus: "The boar's head in hand bear I, Bedeck'd with bays and rosemary, And I pray you, my masters, be merry, Quot estis in convivio. =Caput apri defero Reddens laudes Domino.=" The presentation of a boar's head forms the condition of several feudal tenures in various parts of the country. As an heraldric bearing, and as a sign for inns, it is of very antient date. Of its latter application the far-famed hostelry in Eastcheap affords one among many examples; while its use in armory was familiar to the father of English poesy, who, describing the equipments of Sir Thopas, says, "His sheld was all of gold so red And therin was a _bore's hed_, A charboncle beside."