And Brown, in his 'Vulgar Errours,' observes, "few eyes have escaped [that] the picture of a Mermaid, with woman's head above, and fishy extremity below, answers the shape of the antient syrens that attempted upon Ulysses." The heraldric mermaid usually holds a mirror in her right hand and a comb in her left. The existence of mermaids was religiously believed not many ages since, and many accounts of their being captured on the English coast occur in the writings of our old chroniclers, and other retailers of marvels. The specimens exhibited of late years have been pronounced ingenious combinations of the upper half of the ape with the tail of a fish. The montegre, manticora, or _man-tyger_, had the body of a lion (q. tiger?), the head of an old man, and the horns of an ox. Some heralds, by way of finish, give him dragon's feet. Butler's well-known line, "The herald's _martlet_ hath no legs," has rendered most readers aware of the singular defect of this otherwise beautiful charge. Heraldric authors differ as to the identity of this bird. Its being called in Latin blazon 'merula,' and in French 'merlotte,' the diminutive of 'merle,' has induced some to consider it a blackbird; while others, with greater plausibility, decide in favour of the common house martin, the legs of which are so short and the wings so long that when it alights upon the ground it cannot rise without great difficulty. Hence originated the mistake of pourtraying it without legs, "and for this cause," sagely observes Guillim, "it is also given for a _difference_ of younger brethren to put them in minde to trust to their wings of vertue and merit to raise themselves, and not to their legges, having but little land to put their foot on." The _opinicus_ differs slightly from the griffin, having four lion's legs instead of two, and the tail is short like that of a camel. It is used as the crest of the Barber-Chirurgeons Company. The _pegasus_ or winged-horse ranks among the chimerical figures of heraldry borrowed from classical fable, and is more frequently employed as a crest or supporter than as a charge. The _sphinx_ occurs very rarely. The _satyr_ or satyral exhibits a human face attached to the body of a lion, and has the horns and tail of an antelope. The _sagittary_ is the centaur of antiquity--half man, half horse, and is said to have been assumed as the arms of king Stephen on account of the great assistance he had received from the archers, and also because he had entered the kingdom while the sun was in the sign Sagittarius. Sir John Maundevile tells us that in Bacharie "ben many Ipotaynes, that dwellen somtyme in the watre and somtyme on the lond; and thei ben half man and half hors: and thei eten men _when they may take hem_"--an excellent _gloss_ upon Mrs. _Glass_, 'First _catch_ your hare,' &c.[134]