Animals and Fish

Animals are frequently seen on heraldic shields. DrawShield provides the following lifelike animals.

Animal Groups

Game Animals

antler, boar, boar's head, reindeer, reindeer head, stag, stag's head, deer, hare, hind

Livestock & Farm Animals

calf, cock, cow, goat, bull's head, hen, horse, horse's head, ox, ram, sheep

British Wildlife

Badger, badger's head, cat, dog, dog's head, fox, fox's head, greyhound, otter, mole, urcheon (hedgehog), rat, squirrel, weasel, wolf, wolf's head

Exotic Wildlife

Natural antelope, armadillo, bear, camel, elephant, kangaroo, natural leopard, leopard's head, lion, lion's head, lynx, natural tiger, mammoth, serpent, snake, turtle

The serpent is rather stylised in appearance, for a winged version use amphitere, alternatively, for a more realistic appearance use snake.

Sea and River Life

barbel, calamarie, catfish, carp, chabot, crab, natural dolphin, eel, goldfish, herring, killer whale, lobster, manatee, pike, polypus, salmon, scallop, natural sea-horse, shrimp, whale, whelk, shell (triton's trumpet), sea tortoise and there is also a generic fish. The whale can be any combination of spouting and embowed.

Animal Variations

Stances and Postures

Some animals are available in different postures, in particular the lions can be drawn in postures such as rampant, passant, cadent, couchant, courant, salient, sejeant, passant, statant, with its head guardant, reguardant and its tail fourche, nowed, saltire and possibly some others. You can specify any combination of the above and DrawShield will use the closest available, warning about anything it cannot handle.

Similarly other creatures may have different postures but at present most animals are available in a single pose. Again, warning messages will be generated if your pose cannot be shown.

Features and Modifiers

Many animals may have parts of their bodies drawn in different colours, the most common being armed, langued, hooved, legged but there may be others, again try them and see what works. There is a special term for the "comb" of cocks and hens, which is jelloped.

There are other modifiers that may also be available, for example lion's head crowned.

The Leopard

The leopard has a complex relationship with heraldry and its representation has changed over time. DrawShield implements the leopard as follows:

Leopard

This is treated as a synonym for Lion passant guardant and drawn the same way. This is also the case for lion leoparde.

Natural Leopard

(Or Spotted Leopard) is the heraldic version of the actual leopard. It may be Spotted of a different tincture, in which case it is probably best to use a construction such as a natural leopard or spotted sable

Leopard's Head

Is the heraldic version of the actual leopard's head.

Leopard (head) jessant de lys

Is the peculiar but common Heraldic charge consisting of a Leopard's Head pierced by a fleur-de-lys. The Fleur-de-lys can be a different tincture, e.g. a leopard's head gules jessant-de-lys or.