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.......Curiosity Corner ....... |
The Dragon (continued) It would be remiss of us to ignore the rain dragon in this discussion,
especially as, unlike its evil cousin, its gentle nature has earned
a reputation as kindly as that of the gryphon (or griffin). Unfortunately,
it is rarely seen, the picture on the right being owed to a description
of a sighting in the west of Scotland late on a moonlit night. The only appearance of the rain dragon in heraldry that this writer
can remember is as the dexter supporter of the arms of the late
Harry Pirie-Gordon of Buthlaw (his sinister supporter being a
waterkelpie). We have noted that the dragon is confused with the wyvern and
the gryphon (or griffin), that whereas the gryphon (or griffin)
female is often encountered, the male is not, that the rain dragon
is even more rare than the waterkelpie (we did not actually aver
that, but it is true), and that the opinicus also is uncommon. We shall leave the wyvern for a later discussion. For the present,
to assist readers to avoid problems consequent on misidentification,
here are pictures of male and female gryphons (or griffins) and
an opinicus.
In summary ~
The Dragon (first page)
The Martlet featured in Curiosity Corner ~ 1
The Gryphon (of Griffin) featured in Curiosity Corner ~ 2
The Cockatrice (and Basilisk) featured in Curiosity Corner ~ 3
The Baronage Content Page October-December 1999
© 1999 The Baronage Press and Pegasus Associates Ltd
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