heraldry boputs armoires with zebra and shield

ga">Equus quagga Equus grevyi *See Equus for other species. Zebras are members of the horse family native to central and southern Africa. All have vividly contrasting black and white vertical stripes (hence the zebra crossing named after it) on the forequarters, often tending towards the horizontal at the rear of the animal. Originally, most zoologists assumed that the stripes acted as a camouflage mechanism, while others believed them to play a role in social interactions, with slight variations of the pattern allowing the animals to distinguish between individuals. A more recent theory, supported by experiment, posits that the disruptive coloration is an effective means of confusing the visual system of the blood-sucking tsetse fly. See more at Wikipedia.org...

>This article is about the defensive device. For other meanings of the word see shield (disambiguation) A shield is a protective device, meant to intercept attacks. The term often refers to a device that is held in the hand, as opposed to armour or a bullet proof vest. The oldest form of shield was a protection used to block attacks by hand weapons and missiles. Shields have varied greatly in construction over time and place. Sometimes shields were made of metal, but wood or animal hide construction was very much more common; wicker and even turtle shells have been used. Many surviving examples of metal shields are generally felt to be ceremonial rather than practical, for example the Yetholm-type shields of the bronze age or the iron age Battersea shield. See more at Wikipedia.org...

dry is the science and art of describing coats-of-arms, also referred to as armorial bearings or simply as "arms". Its origins lie in the need to distinguish participants in battles or jousts and to describe the various devices they carried or painted on their shields.In the late middle ages and renaissance, heraldry became a highly developed discipline, regulated by professional heralds, who used the language of heraldry to "blazon" a coat of arms. (Since arms are formally described by words, the painter, engraver, or stonecarver using a coat of arms in his work has considerable stylistic license.) As its use in jousts became obsolete, arms remained popular for visually identifying a person in other ways — impressed in sealing wax on official documents, engraved on a family tomb, and so forth. The descent of arms was and remains strictly regulated by inheritence; only certain actual descendents of a particular armigerous (arm-bearing) person are entitled to his arms or a differenced version of them — hence popular associations of a coat of arms with all bearers of a surname are based on a misconception. Heraldry is mostly a hobby today; but in some countries it remains regulated by heralds and the assumption of another's arms is illegal. See more at Wikipedia.org...