Batnet

A net to put over the nests of bats. Baton, Batoon, ( bä - tong', ba-toon', n. [Fr. baton, for bast on; L. Lat. bastum; Gr. an a bastos, a stick to carry a load on, from bastazō, to carry.] A staff or truncheon; specifically, a marshal's staff of office; a badge of honor. ( Her .) A mark on an escutcheon, denoting bastardy, called also bar , bar - sinister , bend - sinister , batt on - sinister , bast on-sinister, more properly bastard - bar , and commonly, in modern Heraldry, baton - sinister . The B. is comparatively of modern invention, natural children in earlier times not having been permitted to a ume the arms, or even the names of their fathers. Sometimes a sovereign granted permi ion to a bastard to carry the bar dexter , in place of sinister. Charles VII. of France allowed John, the Bastard of Orleans, for his valor against the English, to turn his sinister traverse to the dexter, with which he and his i ue afterwards bruised the arms of Orleans, as dukes of Longueville. The same privilege was granted to James, Earl of Murray, (natural son of King James V. of Scotland,) by his sister Queen Mary, and he Fig . 313. EARL OF MURRAY'S ARMS. (With bar dexter.) thenceforth carried the Lion and tre ure of Scotland thus bruised, quartered with the feudal arms of the earldom of Murray. (See Fig . 313.) In modern practice, the baton does not touch the extremities of the shield, or of the quarter in which the paternal arms are placed, but is couped , that is, cut short at the end. - See GOBBON ATED BORDURE.