In Germany where the tradition is Old and strong it is called a "streckelegen".(laying out of the game)
There are several songs played on the horns. A horn blow to call the hunters together, a horn song to start the hunt, a horn song to end the hunt, a horn blow to call the hunters together again.
Then there is a song played for each species of game taken from high to low. The game is also layed out in order of heirarchy. "hochwild"- Red stag up front down through the different big game (fallow deer, sitka, boar) then to the "neiderwild" or low game which can also be descrbed as small game roe deer down through rabbits and fox. If you have a large number of animals in long lines then every 10th animal might be pulled out half a body leingth to make them easier to count.
The game is layed out with a branch in their mouth from one of the 5 primary trees of germany as their "lieser bitzen" or last bite. The fox, as a pest generally doesnt get a last bite. The game is layed on its right side so that it's heart is facing up toward heaven.
The hunters that are successful are given a "schutzen bruchen" (shooters branch) from the jagdpector either over the pector's hat or knife. I was once even given the branch over a horn. This branch is to be placed in the right side of the hunter's hat to be recognised for the evening. I have heard that if you make a bad shot or shoot the wrong animal you will be given a very large branch. If a "schweisshunde"(blood hound) is used to find the shot game then the shooter may break off a section of his branch and hand it to the owner of the dog who in turn places the branch in the dog's collar to be recognised for the night.
All fo these branches are broken, never cut. This goes with a tradition from the early days of hunting in central europe where all fo the hochwild was reserved for royalty while the pesents were limited to small game. So in order to keep their poaching of the large game secret they always broke the branches that they left as signs so that their actions were less noticable in the forest.
These lower class of hunters even came up with their own language, the Jagdspreche "hunting speach" based on the german language so that they could even talk about their hunting within earshot of others without consiquence. Example. Instead of saying "bloud" (blood) they would say "swcheiss" (sweat) so they could remain secretive. A boar's ears were reffered to as plates and so on.
On social hunts like the ones you mention generally the beaters(people pushing game with the dogs) don't usually have to pay for their food as the Jagdpector(hunt owner) will either pay for it or the hunters will pool together money in a hat to pay for it. A good hot meal and a beer is almost garanteed after a hunt like this and is really the prime time of the day when you get to sit around and hear some of the greatest stories.
It really is an amazing culture.
