Falconry
Glossary
Cere – The area at the base of the bill or beak.
Clutch – A group of eggs or chicks in a nest.
DDT – dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, a colorless insecticide
widely used during the ’50s and ’60s whose side effects wreaked havoc on a
number of species, including the peregrine. Though banned in the U.S. since 1972, DDT is
still in use in South America, where many peregrines winter.
Egg tooth – A hard pointed knob on the top of the beak of an
unhatched peregrine (or other bird) used to break out of the shell.
Eyas or eyass – A young peregrine still in the nest (or a raptor
taken while still a nestling).
Falconry – The art of training falcons to capture wild game or
fowl for a human hunter. Also known as hawking.
Furniture – The equipment needed by a falconer.
Hack/hacking – Giving birds complete liberty. Falconers may
"hack" young birds during the training process so they can develop their flying
skills.
Haggard – A mature wild hawk or falcon.
Mews – Main living area for a falconer’s bird.
Passager – A raptor still in its first-year plumage.
Raptor – A bird of prey.
Scrape – A nest.
Stoop – The hunting technique in which the raptor folds its wings
and dives at its prey. Peregrines, which only hunt other birds, can reach more than 200
miles an hour.
Tiercel – Male raptor. Technically, only the female is a
"falcon."
|
