A vocabulary of landscape — a landscape of words
1469 entries
goshawk
The goshawk is a large forest hawk built for pursuit inside cover: short broad wings, a long tail for steering, and a flight that alternates hard flapping with sudden turns through timber at speed. It hunts birds and mammals up to the size of a hare, and it is the classic bird of European falconry for anyone hunting on foot rather than from horseback.
Etymology
The name is Old English and means goose hawk, which overstates the case, since a goshawk does not habitually take geese. What it reflects is the bird’s reputation as the hawk that would take large prey. The other half of the falconer’s vocabulary is equally old: a male goshawk is a tiercel, from the French for a third, because males of most raptors are about a third smaller than females.