Flying with falcons
For thousands of years, humans have worked to win the trust of wild birds of prey.
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Cadge: a carrier for taking hawks into the field. In the Middle Ages, a cadge was hauled by a 'cadger' or 'codger' - a term still used today. Codgers were usually older men.
Eyas: a bird taken from a nest.
Furniture: falconry equipment, including hoods, jesses, and perches.
Haggard: any wild adult bird or wild-trapped adult bird. This may be the source of the expression 'old hag.'
Hood: the leather cap that covers a bird's head. Birds are completely calm when they're in darkness.
Jesses: short leather straps attached to a bird's legs. The falconer holds the jesses to keep the bird on his hand.
Lure: a stuffed leather pouch with a bit of meat attached that is swung on a line to call a bird back to the falconer.
Mews: a flight chamber where a bird can fly loose.
Passage bird: a first-year, wild-caught bird.
stoop: a power dive by a falcon.
Tiercel: originally a term for a male peregrine, now used for most male raptors (birds of prey). Male raptors are about one-third the size of females.
Falconry has existed for several thousand years. Before firearms were invented, this was a way to catch flying birds for food. But falconry takes a lot of work, and there were easier ways to catch birds, so falconry became a sport for the rich instead. Asian falconers and their trained falcons moved westward along the Silk Road with other valued goods like salt and silk. They carried falconry into the heart of Europe.
Hawking (another word for falconry) had reached England by the 600s. The beautiful Bayeux Tapestry (woven to commemorate the Norman invasion of England in 1066) shows King Harold taking a trained falcon and hounds on his visit to William of Normandy in 1064. The language of falconry comes from Norman England. Words like eyas, lure, and mews come from Norman French. Even 'falcon' is French-based.
The earliest Western book on falconry was written in 1247 by Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, a crusader. When his book was translated into English in 1943, 'The Art of Falconry' brought the world of medieval falconry to curious Americans who took up the sport. Many of Frederick II's training techniques are the same as those used by falconers today.
During the Middle Ages, according to 'The Boke [Book] of St. Albans' (1486), a rigid social code was applied to falconry in Western Europe. Nobility of certain ranks could fly certain birds. Only kings could fly a gyrfalcon, while knights hawked with sakers. Mary, Queen of Scots, was an avid falconer and flew a merlin even while imprisoned by her cousin, Elizabeth I. Yeomen flew the goshawk or hobby, which was said to be able to 'sufficiently stock a larder.'
Most nobles didn't train their birds themselves. Instead they hired falconers, and master falconers were paid extravagant sums of money. The office of master of the mews was created for the falconer in charge of obtaining, grooming, and keeping the king's best hawks in constant readiness for hunting. Falconry terms appear in art and literature - the works of Shakespeare is filled with images drawn from falconry.
The popularity of falconry declined in the 1800s, when firearms became readily available. Nobles became more interested in 'shooting parties' than in hunting with falcons.
