Word: goshawks
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...eagles are relatively rare, and most falconers are happy enough to fly one of the smaller hawks. In brushy or forested country, the most popular species is the goshawk, a nimble, round-winged bird that can dash and dodge past the obstacles in pursuit of its prey...
Stoop to Target. A falconer never "tosses" his peregrine, like an eagle or goshawk, directly at escaping game. The bird "waits on" aloft, circling patiently 300 ft. to 400 ft. above its master. A grouse or pheasant flushes from a meadow; a flight of ducks or geese goes past. The peregrine noses into his classic "stoop"-a dive to target so fast that a peregrine once outdove a plane whose pilot thought he would have some fun making a pass at a flock of ducks...
...cottage-or his own-he could unlimber the rules of jousting, describe the nervous systems of fish, discourse on medieval cocktails (one favorite was called Father Whoresonne). He was the first scholar to translate a medieval Latin bestiary into English; he produced a minor classic on falconry (The Goshawk), wrote moving poetry...
...Water) and an entire menagerie (A Zoo in My Luggage). A while back, in his pre-otter period, Gavin Maxwell was out shark hunting (Harpoon at a Venture), and that confirmed medievalist, T. H. White (The Once and Future King), was engaged in the bruising task of training The Goshawk. Now snakes, perhaps the oddest pets of all, have slithered upon the literary scene in the company of a legendary eccentric, C.J.P. Ionides, the Snake Man of British East Africa...