The Zoologist — October, 1866. 399 



To lure was to entice back the hawk by waving " the lure," which 

 was a forked piece of iron or wood covered with leather and having 

 the wings or feathers of a bird attached, and which was thrown 

 up to entice the falcon back to the fist, after the quarry had been 

 killed. 



To this passage Mr. Staunton has the following note. " Tassel 

 gentle. — The tassel, or more correctly the tiercel, is the male of the 

 goshawk, and had the epithet gentle annexed to it from its docility 

 and attachment to man." According to some authorities the tiercel 

 derives its name from being a tierce or third less than the female ; but 

 Tardif, in his * Treatise on Falconry,' says it is so called from being 

 one of three birds generally found in the eyrie of a falcon, two of 

 which are females and the third a male : hence called tiercelet or the 

 third. This species of hawk was in high esteem, for the old books on 

 the sport, which show that certain hawks were appropriated to certain 

 ranks of society, tell us that the falcon gentle and tercel are for a 

 prince. 



There appears to be a great deal of confusion in the nomenclature 

 of the hawks used in Falconry. The same name has been applied to 

 two distinct species ; and one species, in diflferent states of plumage, 

 has received two or more names. With regard to the word tassel 

 gentle, it has occurred to me that the tercel must be the male goshawk 

 and the tercel gentle the male peregrine ; the latter, a long winged 

 hawk, being the more noble of the two, and the word gentle, or g0iii I as 

 it is sometimes spelt, being used with that signification. In this view 

 I am supported to some extent, I believe, by quaint old Izaak Walton. 

 In his ' Compleat Angler,' there is an interesting conversation between 

 an angler, a hunter and a falconer, each of whom, in turn, commends 

 his own recreation. The falconer gives a list of his hawks, and divides 

 them into two classes, viz. : the long-winged and short-winged 

 hawks. 



In enumerating each species in pairs, he gives first the name of the 

 female and then that of the male. Among the first class we 

 find: 



The Gerfalcon and Jerkin, 



The Falcon and Tercel gentle, &c. 



In the second class we have : 



t 



The Eagle and Iron, 



The Goshawk and Tercel, &c. 



