Falconry

An English speaker will render der Habicht as « hawk » without a second thought, and the instinct is half right: the two are the same old Germanic word, grown apart. What they cover has drifted. « Hawk » is generous in English — it takes in the sparrowhawk, and falconers use it for any bird they fly, falcons included. Der Habicht is one bird, the goshawk: a powerful, short-winged woodland hunter that takes its quarry after a brief, twisting chase. The sparrowhawk is der Sperber, with no Habicht anywhere in its name, and a falcon is never a Habicht at all. When German means a hawk in the broad English sense, it reaches for der Greifvogel, or, for a bird trained to hunt, der Beizvogel. So Sie jagt mit einem Habicht names the species, not merely the sport.