A more confused question is: what does ‘unfledged’
mean? The weight of dictionary definitions favours a meaning for ‘fledged’
along the lines of (a) intransitively, to become fully plumed, or (b)
transitively, to bring up a young bird until its feathers are grown, or to
furnish with feathers.
The ‘New Dictionary of Birds’
defines ‘fledging’ as ‘term usually applied to the acquisition
by a young bird of its first true feathers; when the process is complete the
bird is “fledged”, and may for a short time be described as a “fledgling”
‘.
However, there is at least a local usage
that after some uncertainty I have followed that uses ‘fledge’ to
mean leave, or fly from, the nest, as in ‘The nestlings fledged yesterday
morning’. I must say I have never been entirely happy with that sense, if
only because of the ambiguity involved. If we mean ‘leave the nest’
it is easy enough to say to say so, without using a term in a special sense, and
perhaps one not widely understood.
Perhaps the confusion goes back to the
root of ‘fledge’ in a Germanic word meaning ‘to fly’.
Gill’s ‘Ornithology’
might or might not represent the current insider fashion with the following
contribution, under the heading ‘Fledging from the nest’. On
the one hand ‘the fledging period is the interval between hatching and
flight’. On the other hand, ‘The moment of departure from the
nest by altricial birds is commonly termed fledging even though the young birds
may only flutter and scramble about for a few days before their first flight’.
It seems that for the bird-studying
community the term may be shifting in meaning, but I am afraid that both
meanings are likely to persist for some time.
From: Robin Hide
[
Sent: Friday, September 22, 2006
4:07 PM
To:
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds]
Crossword question?
Yes, commonly "eyass" in falconry- (see Mavrogordato, J.G.
1960 A Hawk for the Bush, H.F.
and G.Witherby), but also, less commonly, "eyesses" in the plural (?)
(see Lewis, Ernest 1938 In Search of the
Gyr-Falcon, Constable.
Robin Hide
At 03:46 PM 22/09/2006, you wrote:
Actually I know of it as EYASS (rather that EYAS). Not used
much in modern literature. Ornithology books generally don't use such words.
Actually it is hard to find the word in legit bird books. David Holland's book
"Eagles Hawks and Falcons of Australia" is an exception. He does use
the word and various other falconry-based terms. I guess he thinks it fits his
flowery style of prose. He also spells it with a double s, as does "The
Bird Almanac". I guess it depends how many spaces are in the CT crossword.
Philip
