[L. falx, a reaping-hook.] A bird of prey with claws like a hook. This bird used to be trained to catch other birds for hunters. Eagles, buzzards, and hawks, and most birds of prey, belong to the class of Falcons. All have the same tearing beak - a tooth-like lobe on the upper mandible - and all the same hooked claws. They lay from two to four eggs in the year. The peregrine falcon or hawking falcon is a trim, brave bird. Hawking with the falcon is still practiced in Persia and India. The gyrfalcon is an Arctic bird.