skulling

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of skull.

   Witnesses described the attacker skulling the man before fleeing the scene.

   Skulling a chip from a tight lie is a common mistake for weekend golfers.

   Note

   The -ing form carries every verb sense of skull, and only context sorts them out. It can mean striking someone on the head with a fist, a weapon or a thrown object. It can mean topping a ball, where it takes a direct object (skulling the ball). It can also mean draining a glass by upending it. None of these blows or drinks has anything to do with the bird-banding noun.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The practice of estimating a young bird's age by measuring how far the bones of its skull have hardened.

   Like a doctor reading an X-ray of a child's hand to judge bone age.

   After skulling the warbler, the volunteer recorded it as a hatch-year bird.

   Accurate skulling requires good light and a steady hand at the banding table.

   Note

   Bird banders read age through the scalp. In a young bird the skull bones are still thin and unfused. As the season goes on they harden and fill with tiny air spaces, and a window of unfinished bone gradually closes. Skulling judges how much of that window remains. The noun is countable, so a bander can log several skullings in one morning at the table.

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