Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A large gray Eurasian goose (Anser anser) having pinkish legs and feet and a pink to orangish bill.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Zoöl.) See Graylag.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A large grey European goose, Anser anser, with pink legs and dull orange beak

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun common grey wild goose of Europe; ancestor of many domestic breeds

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Possibly grey + lag, lingering behind (obsolete), from its being the last of the geese to leave England on its annual migration.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

grey (the bird's colour) + lag (an old name for a goose derived from the call used to move such animals along).

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Examples

  • At the other end of the scale, muntjac deer and greylag geese are on the menu in River Cottage Christmas Mon, 8pm, Channel 4.

    It's a good week for … Spurious Festive Specials 2011

  • It is also essential winter habitat for up to 500,000 overwintering ducks and waterbirds such as teal Anas crecca (160,000), wigeon Anas Penelope (100,000), greylag goose Anser anser (100,000), most of Spain's herons, white stork Ciconia ciconia, stone-curlew Burhinus oedicnemus and slender-billed gull Larus genei.

    Doñana National Park, Spain 2008

  • Eastward, coastal mudflats and salt marshes seethed with wintering birds, greylag geese competing for the lush grass with forty or so horses.

    A Small Death in the Great Glen A. D. Scott 2010

  • Research with the herring gull and the greylag goose uncovered much the same thing.

    From 'The End of Overeating' 2009

  • Of the 23 populations, five populations of greylag goose (Anser anser anser and A.a. rubirostris) do not nest in the Arctic; neither do the two populations of Canada goose (Branta canadensis) which are not native to the region.

    Effects of climate change on the biodiversity of the Arctic 2009

  • *Ethologist Konrad Lorenz beautifully demonstrated this tendency of young waterfowl in the 1930s by positioning himself as that first adult creature seen by a gaggle of greylag goslings.

    INSIDE OF A DOG ALEXANDRA HOROWITZ 2009

  • With increasing temperatures, in concert with other long-term changes, such as wetland eutrophication, populations of some waterfowl species, for example whistling swans (Cygnus columbianus), eider ducks (Somateria spp.), and greylag geese (Anser anser), are expected to increase in size and to expand their distribution.

    Climate change and terrestrial wildlife management in the Fennoscandian North 2009

  • Important wintering species include mute swan Cygnus olor, white-fronted and greylag goose Anser albifrons and A. anser and white-tailed eagle Haliaeetus albicilla.

    Srebarna Nature Reserve, Bulgaria 2009

  • *Ethologist Konrad Lorenz beautifully demonstrated this tendency of young waterfowl in the 1930s by positioning himself as that first adult creature seen by a gaggle of greylag goslings.

    INSIDE OF A DOG ALEXANDRA HOROWITZ 2009

  • Wintering waterfowl and greylag goose numbers have decreased from 200,000 to 50,000 and 20,000 to less than 1,000 respectively.

    Ichkeul National Park, Tunisia 2008

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