sly-goose Orkney.
Also slygoose.
[f. sly a. + goose n.]
The sheldrake, Tadorna cornuta or T. vulpanser.
| 1776 Pennant Brit. Zool. (ed. 2) II. 500 From this instinctive cunning..the natives of the Orknies to this day call them [sheldrakes] the sly goose. 1793 Statist. Acc. Scotl., Orkney VII. 546 The dunter or eider duck, the sly goose, the awk. 1822 Hibbert Desc. Shetl. Isl. 408 The shieldrake, or slygoose, builds in these rabbit burrows. |