sly-goosen.
Orkney.
The sheldrake, Tadorna cornuta or T. vulpanser.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > birds > freshwater birds > order Anseriformes (geese, etc.) > subfamily Merginae (duck) > [noun] > member of genus Tadorna (sheldrake)
sheldrakec1325
bergander1544
skeeling-goose1578
scaledrake1600
burranet1602
sheld-fowl?1606
burrow-duck1678
vulpanser1706
shelduck1707
mountain duck1711
sly-goose1776
Brahminy duck1813
paradise duck1813
red goose1848
stock annet1852
1776 T. Pennant Brit. Zool. (ed. 4, octavo) II. ii. 590 From this instinctive cunning..the natives of the Orknies to this day call them [sc. sheldrakes] the sly goose.
1793 J. Sinclair Statist. Acct. Scotl. VII. 546 The dunter or eider duck, the sly goose, the awk.
1822 S. Hibbert Descr. Shetland Islands 408 The shieldrake, or slygoose, builds in these rabbit burrows.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1912; most recently modified version published online December 2020).
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n.1776