Birds of Shakespeare: The greylag goose

Folger Shakespeare Library: It’s the holiday season and my final Birds of Shakespeare blog post! I chose something festive and celebratory for the occasion: a goose. The goose would have been among Shakespeare’s options for a Christmas feast, as it is today. According to scholars, Shakespeare’s goose is the greylag goose, the most common wild and domestic breed found in the British Isles.1 The greylag goose likely got its name because it is a year-round resident that “lagged behind” other species that departed for breeding.2 Nearly all western domesticated geese descend from the greylag goose.