A goose fed on the stubble.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Cook’s Prol., 27. For of thy percely yet they fare the wors That they han eten with thy stubbel goos.
1584. Cogan, Haven Health, clxvi. 136. The greene goose is better [for digestion] than the stubble goose.
1612. Benvenuto’s Passenger, I. ii. 87. You are euen as wise as a stubble Goose.
1655. Moufet, Health’s Improv., x. 87. A young stuble goose feeding it self fat in wheaten fields, is the best of all.
1708. W. King, Art of Cookery, 77. So stubble Geese at Michaelmas are seen Upon the spit, next May produces green.
1816. W. Taylor, in Monthly Mag., XLII. 37. Geese … are eaten young, under the name of green geese,… They are eaten adult, under the name of stubble geese.
1842. Barham, Ingol. Leg., Lay St. Cuthbert, 5. And the fat stubble-goose Swims in gravy and juice.
1844. Stephens, Bk. Farm, II. 720. Young geese are never seen at a Scottish farmer’s table, though a stubble-goose at Michaelmas seems to be prized in England.
b. The grey-lag goose (Anser cinereus).
1885. Swainson, Prov. Names Birds, 147.
