Emily Dickinson Lexicon

WILD-GOOSE, n. [wild and goose.]

An aquatic fowl of the genus Anas, the Anas Anser, a fowl of passage. These geese fly to the south in autumn, and return to the north in the spring. This species is the stock of the domestic goose. The wild-goose of North America, also migratory, is a distinct species, the Anas Canadensis. Wild-goose chase, the pursuit of something as unlikely to be caught as the wild-goose. – Shak.