Graylag

1872, John Cordeaux, Ornithological Notes from North Lincolnshire, Edward Newman (editor), Zoologist: A Popular Miscellany of Natural History, 2nd Series, Volume 7, page 3016, Wild Geese. — February 29th. Saw a skein of ten wild geese flying a few feet above the Humber this morning : from their size and colour I believe them to have been graylags.

Eventually a few graylags landed; the Professor dug into his bucket, scattered some barley grain about, and started to scribble notes.

With reference to Konrad Lorenz's famous graylags, which assure each other of their solidarity by the display of common aggression against a nonexistent interloper, Burkert defines ritual as “action redirected for demonstration.”