Vol. VI."] Correspondence. IS I 



IQ07 ' v/ 



1907 



Correspondence. 



GALDENS. 



To the Editors of " The Ennir 



Sirs, — In a short paper read before the Bird Observers' Club 

 on the birds observed by Dampier during his voyages to Terra 

 Australis,* I commented on his mention of " Galdens," 

 remarking that I had been unable to trace the word, though I 

 had consulted the " New English Dictionary," Newton's 

 " Dictionary of Birds," and a number of other dictionaries. The 

 publication of the paper has had the happy effect of bringing a 

 very interesting letter from Professor Alfred Newton, the author 

 of the extremely valuable book to which I referred. 



One is glad to be able to acknowledge that the Professor's 

 Dictionary is not at fault, though at the same time it is right 

 that I should say that I had read what he has entered under 

 the heading "Gaulding" without connecting the word with 

 Dampier's " Galden," because Professor Newton's references are 

 confined to Scottish allusions, and mention neither West Indian 

 nor Australian birds. The "New English Dictionary" is, how- 

 ever, at fault, because the scheme upon which it is constructed 

 makes a feature of giving the varieties of spelling of all words 

 included in it, with quotations from authors by whom the words 

 have been used at different periods. It nowhere gives Dampier's 

 word "Galden," though it gives "Gaulding," with the cross- 

 reference " see Gaulin," and under " Gaulin " adds another form 

 of spelling — " Gawling." The word is there described as of 

 Jamaican origin, and is defined as " a kind of Egret." Illustra- 

 tive quotations are given from Ray, writing about 1705 ; from 

 Sloane's "Jamaica," 1725; from Hughes's " Barbadoes," 1750 ; 

 from Browne's "Jamaica," 1756; and from Gosse's "Birds of 

 Jamaica," 1847. But there is no quotation from Dampier, and 

 his way of spelling the word is omitted. 



Newton's " Dictionary of Birds " does not, it is true, give 

 Dampier's spelling, nor does it mention the West Indian use of 

 the word, but as his concern was not orthography but orni- 

 thology, the omission was not, in his case, of much importance. 

 I am glad that, by calling attention to the point, I have been 

 the means of clearing up an obscurity. Indeed, "Galden " is so 

 good a word that one would venture to suggest that it would be 

 a better popular name for the bird to which Dampier applied it 

 than " Little Mangrove Bittern." Why should not the brave old 

 navigator's word, spelt in his own way, be used ? 



Professor Newton, writing from Magdalen College, Cambridge, 

 says in his letter : — 



" I notice that in the last number of The Emu, which reached 



* See 77/.? Emit, vi., p. 21. 



