Thanks CD for a recent letter.

Reports on his health, which has been bad for 12 months.

Sends extracts of works on domestication.

Discusses the pairing of various birds; comments on the pugnacity of partridges, pheasants, male guinea-fowl, and peacocks.

Gives proportions of sexes in pheasants.

Detailed notes on secondary sexual differences in various species of birds and mammals.

Coloration in moths.

Quotes Achille Guénée on relative proportion of sexes in Phalaenites.

Shot a sandpiper in Norway, the hind toe of which was clasped by a freshwater bivalve.

Sends replies to CD’s queries about sex ratios in humming-birds.

Sends prospectus of forthcoming work by his brother [Henry Trimen] and W. T. Thiselton-Dyer [Flora of Middlesex (1869)]. Hopes CD will subscribe.

Sends photo of four Fuegians, including Jemmy Button’s son.

Reports incident of two wild stallions on the Falklands acting together in an attempt to take a troop of mares from an introduced English horse [see Descent 2: 241].

Encloses information on sex ratios in thoroughbred horses.

Wants to know how the colour of the eye of the peacock’s tail is produced, whether it depends upon colouring matter in the feathers or reflection, and whether any varying structural change will account for the series of colours surrounding it.

On numerical proportions of sexes in insects; coloration. Dimorphism in dragonflies (Agrion) in which usual coloration is reversed in sexes [see Descent 1: 362–4].

Wallace seems to ride his hobby too hard.

Responds to CD’s queries on polygamy in birds and orang.

Discusses sexual selection and secondary characters; colours and sexual preference.

Expresses his admiration for Pangenesis; it is superior to Herbert Spencer’s theory.

ARW differs somewhat with CD’s chapter on causes of variability [ch. 22 in Variation]. Thinks several of CD’s arguments are unsound.

Briefly discusses how natural selection might aid in producing sterility between allied species.

Could not believe Owen to be so demoniacal as to write the Athenæum review [of Variation].

Gardeners’ Chronicle review [see 5918] is weak. CD’s ideas on causes of variation may be as hazy as the reviewer’s.

Huxley’s clever remark on Pangenesis. JDH’s view of Pangenesis as fundamental to development doctrines, but nothing is gained by formulation in terms of germs or gemmules.

Tries to answer question on last page of CD’s letter anent sexuality.

On polygamous birds and the pairing of birds. Late singing of males. [see Descent 2: 107.]

A reply to CD’s inquiry in Gardeners’ Chronicle [Collected papers 2: 135]. The proportion of females to males in lambs of highland black-faced sheep.

Sends paper on conditions that favour predominance of plants.

Encloses table showing proportion of sexes in Rutland.

Aggressive behaviour of a bullfinch toward new arrival in JJW’s aviary.

Sexual differences in goldfinches: size of beaks.

Sexual selection in Lepidoptera.

Thinks Dr Alex Wallace’s observations on Bombyx not conclusive in proving that no preference is shown by females.

Sexual preference in insects;

structures for seizing females;

coloration.

Doubts whether CD can make much of a case from insects in support of sexual selection.

On the proportion of sexes in moths; Lepidoptera females command higher prices; quotes Staudinger’s catalogue [see Descent 1: 311–12].

Ticking of Anobium tessellatum [see Descent 1: 385].

Sexual behaviour of chaffinches.

Numbers of female linnets in September.

His experiments on brightly coloured larvae [as food], testing A. R. Wallace’s theory.

His observations of a rookery make him wonder whether it may not be more difficult than we think for birds to pair.

Proportion of sexes in chaffinches.

Pugnacity of blackbirds and robins.

Harrison Weir reports up to nine eggs in starling nests.

Newspaper report of a sheep born with its owner’s brand.

Otto Staudinger’s catalogue shows prices of female Lepidoptera to be higher than those of males.