LJ has had a letter from R. T. Lowe in Madeira who thinks Scorpaena histrio, a species from Galapagos described in no. 1 [of Fish], is the same as the one in the Atlantic and Mediterranean. LJ does not think it is possible.
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LJ has had a letter from R. T. Lowe in Madeira who thinks Scorpaena histrio, a species from Galapagos described in no. 1 [of Fish], is the same as the one in the Atlantic and Mediterranean. LJ does not think it is possible.
Comments on LJ’s Observations [in natural history (1846)].
Discusses variation among British birds, and the conflicting treatment of bird species by C. W. L. Gloger and C. L. Brehm.
Describes collecting incident of his student days involving Carabus.
Mentions squirrels eating insects.
Astonished to hear of terrestrial Planaria.
Comments on BAAS meeting in Southampton.
Acknowledges receipt of [The naturalist’s pocket] almanack edited by LJ. Suggests some improvements.
Has been unwell. Publication of two numbers [of Zoology] has been delayed. Thought first Fish number good.
Health is improved, but would do anything to get strong again. Is consulting his father; will return to London soon to see B. W. Hawkins.
Will send MS [of Fish, no. 2] to the printer, and be there when LJ comes.
Doctors predict it will take years for CD’s constitution to recover.
Details regarding volume on Fish.
Sends notes on Diodon.
Must give up attending Geological Society evening meetings; knocks him up.
CD is pleased with LJ’s introduction [to Fish]. He rejoices that he persuaded LJ to undertake this work.
Glad to hear that LJ will repeat his notes to Gilbert White’s [Natural history of] Selborne [1843] in a separate work.
Critical of G. R. Gray’s attaching his own name to Furnarius cunicularius [in Birds, pp. 65–6]. Strickland’s nomenclature laws are needed to check egoism.
Is sending fish skins and bottles off to Cambridge Philosophical Society.
Fish numbers [of Zoology], now finished, give CD satisfaction when he doubts whether he ought to have applied for Government money.
Wishes Thomas Bell would finish his part [Reptiles].
CD has just corrected last page of index of Coral reefs.
Asks whether LJ can throw light on this subject: "What are the checks and what the periods of life by which the increase of any given species is limited?" CD has been driven to conclude that species are mutable; allied species are co-descendants from common stocks.
On checks to increase of species and the observations which led him to regard species as mutable in form. Would welcome "at some future time" LJ’s criticism of the "sketch" of his conclusions.
Discusses checks on growth of species population; use of term "mutation" in his species theory. His belief in species mutability.
Looks forward to LJ’s volume [Observations in natural history (1846)].
Observations on what the world would call trifling points in natural history are always very interesting to him. Deplores their absence in foreign periodicals.
Is slaving away to finish S. American geology.