Thanks WDF for specimen of Dorking cock.
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The Charles Darwin Collection
The Darwin Correspondence Project is publishing letters written by and to the naturalist Charles Darwin (1809–1882). Complete transcripts of letters are being made available through the Project’s website (www.darwinproject.ac.uk) after publication in the ongoing print edition of The Correspondence of Charles Darwin (Cambridge University Press 1985–). Metadata and summaries of all known letters (c. 15,000) appear in Ɛpsilon, and the full texts of available letters can also be searched, with links to the full texts.
Thanks WDF for specimen of Dorking cock.
Admires ELL’s plan to visit Madagascar.
Asks about fertility of hybrid cats, crosses among dogs in Africa, and appearance of feral pigeons at Ascension. Doubts existence of N. African greyhound.
Asks for specimens of pigeons and ducks from the Cape of Good Hope.
Condemns theory of Edward Forbes and others that many islands were formerly connected to South America by now submerged continents.
Discusses theory of submerged continental extensions. Objects that if it is applied to one island, it must be applied to all. Admits that some volcanoes may have been associated with subsidence, in contrast to his former view. Cites evidence from S. American Cordillera. Doubts that elevation associated with volcanoes is merely local, and that great ocean areas are necessarily sinking.
Says he will make his essay [on species] as complete as possible and will discuss CL’s Principles.
Thanks CL for loan of [Matthew Fontaine?] Maury’s map.
Discusses possibility of submerged continental extension including Madeira, Canaries, and Azores.
Mentions icebergs as carriers of European plants.
Hooker’s work on Antarctic flora.
Comments on coolness of tropics in glacial period and consequent migrations. Hooker’s views on this.
Asks whether offspring of cross between African pig and common pig are fertile. Are Lord Rowland Hill’s African pigs domesticated?
Mentions pigeons’ skeletons.
Is working at a book on variation [Natural selection].
Asks about strains of Herefordshire cattle.
Asks whether number of incisors varies in domestic pigs. Is testing views of J. M. Bechstein.
Comments on TCE’s book [Herd book of Hereford cattle (1846–59)]. Mentions variations in the breed.
Will quote TCE on geese [Mag. Nat. Hist. 4 (1840): 90–2].
Problem of geographical distribution; his seed-salting experiments. Asks about distribution of seeds to islands. Do water-birds ever have dirty feet?
Could Eyton’s gamekeepers collect owl and hawk pellets? Asks for dace stomachs and contents.
Asks for cats’ skeletons.
On JAHdeB’s discovery of Cretaceous Chthamalus. Cites his own acceptance of negative evidence about Chthamali in Fossil Lepadidae.
Comments on JAHdeB’s cirripede drawings.
Offers TCE dog’s skin and skull received from W. F. Daniell in West Africa.
Mentions his experiments involving hawk pellets in seed distribution.
Reminds TCE about pig crosses and incisors.
Illnesses of Mrs Horner and Emma Darwin.
Death of Sarah Elizabeth Wedgwood.
Mentions work on his "Big Book" [Natural selection].
Remarks on J. A. H. de Bosquet’s discovery of a Chthamalus in the Chalk.
Thanks her for kindness. Announces, "We have now half-a-dozen Boys" [Charles Waring Darwin, born 6 Dec].
Asks TD about variation among brachiopods.
Recommends he read passages on bees by C. T. E. von Siebold [in On the true parthenogenesis in moths and bees (1857)].
Discusses shipment of skins of carrier pigeons.
Have all varieties been bred from the same set of eggs so that there can be no doubt they are all the same species?
The information correspondent hopes to get from M.-J.-P. Flourens will be valuable.
CD is keeping all varieties of pigeons, poultry, ducks, etc. for his work on variation.
Discusses a proposed expedition to Australia. Urges collecting and investigating productions of isolated islands. Recommends dredging the sea-bottom.
Mentions keeping Helix pomatia alive in sea-water.
Comments on TCE’s work [Catalogue of the species of birds in his collection (1856)].
Mentions African dog’s skin.
Asks about colours of horses
and about variation in tracheae of male birds.
Ill.
Comments on TCE’s study of birds’ bones.
His work on variation progresses.
Asks about horses with bars like zebra or ass.