Discusses his ambitions.
Writes of rats that gnaw through lead pipes to find water.
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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.
Discusses his ambitions.
Writes of rats that gnaw through lead pipes to find water.
Apologises for troubling CD to look for his lost MS.
He will repeat his experiments on the cat’s sense of smell.
The intelligence of rats is shown by their gnawing through lead pipes to find water.
Is putting together a natural history book for intelligent children [The puzzle of life (1877)]; would like CD’s opinion on the project in general and on the completed first chapter in particular.
He has obtained further evidence that rats gnaw through lead pipes for water. CD’s opinion that they hear trickling confirms his view that they possess reason.
Sends pheasant tail coverts, which he believes are unusual in pattern, resembling those of a peacock.
Referring to CD’s passage on monkeys’ acquiring taste for tea, coffee, and tobacco, AN tells of three monkeys he kept in Australia that developed strong taste for rum and smoking tobacco without being taught in any way [see Descent, 2d ed., p. 7 n.].
His previous account of Phascolarctos was based on notes made at the time of observation.
His report of the successful adoption of a koala infant by a cat comes from a trustworthy observer.
Objects to the negative reviews of Descent, notably in the Athenæum and the Times.
The exceptions are the Academy, Nature, and his own, in the Field [37 (1871): 210].
Offers observations on expression in Australian dogs, since he knows CD plans to publish on the subject.
Doubts reported cases of homing instinct in dogs.
Comments on CD’s and William Huggins’ letter in Nature on "Inherited instinct" [Collected papers 2: 170–1]
and on A. R. Wallace’s letter on the homing faculty of animals. Believes many instances of homing are less remarkable than they appear.
Thanks to CD his candidature for the Zoological Society has been entertained.
Observed a flamingo, at the Zoological Gardens, that vomited on a bustard in answer to the latter’s harsh cries.
Supports AN’s idea [of a natural history book for children].