Sends some questions on secondary sexual differences of fishes [missing], which he hopes AG will look over.

Invites AG to come to Down.

Encloses queries on sexual differences and nest-building habits of fish.

Thanks for answer to questions.

Has analogous questions on reptiles that he will send to AG. The subject interests him, but CD must try not to fall into his common error of "being too speculative".

Asks AG to identify the species of Triton Mr Ford has drawn.

AG’s help has turned CD’s chapter on fishes and reptiles from "much the worst" into "one of the best" [in Descent].

Invites AG to stay at Down. Winwood Reade and, he hopes, Hooker and Robert Swinhoe will be there.

Sends some questions [missing].

Bad health has prevented him from working for six weeks.

Thanks AG for answer about Galaxias.

Asks him to mention questions about the ears of Mus to other naturalists.

Will send another copy of Chauncey Wright’s pamphlet [Darwinism (1871)].

AG has proved Ceratodus to be a "wonderfully interesting creature" ["Descripton of Ceratodus", Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. 161 (1871): 511–72].

Encloses a testimonial for AG [in support of his application for a promotion at British Museum].

Does he agree with Carl Gegenbaur’s paper on the limbs of fish [Jenaische Z. Naturwiss. 5 (1870): 397–447]?

Asks what caused G. R. Gray’s sudden death.

Is the horned toad of Oregon a batrachian or a lizard?

Hopes AG will be promoted in the British Museum.

Rejoices at AG’s appointment [as Assistant Keeper at the British Museum].

Thanks AG for Popular Science Review containing his article [on Ceratodus, 11 (1872): 257–66]. CD had already read it with great interest.

CD did not bring any tortoises back from the Galapagos. There may be specimens at the Military Institution in Whitehall.

Sorry AG was unable to lunch with the Darwins during their stay in London.

Thanks AG for information [unspecified]; so trifling an error will not alter his opinion that AG is "the most accurate of men".

Asks AG to sign an enclosure [see 9291].

Has given in Descent 2: 12, an account from AG of the brushes on the sides of Monacanthus; has now learned of brush-like scales on the males of Mallotus. Asks whether the two genera are related.

Encloses a circular [9384?] to explain the predicament he is in. Asks whether AG can get anyone at the British Museum, other than Owen, to join J. E. Gray in signing.

Believes the account of the Mallotus in American Naturalist [5 (1871): 119] is trustworthy.

Rejoices at AG’s "honourable & important" position [Keeper of the Zoological Department, British Museum].

Has signed and returned memorial [for Wallace]; does not know where to find Owen.

Explains how to go about getting an attendantship at the British Museum.

Sexual differences in reptiles, especially Indian [see A. Günther, The reptiles of British India (1864)].

The Cyprinodontidae family of fishes exhibits sexual differences as remarkable as any in reptiles or birds [Descent 2: 7, 9–10].