Asks TD about variation among brachiopods.

Discusses shipment of skins of carrier pigeons.

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.

Thanks LH for memorandum [missing] by K. R. Lepsius.

Suggests that J. E. Gray and/or G. R. Waterhouse might be willing to set her butterfly collection. Recommends that her children should collect their own butterflies.

Thanks her for kindness. Announces, "We have now half-a-dozen Boys" [Charles Waring Darwin, born 6 Dec].

Criticises at length the concept of submerged continents attaching islands to the mainland in the recent period. Notes drastic alteration of geography required, the dissimilar species on opposite shores of continents, and differences between volcanic islands and mountains of mainland areas. Admits sea-bed subsidence, but not enough to engulf continents. Denies that theory can explain island flora and fauna.

Considers Edward Forbes’s idea a check on study of dissemination of species.