Replies to CD on proportion of sexes in butterflies, coloration of moths, and courtship. Encloses copies of letters on these subjects between HTS, Henry Doubleday, and John Hellins.

Identified two flies as species of Empis that suck flowers, but the females also feed on small Diptera.

Two queries on teeth: 1. Is there evidence of inherited peculiarities in milk teeth?

2. Are male incisors longer than female?

On why it is said Indian elephants do not breed in captivity; mating habits of male so violent as to require restraint.

Reports two observations on crossing in dogs: the preservation of both pure types in the offspring of a pointer and a setter, and the influence of a first mating with a mongrel on the progeny of a Barbary bitch and a subsequent Barbary male.

Asks CD what prompts dogs of all kinds to roll themselves in decayed animal matter; inherited habit or immediate gratification?

Thanks CD for letter of 3 Oct [missing] about LB’s publication.

Asks for information about JC’s essay, "On the relation of the domesticated animals to civilisation" [read at BAAS meeting 1859].

Obliged for the Theophrastus. Will return it.

Instructions on paying a bill.

Seeks investment advice.

Would much like to see Dr Birchfield appointed superintendent of the new asylum at Woking.

Thanks for facts on inheritance. May be used if CD corrects 3d ed. [2d ed.] of Variation.

AJ, a collector, would like a few lines from CD and an autographed photograph.

Observations on a bird that used a stone to break open a snail.

Reports of a tooth found in the testicle of a horse.

Hares are very fleet in countries in which greyhound coursing is developed, slow in those in which no greyhounds are kept.

Gives CD an instance of facts that can be read either way as to whether a plant (Veronica humifusa) is a species or a variety.

Jessie [Wedgwood] says driving in sun made one of her eyes water.

Cover containing some seeds mentioned in the letter to H. C. Watson, 28 May [1864], f.2 (S 4512).

Has reread JDH’s paper ["On the functions of the rostellum of Listera ovata", Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. 144 (1854): 259–64].