"My health got so bad I could do nothing at Down".

Gives information about migration of male and female birds.

Thanks for [July 1869] issue of Quarterly Review.

Thanks for procuring eggs.

CD’s health has necessitated his leaving home.

Because readers have arrived at different answers to the problem of the rate of increase of elephants, CD offers a rule, used by his son George, for calculating the product for any number of generations.

[Letter erroneously dated June.]

Thanks him for his excellent observations [on Epipactis?]; would like WED to watch for some large insect visiting the plant.

Comments on WO’s paper on Salvia [Pop. Sci. Rev. 8 (1869): 261–73], which he admires.

Simeon Habel of New York has returned from Galapagos. CD has asked him to send any plants to JDH.

Reading Nägeli convinces him that it is all-important to learn all about polymorphic or protean genera for the "Laws of Variability".

New Zealand genera are interesting and have perplexed him for years.

Has read paper on snakes. Thinks it is not fascination but fear that makes the victim fall into snake’s power.

Haeckel wants British specimens of calcareous sponges. Can THH tell him to whom he can apply?

Health not improving – cannot climb even a hill.

Has heard THH’s article on Comte ["Scientific aspects of Positivism", Lay sermons (1870)] is a splendid success.

Would be glad to send GRG a testimonial of his abilities as a naturalist, but is not qualified to express opinion on his works in ornithology or entomology.

Knows Dawkins interested in cave animals; has just heard from a Lloyd of Rhaggatt that a fissure has opened full of bones and teeth. Will send some.

Ernst Haeckel is working on calcareous sponges. Does AH have any British specimens that he can spare? [See 6842.]

Discusses need for cross-fertilisation in Geranium.

Hooker begins to doubt whether Drosophyllum so closely allied to Drosera.

Reports reviews of Facts and arguments for Darwin [1869].

Is preparing for a French translation of Orchids.

The case of Abutilon which is sterile with some individuals is remarkable.

Has sent FM’s account of the monstrous Begonia to the Linnean Society.

Admits that he had disobeyed his instructions and dispatched a box of bones to him by rail. Gives an account of the discovery of the bones at Perth y Chwaril on the Rhagatt estate. He has promised Miss Lloyd to obtain from WBD the English names of the principal bones.

Further queries on poultry plumage.

WBT’s visit to America.

CD passes on notes prepared for the French translation of Orchids so that his book may be brought up to date in English as well.

An article in North British Review by mathematician against Hooker and Huxley and for William Thomson [P. G. Tait, "Geological time", North Br. Rev. 50 (1869): 406–39]. Feels a conviction that world will be found older than reviewer makes it.

Article on "Design" [by J. B. Mozley] in Quarterly Review [127 (1869): 134–76].

Has JDH studied Drosophyllum?

Forwards letter from W. B. Dawkins. The bones, though not themselves interesting, may indicate the work of prehistoric man.

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

Sends cheque for £5 as subscription to Westminster Review.