Sends sheets of second issue [of Variation] with errata and changes to be made.

Refers to a favourable review,

and a contemptuous one in Athenæum written, he thinks, by Richard Owen [see 5931].

No summary available.

Asks LJ which British birds are polygamous. His query relates to the possession by the male of secondary sexual characters.

CD is also interested in the numerical proportion of the sexes in birds.

Asks about the use of the horns in male lamellicorn or coprophagous beetles.

Sends corrections [for French edition of Variation].

Reports work on sexual selection. Problems with the relative numbers of the two sexes and polygamy. Asks ARW’s help with several questions on polygamous birds.

Review in Athenæum full of contempt. Is sure Owen wrote it [see 5931].

Gardeners’ Chronicle review [(1868): 184] favourable.

Fears Pangenesis is still-born. Cites Bates, Spencer, Lubbock, and Sir Henry Holland. Is sure Pangenesis will sometime reappear. Questions that are connected and answered by Pangenesis.

Offers to undertake publication of English translation of Fritz Müller’s Für Darwin. W. S. Dallas will translate it.

Will send English edition [of Variation] when available.

Mentions revisions in second issue concerning graft-hybrids.

Asks for Euryale seed for experiment.

Discusses fertility of crossed and self-fertilised plants.

Is working on "Sexual selection"; asks WDF to send observations on birds’ finding new mates during breeding season [see Descent 2: 103–7].

Thanks for results on sexes of trout. [See 5793.] CD is collecting information about the proportional numbers of sexes in animals.

Is obliged for the facts about the hybrids [see 5910], which permit him to reject the view of B. D. Walsh (and H. W. Bates?) that organs play an important part in keeping incipient species distinct.

He has asked John Murray to send RM a copy of Variation.

Thanks JM for presentation copies [of Variation]. Sends directions and list.

Has been told positively that hostile review in Athenæum was by Berthold Seemann, to whom he once refused a testimonial.

On the whole, reviews have been very good.

Will forward LR’s memoir to Earl of Tankerville. Has sent LR’s pamphlet on "Darwin Lehre" [Die Grenzen der Thierwelt (1868)] to a German lady he employs as a translator. Cannot agree that there is an innate principle of perfection.

No summary available.

Thanks for corrections of errors [in Variation].

Pleased by ARW’s response to Pangenesis.

On negative reception by his friends.

Further argument concerning sterility and natural selection.

Polygamy and sexual selection.

Protection.

Thanks JJW for his paper on apterous insects [see 5939], which contained much new information.

Asks JJW for any information he may have on sexual selection.

Describes an experiment, still untried, of staining tail-feathers of male pigeons in bright colours to find the effect on courtship.

Does not understand JDH on Pangenesis: on last page he appears to admit all that he regards as mere words on previous pages.

Wallace admires chapter on Pangenesis.

Pangenesis is a comfort. CD gains no idea from words like "potentiality" or "diffusing an influence"; atoms and cells give a distinct idea.

A. Newton told George that Berthold Seemann wrote the Athenæum review

and that Lewis [Lewes] did not write the Pall Mall Gazette review [see 5874].

Bird specimens collected by Capt. P. P. King eventually went to British Museum, but many specimens were incorrectly marked.

Asks whether the colouring of particular butterflies has any protective function, to ascertain whether the function is other than sexual.