Questions CD’s attribution of a sense of beauty to animals and his use of natural selection to explain phenomena JM feels it more appropriate to describe as social selection.

On some errata in Descent.

Sends extracts from a statistical study giving proportion of sexes in [population of] Netherlands.

Comments on Descent.

Reports a case of protective coloration of bugs on Tilia

and observations on frogs fighting [see Descent, 2d ed., pp. 281, 350].

Encloses drawings of chicken feet.

Thanks CD for Origin, 5th ed.

Comments on reviews of Descent by the Duke of Argyll and A. R. Wallace.

Lists the Darwinian professors at Jena.

WP’s work shows external ear to have no physiological functions.

W. Müller’s book not yet arrived. Will send Müller’s next works.

A fact on expression: sheep do use hoofs in fighting.

Offers to send some of his botanical field notes.

Convinced that certain families and genera vary in certain directions. Cites Lobelia’s "inclination" to produce albinos and other cases.

Reports a plant that is abundant in localities unfitted for its full development.

Wild buffaloes will help a wounded calf.

Response to CD’s views among American naturalists.

Sends answers to CD’s queries on expression.

Discussion of mimicry and sexual selection among butterflies, occasioned by reading Descent.

Plans to write an account of his trip to Morocco and, with John Ball, the botanical geography, for Linnean Society.

Results mainly negative; the Atlas exhibits "the dying out of European flora".

Only two or three beetles above 8000ft.

Disappointed that Canary Island species are absent from Atlas mountains; but an ocean current along Moroccan coast should help migration of Spanish, Portuguese, and Moroccan seeds to Canaries and Madeira.

Describes Lyell’s poor physical condition. Asks CD for his observations of symptoms.

Inquires about the effect of turf covering on the rate of disintegration of rock.

Encloses "account of Dr H. M. Butler’s hereditary odd habit".

Encloses letters from two owners [W. Corbett and C. Randell] of large farms concerning fields with ridges and furrows in the direction of the slope. All local men agree the ridges do not change shape.

Comments on HM’s paper ["Anwendung der Darwin’schen Lehre auf Bienen", Verh. Naturhist. Ver. preuss. Rheinland 29 (1872): 1–96];

sexual selection in bees.

Encloses account on habits of Bombus.

Encloses a letter from Lady Bell, which should be burnt when read.

Discusses finances.

Report of yellow fever among Brazilian monkeys probably untrue; his correspondent is only a journalist.

Encloses letter about monkeys allegedly dying from yellow fever.

Praises Expression.

Reports on Fritz Müller’s observations of cross- and self-fertilisation. HM will cultivate the two forms [i.e., mainly self-fertilised and mainly cross-fertilised] in the way CD has described.

He continues his observation of wild flowers. Encloses drawing of Viola tricolor with notes on its self-fertility.

Pollination and floral structure of Lathyrus. Asks where bees bite through the flowers.

Sends corrections of Descent and Expression.

On the declining population of the Hawaiian Islands [see Descent (1875), pp. 186–7, 187–8 n. 43].

CD wishes to acquire a piece of JL’s land.