Text Online
From:
Archibald Billing
To:
J. S. Henslow
Date:
8 December 1855
Source of text:
Cambridge University Library MS Add. 8177: 28
Summary:
Sends JSH stone specimens with brief descriptions.
Contributor:
Henslow Correspondence Project
From:
Edward Blyth
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
8 Dec 1855
Source of text:
DAR 98: A104–A107
Summary:
What does CD think of A. R. Wallace’s paper in the Annals & Magazine of Natural History ["On the law which has regulated the introduction of new species", n.s. 16 (1855): 184–96]? EB considers it good on the whole.
Japanned variety of peacock.
Regional variations in bird species.
EB has little faith in the aboriginal wildness of the Chillingham cattle.
Races of humped cattle of India, China, and Africa.
Indian and Malayan gigantic squirrels, with various races remaining true to their colour, would afford capital data for Wallace, as would the local varieties of certain molluscs. Has Wallace’s lucid collation of facts unsettled CD’s ideas regarding the persistence of species?
Bengal hybrid race of geese is very uniform in colour and as prolific as the European tame goose [see Natural selection, p. 439].
Will see what he can do for CD with regard to domestic pigeons.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
