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The Charles Darwin Collection
The Darwin Correspondence Project is publishing letters written by and to the naturalist Charles Darwin (1809–1882). Complete transcripts of letters are being made available through the Project’s website (www.darwinproject.ac.uk) after publication in the ongoing print edition of The Correspondence of Charles Darwin (Cambridge University Press 1985–). Metadata and summaries of all known letters (c. 15,000) appear in Ɛpsilon, and the full texts of available letters can also be searched, with links to the full texts.
States his belief that there is a tendency to note varieties in the larger genera rather than in the very small ones.
Describes some species of fauna peculiar to Fernando Po. The ocean currents make it unlikely that animals have been floated to the little islands [off the west coast of Africa].
Zebra-striped asses.
Markings of a Bengal jungle cock.
Refers to some of his own articles on birds in India.
Reports the arrival of the "glorious garrison of Lucknow". The "wonderful superiority of the European to the Asiatic" made the success of the insurrection inconceivable.
Gives some observations on birds; has forwarded a box of specimens.
Writes regarding CD’s query on yellow-billed cuckoo and the laying of eggs in other birds’ nests.
Reports his observations on an ants’ nest.
Cannot explain impurity of his alleged pure lines.
Sends more bean seeds.
Answers CD’s queries about seed lot he has just sent.
Further answers on his seed lot.
On papilionaceous flowers and CD’s theory that there are no eternal hermaphrodites. Connects this theory to absence of small-flowered legumes in New Zealand and the absence of small bees as pollinators.
Went to the show and saw EWVH’s birds.
Thinks he will give up his pigeons at the end of the summer.
Asks to borrow W. C. Hewitson’s book [British oology, 2 vols. (1831–44)].
CD is searching for reliable information on slight variations in the degree of perfection of nests of the same species of birds.
CD has never doubted probability of Bering Strait land connection.
Family illness.
Has received Burmese fowls’ skins from Walter Elliot.
Mrs Henslow’s death stirs reminiscences of happier days.
Asks WBC to plant some kidney beans [on Holy Island near Arran] and to see whether they are ever visited by bees. If no bees visit the island, it would be "curious" to observe what plants grow there.
Asks GB to vote for "a distant connexion of mine" at Athenaeum, and to mention this to Hooker.
Thanks WDF for information on blackbirds’ nests [see Natural selection, p. 505].
Problem of choosing from among the load of curious facts for chapter on "Instinct" [Natural selection, ch. 10; Origin, ch. 7] perplexes him.
Asks about behaviour of chicks in danger and whether crossed animals are wilder than either parent.
Returns books by Candolle and Robert Brown.
