Ɛpsilon

To R. B. Sharpe?1   16 January 1877

Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.

Jan 16. 1877

My dear Sir,

I have received a wonderful nest from the R. Uraguay in S. America.2 It is a wonderful structure appearing to be made of horse hair but really of some vegetable fibre. The bird is called “El boyero” & is said to be black or almost so, & about the size of our black-bird.3 No doubt Azara describes so wonderful a nest.4 I write all this because if you would like to present it to the British Museum, I will send it to you. I may just add that the bird is said often to perch on the back of cattle & horses & the sender supposes the material is horse-hair

My dear Sir | Yours sincerely | Ch. Darwin

LS(A)

1
Sharpe is conjectured to be the the correspondent because he was the senior assistant in zoology in charge of the bird collection at the British Museum.
2
See letter from George Hodgskin, 6 January 1877. The nest had been sent to CD via Hodgskin by an Uruguayan lawyer, Señor Rodó, who has not been further identified.
3
The bird was probably Cacicus solitarius (boyero negro or solitary cacique), a member of the family Icteridae (American blackbirds, orioles, caciques, and oropendolas).
4
Félix d’Azara called the solitary cacique ‘Del negro’ and described the nest as made of vines and other flexible materials and hanging from tree branches (Azara 1802–5, 1: 268–9 (Núm 58)).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.6 is said] interl in CD’s hand
1.6 to] interl in CD’s hand
1.6 perch] altered from ‘perches’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-10793,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-10793