Ɛpsilon

To F. B. Goodacre   23 August [1878]1

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

August 23d

Dear Sir

I fear that you will think me very capricious, but ever since writing to you my conscience has been uneasy that I ought not to have refused your generous offer, & thus have lost the chance of perhaps recording the fertility of hybrids raised from two undoubted & very distinct species.—2 If, therefore, you have not already disposed of the birds & unless you are willing to try the experiment yourself, I shd. be very glad of a male & female brother & sister hybrid;— that is if you can positively state that they are half-bred.3

If you are so kind as to send them, they had better be addressed, simply thus

“Ch. Darwin

Orpington Stn

South E. Raily

Live birds to be forwarded by special messenger—4

I suppose that they will travel without suffering with some food.—

Pray forgive me for being so troublesome & believe me | Dear sir, Yours faithfully & obliged | Ch. Darwin

1
This letter was previously published in Correspondence vol. 26 from a copy in DAR 221.4: 204. The transcription here is from the original letter. The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from F. B. Goodacre, 17 August 1878 (Correspondence vol. 26).
2
In his letter of 20 August [1878] (this volume, Supplement), CD had refused Goodacre’s offer to provide him with geese for testing the fertility of crosses between Chinese and common geese (Anser cygnoides and Anser anser).
3
CD received the geese from Goodacre and reported the results of his breeding experiment in a letter published in Nature, 1 January 1880, p. 207 (Correspondence vol. 27, letter to Nature, 15 December [1879]).
4
A special messenger would accompany the birds throughout their journey, at a supplementary charge for each mile.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

0.1 ☞ ] pencil
1.6 hybrid] altered from ‘hybrids’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-11674,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-11674