Ɛpsilon

From J. B. Innes   14 July 1879

Milton Brodie

14 July 1879—

Dear Darwin,

I told you some years ago that I had found a wood pigeons nest on the ground, the first I had ever seen in such a situation. This morning my gamekeeper and I found one on the ground in the middle of a whin bush on the Links.1 We both saw the bird fly up and found the two eggs laid in a shallow hole scratched in the ground.

There are woods within half a mile on each side— My old game keeper said he had never seen one in such a place before—

Kindest regards | Faithfully Yours | J Brodie Innes

1
No previous letter from Innes on this subject has been found. The woodpigeon is Columba palumbus; whin (also known as furze or gorse; Ulex europaeus) is a dense, thorny bush. Links is a Scottish term for the sandy ground near the seashore covered with turf or coarse grass (OED). The gamekeeper has not been identified.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-12157,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-12157