Ɛpsilon

From F. B. Goodacre   7 January 1880

Wilby Rectory | Attlebro’ | Norfolk

Jan 7/80

Dear Sir,

I ought to have written to thank you for the copy of “Nature” you so kindly sent me before this, allow me to do so now; I am greatly interested in your article although I remain of my old opinion:1 There are two little facts in connexion with domestic birds I can answer for which perhaps you may like to know; some years ago a blue mongrel pigeon of mine changed the white band over tail for a pale blue one such as many blue pigeons have; & a wild drake I bought young in the spring of 1864 is still flourishing & was the father of some 40 or so young ones which I reared last year for the table, I do not know whether there is anything remarkable in his age, having never read anything about the natural length of life of such birds

With kind regards | Believe me | yrs truly | F B Goodacre

1
Using specimens supplied by Goodacre, CD had successfully crossed hybrids of the common and Chinese goose, reporting his results in the letter to Nature, 15 December [1879] (Correspondence vol. 27). Goodacre believed that the Chinese goose was only a variety of the common goose, and that true hybrids could not produce fertile offspring (Goodacre 1879; see also Correspondence vol. 26, letter from F. B. Goodacre, 2 September 1878). The Chinese goose is a domestic variety of the wild swan goose (Anser cygnoides); the common European domestic goose is a variety of the wild greylag goose (Anser anser).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-12410,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-12410