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To J. L. Hawkins   23 December 1880

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

December 23d 80

Dear Sir

I am much obliged for your very courteous note & kindness in sending me a correction.1 I was not at all aware that cats avoided certain species of mice, though I knew that they would not eat shrews. Perhaps Col. Newman was mistaken.2 Should I ever again correct the Origin, (which is not very likely) I would modify the passage.—3

I remain | Dear Sir | Yours faithfully & obliged | Charles Darwin

1
The letter from Hawkins has not been found. According to the letter from H. M. Wallis, 27 March 1881 (Correspondence vol. 29), Hawkins wrote about ‘mice in their relation to cats & hawks’.
2
CD had cited Henry Wenman Newman’s information on cats catching mice (Newman 1851) in Origin, p. 74. The passage was not altered in subsequent editions.
3
The final printing of Origin made during CD’s lifetime was the 1876 reprint of Origin 6th ed.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

0.1] (Railway … S.E.R.) parentheses added

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-12932F,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-12932F