Ɛpsilon

To Walter Baily   28 December 1881

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

December 28th 1881

Dear Sir

I am much obliged for your letter. The statement about the beetle, probably a Staphylinus, hunting a worm by scent is quite new to me.—1

I have received another account of the noise made by worms, whilst dragging leaves into their burrows—2 —

Dear Sir | Yours faithfully & obliged | Ch. Darwin

1
Baily’s letter has not been found. Although CD did not mention Baily’s observation, in Earthworms (1882), p. 65, he did add that members of the beetle genera Staphylinus and Carabus attacked worms ferociously.
2
CD had added information from James Frederick Simpson on the rustling noise made by worms to the printing of the fifth thousand of Earthworms, p. 58 (see letters from J. F. Simpson, 4 November 1881 and 8 November 1881).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

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

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-13584,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-13584