Ɛpsilon

From H. Y. Thompson   21 January 1882

26A. Bryanston Square. W. | London

Jan 21 1882

Sir—

Mr. Moorhouse of Manchester1 told me the other day that he had frequently seen lapwings beat the ground with their tails in order as he believed to get worms to rise to the surface of the ground: & having got him to put his experience in writing I shewed his letter this evening to Mr. Farrer,2 who said it might be as well to send it on to you for what it might be worth. Pray do not be at the trouble of acknowledging it or of returning the letter.

Mr. Moorhouse had not seen your book, but he had evidently in early life been a close observer of the habits of worms.3

I am faithfully yours | H. Y Thompson

Charles Darwin Esq etc etc

1
Probably Christopher Moorhouse, a solicitor to the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company, of which Thompson was director.
2
The letter from Moorhouse has not been found. Thomas Henry Farrer had contributed many observations to CD’s Earthworms.
3
CD had mentioned that worms often left their burrows when the ground was beaten; he added the new information to Earthworms (1882), p. 28: ‘Bishop Stanley states (as I hear from Mr. Moorhouse) a young peewit kept in confinement used to stand on one leg and beat the turf with the other leg until worms crawled out of their burrows.’ The northern lapwing or peewit is Vanellus vanellus. Bishop Stanley was Edward Stanley; he described a lapwing beating the turf with its leg to draw out worms in Stanley 1854, p. 337.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-13635,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-13635