To E. W. V. Harcourt1   19 August [1856]2

Down Farnborough Kent

Augt 19th

My dear Sir

I think you told me long ago that you had Brehm’s Book on German ornithology.3 If this be so, & you can spare it, will you be so kind as to lend it me for a fortnight.— In this case will you put on enclosed address & send it by Parcels Deliv. Coy.—

If you have it not, or cannot spare it, tear up the address & I shall understand why it does not come.—4

I want to see how far Brehm goes in splitting species.—5

I have been thinking over the many curious facts which you told me,6 & wish more than ever that you would publish a paper on the subject.—7

I took some of the little finches from Madeira to Brit Mus. & found the Goldfinch, Linnet & greenfinch rather smaller than the British specimens; but not the Blackbird,—nor, as you saw the Swift.—

I wish I had taken more for comparison.—

My dear Sir | Yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin

1
The recipient is identified by CD’s reference to Madeiran birds (see n. 7, below).
2
Dated from the reference to Brehm 1831. CD recorded having read this book on 30 August 1856 (Correspondence vol. 4, Appendix IV, 128: 20). CD’s notes on the volume are in DAR 71: 162–3.
3
Brehm 1831. CD had skimmed Christian Ludwig Brehm’s work ten years earlier and was aware of his tendency to split species (Correspondence vol. 3, letter to Leonard Jenyns, 17 October [1846]).
5
CD referred to Brehm 1831 in relation to taxonomic practice in Natural selection, p. 114. Brehm was cited as having added 576 species of birds to the German avifauna.
6
See the concluding paragraphs of the letter from E. W. V. Harvourt, 31 May 1856.
7
CD probably refers to Harcourt’s remarks about the peculiarities of distribution in the letter from E. W. V. Harcourt, 31 May 1856. Harcourt had already published two works on Madeiran ornithology, both of which CD read. CD’s notes on Harcourt 1851 are in DAR 71: 87–8, and an annotated copy of Harcourt 1855 is in DAR 196.4.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-1451,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-1451