To W. D. Fox   27 [June 1855]1

Down Farnborough Kent

27th—

My dear Fox

I have received safely the young Duckling, & he is now pickled.— How very different from the young Aylesbury! I am rather disgusted for I expected otherwise.—

What trouble you will have to take, & have taken about the young poultry, having to go to so many quarters.

I am going on with my salting experiments. Several seeds have now come up after 65 & 70 days immersion.— What you say about testing for the percentage is very true; I had intended it, but I found it so very troublesome actually to count all the seeds.— But I have sown all kinds without salting so as to test, as far as eyesight serves, how far they were good seeds.—

I have just ordered Almond Tumblers & Runts, so I shall have soon a grand collection of Pigeons.—

Should you ever be able to give me history of any mongrel crosses of any animals whatever, I shd. be very glad of them.2 I am awfully deficient in exact information on mongrels, though pretty rich in regard to Hybrids. I mean to cross Pigeons systematically, & see how the offspring go, how much they vary & which parent take after &c &c. &c &c

Ever most truly Your’s | C. Darwin

1
Dated by the relationship to letter to W. D. Fox, 11 June [1855].
2
CD means information about the results of crossing animals of mixed ancestry rather than hybrid crosses between pure-bred species. Fox is cited in Variation 2: 30–1, 40 as having supplied information about reversion in the offspring of crosses between different breeds of domestic animals.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

3.4 without salting] interl
5.4 how] ‘h’ over ‘&’
5.4 which] over ‘what’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-1704,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-1704