To W. B. Tegetmeier   21 September [1856]1

Down Bromley Kent

Sept. 21st

My dear Sir

In accordance with your kind offer, I write to say that what I want far most of all is one or two good Carriers, & secondly a Runt of largest size & thirdly a first-rate Fan-tail. I hope to get latter from Mr H. Weir2 or Wicking,3 but when Heaven knows only. I have asked M Corker4 for a Carrier & Mr Gulliver for a Runt5 but strangers very naturally forget or will not take the trouble to send.—

I am become as much interested in Rabbits as in Pigeons & shd be very glad of any assistance in that line. The Angora has made a capital skeleton & is in some small respects rather peculiar. I want much the Great Hare Rabbit. Ducks, also, are very valuable to me & I want a black Buenos Ayrean & Rouen very much. I wd. buy old Drakes at a moderate rate gladly.—

Would you object at any time to put in Cottage Gardener, a query whether any one in England has Finnikin or Turner Pigeons?6

At Leith Hill7 I noticed some very fine rather dark-coloured Dorkings with 5 toes, & all the quarter-grown chickens had hardly any tail at all, but which comes subsequently. Did you know that this was characteristic of any breed: I went to a Farm House whence my Brother got this breed & the good woman assured me that this was their general, but not quite invariable characteristic. The old Birds seemed all alike & true, so that I can hardly suppose the tailless condition to be owing to cross with Cochin, but so it may be.

I have only got as yet 1st nor of the Poultry Book,8 so do not know yet how you are getting on.

My dear Sir | Yours sincerely | C. Darwin

1
Dated by the reference to Leith Hill Place, the home of CD’s sister Caroline Sarah Wedgwood. CD stayed there from 13 to 19 September 1856 (‘Journal’; Appendix II).
2
Harrison Weir.
4
E. L. Corker Esq. of 11 Queen Street, Cheapside was mentioned as having won the prize for the best carrier pigeons at the Anerley poultry show, 29 July – 1 August 1856 (Cottage Gardener (1856) 16: 340). In Variation 1: 132 n. 2, CD recorded that: ‘Mr. Haynes and Mr. Corker have given me specimens of their magnificent Carriers.’
6
Tegetmeier was a regular contributor to the Cottage Gardener, which included the Poultry Chronicle. Tegetmeier complied with CD’s request (see letter to W. B. Tegetmeier, 3 November [1856]). In Variation 1: 156, finnikins and turners were mentioned as having existed ‘until recently’ in England and possibly in France and Germany.
7
See n. 1, above.
8
Tegetmeier 1856–7. The first number was issued in May 1856. By September, three further numbers had been issued. Owing to an error by his bookseller, CD did not actually acquire a copy of the Poultry book edited by Tegetmeier until the summer of 1857 (see letter to W. B. Tegetmeier, 18 May [1857]). Eleven numbers, all that were published, are in the Darwin Library–CUL.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

2.3 I want much the Great Hare Rabbit.] added
4.1 with 5 toes 4.2] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-1957,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-1957