To W. B. Tegetmeier   15 October [1856]

Down Bromley Kent

Oct— 15th

My dear Sir

Many thanks for the Runt received this morning.1

I have had some live fowls sent me from some way in interior of Sierra Leone, so that they are genuine Africans.—2 Would you like a Cockrel to look at & then kill if it so pleases you. I could send it to Carstang’s carriage free.3 But I must tell you that Mr. Brent4 called here the other day & looked at them & says they have no marked character, having a good deal of the Game in them, with perhaps a dash of the Malay, especially a Hen, which I shall keep for skeleton. I doubt whether the Cock is worth your having, but it is most entirely at your service.—

By the way I shd. be very glad of a Malay Cock, if you can ever get one dead for me.—

With many thanks | Your’s very sincerely | C. Darwin

3
Carstang is listed in CD’s Address book (Down House MS) under ‘pigeons’. His address was Ship Tavern Passage, Leadenhall Market, an area of London associated with meat and poultry markets.
4
Bernard Peirce Brent.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

2.7 the Cock is] interl
2.7 having] ‘h’ over ‘k’
2.7 it is] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-1975,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-1975