To W. B. Tegetmeier   21 November [1857]1

Down Bromley Kent

Nov. 21st

My dear Sir

Thank you for your note. I have been looking over my Catalogue of specimens,2 & find to my surprise that I have no young chicken of Malay & without that for comparison, the skeleton of an old Bird wd. be comparatively useless to me; & therefore I think, if you could help me to purchase a few Malay eggs in the Spring, it would be much better for me than now getting a Cockrel; but I am sorry you shd. have had the trouble of writing for nothing.

Next summer I shall probably give away all my Pigeons & you may rely on it, I will inform you.—3

I killed some young Jacobins the other day, which from being Bull-eyed I did not think worth sending you.

As soon as ever I can find time to go over my little disquisition on Pigeons, & compare the skeletons &c. I shall give up Pigeons.—4

I shall certainly attend, (health permitting) the Annual Show of Philoperisteron.5 I am glad to hear you liked my little notice on Kidney Beans.—6

My dear Sir | Yours very sincerely | C. Darwin

Will you keep in mind Malay Eggs.—

1
Dated by the reference to CD’s letter to the Gardener’s Chronicle about kidney beans (see n. 6, below).
2
CD’s catalogue of poultry and pigeon specimens has not been located in the Darwin archive.
3
See Correspondence vol. 7, letters to W. B. Tegetmeier, [21 April 1858] and 8 September [1858].
4
CD had included a discussion of pigeons in chapter 1 of his species book (Natural selection, p. 25; see also Appendix III). He did not have time to revise or expand the manuscript until June 1858 (see Correspondence vol. 7, letter to W. B. Tegetmeier, 22 June [1858]).
5
The annual show of the Philoperisteron Society, of which CD was a member, took place on 19 January 1858. The report of the event in the Cottage Gardener, 19 (1857–8): 256, noted: ‘The visitors were numerous, fashionable, and scientific. It relieves Pigeon fancying from all charge of triviality when savans of such reputation as Messrs. Darwin and Waterhouse show, by their attendance and interest, that the changes capable of being produced in any species by domestication, are worthy of the deep attention of scientific inquirers; and in no species are these changes greater, or more varied, than in the Pigeon.’ The notice was probably written by Tegetmeier, a regular contributor to the Cottage Gardener.
6
Letter to Gardeners’ Chronicle, 18 October [1857].

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.2 to my surprise] interl
1.2 young] interl
1.4 purchase] interl
5.1 (health] parenthesis over comma

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-2173,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-2173