Ɛpsilon

To E. W. V. Harcourt   15 December [1857]

Down Bromley Kent

December 15th

My dear Sir

I am very much obliged for your kind note & invitation; but my health has been for some time so indifferent that I hardly ever leave home, & a journey to Hastings would fatigue me considerably.1

I thank you much for your very obliging offer of lending me the Pigeons; but it so long & troublesome a journey to this out of the way village that it is not worth while on the poor Pigeons & my own account to accept your offer; more especially as I shall so soon have a good opportunity of seeing them at the Crystal Palace.2 I look forward with much interest to seeing them; for I suspect that they will turn out to be unimproved Barbs; & if so though in the Fanciers eyes of not much value they will be of extreme interest to me.—3 I have now got skins of unimproved Carriers & Tumblers both from Persia & India, & it is most instructive to me to see the changes (& improvements as the Fanciers consider them) which have been produced in these birds.— If they turn out to be original Barbs or any Breed new to me, I will most gratefully accept your offer of a specimen or two after they have bred in the Spring.—

With my very true thanks, I beg leave to remain. | Yours sincerely obliged | Ch. Darwin

Endorsement: ‘1857’

1
Harcourt’s letter has not been found; he lived at Hastings (Correspondence vol. 6, letter from E. W. V. Harcourt, 31 May 1856).
2
See this volume, Supplement, letter to E. W. V. Harcourt, 13 December [1857] and n. 2. Harcourt evidently offered to lend CD his African owl pigeons.
3
Barbs were an old pigeon breed, notable for their very short beaks; this feature was also characteristic of African owl pigeons. In Variation 1: 144–6 and 148–9, CD placed these breeds in different groups, despite the similarities of beak size.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-2184F,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-2184F