Ɛpsilon

To Philip Lutley Sclater   4 March [1861]

Down Bromley Kent

March 4th

My dear Mr Sclater

You told me that I might have one of the Russian Rabbits to skeletonise (which Rabbits, both Bucks, I sent to Gardens).1 Will you be so good as to give order to have one killed by throat being cut, especially not knocked on Head, & sent by address on next page.—2

I signed your certificate the other day at Royal Socy.3

I see there has been paper on skeleton of Hybrid Hare-Rabbit,4 as I am now working at Skeletons of Rabbits, I shd. like to see this notice, if you chance to have spare proof.—

Yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin

Endorsement: ‘March 1861’

1
Sclater was the secretary of the Zoological Society of London and involved in the management of the society’s zoological gardens in Regent’s Park. Presumably CD refers to the so-called Russian or Himalayan rabbit (Variation 1: 108). He described the osteological characters of this breed in Variation 1: 127–8.
2
The page on which the address was written is missing.
3
Sclater was one of fifty people proposed as candidates for membership of the Royal Society of London in March 1861. He was among the fifteen elected on 6 June (Proceedings of the Royal Society of London 11 (1860–2): 130–1, 233).
4
Crisp 1861.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

3.2 Skeletons] after del ‘their’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-3080,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-3080