Ɛpsilon

To W. B. Tegetmeier   [28 March – 14 April 1861]1

send them to me by enclosed address. as I rather want to see two of them.—

My dear Sir | yours sincerely | C. Darwin

I am getting together a few points to investigate.—

I think the Half-lop, had better be killed (not knocked on Head) if you get one.—2

I have not yet opened the Box with the Skulls; for I have not yet come to Skeleton.—3

incomplete4

1
The date range is established by the relationship between this letter and the letters to W. B. Tegetmeier, 28 March [1861] and 14 April [1861] (Correspondence vol. 9).
2
CD was interested in how the skulls of domestic rabbits were modified by the lengthening and lopping of their ears; the half-lop rabbit has one ear lopping forward, and a correspondingly asymmetrical skull (see Variation 2: 324–5).
3
Tegetmeier had lent CD his collection of fowl skulls for his work on Variation (see Variation 1: 260, and Correspondence vol. 9, letter to W. B. Tegetmeier, 28 March [1861]).
4
The letter advertised by the dealer is incomplete; all the available text is transcribed above.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-3103F,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-3103F