To W. B. Tegetmeier   14 April [1861]1

Down Bromley Kent

Ap. 14th

My dear Sir

Many thanks for Scotch Fawn Rabbit received yesterday & examined to day: I have been very glad to see it. How shall I return it? Can you find out two points for me,—was it wild & was it (as I suppose) a single odd individual?—2

The Angora has just been examined: before making skeleton, for several reasons (great size large ears &c) I suspected that it had been crossed with a large Fancy rabbit; & now I think this still more strongly.— Could you get me a pure albino rabbit? I shd be very glad of another specimen.

Also please do not forget a half-lop, with one ear erect & smaller than the other.—

I have got (but not yet read) the Field to day & see your curious Cock, which I have quoted in my M.S.3 I have now done external characters & shall commence on skeletons.

I plainly see that I shall consume much of your valuable time.— I now enclose a string of questions: some few easy to answer but mostly troublesome & requiring special examination of several Fowls.—

You will see several apply to Shangais; also some to Polands   these will be easy to you.— My M.S. will, also, be a much longer job for you than I had anticipated.4 I have kept list of my Queries, which may shorten your answers.—5 Could you visit any one who keeps several Shangais & Malays? All my queries are founded on what I have seen or heard; but it would take too much space to give my reasons for asking.—

Your assistance will be invaluable to me.—

My Dear Sir | Yours sincerely | Ch. Darwin

P.S. | I have just opened your Box with Skulls. What a magnificent collection!6 I suppose that I have a score more, so that I shall have good materials. I notice that some as Bantams, are not clean enough.— I will assume that I may boil them & clean them, though of course there is always some risk in this, in relation to the articulated bones at the base. But the loss would not be irremediable & I will take care. I must confess that some of my own became disarticulated, but this to me was no injury.—

How did you saw so neatly the skull of Poland?

[Enclosure]7

(19) Though the cock which conquers, naturally gets first choice of wives, yet from analogy with other Birds, & from one account, I imagine the Hen has to be won or charmed to grant her favours.— Can you throw any light on this point, which interests me much.?— There can hardly be a doubt that the beauty of male Bird is to charm the female. Now it has occurred to me to ask you to observe, whether Hens yield to your Hen-tailed Game, as readily as to other cocks. He would be victor, & so have enormous advantage, but would his want of beauty at all interfere with his amatory success, supposing any other & gorgeous cock were present.— I formerly thought of clipping and mutilating the feathers of a cock & observing, but I could not spare time to observe.

Do you know anyone who has kept many Hen-tailed Games & other Game-cocks, such a man might have observed on this point.—

1
Dated by the relationship to the letter to W. B. Tegetmeier, 2 April [1861], and by the reference to CD’s manuscript on fowls. CD was composing the chapter on variation in domestic and wild fowls for Variation (see ‘Journal’; Appendix II).
2
CD included measurements taken from the wild, fawn-coloured rabbit from Scotland in the chart on osteological differences between various breeds published in Variation 1: 127.
4
Tegetmeier had agreed to read CD’s manuscript on fowls (see letters to W. B. Tegetmeier, 22 March [1861] and 28 March [1861]).
5
The list of CD’s queries has not been found; only part of the enclosure has been located.
6
CD had asked to examine Tegetmeier’s extensive collection of the skulls and skeletons of various breeds of fowl (see Correspondence vol. 8, letters to W. B. Tegetmeier, 17 April [1860] and 20 July [1860]).
7
The enclosure is in DAR 84.1: 145. Tegetmeier’s response to CD’s queries is written on the back (see letter from W. B. Tegetmeier, [28 May 1861]). The annotations that CD made on the enclosure pertain to Tegetmeier’s response: see the letter from W. B. Tegetmeier, [28 May 1861].

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

2.2 (great … &c) square brackets in MS
4.1 (but not yet read)] interl
5.1 valuable] interl
6.4 &] over ‘or’
9.1 opened] after del ‘noti’
9.4 some risk] ‘some’ interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-3118,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-3118