Ɛpsilon

To T. C. Eyton   14 May [1861]1

Down. | Bromley. | Kent. S.E.

May 14th

Dear Eyton

I thank you sincerely for your wish to see me in London & for your kind invitation to Eyton.2 I should most truly enjoy seeing you; but this very day I wished for two urgent reasons to go to London, but I have been so unwell lately that I was unable. If ever I am again at Shrewsbury, I will, if strong enough pay you a visit & see the place, at which I have spent many happy days.

On your return home, if you can spare time, (but I know the request is perhaps unreasonable & shall not be surprised at not hearing) I shd. be very glad of a brief answer, with permission to quote you, on the three points on which I asked.

(1) whether the skeletons of Birds, excepting skull, of the same restricted genus, do not generally very closely resemble each other. (2) whether the Wing & leg bones are generally very constant in form. (3) whether in largely crested Gallinaceæ the skull is protuberant to support the crest.—3

Dear Eyton | Yours very sincerely | C. Darwin

1
Dated by the relationship to the letter to T. C. Eyton, 6 May [1861].
2
Eyton’s family seat was in Eyton, near Shrewsbury in Shropshire. CD and Eyton shared a common interest in natural history during their student days at Cambridge University. Eyton, in addition to keeping a large number of animals on his estate, had formed a fine museum collection that was particularly rich in bird species (see Correspondence vol. 6, letter to T. C. Eyton, 31 August [1856]).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

2.2 unreasonable] ‘un’ over illeg

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-3148,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-3148