Ɛpsilon

To Journal of Horticulture   [before 27 December 1862]1

If any of your readers have kept Penguin Ducks, and will have the kindness to observe one little point, and communicate the result, I should be greatly obliged.2 On examining the skeleton, I find that certain bones of the leg are longer than in the other breeds. I formerly kept these birds alive, and as far as I dare trust my memory, they could run considerably faster than other Ducks.3 Is this the case? It would, perhaps, be a good way to test their running powers to call the two kinds, when hungry, from a distance to their food, and see which arrived first.—

Charles Darwin, Down, Bromley, Kent.

1
The letter was published in the issue of 27 December 1862.
2
According to his ‘Journal’, CD prepared a draft of the section of Variation relating to ducks (Variation 1: 276–87) between 16 and 31 May 1861 (see Correspondence vol. 9, Appendix II).
3
CD discussed the osteological peculiarities distinctive of penguin ducks in Variation 1: 281–6, noting that this was ‘the most remarkable of all the breeds’ of domestic duck (p. 281), and stating that the elongation of the femur and metatarsus, relative to the same bones in the wild duck, was ‘no doubt connected with its peculiar upright manner of walking’ (p. 284).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-3883F,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-3883F