To F. T. Buckland   1 February [1863]1

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

Feb. 1st

My dear Mr Buckland

I thank you sincerely for your very kind note & information.2 I will write about the fins.—3 Pray present my thanks to the Editor of the Field;4 & will, if I require it, avail myself of his kind permission. I formerly did occasionally receive some good facts through that channel.5 But my health is very weak & I find myself overdone & almost smothered with facts & necessary enquiries, so that I am trying to restrict, as much as I can, the scope of my present work, which is on a large subject “Variation under Domestication”.—6

As you truly say the power of lying is great; I thought that dog & fox cross did not come under that grand category; but I forget my facts, except that one good observer Hon. & Revd. Dr Herbert assured me that he had seen an animal which he felt assured was such a cross.—7

I should much enjoy having a little talk with you, when in London.— I am coming up this week & will endeavour to see you at Athenæum or elsewhere; but I have not been well enough for nearly a year to stay in London & in consequence have got far more to do than I shall be able to get through.—8

With sincere thanks, pray believe me | Yours sincerely | Charles Darwin

1
The year is established by the reference to the letter from F. T. Buckland, [before 1 February 1863], and by the reference to CD’s planned visit to London (see n. 8, below).
3
See letter to J. J. Briggs, 2 February [1863]. Buckland had evidently suggested that CD write to John Joseph Briggs on the subject of fish fins in the missing portion of the letter from F. T. Buckland, [before 1 February 1863].
4
The editor of the Field, John Henry Walsh, had invited CD to use the paper’s columns for his natural history queries (see letter from F. T. Buckland, [before 1 February 1863]).
5
The Field published several of CD’s letters in 1861 (see Correspondence vol. 9, letters to the Field, [before 27 April 1861], [before 4 May 1861], [before 25 May 1861], and [before 15 June 1861]). CD cited the information he received from the Field in Variation 1: 58, 253.
6
The variation of animals and plants under domestication, eventually published in two volumes in 1868, was intended to be the first part of CD’s ‘big book’ on species (see Variation 1: 3–10). CD began writing drafts of the chapters on inheritance (chapters 12–14) in January 1863, completing the work on 1 April (see ‘Journal’ (Correspondence vol. 11, Appendix II)).
7
See letter from F. T. Buckland, [before 1 February 1863]. CD had received information from Brian Houghton Hodgson that dog and fox crosses had occurred in India (see Correspondence vol. 4, letter from J. D. Hooker, 13 October 1848; see also Correspondence vol. 2, Questions for Mr Wynne, [February–July 1838]). In reviewing the evidence for the intercrossing of dogs with other species in Variation, CD repeated two further anecdotes indicating that some breeds of dog might interbreed with foxes (see Variation 1: 31–3). William Herbert’s observation of dog and fox crosses (Herbert 1837, pp. 339–40) was not cited, and no letter from Herbert on this subject has been found.
8
CD was in London between 4 and 14 February 1863 (see ‘Journal’ (Correspondence vol. 11, Appendix II)).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-3961,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-3961