To T. C. Eyton   9 January [1865?]1

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

Jan. 9th

Dear Eyton

I am uncommonly much obliged to you for your facts about breeding:2 if any other striking case should occur to you, perhaps you will have kindness to inform me.

I am equally or even more obliged for promised measurements of web of feet of Otter Hounds: if you possibly can will you give me comparative with Fox Hounds or Harriers; for I have here no opportunity of seeing Dogs.3

With hearty thanks | Ever yours sincerely | Charles Darwin

1
The year is conjectured from the relationship between this letter, the letter to F. T. Buckland, 11 December [1864], and the letter to T. C. Eyton, 29 December [1864?] (Correspondence vol. 12).
2
Eyton’s letter has not been found. The facts to which CD refers are probably cases of sterility between normally fertile mammals or birds; CD cited instances of sexual incompatibility communicated to him by Eyton in Variation 2: 162. CD requested such information in his letter to Eyton of 29 December [1864?] (Correspondence vol. 12).
3
In his letter of 29 December [1864?] (Correspondence vol. 12), CD had asked Eyton to examine the feet of otter-hounds. Eyton may be the ‘friend’ cited in Variation 1: 39–40 as the source of information that English otter-hounds, as dogs with aquatic habits, have more skin between their toes than do other hounds; however, see also Correspondence vol. 12, letter to F. T. Buckland, 11 December [1864].

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

2.2 Hounds] over illeg

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-4744,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-4744