From W. B. Tegetmeier   20 June 1865

Muswell Hill | N

June 20/65

My dear Sir

Your kind letter pained me very much. You should not trouble to write or dictate letters to me when you are not as well as usual.

A single line from your amanuensis to acknowledge receipt of MSS on pigeons would have been enough.1

I have written to Mr Zurhorst and if he cannot try the experiment I can readily do so.—2

Please oblige me by not answering this.

And believe me | Yours very sincerely | W B Tegetmeier

C Darwin. Esq.

The Pigeon Voyageur Belge arrived safely.3 Many thanks

1
The most recent extant letter from CD to Tegetmeier is the letter to W. B. Tegetmeier, 2 June [1865]. It appears that he wrote a later letter in which he acknowledged receipt of the manuscript of the section on pigeons for Variation.
2
In his letter of 2 June [1865], CD had suggested a crossing experiment with pigeons. Tegetmeier refers to Frederick William Zurhorst, who had answered earlier queries from CD through Tegetmeier. See letter from W. B. Tegetmeier, 10 April 1865 and n. 5.
3
CD had mentioned Le pigeon voyageur belge (Chapuis 1865) to Tegetmeier (see letter to W. B. Tegetmeier, 2 June [1865] and n. 8), and probably sent it in response to a request from Tegetmeier; no letter from Tegetmeier making such a request has been found.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-4864,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-4864