To Philip Lutley Sclater   6 January [1866]1

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

Jan 6

Dear Sclater

I know that you are one of the busiest of men, but I want to beg a little bit of information & I trust to your kindness for I do not know to whom else to apply. Mr Swinhoe writes to me of a domestic race of duck in China as perhaps descended from Anas pœcilorhyncha.2 Now do you consider this form as deserving to be called a distinct species from A. Boschas & may I quote your opinion??3

How does it differ? I suppose it has the curled tail feathers & wing-marks. Is it a native of China? I shd be versuppose it has the curled tail feathers & wing-marks. Is it a native of China? I shd be very grateful for a few lines giving me information on these heads.4

Pray forgive me troubling you & believe me

yours very sincerely | Charles Darwin

P.S. After nine months inaction from illness, I have just begun to do a little work—5

LS(A)

1
The year is established by the content of the postscript (see n. 5, below).
2
CD probably refers to the missing portion of the letter from Robert Swinhoe, [before 1 October 1865?] (Correspondence vol. 13); the surviving portion includes a discussion of ducks, but not of Anas poecilorhyncha, the spot-billed duck of Asia. Robert Swinhoe, the British consul in Formosa (now Taiwan), had earlier informed CD of a supposed ‘thorough race’ of duck that had developed from hybrids of the muscovy duck (Cairina moschata; then also A. moschata) and the Chinese domestic duck (see Correspondence vol. 10, letter from Robert Swinhoe, 12 November 1862).
3
No reply from Sclater has been found; in his discussion of breeds of domestic ducks and their descent from the mallard, Anas boschas (now A. platyrhynchos), in Variation 1: 276–87, CD did not cite information from Sclater or Swinhoe.
4
Anas poecilorhyncha is distributed throughout Asia. Its lack of curled tail-feathers distinguishes it from A. boschas, although both species have conspicuous wing patches (Birds of the world 1: 605, 607). CD mentioned A. boschas, but not A. poecilorhyncha, in Variation.
5
CD recorded being ill from 22 April until December 1865 (see Correspondence vol. 13, Appendix II).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.5 & … opinion?] interl in CD’s hand

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-4970,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-4970