From W. B. Tegetmeier   22 January [1866]1

Muswell Hill

Jany 22./65

My dear Sir

I was very glad to see your writing again.2 I had heard from Mr Wallace that you were better but would not trouble you with letters.3

I have already engraved

Barb—

Short faced tumbler

African owl

Fantail

and. Carrier.4

There remain to be done the Pouter and Blue Rock.5 of the latter I shall a pure wild bred specimen from Sutherlandshire on Tuesday6   That compleates the pigeons— of the fowls the Spanish cock head is engraved: Polish in Engravers hands— Hamburgh (rose comb) is being drawn—7

I returned Chappuis, (with thanks) by post on Friday.8 The author has sent me a copy—

The experiment respecting the eggs shall be tried as soon as possible both by myself and Mr Zurhorst—9

—Now I want to ask an especial favour which will cost you I hope but little trouble and do me much service

—The Unfortunate “poultry book which was never completed, has at last got into the hands of a solvent publisher10

It is commenced de novo And as all the original matter of Johnson & Wingfield is expunged the book will go by my name only.—.11 All the matter to which you have referred will be retained and I therefore beg to ask you as a great favour to refer to the Poultry book by W B Tegetmeier—12 I do this the more readily as a very small number only 500 of the incomplete edition was printed and I should doubt whether a single copy except that in the British Museum could be obtained for reference   Whereas if I live there is no doubt of this present edition being finished and as 4000 of the first part are sold it will be a well known authority—

Trusting you will excuse my troubling you on this subject | Believe me | My dear Sir | Yours very truly | W B Tegetmeier

C Darwin Esq

CD annotations

4.1 The experiment … Zurhorst— 4.2] double scored pencil
1
The year is established by the publication date of the first part of Tegetmeier 1867 (see n. 11, below). Tegetmeier mistakenly dated the letter ‘65’ instead of ‘66.’
3
The reference is to Alfred Russel Wallace. For CD’s recently improved health, see the letter to H. B. Jones, 3 January [1866] and nn. 2–8.
4
Tegetmeier supervised the procurement of illustrations of pigeons and poultry, and their engraving, for Variation (see letter to W. B. Tegetmeier, 16 January [1866] and n. 2). Tegetmeier refers to illustrations that appear in the first volume of Variation with the captions ‘English Barb’ (p. 145), ‘Short-faced English Tumbler’ (p. 152), ‘African Owl’ (p. 149), ‘English Fantail’ (p. 147), and ‘English Carrier’ (p. 140).
5
The two engravings entitled ‘The Rock-pigeon, or Columba livia’ and ‘English Pouter’ appear in Variation 1: 135 and 137, respectively. The rock pigeon is a slaty-blue colour (Variation 1: 183, 195).
6
No record survives of the bird from Sutherlandshire (a former Scottish county, subsumed after 1974 into Highland Region); the dead rock pigeon illustrated in Variation was apparently obtained instead from the Orkney Islands or the Isle of Lewis (see letter from W. B. Tegetmeier, 4 July 1866).
7
CD asked Tegetmeier to arrange for Luke Wells to draw these breeds (see Correspondence vol. 13, letter to W. B. Tegetmeier, [7 April 1865]). The engravers were Butterworth and Heath (ibid., letter from W. B. Tegetmeier to John Murray and R. F. Cooke, 17 April 1865). The illustrations appeared in Variation 1: 226, 228–29.
8
The reference is to Chapuis 1865 (see letter to W. B. Tegetmeier, 16 January [1866] and n. 4).
9
Tegetmeier refers to CD’s request that Tegetmeier ask Frederick William Zurhorst to repeat an experiment on eggs from a cross between Cochin and Spanish fowl (see letter to W. B. Tegetmeier, 16 January [1866] and n. 5). Neither a discussion, nor the results, of Zurhorst’s original cross have been found.
10
The first edition of the The poultry book was by William Wriothesley Wingfield and George William Johnson (Wingfield and Johnson 1853). In 1856 and 1857, a revised edition, edited by Tegetmeier, was published in parts by William S. Orr and Co. (Correspondence vol. 6, letter to W. B. Tegetmeier, 18 May [1857] and nn. 4–6); however, the publishers went out of business before the edition was completed. The eleven unbound parts of the incomplete edition (Wingfield and Johnson 1856–7) are in the Darwin Library–CUL and are annotated by CD (see Marginalia 1: 798–800). See also n. 11 below.
11
Wingfield and Johnson 1856–7 was superseded by Tegetmeier 1867, published by George Routledge & Sons. The work retained most of the original plates and Tegetmeier’s text from Wingfield and Johnson 1856–7; it included four additional parts and new figures and plates. Twelve parts of Tegetmeier 1867 were issued in 1866 and three in 1867. The unbound copies, heavily annotated by CD, are in the Darwin Library–CUL (see Marginalia 1: 800–3).
12
Tegetmeier had previously asked CD to cite him personally rather than refer to Wingfield and Johnson 1856–7 (see Correspondence vol. 13, letter from W. B. Tegetmeier, [29 March – 7 April 1865]). CD replied that he was still obliged to refer occasionally to Wingfield and Johnson 1856–7 for details of work by others than Tegetmeier (ibid., letter to W. B. Tegetmeier, 2 June [1865]). However, CD was able to change the references, as Tegetmeier 1867 is cited frequently in the chapter on fowls in Variation (1: 225–75), not Wingfield and Johnson 1856–7.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-4983,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-4983