From W. B. Tegetmeier   15 December [1866]1

Muswell Hill

Decr 15

Dear Sir

Thanks for your kind note   it contained precisely the information I wanted2

I hardly know whether you care to read the enclosed—3

When writing to me please return it at your convenience but do not trouble to write purposely.

Yours very truly | W B Tegetmeier

Dr Sclater told me that statement about the Numida ptiloryncha in the last number of the Poultry Book4

1
The year is established by the reference to the most recent instalment of the Poultry book (see n. 4, below).
2
CD had supplied Tegetmeier with information on the origin of the domestic duck and goose (see letter to W. B. Tegetmeier, 12 December [1866] and nn. 3 and 4).
3
The enclosure has not been found. CD returned it to Tegetmeier with his letter of 18 [December 1866].
4
The reference is to Philip Lutley Sclater. Tegetmeier’s Poultry book (Tegetmeier 1867) was issued in fifteen monthly instalments, the most recent (part 12, pp. 266–88) dated December 1866. CD’s unbound annotated copy is in the Darwin Library–CUL. Tegetmeier wrote that Numida ptilorhyncha, the Abyssinian guinea fowl (a synonym of N. meleagris subsp. meleagris, the helmeted guineafowl), was probably the ancestor of the domestic variety (Tegetmeier 1867, p. 288; see also Variation 1: 294).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-5309,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-5309