Ɛpsilon

To Abraham Dee Bartlett   9 December [1867]1

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

Dec. 9th

My dear Sir

Would you have the kindness to send me on a slip of paper the name of the 3 or 4 Tringa-like Birds in the Aquarium, which never, except once, assumed the proper summer plumage.2 Please just add whether you have known this with more than the 3 or 4 individuals, which you showed me.3

I much wish I could persuade you to try with differently coloured worsted or rags, whether the Bower-bird prefers gay colours.—4

I thank you most sincerely for all the interesting information which you so often give me.—5

My dear Sir | Yours very faithfully | Ch. Darwin

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from A. D. Bartlett, 9 December 1867.
2
CD refers to the aquarium in the gardens of the Zoological Society of London (Scherren 1905, pp. 107–8) and to the genus Tringa (now Calidris) (Birds of the world 3: 519–20). In Descent 2: 82, CD noted that captivity in the Zoological Gardens affected the reproductive system as well as the development of ornamental summer plumage in Tringa.
3
CD had visited London from 28 November until 7 December 1867 (CD’s ‘Journal’ (Correspondence vol. 15, Appendix II)).
4
CD refers to birds of the family Ptilonorhynchidae; their preference for brightly coloured objects is described in Descent 2: 69–71, 112.
5
Bartlett was cited in Variation, the sixth edition of Origin, Descent, and Expression. See also Correspondence vols. 8–14.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.2 Tringa-like] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-5719,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-5719