Ɛpsilon

To ?   6 April [1869–71]1

Beckenham, Kent

April 6th

[…] My experiment was intended solely to show that colour reappeared, and I choose kinds which breed turn to colour, as is certainly the case with spots and those which I tried2 […]

[…] I have recorded an undoubted case of wild rock Pigeons caught in Scotland having bred, in confinement3 […]

[et termine sa lettre en rappelant qu’il est accoutumé à être démenti et habitué au peu de confiance qu’accordent à la véracité de ses écrits ceux]4 […] who do not take the trouble to learn what I have written […]

incomplete5

1
The date range is established by the address. According to the sale catalogue, the name of the town Bromley is corrected by hand to Beckenham. This form of address was used by CD between April 1869 and May 1871.
2
Spots are a breed of pigeon; see Variation 1: 156. The word transcribed in the catalogue as ‘turn’ was probably ‘true’.
3
See Variation 1: 184–5, and Correspondence vol. 6, letter to Laurence Edmonston, 19 April [1857].
4
‘He finishes his letter by recalling that he is used to being contradicted and accustomed to the little trust that is placed in the truth of his works by those …’
5
The original letter is complete and is described in the sale catalogue as being one and a half pages long.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-6098A,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-6098A