Ɛpsilon

From G. R. Gray   8 April 1868

British Museum

8th. April 1868

Dear Sir

I must trouble you with a line to say that the difference between the sexes of the Ibis rubra is, that the female is smaller than the male.— It is stated, that the bird is three year old, before it assumes the Scarlet plumage.1

Yours faithfully | G. R. Gray

C. Darwin, Esqre.

1
Ibis rubrais a synonym of Eudocimus ruber, the scarlet ibis (see letter from G. R. Gray, 2 April 1868 and n. 1). For more on plumage variations and size difference in the scarlet ibis, see Hancock et al. 1992, pp. 147–9.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-6105,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-6105