Ɛpsilon

To Osbert Salvin   23 June [1868]

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

June 23d

My dear Sir

I thank you most sincerely for the great trouble, which you have taken in answering my questions.— Your answers are all perfectly clear & distinct.— I am very glad indeed to hear of the case of the Sandpiper—1 such little facts are my delight. It will go well with the F. Water Ancylus attached to a Dyticus, & the Balani attached to a Flamingo’s feet.—2

With cordial thanks, pray believe me | Yours sincerely & obliged | Charles Darwin

Postmark: JU24 | 68

1
See the first enclosure to the letter from Osbert Salvin, 20 June 1868.
2
In Origin, p. 386, CD remarked that Charles Lyell had told him of a Dyticus (or Dytiscus: a water-beetle) caught with an Ancylus (a freshwater shell like a limpet) adhering to it. In his letter of 14 August 1863 (Correspondence vol. 11), Robert Swinhoe had written to CD of a flamingo that had its legs covered with barnacles. CD was interested in possible vectors for the distribution of organisms.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-6258A,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-6258A