Ɛpsilon

To P. L. Sclater   9 November 1870

Down. | Beckenham | Kent. S.E.

Nov 9. 1870

My dear Mr Sclater

Your offer is most generous & wd. be an immense benefit for my book.1 But you do not know what you are offering; there are about 200 pages, of the size of my origin, on birds. I have corrected half of them in slips, & when in sheets they wd be much better for you to read, though there wd be the great disadvantage that I cd not without strong cause, make great alterations. There wd be hardly any thing new to you in any part, & you cd in most cases be able give much better illustrations than I have been able to do. Therefore considering every thing, unless you renew yr offer, I will assume that you have not time to read through so many pages; but in this case I will most gladly accept yr offer of correcting another list of names.

With very sincere thanks | yours very truly | Ch. Darwin

P.S. I have recd Mr Hudson’s proof sheets but have not yet had time to read them—2

The only possible interest my 4 chapters on Birds cd. have for you is the collection of facts on some trifling points, all relating more or less to sex.

LS(A)

1
Sclater’s letter has not been found, but see the letter to P. L. Sclater, 4 November [1870]. Sclater had evidently offered to check the page proofs of the sections on birds in Descent, rather than just lists of names, as CD had suggested.
2
CD presumably refers to the later parts of William Henry Hudson’s letters to the Zoological Society of London on the ornithology of Buenos Aires (Hudson 1870). See letter to P. L. Sclater, 30 August [1870].

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.6 be able] interl in CD’s hand
4.1 The only … sex. 4.2] in CD’s hand

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-7362,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-7362