From A. V. W. Bikkers   27 August 1874

Dear Sir,

If you should still remember my name, after a lapse of 4 years, as the Editor of Professor Schleicher’s remarkable letter on your evolution theory, you will, probably, be aware of the interest I have always taken in a theory with which your name will ever be honourably connected.¹

On this ground, alone, do I venture to direct your attention to a curious case of interbreeding, which, to you may be rare or not, but which seems, at any rate, to have excited the covetousness of some gentlemen from Brighton   I refer to what is clearly a cross-breed between a duck and a fowl; on the grounds of M^r. Edmund Lee, Loampit Hill House, Lewisham, (a neighbour of mine) I have seen to-day two drakes and two ducks with beaks pertaining of both species, partly webbed feet and, in one case, with distinct fowl feathers. I thought it my duty to advise you of this phenomenon probably in the interest of your enquiries. Should they be worth their attention M^r. Lee would be proud to shew them to you. He does not personally seem to be very much attached to them.

Yours faithfully: | Alex V.W. Bikkers.

Charles Darwin Esq^re F.R.S.