WCP2469

[1]¹

36 Fairholme R^d

W.

17 Sept[ember] 1893

After having read, Sir Alfred, your Malay archipelago², I recalled the recommendation of my late friend Major G[e]n[eral][?] Scott R. [word illeg.] that I should enlist your interest in the book of another friend Tito Vignoli³, of Milan, on the subject of Comparative Psychology at that time [two words illeg.] not accessible.

I was so deeply int [2] -terested however, in the ethnological & ornithological portion of your work that I applied to M^r. [word illeg.] of the Natural History Museum for your address which he kindly gave me.

When [word illeg.] Vignoli's essay reached me, its subject excited very faint sensation.

During the interval [word illeg.] that has elapsed, however[,] enquiries have become more alive to its importance, and certainly these magnificent groups of birds [3] must strengthen [word illeg.] Vignoli's contention that so called instinct is but a rudiment of Intellect; as evidenced by the faculty of connecting cause with effect.

My writing to you is very much akin to a post mortem report, for the subject has passed, practically out of my Ken:

However, it is a peg on which I can hang the tribute[?] of my admiration of your [4] researches.

Permit me to subscribe myself | Yours truly | R. S. Morison [signature]⁴