WCP2469

[1]¹

36 Fairholme R^d

W.

17 Sept 1893.

After having read, Sir Alfred, your Malay archipelago,² I recalled the recommendation of my late friend Major Gn. Scott R. [illeg.] that I should enlist your interest in the book of another friend Tito Vignoli,³ of Milan, on the subject of Comparative Psychology at that time you were not accessible.

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

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

During the interval, that has elapsed, however enquiries have become more alive to its importance, and certainly these magnificent groups of birds [3] must strengthen [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. Morison⁴ [signature]