The Dell, Grays, Essex
Dec.[embe]r 10th. 1874
Dear Newton1
The genera you name are all thoroughly Oriental genera that in Himilayan, Indo Chinese, & Mayalan. Their occurrence in Africa therefore indicates the amount of relationship between the two regions, but can be no way have a special relationship between the Peninsula of India & Africa, which alone is the question I was referring to.
There are many more genera common to the two regions, but to prove the special relationship of the Hindustan2 as distinguished from the Indo Malay fauna you must show that Hindustan alone has [2] numerous Ethiopian forms which are not found in the rest of the region. Judged in the way what [1st half of word illeg]claim & that Hindustan & Oriental rather than Ethiopian as the proportion of 80 to 4 as indicated by bird genera.
For Sylviada3 I have trusted wholly to Tristram4 who has been kind enough to send me a list of genera. I know nothing about them myself.
I shall of course give a notice of all recent (tertiary) fossil forms,— but I hold that they must not have any weight in determine existing zoological regions, though of [one word illegible] interest in [3] showing how & by what steps existing regions have been formed. I think on consideration you will see the absolute necessity of this.
You [one word illegible] my "Ibis" paper as a Classification of Passeres5. That is not fair. I never arrived at anything of the kind, & should be ashamed to attempt anything of the kind with my recent knowledge. But you know I asked you years ago about what order I should arrange the families in. You could wel[l] tell me. No one else could tell me. I was obliged to arrange them in some order, & I was like the Donkey between the two historical bundles of hay (only then [4] were an indefinite lot of bundles which made it all the harder to choose.) Now I must have a reason for any cause of action,— a bad reason perhaps if I can’t get a good one, so I tried to find some reason why I should arrange the Passeres one way rather than another, & I found one which was I thought an improvement on any other way I had seen, then arranged (& I think so still). No one will welcome any light on classification more than myself, but to tell me that Menura6& Atricleia7 are primary divisions of Passeres, & that I put Motacillidae8 in the wrong place, (but not to tell me where I ought to put it, & why) does not assist me in my practical question, "How most naturally & most conveniently to arrange to 40 to 50 accepted family of Passere"?
Yours very truly | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]
Prof A. Newton
Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP4035.3979)]
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Please cite as “WCP4035,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 27 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP4035