WCP4205

[1]

Parkstone, Dorset.

March 10th 1890 1¹

Dear Mr. Cockerell

I wrote to Mr. Seebohm near a month ^{or more} ago asking him about Garrulus Lidthi which I had in my first Ed. as a peculiar Japanese sp. Or authority of (Ibis 1873 p.478) & which he passed as correct.

Now he omits it altogether in his book, & has given me no reply as to why. Next time you are in the B.Mus. will you ask Sharpe about this. Also please enquire if there are any new birds or mammals from Formosa, since Swinhoes’s[?] lists.

[2] Perhaps you will also enquire of Sharpe whether any have been described from Madagascar since 1880. I expect there are very few if any.

Your theory to account for the influence of a first male by a second seems very probable — and in fact if as I suppose spermatozoa often enter ova without producing ^complete fertilisation, it must be so. That would be easily experimented on, by with fowls, dogs, etc, [3] but I do not remember the fact having been observed except with horses. It ought to be common when females have young by successive males.

Yours very truly | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]