Ɛpsilon

WCP4212

Letter (WCP4212.4277)

[1]

Parkstone, Dorset.

Novr 27th. 1890

My dear Mr. Cockerell1

Thanks for your notes recd2 yesterday. I will return all those I do not use.

When I wrote "Island Life"3 there was no book or catalogue on Lizards newer than Dr. Grays4 old B. M. Cat. and now no doubt all names & classifications are different. I have begun reading the earlier chapters, & send on other side a few queries which you will perhaps be to answer from the books you are consulting. Just note the answers as you may happen to come across [2] them. I will send more as they occur to me.

Yours very truly │Alfred R. Wallace [signature]

[3] Queries for "Island Life"

p. 16.5 Loddigesia mirabilis. Have many been obtained since?

21. Jays — any new facts of distribution

25. Eupetes — Are there 2 or 3 species New Guinea.

26. Centetidae, Octodontidae, Echimyidae — do any alterations of classification &c. affect their statements.

27. Snakes, Lizards &c. — any alterations here.

35-37. Any corrections in these lists of ranges of British Birds. Seebohm6 could give this easily.

41. Peculiar genera of Palaearctic Birds[.] Any alterations of classification affecting this.

41. Do. of Snakes, Lizards, Amphibia.

Please give answers which will involve minimum alteration of text.

1
Cockerell, Theodore Dru Alison (1866-1948). Brother of Sydney Carlyle Cockerell. British-born American zoologist, taxonomist, and museum curator. ARW referred him as the 'Slugophilite'.
2
The letter has not been found.
3
Wallace, A. R. 1880. Island life: or, the phenomena and causes of insular faunas and floras, including a revision and attempted solution of the problem of geological climates. London: Macmillan & Co.
4
Gray, George Robert (1808-1872). British zoologist and author. Head of the British Museum’s ornithological section.
5
In Cockerell’s handwriting written above p. 16, “p. missing”.

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP4212.4277)]

For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon

Revision history

Transcribed by Royce, Isobel [2012-09-17] Transcription checked by Catchpole, Caroline [2013-01-15] Transcription checked by Chua, Christine [2026-04-18]

Please cite as “WCP4212,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP4212