Parkstone, Dorset
Sept[embe]r 11th. 1892
My dear Cockerell
I must first congratulate you on the accession of a son to your family, I hope he is quite well, & also Mrs Cockerell.
I have specially to thank you for your excellent letter article in this week’s "Nature," — defending me from Merriman’s wild attack. You have said exactly what I should have said had I thought it worthwhile to enter into a controversy with him; but it comes much better from you. I enclose you a list from "Allen", of the Mammals of Florida[,] almost all the general & many of the species being Canadian [2] and not one of them from Cuba, and but few of the species in Yucatan.
Again, 46 of the land-birds of Florida extend to Canada! I am especially glad you pointed out that the terms "sub-tropical" Florida & "frigid" Canada, were descriptive merely to point the illustration for popular readers.
Again, in such a personal criticism he might have noticed that I took my subregions mainly from Spencer Baird; and Allen says that his Eastern & Western Provinces, are "quite distinct from each other in their general features as well as in many special characteristics." It is not so certain after all that Merriman’s new division is any better than this. [3] On Merriman’s principle you might prove that Japan is more Malayan than Palaeartic, while the S.W. corner of Ireland sh[oul]d be cut off from the rest, as "South European"!
Your paper on the development of species of moths and their larva is very ingenious, and something of the kind has probably happened, but unless it can be worked out for particular allied species and proved by some kind of direct and impressive evidence, I hardly think it worthwhile devoting too much time to such purely speculative explanations. There are probably a score of ways in which the species of moths [4] have arisen, and even the case of the same genus one set of species may have arisen through one set of causes, another group of species through another.
A letter from me telling you about your paper on varieties of slugs being returned from the "Annals" must have crossed with your last.
You letter on Indexing Zool[ogical]. Literature is suggestive and interesting, but would not the result be awfully cumbersome and unequal if everybody indexed their own works fully? Some would give almost the whole work in index-slips, others only the merest[?] heads. Editorship would still be wanted, & it would be difficult. Still some modification of the plan might be hit upon that w[oul]d be very useful.
Yours very faithfully | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]
Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP4230.4296)]
For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon
Mammals of East Florida (Allen)1
Felis concolor.2 Lynx rufus3 canis lupus4 Vulpes virginianus5 Putorius lutreolus6 Lutra canadensis7 Neph[r]itis meplutica "bicolor Procyon lotor8 Ursus Arctos9 Cariacus virginianus10 (Bats omitted) Blarina breoicauda11 Scalop[u]s aquaticus12 Sciurus niger13 "carolinensis14 Geomys pineti[s].15 Hesperomys leucopus.16 "aureolus "gossypinus17 "palustris18 Neotoma floridana19 Sigmodon hispidus20 [Iroiaola?] pinetum21 Lepus sylvaticus22 "palustris23 Didelphys virginiana24 |
Allens gives 101 species of Land Birds in E.[ast] Florida.... He also gives (at p. 412 of his Mammals & Winter Birds of Florida) a list of 4625 of these land birds which extend from Canada to Florida! |
Status: Draft transcription [Enclosure (WCP4230.4298)]
For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon
Envelope addressed to "T. D. A. Cockerell Esq., Institute of Jamaica, Kingston, Jamaica", with stamp, postmarked "PARKSTONE | SP 11 | 92"; postmark on back. [Envelope (WCP4230.4297)]
Please cite as “WCP4230,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 5 May 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP4230