WCP6212

[1]¹

WYKEHAM HOUSE.

OXFORD POST & TELEGR[APH].

6. I. 1928

Dear Mr. Wallace²,

Thank you so much for sending me the photographs of your boys³. I am very interested to see them. They will be all the happier together for being so different. My two dear elder girls⁴ were as different as possible & I am glad to say the younger has two daughters who are equally unlike. We are expecting them & their mother every minute as I write this & hope to take them to the Pantomime tomorrow night.

[2]

It is very interesting — this [1 word illeg.] of the Comma butterfly⁵. I have recently hit on an explanation which has eluded me for 40 years! I mean the reason why the males which "assemble" to bred females pay no attention to them when bred they are themselves bred. They must fly first; but why? It is obvious that it is to discourage inbreeding. By flying they are carried away into the range of the scent of the other ♀♀⁶. It is just one of those th simple things which elude one. How I should have loved to have talked about it to your father. With kindest regards & every good wish for 1928.

Yours sincerely, | E. B. Poulton⁷ [signature]