Waldron Edge, Duppas Hill, Croydon
Dec[embe]r 6th 1879
My dear Wright
I have had your "Animal Life" sent me to review for "Nature". You will see that I have said what I could for it, but I was obliged to criticise some of the figures. I suppose you had a lot of illustrations to work in. Most of them are good but some very bad, and I send you the following list of wrongly named figures.
Macacus cynomolgus1. The figure is certainly not this species. I think it is Presbytis Entellus
Saiga tartarica2 [sic]. The figure is of Oryx leucoryx3
Accentor modularis. The figure is a finch not a warbler.
Sun-birds. The figure represents two humming birds!
[2] Java sparrow — Some other bird; — quite unrecognisable.
Parra jacana4 — Is the Hydrophasianus sinensis5
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Others of the small birds are not recognisable such as the Stone-Chat, Dipper & Chaffinch. Perhaps the publishers will get better figures of these, as the book is really worth it, and birds always attract attention.
I am obliged to send the book back to "Nature" — I suppose Lockyer wants it for his children, — so if Mess[e]rs. Cassell think my review worth it they can send me a copy.
It must have cost you an immense deal of labour.
Believe me | Yours very faithfully | Alfred R Wallace. [signature]
[3] Note [one word illegible]
Tailor bird— culled Shotonues[?] it sh[oul]d be Orthotonuis[?]
Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP795.967)]
For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon
Please cite as “WCP795,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 27 July 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP795