To William Bernhard Tegetmeier 20 January [1860]1
Down Bromley Kent
Jan. 20th
My dear Sir
I have been looking over the Poultry Book again & have found so very many remarks, which have interested me greatly, that I am anxious to know whether more than No XI have been published, which is all that I have got.2 Will you kindly take the trouble to inform me.—
You make like to hear about the mongrel poultry, on which you gave me much all-important assistance.3 The result has now become interesting. The chickens from Spanish Cock & White Silk fowl were jet black in the Down & in first plumage, but late in Autumn to my astonishment red feather after red very slowly appeared in the Cocks & now one of the Cocks is nearly as splendid as the wild Gallus Bankiva. Another young cock from game Hen was quite white, but now has very much red about it, ie the hackles red. Are not these curious facts?4
How goes on the Apiarian Soc.?5 And I hope that you yourself & family are well. As soon as I finished my Book (& I hope you received your copy safely) was finished, I went to Ilkley Wells for 10 weeks to recruit;6 but it did not do me much good, & presume I shall remain a wretched valetudinarian to the day of my death.
I received a note, when at Ilkley; but as it did not particularly require an answer, & as I was then extra unwell, I did not write.—
Yours sincerely | C. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Richardson, Edmund William. 1916. A veteran naturalist; being the life and work of W. B. Tegetmeier. London: Witherby & Co.
Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.
Summary
Gives the results of crossing experiments; some interesting and curious facts.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-2656
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- William Bernhard Tegetmeier
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection)
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 2656,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-2656.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 8