To T. C. Eyton 14 May [1861]1
Down. | Bromley. | Kent. S.E.
May 14th
Dear Eyton
I thank you sincerely for your wish to see me in London & for your kind invitation to Eyton.2 I should most truly enjoy seeing you; but this very day I wished for two urgent reasons to go to London, but I have been so unwell lately that I was unable. If ever I am again at Shrewsbury, I will, if strong enough pay you a visit & see the place, at which I have spent many happy days.
On your return home, if you can spare time, (but I know the request is perhaps unreasonable & shall not be surprised at not hearing) I shd. be very glad of a brief answer, with permission to quote you, on the three points on which I asked.
(1) whether the skeletons of Birds, excepting skull, of the same restricted genus, do not generally very closely resemble each other. (2) whether the Wing & leg bones are generally very constant in form. (3) whether in largely crested Gallinaceæ the skull is protuberant to support the crest.—3
Dear Eyton | Yours very 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–.
Summary
Asks TCE to confirm some general statements on resemblances in skeletons of birds of same genus.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-3148
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Thomas Campbell Eyton
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.249)
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 3148,” accessed on 24 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-3148.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 9
