To W. B. Tegetmeier 24 [February? 1860]1
Down Bromley Kent
24th
My dear Sir
I write a line to thank you sincerely for your two notes.— Very curious your facts about the crossing the Game Fowls. Good Heavens what a hopelessly difficult subject is that of inheritance!
The crosses from Spanish & Silk Hen are all black-combed, & as you say not silky feathers.—2
I crossed the Barbs which you had (ie plain-headed) the parents of which got 2d prize at C. Palace, & likewise the turn-comded3 Barbs with the Fan-tails, & recrossed their offspring, but I cannot positively say, from which I procured the blue-bird.4 The turn-commed were from Sir J. Sebrights. & it is simple nonsense to say they were not pure.5 It was a notion which Mr Brent got owing to a German author (of whom I told him) saying this cross was sterile.6 The one German Book is a very poor one & no particulars are given.— When Mr Brent gets a notion into his head nothing gets it out.—
In Haste | Yours very sincerely | C. Darwin
P.S I have just remembered positively that I reared several mongrels from the plain-headed Barbs & Fantails. I have several other cases of blueish birds reared from other crosses of other kinds not given in my abstract.—7
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Origin: On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1859.
Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.
Summary
Discusses poultry crosses, "what a hopelessly difficult subject is that of inheritance!" Gives details of some pigeon crosses he made; cannot positively recall which produced the blue bird.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-2712
- 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. 2712,” accessed on 18 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-2712.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 8