To W. B. Tegetmeier 5 March [1867]
Down. | Bromley. | Kent. S.E.
March 5th.
My dear Sir
I write on the bare & very improbable chance of your being able to try, or get some trustworthy person to try, the following little experiment. But I may first state, as showing what I want, that it has been stated that if the 2 long feathers in the tail of the male widow-Bird at the C. of Good Hope are pulled out, no female will pair with him.1
Now when 2 or 3 common cocks are kept I want to know if the tail-sickle feathers & saddle feather of one, which had succeeded in getting wives, were cut & mutilated & his beauty spoiled, whether he would continue to be successful in getting wives. This might be tried with drakes or peacocks, but no one wd be willing to spoil for season his peacock. I have no strength or opportunity of watching my own poultry, otherwise I wd try it.— I would very gladly repay all expences of loss of value of the poultry &c— But as I said I have written on the most improbable chance of your interesting anyone to make the trial or having time & inclination yourself to make it.— Another & perhaps better mode of making the trial wd. be turn down to some hens 2 or 3 cocks, one being injured in its plumage.
I am glad to say that I have begun correcting proofs.2
I hope that you received safely the skulls which you so kindly lent me.—3
My dear Sir | Yours sincerely | Ch. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Descent: The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1871.
Freeman, Richard Broke. 1977. The works of Charles Darwin: an annotated bibliographical handlist. 2d edition. Folkestone, Kent: William Dawson & Sons. Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, Shoe String Press.
Marginalia: Charles Darwin’s marginalia. Edited by Mario A. Di Gregorio with the assistance of Nicholas W. Gill. Vol. 1. New York and London: Garland Publishing. 1990.
Rudolphi, Carl Asmund. 1812. Beyträge zur Anthropologie und allgemeinen Naturgeschichte. Berlin: Haude & Speuer.
Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.
Summary
Asks whether WBT can carry out poultry mating experiments for him.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-5431
- 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. 5431,” accessed on 18 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-5431.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 15