From Alfred Newton 1 April 1879
Magd. Coll.
1 April 1879.
Dear Mr. Darwin
I should be very glad if you would add your signature to those of Flower and Huxley at the foot of the memorial I enclose.1 I am aware that you would have to take on trust a good many of of the statements therein made, but that you may see that some of the more important of them are not made without good grounds I enclose also a sheet (taken quite at random) from Dr. Coues’s ‘Bibliographical Appendix’2
Dr. Coues has been for a long while collecting materials for a general Ornithological Bibliography’ but it is quite evident that he will never be able to complete it for publication without coming to England. His profession (a U.S. Army Surgeon) renders that impossible unless he can get special leave of absence & from correspondence I have had with him he seems to consider that his chance of of obtaining that leave would be materially improved by some such memorial as the enclosed, if it received a sufficient number of influential signatures. The notion of the Memorial did not however originate with Coues but with Salvin here.3
If you consent to sign it I propose to leave it to professed ornithologists who will, I feel sure, cordially support it.
The specimen of his bibliography that I enclose shews how thorough his work is. There is nothing indeed like it in the whole range of Zoological literature & should he be able to bring the whole thing out it could not fail as an example to have an excellent effect on all branches of Natural History— It is on this account that I venture to ask for your signature. The part he has published as an Appendix to the ‘Birds of the Colorado Valley’ merely takes in the “Faunal Publications” relating to N. American Ornithology.
In any case be so good as to return me both the enclosures, and if you can do so tomorrow pray address them to
44 Davies Street
Berkeley Square
London, W
whither I am now going for a few days.4
I am very sorry Frank’s diffidence made him decline acting as Examiner in Botany— I am sure he would have done better than the man we have had to appoint in his place will do.5 With kindest regards to all, believe me | Yours very truly | Alfred Newton
Footnotes
Bibliography
Allen, J. A. 1909. Biographical memoir of Elliott Coues 1842–1899. National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoirs 6: 397–446.
Coues, Elliott. 1878. Birds of the Colorado Valley: a repository of scientific and popular information concerning North American ornithology. Washington: Government Printing Office.
Coues, Elliott. 1880. Fourth installment of ornithological bibliography: being a list of faunal publications relating to British birds. Proceedings of the United States National Museum 2 (1879): 359–477. (Introduction dated 5 January 1880.)
Post Office London directory: Post-Office annual directory. … A list of the principal merchants, traders of eminence, &c. in the cities of London and Westminster, the borough of Southwark, and parts adjacent … general and special information relating to the Post Office. Post Office London directory. London: His Majesty’s Postmaster-General [and others]. 1802–1967.
Summary
Asks CD to join W. H. Flower and Huxley in signing a memorial in support of Dr Coues. He is a U.S. Army surgeon who has been working on an ornithological bibliography and needs support to complete his work in England.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-11965
- From
- Alfred Newton
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Magdalene College, Cambridge
- Source of text
- DAR 172: 52
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 11965,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-11965.xml