To Journal of Horticulture [before 27 December 1862]1
If any of your readers have kept Penguin Ducks, and will have the kindness to observe one little point, and communicate the result, I should be greatly obliged.2 On examining the skeleton, I find that certain bones of the leg are longer than in the other breeds. I formerly kept these birds alive, and as far as I dare trust my memory, they could run considerably faster than other Ducks.3 Is this the case? It would, perhaps, be a good way to test their running powers to call the two kinds, when hungry, from a distance to their food, and see which arrived first.—
Charles Darwin, Down, Bromley, Kent.
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.
Summary
Inquires whether penguin ducks can run faster than other kinds.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-3883F
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Journal of Horticulture
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Journal of Horticulture, Cottage Gardener, and Country Gentleman n.s. 3 (1862): 797
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 3883F,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-3883F.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 10