To W. B. Tegetmeier 2 June [1865]1
Down. | Bromley. | Kent. S.E.
June 2d
My dear Sir
I have become a little uneasy for fear that you might have despatched the Pigeon M.S & I never received it.—2 I am in no hurry but shd. be glad of it before very long.—
I have lost five weeks by illness, & done nothing but I hope soon to resume some work.
Your hints in my Fowl M.S. were very useful.3
Have you published on their skulls, besides the paper in Zoolog. Proc.?4
I cannot avoid quoting occasionally Wingfield Book, when I have to allude to statements quoted from Mr Hewitt & Ballance.—5
If you have any communication with Mr Zurhorst, pray give him my cordial thanks for his kind information.—6
This wd be experiment worth trying, cross a young white Pouter which always breeds true, or red barb, once & for first time with a blue barred pigeon; then pair her, after she has reared her Mongrel offspring, with her own breed & observe whether her subsequent progeny is affected by the first impregnation.—7
My dear Sir | Yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin
Have you seen Dr Chapuis’s French work on Belgian Carriers: he has sent it to me.—8
Footnotes
Bibliography
Chapuis, Félicien. 1865. Le pigeon voyageur belge. Verviers: Imprimerie de Ch. Vinche.
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
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.
Tegetmeier, William Bernhard. 1856. On the remarkable peculiarities existing in the skulls of the feather-crested variety of the domestic fowl, now known as the Polish. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 24: 366–8.
Tegetmeier, William Bernhard. 1867. The poultry book: comprising the breeding and management of profitable and ornamental poultry, their qualities and characteristics; to which is added ‘The standard of excellence in exhibition birds’, authorized by the Poultry Club. London and New York: George Routledge & Sons.
Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.
Summary
Has lost time through illness.
Suggests an experiment to see whether the progeny of a pigeon cross are affected by a previous impregnation.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-4848
- 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. 4848,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-4848.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 13