From Walter Elliot 7 August 1869
Wolfelee | Hawick | N.B.
7 August 1869
My dear Sir
In reply to your inquiry about the Indian Wild Boar, I believe the male in the breeding-season consorts with several sows.1 Except in the breeding season, the old Boars are solitary, but in beating them out of cover, I have frequently found an old Boar with the Sounder.2 When not so associated the old Boar goes out to feed alone for I have often, where the cover was too extensive to beat, gone out early in the morning before dawn, & watched for these solitary males returning from feeding, as they always show the best sport. They are the most savage & powerful & when they join the sounder, they drive the young boars away, wh. are then found two or three together, harboring apart but returning to the Sounder after the breeding period when the old one reverts to his solitary habits. I cannot say positively that this is the universal & constant habit of the animal, but it is a very general one, as far as my observation goes.
I dont think I ever thanked you for the copy of the “Variation of Animals & Plants under Domestication”, wh you were kind enough to send me.3 It came during a prolonged absence from home & I found it on my table when I returned. I had hoped to do so in person, when I was at High Elms about two months ago, but Mr John Lubbock, who had promised to take me over to Down, did not come home till too late to do so & I was obliged to go back to Town next morning4
He promised however to tell you of my regret at the disappointment.
Believe me | Yours very truly | Walter Elliot
Charles Darwin Esqr
CD annotations
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.
OED: The Oxford English dictionary. Being a corrected re-issue with an introduction, supplement and bibliography of a new English dictionary. Edited by James A. H. Murray, et al. 12 vols. and supplement. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1970. A supplement to the Oxford English dictionary. 4 vols. Edited by R. W. Burchfield. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1972–86. The Oxford English dictionary. 2d edition. 20 vols. Prepared by J. A. Simpson and E. S. C. Weiner. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1989. Oxford English dictionary additional series. 3 vols. Edited by John Simpson et al. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1993–7.
Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.
Summary
Polygamous breeding habits of the Indian wild boar. [See Descent 1: 267.]
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-6856
- From
- Walter Elliot
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Wolfelee
- Source of text
- DAR 86: A72–3
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp †
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 6856,” accessed on 18 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-6856.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 17