From T. W. Wood 16 June 1870
221 Stanhope Street, | Hampstead Road N.W.
June 16th 1870.
Dear Sir,
I beg to thank you for your very kind and appreciative letter, & with regard to your query about the difference in the shading of the spots of the Argus being an optical illusion, I can assure you that is not the case, the markings being quite fixed & the only illusion is that produced by nature in making flat surfaces appear convex.1 I have a feather taken from close to the bird’s body & also one of those farthest from it; in the former the spots are thus & in the latter=
Mr Tegetmeier of “the Field” will get the block stereotyped for you without charge & has kindly promised that it shall be ready soon. I told him of your wish that the Gold pheasant’s feathers should be cut out & am sorry you cannot find room for them, if in reconsidering the matter you should alter your mind please let me know at once.2 In “the Student” you will find a sketch of this beautiful bird with the collar expanded.3 The only condition Mr Tegetmeier mentioned was that the cut should be alluded to as having been taken from “the Field”4
I remain, | Dear Sir, | Yours faithfully, | T. W. Wood.
Charles Darwin Esq. F.R.S. &c— &c—
Footnotes
Bibliography
Wood, Thomas W. 1870. The courtship of birds. Student and Intellectual Observer 5 (1870–1): 113–25.
Summary
Argus pheasant.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-7235
- From
- Thomas William Wood
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- London, Hampstead Rd
- Source of text
- DAR 181: 148
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 7235,” accessed on 18 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-7235.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 18