From Alfred Newton 10 March 1874
Magd. Coll.
10 March 1874.
My dear Mr. Darwin,
I had, curiously enough, been meditating on a letter to you, when this morning I had the pleasure of receiving yours.1
Unfortunately I cannot be in London on Monday next or I need scarcely say that I should have been glad to do anything in my power to assist your nephew’s election at the ‘Athenæum’—2 With the claims he possesses however I should suppose that he is very safe.
The point upon which I was going to trouble you was this— In the ‘Origin’ (4th. Edn. p. 76) you say:—
“the Fulmar petrel lays but one egg, yet it is believed to be the most numerous bird in the world”.
Far be it from me to say that the latter assertion is not accurate—but I must confess I would gladly know on what authority it is made—for I take it some authority is to be found though I have not met with it—and I really write for information.3 My own experience would lead me to think otherwise— but I place no particular confidence in it—though even granting that the Fulmars of the North Atlantic of the North Pacific & of the Antarctic Ocean are really of one “species” (each has been described as distinct) your statement seems open to enquiry if not doubt.4
There is also another point on which I would venture to ask for information— You say (op. cit. p. 87):—“The recent increase of the missel-thrush in parts of Scotland has caused the decrease of the song-thrush”— The increased range of the Misseltoe-Thrush is undeniable but I do not know of any authority for the rest of the statement—and I must say that judging from the different habits of the two species I am inclined to suspect that it may be founded on insufficient observation.5
One of the most remarkable instances of the supplanting of one species by another is that which I have mentioned in the 4th. Edn. of Yarrell’s ‘British Birds’ which I am now bringing out— Montagu (an excellent authority) & other ornithologists of his day concur in saying that the Marsh Titmouse was commoner than the Coal-Titmouse— Except in a very few localities, the contrary is now unquestionably the fact, and it is owing I suspect to the increase of fir-plantations, which are not favourable to the Marsh-Titmouse but very much so to its conqueror.—6
Trusting that you will favour me with a few lines on these subjects I am with kind regards to you & all your family | Yours very truly | Alfred Newton
Footnotes
Bibliography
Barrow, Mark V. 2009. Nature’s ghosts: confronting extinction from the age of Jefferson to the age of ecology. Chicago, Ill., and London: University of Chicago Press.
Montagu, George. 1802. Ornithological dictionary; or, alphabetical synopsis of British birds. 2 vols. London: J. White.
Origin 4th ed.: On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. 4th edition, with additions and corrections. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1866.
Sabine, Edward. 1818. A memoir on the birds of Greenland; with descriptions and notes on the species observed in the late voyage of discovery in Davis’s Straits and Baffin’s Bay. Transactions of the Linnean Society of London 12: 527–59.
Smith, Andrew. 1849. Illustrations of the zoology of South Africa … collected … in the years 1834, 1835, and 1836. 5 pts. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
Wollaston, Alexander Frederick Richmond. 1921. Life of Alfred Newton, professor of comparative anatomy, Cambridge University, 1866–1907. With a preface by Sir Archibald Geikie. London: John Murray.
Yarrell, William. 1871–85. A history of British birds. 4th edition. Revised and enlarged by Alfred Newton and Howard Saunders. 4 vols. London: John Van Voorst.
Summary
Questions correctness of two statements in Origin: 1. That fulmar petrels are the most numerous birds in the world;
2. That the increase of one form of thrush in Scotland has been concomitant with the decline of another form.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-9348
- From
- Alfred Newton
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Magdalene College, Cambridge
- Source of text
- DAR 172: 49
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9348,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9348.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 22