Summary

CD sends £5.5.0 with a formal note "as some aid to Mrs Beke", but does not wish to subscribe for Dr Beke’s work on Mt Sinai.

Summary

Will be in London until 21st. Would rejoice if JDH could come to lunch during their stay.

Summary

Encloses "notes for Mr. D" [see 1818] and a memorandum on the wild cattle of southern India [see 1819].

Breeds of silky fowl of China and Malaya. Black-skinned fowl.

Doubts any breed of canary has siskin blood; all remain true to their type.

Wild canary and finch hybrids.

Hybrids between one- and two-humped camels.

Does not regard zebra markings on asses as an indication of interbreeding but as one of the many instances of markings in the young which more or less disappear in the adult.

Crossing of Coracias species at the edges of their ranges.

Regional variations and intergrading between species of pigeons.

Regards the differences in Treron as specific [see Natural selection, p. 115 n. 1].

Gives other instances of representative species or races differing only in certain details of colouring.

Summary

Obliged for account of change in quality of wool. "Some authors will not admit that climate has any perceptible action."

Hopes his health is re-established.

Summary

Foresees WBT will work out poultry so well that CD will "be gladly saved the trouble". Would like some eggs from WBT’s Polish fowl and thanks him for acquiring the Indian laughing pigeons.

Summary

Not surprised at delay of his book [Generelle Morphologie (1866)].

P. M. Duncan taking side of evolution.

Has received paper on Geryonidae ["Über eine neue Form des Generationswechsels bei den Medusen", Monatsber. K. Akad. Wiss. Berlin (1865): 85–94]. Had often speculated on whether such a case ever occurred in nature.

Summary

Requests skins of domestic breeds or races of poultry, pigeons, rabbits, cats, and dogs from any unfrequented region. [Attached is a list of people to whom CD has written for pigeon and poultry skins.]

Summary

Gives references to William Allen’s narrative of the Niger expedition [William Allen and T. R. H. Thompson , A narrative of the expedition sent by Her Majesty’s Government to the river Niger in 1841 (1848)]: common fowl returning to wildness, details of domestic sheep, ducks, and white fowl.

Range of the fallow deer; its affinity to the Barbary stag.

Natural propensity of donkeys for arid desert.

Indian donkeys often have zebra markings on the legs.

Believes the common domestic cat of India is indigenous.

Occurrence of cultivated plants from Europe in India; success of cultivation. Ancient history of cultivated plants.

[CD’s notes are an abstract of this memorandum and indicate that it was originally 20 pages long.]

Summary

Has followed correspondent’s useful suggestions of sources of information [on variation in domesticated animals in various regions of the globe].

Asks him to sound out [Mr Consul Brand?] about skinning some bird specimens for him.

Summary

Seeking contributions to assist the widow of C. T. Beke.

Summary

Agrees with JDH on difference in grief over loss of father and of child. His love of his father.

The Reader.

Politics and science.

Health improved by Bence Jones’s diet.

[Dated "Thursday 27th" by CD.]

Summary

C. T. Beke has communicated to the Mauritius Natural History Society a letter he received from CD. VdeR attempts to answer questions on transport of seeds by the ocean.

Summary

Summarises experiences since leaving England. "How intimately what may be called the ""moral part"" is connected with the enjoyment of scenery." The loneliness of the voyage.

Summary

Sends specimens of coralline with vermiform holes.

J. Allan’s observations of Aldabra and the Cormoros [see Coral reefs, p. 186] and news of his experiments on the growth of coral.

Summary

On novels he has been reading: Eliot, Richardson, etc.

On Wallace, the Reader, and anthropology.

Summary

Sends notes on soundings made on coral banks in the China Sea.

His recent geological observations.

Finds a difficulty with CD’s erratic block theory.

Summary

Describes his trip from Coquimbo to Copiapò, where he rejoined the Beagle – a hard and wearisome journey, but geologically interesting.

FitzRoy piloted the [Blonde] to rescue crew of wrecked Challenger.

CD has received letters that were missing, and others; for ten months there will be none to or from him.

Summary

Argument, based on geographical distribution and competition, for a mundane glacial period rather than cooling of one longitudinal belt at a time.

Summary

Comments on CD’s observations on his address; clarifies his view of the importance of isolation, the effect of climate, the plants of S. Africa and Australia.

Summary

Thinks Royal Society’s failure to honour W. J. Hooker may be due to small number of botanists on Council.

Interest in H. J. Carter’s papers in Annals and Magazine of Natural History on lower organisms.

On Wallace; anthropology.

H. H. Travers’ paper on Chatham Islands [J. Proc. Linn. Soc. Lond. 9 (1865): 135–44].

W. C. Wells’s paper of 1813 ["Essay on dew", Two Essays (1818)] anticipates discovery of natural selection.