Summary

Sends a copy of a letter from Herbert Blakeway of Illinois, which accompanied a pig’s head with wattles.

Discusses the Castle Martin breed of Bos, the history of which shows parallels with the Himalayan rabbits.

Summary

Thanks for Worms.

Summary

Thanks VD for information on caterpillars selecting food plants from within one family,

and on similar behaviour in hogs, which will not eat any plants from a family containing some poisonous members.

Summary

Feeding habits of the tobacco worm; it eats only five plants, all very different, but of same botanical family.

Summary

Comments on transport of ducks to Jamaica by hurricanes,

fish feeding on seeds,

and sterility of birds in captivity.

Summary

Anecdotal comments on various sections of Descent:

Red Indians erecting their ears;

reasoning in a pet antelope, stag deer, and mongoose;

use of foot as prehensile organ by carpenters in India.

Summary

Cases of monstrosities becoming transmissible.

Comments on passages in Origin on the blindness of the tucu-tucu (Ctenomys) and Mammoth Cave rats.

Summary

JW’s case of black hogs shows marvellous relation of colour and constitution.

Could JW get information about eyes of cave rat?

Was JW struck by length of hind legs of male cattle?

CD has long shared JW’s doubts that mutilations were ever inherited but Brown-Séquard’s case seems to settle question.

Is not case of cats with blue eyes being deaf very odd?

Spinal stripes on horse too common to explain in way informant supposes.

Believes Owen "goes a long way with us", though he attacked CD in Edinburgh Review.

"No one other person understands me so thoroughly as Asa Gray."

Summary

"You cannot tell how much your paper on Gestation has interested me" ["On some unusual modes of gestation in batrachians and fishes", Am. J. Sci. 2d ser. 27 (1859): 5–13].

Robert McDonnell has made curious discoveries on electrical organs of rays.

Is giving JW’s hog case in corrected ed. [3d] of Origin.

Would like account of tip of tail of young rattlesnake.

Summary

Notes on Lyell’s Principles, vol. 2.

EB does not believe in connecting links between genera; there is no tendency to gradation between groups of animals.

Does not believe shortage of food can directly produce any heritable effect on size.

Comments on significance of variations discussed by Lyell. Variation in dentition and coloration.

Behaviour of elephants and monkeys.

When varieties are crossed EB considers that the form of the offspring, whether intermediate or like one or other of the parents, depends upon how nearly related the parents are.

Thinks that in the struggle for existence hybrids, and varieties generally, must be expected to give way to the "beautiful & minute adaptation" of the pure types.

Colours of Indian birds.

Vitality of seeds.

Variation among palms.

Fauna of Malaysia and New Zealand. Ranges of bird species.

[Memorandum originally enclosed with 1760.]

Summary

CD is obliged for PLS’s correction [of Descent proofs]. Will add a caption to the woodcut [of the wart-hog] since it is too late to make a new one.

Summary

Discussion of the pig in light of CD’s Variation.

Work of Hermann von Nathusius [Die Racen des Schweines (1860)].

Summary

Gives extract from a letter from Capt. R. Tickell: rabbits are not bred by the Burmese; common European and Chinese geese are bred but have probably only recently been introduced.

EB gives references to works illustrating the dog-like instinct of N. American wolves.

Discusses reason and instinct; ascribes both to man and animals. Comments on various instincts, e. g. homing, migratory, parental, constructive, and defensive. Reasoning in animals; cattle learning to overcome fear of passing trains.

Hybrid sterility as an indication of distinct species. Interbreeding as an indication of common parentage.

Enlarges upon details given by J. C. Prichard [in The natural history of man (1843)].

Adaptation of the two-humped camel to cold climates. Camel hybrids.

Doubts that domestic fowl or fancy pigeons have ever reverted to the wild.

Feral horses and cattle of S. America.

Believes the "creole pullets" to be a case of inaccurate description.

Variations in skulls between species of wild boar.

Pigs are so prolific that the species might be expected to cross.

Milk production of cows and goats.

Sheep and goats of lower Bengal.

Indian breeds of horses.

Variation in Asiatic elephants.

Spread of American tropical and subtropical plants in the East.

EB distinguishes between races and artificially-produced breeds.

[CD’s notes are an abstract of this memorandum.]

Summary

Burdened with Anniversary Address to the Royal Society.

Quips that even Huxley is running out of speeches.

Summary

Gives examples of animal species in which adult males castrate or kill younger males.

Summary

Sends details of the progress of his researches for Erasmus Darwin.

His son Leonard will photograph Elston and Cleatham. He has found an early drawing of Elston.

Asks for a letter of introduction for Leonard Darwin to CMCD’s tenant at Elston.

Summary

Physical description of Sikkim mountains.

Travelling through Kinchin snows.

Transported boulders.

Summary

Observations on lateral spots on coats of two specimens of deer. PS on habits of wild and domestic turkeys.

Summary

Thanks for the drawing.

E. Claparède’s review [of Theory of natural selection, Rev. Cours Sci. 7 (1870): 564–71] is weak.

Looks forward [to Descent] with fear of being "crushed under a mountain of facts!"