From J. B. Innes 7 May 1875
Summary
Writes about a white rabbit which is turning fawn-coloured,
and about Scottish education.
| Author: | John Brodie Innes |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 7 May 1875 |
| Classmark: | DAR 167: 32 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9973 |
Matches: 3 hits
- … Writes about a white rabbit which is turning fawn-coloured, and about Scottish education. …
- … the windows it became known as her white rabbit. It seems to bear a charmed life, of …
- … rabbits about the size of rats, with a ferret from a hole near this house. Four the usual brown and two quite white. …
From Francis Galton 12 May 1870
Summary
Good news: one little rabbit has a white forefoot.
| Author: | Francis Galton |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 12 May 1870 |
| Classmark: | DAR 105: A17–18 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7185 |
Matches: 3 hits
- … Good news: one little rabbit has a white forefoot. …
- … My dear Darwin Good rabbit news. ! One of the latest litters has a white forefoot. It was …
- … white. This, recollect, is from a transfusion of only 1 8 th part of alien blood in each parent; now, after many unsuccesful experiments, I have greatly improved the method of operation and am beginning on the other jugulars of my stock. Yesterday I operated on 2 who are doing well to-day & who now have 1 3 rd . alien blood in their veins. On Saturday I hope for still greater success. and shall go on at any waste of rabbit …
From J. B. Innes 16 December [1862]
Summary
News of family and friends.
Saw a white rabbit with black-tipped ears on a moor where only brown ones commonly and black ones occasionally dwell.
| Author: | John Brodie Innes |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 16 Dec [1862] |
| Classmark: | DAR 167: 10 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3863 |
To P. L. Sclater 14 May [1862]
Summary
Asks for information about peacocks, especially Pavo nigripennis. Suggests a crossing experiment.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Philip Lutley Sclater |
| Date: | 14 May [1862] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.277) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3545 |
To J. B. Innes 10 May [1875]
Summary
On colour changes in rabbits. Suspects JBI’s is of impure origin.
Is correcting proof of Insectivorous plants.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Brodie Innes |
| Date: | 10 May [1875] |
| Classmark: | Cleveland Health Sciences Library (Robert M. Stecher collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9975 |
Matches: 3 hits
- … Innes had told CD that a wild white rabbit, frequently watched by Eliza Mary Brodie …
- … colours of young rabbits. There are breeds, which are invariably white whilst young & then …
- … white. — Most of these were aboriginally crossed breeds, & I sh d suspect that the parents of M rs . Innes-Brodies rabbit …
From Henry Reeks 3 March 1873
Summary
Praise for and detailed comments on Expression.
Two cases of coloration in animals – one from sexual selection, the other helping to procure prey [see Descent, 2d ed., pp. 542–3].
| Author: | Henry Stephen (Henry) Reeks |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 3 Mar 1873 |
| Classmark: | DAR 88: 105 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8703 |
Matches: 5 hits
- … did the cats exterminate all the white and brown rabbits, but also nearly all those of the …
- … accustomed to the proximity of the white and brown rabbits were not sufficiently wary to …
- … of a similar colour to the white and brown rabbits. Since the latter have all disappeared …
- … Newfoundland in 1868 I had a large white and brown doe rabbit given me, which fortunately …
- … rabbits, but that one of them was a splendid Persian cat that I had given my mother, and some of the others—white …
From George Cupples 11–13 May 1868
Summary
Answers CD’s queries on difference in size of male and female Scottish deerhounds; female preference for larger males; details about ratio of sexes born. Quotes from letter of Archibald McNeill on difference in size of male and female Scotch deerhounds.
| Author: | George Cupples |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 11–13 May 1868 |
| Classmark: | DAR 83: 119–20, DAR 83: 121–6, DAR 85: B28 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-6169 |
From Harrison William Weir 23 March 1869
Summary
Proportion of sexes in pigeons, pigs, and pheasants.
Sexual preferences of females.
| Author: | Harrison William Weir |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 23 Mar 1869 |
| Classmark: | DAR 86: C10, DAR 84.1: 118 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-6680 |
To W. B. Tegetmeier 22 March [1861]
Summary
Asks whether WBT will read over his MS sketch on poultry when done.
Wants rabbit specimens.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Bernhard Tegetmeier |
| Date: | 22 Mar [1861] |
| Classmark: | Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3095 |
From William Ogle [10–17 November 1870]
Summary
Relates instances of rabbits suffering from a condition which affects only the patches of white on their fur.
Will make observations on the platysma for CD.
| Author: | William Ogle |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [10–17 Nov 1870] |
| Classmark: | DAR 173: 4 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7365 |
From William A. Wooler 4 February 1861
Summary
Discusses the colouring of the young of various breeds of rabbit.
Observations on results of various poultry crosses and on a character which is linked to sex.
| Author: | William Alexander Wooler |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 4 Feb 1861 |
| Classmark: | DAR 181: 156 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3058 |
Matches: 2 hits
From William Yarrell [c. 17 December 1838]
Summary
Extract of a letter from Sir Robert Heron to WY, copied for CD, about the crossing of solid- and divided-hoofed pigs, and Angora rabbits of different colours.
| Author: | William Yarrell |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [c. 17 Dec 1838] |
| Classmark: | DAR 205.7: 287 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-457 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … feet. I have had Angora Rabbits for many years, at first only white ones, I then obtained …
- … white, black, brown and fawn colour’d the black in a few years prevailed to the exclusion of all the other colours. I then obtained a pair of brown, and have now again all the colours except black, which I have no doubt will reappear, but the remarkable circumstance which appears to belong to this breed is that though I have frequently all the colours in one brood, there has never yet been two colours in any one Rabbit— …
From Francis Galton 31 March 1870
Summary
Better news about the rabbits.
| Author: | Francis Galton |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 31 Mar 1870 |
| Classmark: | DAR 105: 11–12 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7156 |
From George Rolleston 16 August 1878
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.
| Author: | George Rolleston |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 16 Aug 1878 |
| Classmark: | DAR 176: 215 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11477 |
From Francis Galton 17 March 1870
Summary
Experiments are not going well, but the quantity of blood transfused was small.
| Author: | Francis Galton |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 17 Mar 1870 |
| Classmark: | DAR 105: 7–8 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7139 |
Matches: 3 hits
- … white The quantity of blood transfused was only 1.25 per cent of the weight of the rabbits, …
- … rabbit from colored as below April 14 hare colored hare colored April 16 yellow yellow April 16 black & white …
- … rabbits might not be looked at, reasonable care being taken, so we opened 2 boxes & examined the litters. The first contained 4 dead young ones all true silver greys. The second contained 5 lively young ones all true silver greys. One however has a largish light colored patch on its nose, but Bartlet tells me this is not unusual with silver greys as the very tips of their noses are often white. …
From Ernst Haeckel 22 June 1868
Summary
Thanks CD for article by G. H. Lewes ["Mr Darwin’s hypotheses, pt 1", Fortn. Rev. n.s. 3 (1868): 353–73]. Comments on article.
Describes hybridisation experiment carried out on rabbits and hares by Dr Conrad.
Encloses description of Monera
and a phylogenetic table of vertebrates.
Mentions work on Medusae.
The controversy over CD in Germany.
| Author: | Ernst Philipp August (Ernst) Haeckel |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 22 June 1868 |
| Classmark: | DAR 166: 48 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-6255 |
From Edward Blyth 8 January [1856]
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.
| Author: | Edward Blyth |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 8 Jan [1856] |
| Classmark: | DAR 98: A110–13, A117–21 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1817 |
From Edward Blyth 22–3 August 1855
Summary
Gives extracts from a letter by Thomas Hutton.
Rabbits are kept (generally by Europeans) in the NW. provinces and breed freely. Canaries are not well adapted to the climate. Reports on domestic cats and pigeons of the area. EB gives references to further information on cats, pigeons, and silkworms.
[CD’s notes are an abstract of this letter.]
| Author: | Edward Blyth |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 22–3 Aug 1855 |
| Classmark: | DAR 98: A79–A84 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1746 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … white with red eyes, are very common. I don’t think, generally speaking, that they are so large as the English Wild Rabbit. …
- … Rabbits are kept in domestication pretty generally in the N.W. provinces; breeding freely and fattening well & readily for the table. We have them at Masuri, Dehra, Meerut, Bareilly, Neemuch, & every where else I believe. Of colours, grey is seldomer seen than any other, black,—black & white,— …
From Henry Reeks 25 May 1871
Summary
Comments on and corrections for chapter 13, "Mammals", of Descent.
| Author: | Henry Stephen (Henry) Reeks |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 25 May 1871 |
| Classmark: | DAR 88: 100–4 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7767 |
To Francis Galton 30 December [1872]
Summary
F. M. Balfour wants to experiment on Pangenesis. Asks FG to recommend coloured rabbits that breed true.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Francis Galton |
| Date: | 30 Dec [1872] |
| Classmark: | UCL Library Services, Special Collections (GALTON/1/1/9/5/7/13) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8697 |
| letter | (38) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (10) |
| Galton, Francis | (9) |
| Blyth, Edward | (6) |
| Innes, J. B. | (2) |
| Reeks, Henry | (2) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (28) |
| Fox, W. D. | (2) |
| Galton, Francis | (1) |
| Huxley, T. H. | (1) |
| Innes, J. B. | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (38) |
| Galton, Francis | (10) |
| Blyth, Edward | (6) |
| Innes, J. B. | (3) |
| Fox, W. D. | (2) |
