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Darwin Correspondence Project

To W. B. Tegetmeier   [15–22 August 1856]1

Down Bromley Kent

My dear Sir

I write one line merely to thank you for your most clear chart of the Runts.— With respect to your very kind offer of Runts, I will hereafter write to you: if, as I imagine, you allude to the Victoria or Smyrna Runts, though extremely pretty, I do not think they differ in proportions & that is my sole object.—2 There would be no end to my collection if I allowed myself to be influenced by beauty.—

Far from thinking that you treated me “cavalierly” at Anerly, I was struck by your kindness, as on all other occasions, considering what a weight of work you had on your shoulders—3

In Haste | Yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin

Footnotes

The characteristic features of runts are discussed in Variation 1: 142–4.

Bibliography

Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.

Summary

Is collecting only pigeons that differ in proportions, so declines some birds offered by WBT.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-1935
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
William Bernhard Tegetmeier
Sent from
Down
Source of text
Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection)
Physical description
ALS 2pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 1935,” accessed on 29 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-1935.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 6

letter