To James Buckman 4 October [1857]1
Down Bromley Kent
Oct. 4th
My dear Sir
I want to beg a favour of you & shd. be very much obliged if you could kindly grant it.— I am keeping all Breeds of Pigeons on account of the subject of Variation, on which I know that you are much interested.2 I have just ordered a pair of Smiters from a Mr. Roe of Salisbury,3 who informs me that he got this very rare Breed from Mr. K inder or Tr inder Junr of Cirencester. Now would you be so very kind as to endeavour to find out the gentleman & beg him to answer the questions on the enclosed paper. You would thus confer a great favour on me.
Supposing that for any reason you do not like to do this; will you let me know, & I will ask my cousin Mr. Holland of Dumpleton to make the enquiries,4 but as he is not on the spot, I have ventured to ask you.—
I have lately seen a short abstract in Athenæum of a communication by you on the variation of Plants by culture read before Brit. Assoc.—5 I feel the deepest & most lively interest in these researches of yours— Will you tell me whether they will be published in detail & soon? For I must get the volume whenever published.— Mr Bentham6 told me sometime ago that you had already published on this subject;7 will you be so kind, as to give me references of any papers by you on this subject, as I must carefully study all that you have done on this head.—8
I hope that you will forgive my troubling you, & believe me | My dear Sir | Yours very faithfully | Ch. Darwin
[Enclosure]
(1)Whence were the Smiters procured: if from abroad what name did they bear? (2)What are the peculiarities in their habits? (3)Will they display their peculiarities in a cage, some 5 or 6 yards long by 4 or 5 broad & ten ft high? Or must they be quite free.— (4).Are the peculiarities the same in Cock & Hen? are they equally displayed in all; or are some Birds much better than others? I refer of course, only to pure bred Birds.— (5)Do they breed true in form & colour?
Footnotes
Bibliography
Buckman, James. 1857. Report on the experimental plots in the Botanical Garden of the Royal Agricultural College at Cirencester. Report of the 27th meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, held at Dublin, pp. 200–15.
Summary
Asks JB to obtain information about pigeons.
Inquires where his article has been published ["On the discovery of Cnicus tuberosus at Avebury, Wilts.", Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 2d ser. 20 (1857): 337–9].
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-2151
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- James Buckman
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Dorset County Museum (tipped into Origin 1st ed.)
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 2151,” accessed on 23 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-2151.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 6