To Albrecht Carl Ludwig Gotthilf Günther 6 March [1860]1
Down Bromley Kent
March 6th
Dear Sir
I trouble you with one line to say that I have looked to my original catalogue, & find that I collected 5 specimens of Snakes at the Galapagos from Charles & James Islands.—2 These snakes I briefly describe as far as colour & stripes are concerned in my Catalogue; & as they differ somewhat in colour, & as when I published the 1st.Edition no Erpetologist had looked at the snakes, I was led into the blunder of supposing that there were several species.3 This blunder I corrected as soon as M. Bibron had provisionally looked over my collection.— Perhaps Mr Bell may have some specimens of mine from the Galapagos.4
Dear Sir | Yours very faithfully | C. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Donoso-Barros, R. 1975. Introduction. In Zoology of the voyage of HMS ‘Beagle’. Pt 5: Reptiles, by Thomas Bell. Facsimile reprint. Laurence, Kansas: Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles.
Günther, Albert Charles Lewis Gotthilf. 1860. On a new snake from the Galapagos Islands. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London pt 28: 97–8.
Journal of researches (1860): Journal of researches into the natural history and geology of the countries visited during the voyage of HMS Beagle around the world, under the command of Capt. FitzRoy RN. By Charles Darwin. Reprint edition. London: John Murray. 1860.
Journal of researches 2d ed.: Journal of researches into the natural history and geology of the countries visited during the voyage of HMS Beagle round the world, under the command of Capt. FitzRoy RN. 2d edition, corrected, with additions. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1845.
Journal of researches: Journal of researches into the geology and natural history of the various countries visited by HMS Beagle, under the command of Captain FitzRoy, RN, from 1832 to 1836. By Charles Darwin. London: Henry Colburn. 1839.
Porter, Duncan M. 1985. The Beagle collector and his collections. In The Darwinian heritage, edited by David Kohn. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press in association with Nova Pacifica (Wellington, NZ).
Reptiles: Reptiles. Pt 5 of The zoology of the voyage of HMS Beagle. By Thomas Bell. Edited and superintended by Charles Darwin. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1843.
Summary
Reports on the snakes he collected in the Galapagos.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-2725
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Albrecht Carl Ludwig Gotthilf (Albert) Günther
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Shrewsbury School, Taylor Library
- Physical description
- ALS 2pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 2725,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-2725.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 8