My dear Sir

I ought to have answered your last note sooner; but I have been very busy.² How wonderfully successful you have been in breeding Pouters! you have good right to be proud of your accuracy of eye & judgment. I am in the thick of Poultry; having just commenced & shall be truly grateful for the skulls, if you can send them by any conveyance to the Nag’s Head next Thursday.³ If too busy, will you send them whenever you can, addressed, thus

C. Darwin E^sq

care of M^r Mitchell

Per S.E Railway Postman

Bromley, Kent

You ask about Vermilion wax: positively it was not in state of comb, but in solid bits & cakes, which were thrown with other rubbish not far from my Hives.—⁴ You can make any use of fact, you like.—⁵ Combs could be concentrically & variously coloured & dates recorded by giving for few days wax darkly coloured with vermilion & indigo, & I daresay other substances.

You ask about my crossed Fowls; & this leads me to make a proposition to you, which I hope cannot be offensive to you.— I trust you know me too well to think that I would propose anything objectionable to the best of my judgment. The case is this. For my object of treating Poultry, I must give sketch of several breeds with remarks on various points. I do not feel strong on subject. Now when my M.S. is fairly copied in an excellent hand-writing; would you read it over, which would take you at most an hour or two, & make comments in pencil on it; & accept, like a Barrister, a fee, we will say of a couple of guineas.— This would be a great assistance to me; specially if you would allow me to put note, stating that you, a distinguished judge & Fancier, had read it over. I would state that you doubted or concurred as each case might be: of course striking out what you were sure was incorrect. There would be little new in my M.S. to you; but if by chance you used any of my facts or conclusions, before I published, I sh^d wish you to state that they were on my authority; otherwise I shall be accused of stealing from you.— There will be little new except that perhaps I have consulted some out of the way books, & have corresponded with some good authorities.

Tell me frankly what you think of this; but unless you will oblige me by accepting remuneration, I cannot & will not give you such trouble.— I have little that several points will arise which will require investigation, as I care for many points disregarded by Fanciers; & according to any time thus spent you will, I trust, allow me to make remuneration. I hope that you will grant me this favour.—⁶

There is one assistance which I will now venture to beg of you, viz to get me, if you can, another specimen of old white Angora Rabbit. I want it dead for Skeleton; & not knocked on Head.⁷ Secondly I see in Cottage Gardener (March 19^th. p. 375) there are (impure) Half-lops with one ear quite upright & shorter than the other lopped ear. I much want a dead one.— Baker cannot get one.—⁸ Baily is looking out;⁹ but I want two specimens. Can you assist me, if you meet any Rabbit fancier? I have had rabbit with one ear more lopped than the other; but I want one with one ear quite upright & shorter, & the other quite long & lopped.—¹⁰

My dear Sir | Yours sincerely | Ch. Darwin