To the Field [before 4 May 1861]1
Sir,—
From the recent investigations of Mr Tegetmeier, and from those of the older naturalists, most people who keep Polish fowls are aware that the tuft of feathers on their heads is supported by an extraordinary, almost hemispherical, protuberance of the front part of the skull.2 This protuberance is accompanied by an equal change in the shape of the brain. Pallas and some of the older writers describe the Polish fowl as, in consequence, stupid;3 but Mr Tegetmeier has shown that this is a mistake. The experience of many savage races of man proves that the external shape of the brain may be greatly modified by pressure, without the intellectual faculties being affected. Nevertheless, after having recently examined the skulls of Poland fowls, I am astonished that such profound changes should have produced no effect on the mental powers of these birds. Bechstein, writing in Germany in 1793, says, that although it is an error to suppose that fowls with such misformed skulls are stupid, yet that he had a white-crested black Poland which “was crazy, and which all day long wandered anxiously about.”4 I, also, formerly had a silver-spangled Poland which was curiously affected; she sometimes seemed lost in reverie, and allowed any one to approach so as even to touch her; she was solitary in her habits, and was extraordinarily deficient in the sense of direction. I have seen her stray hardly more than a hundred yards from her feeding place, and become completely lost; and she would then continue obstinately to try to get through a fence in a direction exactly opposite to her home. Now, will any of your correspondents who have long kept tufted fowls have the kindness to state whether they have observed any clear signs of deficiency in the mental powers of any of their birds? or, has any one ever seen a “crazy fowl,” such as Bechstein describes, in any other breed?5
Charles Darwin. | Down, Bromley, Kent.
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Pallas, Pyotr Simon. 1767–80. Spicilegia zoologica quibus novae imprimis et obscurae animalium species iconibus, descriptionibus atque commentariis illustrantur. 14 pts in 2 vols. Berlin.
Tegetmeier, William Bernhard. 1856. On the remarkable peculiarities existing in the skulls of the feather-crested variety of the domestic fowl, now known as the Polish. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 24: 366–8.
Summary
Information is sought from correspondents regarding the mental powers of Polish and other tufted fowls. CD finds it hard to believe that the protuberance of the front part of the skull, which is accompanied by a change in the shape of the brain, would not produce a change in mental powers. References to Bechstein, Pallas, and Tegetmeier regarding the stupid behaviour of these birds.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-3137A
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- The Field
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- The Field, the Farm, the Garden, the Country Gentleman’s Newspaper 17 (1861): 383
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 3137A,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-3137A.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 9