To Charles Lyell 7 December [1867]1
Down. | Bromley. | Kent. S.E.
Dec 7
My dear Lyell
I send by this post the Article in Vict. Institute2 With respect to frog’s spawn, if you remember in yr boyhood having ever tried to take a small portion out of the water you will remember that it is most difficult. I believe all the birds in the world might alight every day on the spawn of batrachians & never transport a single ovum.3 With respect to the young of molluscs, undoubtedly if the bird to which they were attached alighted on the sea, they wd be instantly killed; but a land bird wd I shd think never alight except under dire necessity from fatigue. This however has been observed near Heligoland, & land-birds after resting for a time on the tranquil sea, have been seen to rise & continue their flight. I cannot give you the reference about Heligoland without much searching.4
This alighting on the sea may aid you in your unexpected difficulty of the too easy diffusion of land-molluscs by the agency of birds.5
I much enjoyed my mornings talk with you6 & believe me | my dear Lyell | ever yours | Ch. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Baird, Spencer Fullerton. 1866. The distribution and migrations of North American birds. American Journal of Science and Arts 41: 78–90, 184–92, 337–47.
Columbia gazetteer of the world: The Columbia gazetteer of the world. Edited by Saul B. Cohen. 3 vols. New York: Columbia University Press. 1998.
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Gätke, Heinrich. 1895. Heligoland as an ornithological observatory: the result of fifty years’ experience. Translated by Rudolph Rosenstock. Edinburgh: David Douglas.
Lyell, Charles. 1867–8. Principles of geology or the modern changes of the earth and its inhabitants considered as illustrative of geology. 10th edition. 2 vols. London: John Murray.
Origin: On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1859.
Warington, George. 1867. On the credibility of Darwinism. [Read 4 March 1867.] Journal of the Transactions of the Victoria Institute 2: 39–62.
Summary
Discusses transport of frog spawn and young molluscs by birds.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-5708
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Charles Lyell, 1st baronet
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.337)
- Physical description
- LS(A) 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 5708,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-5708.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 15