My dear Sir

I was greatly interested by your remarks in the last No^r. of Land & Water on the apparent excess of male trout over the females, for this happens to be a subject to which I am now attending.² Can you obtain for me & yourself any further information on this head? Would fishmongers know from observing the roe & milt? It might be known with the stickleback from the bright colours of the males.³ Perhaps that excellent observer M^r Lord may have attended to this point in the case of the salmon of N.W. America, as the males w^d be known by their hooked jaws.⁴

I wish much to know about the sexes in all our domestic quadrupeds & birds. Do you think this point has been attended to with fox-hounds & could you interest any great sportsman to give you information.

Perhaps the results may have been published in regard to dogs, horses, cattle, sheep, pigs &c & if so can you give me any reference. I should be grateful for any aid from yourself, or if you c^d persuade others to aid me.

Pray believe me | My dear Sir | yours sincerely | Ch. Darwin

If you think the subject of any interest to others, any answers which you could obtain might be published in L. & W. & I sh^d. thus see them, & it w^d save you all trouble in answering this.