To G. R. Gray [February 1841]
[12 Upper Gower Street]
Sunday
My dear Sir
In the two last proofs, you have called one ground-woodpecker Chrysoptilus campestris & the second you left “Colaptes Chilensis Vigors”.— I have altered this to “Chrysoptilus Chilensis G. R. Gray”—1 Is this right.?— You need not look at any other part of this Revise.— Will you ⟨plea⟩se leave these sheets, as you ⟨retu⟩rn home.—
Yours most truly | C. Darwin
Footnotes
‘Colaptes Chilensis Vigors’ was retained (Birds, p. 114). CD’s note reads: ‘It is closely related in habits and structure to the foregoing species [Chrysoptilus campestris], and appears to be its representative on the western side of the Cordillera; hence I cannot but think the institution of the above two genera unfortunate.’ Colaptes chilensis is a synonym of Colaptes pitius, the Chilean flicker; Chrysoptilus campestris is a synonym of Colaptes campestris, the Campo flicker.
Summary
In a revise [of Birds] CD has altered "Colaptes Chilensis Vigors" to "Chrysoptilus Chilensis G. R. Gray". Is that right?
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-587
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- George Robert Gray
- Sent from
- London, Upper Gower St, 12
- Source of text
- The British Library (Egerton MS 2348: 239)
- Physical description
- ALS 1p
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 587,” accessed on 22 March 2023, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-587.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 2
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