From Osbert Salvin 10 October 1871
32 The Grove Boltons | Brompton S.W.
10 Oct. 1871
My dear Mr Darwin,
I have looked through my American Anatidæ as far as dried skins would permit and in the notes I now forward have endeavoured to give you the result.1 I fear these notes will require a Malacorhynchus at least to sift out the points you wish to investigate but if you think that I can help you further in the matter I shall be only too glad to do my best.2
An examination of fresh specimens or specimens in spirit would be more satisfactory but such could not be easily obtained. I hardly know how far serviceable characters for classification could be obtained from the lamellæ but so far as I have seen I hardly think they would furnish more than generic characters & in some cases not even them.
Very truly yours | Osbert Salvin.
Footnotes
Bibliography
Origin 6th ed.: The origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. 6th edition, with additions and corrections. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1872.
Summary
Encloses notes [missing] that he has made for CD on looking through his dried skins of American Anatidae.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-8001
- From
- Osbert Salvin
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Brompton
- Source of text
- DAR 177: 21
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 8001,” accessed on 23 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-8001.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 19