My dear Sir

You will perhaps remember having formerly given me valuable information on the colours of greyhounds.¹ I now want to beg, if you will kindly oblige me, an answer on a simple point, about which I am particularly anxious to obtain trustworthy information. If you do not yourself know, perhaps you could find out without great trouble— It is merely whether in studs of first rate greyhounds (I would except any bitch of quite pre-eminent merit) are all the puppies reared; & if not so, are more males or females reared? I shall perhaps make my question clearer by putting an extreme, but not impossible case. If one bitch produced 8 puppies, 6 being males & 2 females; & another bitch likewise produced 8 puppies, these being 6 females & 2 males, how many, as an ordinary rule, of the male & female puppies in each litter, would be reared?²

I hope that you will forgive me for troubling you, & aid me, if in your power by an answer—

Pray believe me | yours very faithfully | Ch. Darwin