To T. C. Eyton 9 June [1857]1
Down Bromley Kent
June 9th
Dear Eyton
I must thank you for the sheets completing your Catalogue received this morning.2 What a superb collection you have: I am quite astounded at it!
I fear that you have not been able to find out whether the half bred African Pigs of Lord Hills’ were fertile, which I regret as it would have made your capital case on Pigs perfect.3 How go on the skeletons of dogs &c &c?—4
By the way I mentioned in a former letter that I had a skin with skull in & legs of a pure W. African domestic dog; but I presume you do not care about it.—5 Some day I will send it to Brit. Mus. if of no use to you.—
Believe me dear Eyton | Yours very sincerely | C. Darwin
P.S. Do you breed horses? If you did & would make a few observations for me merely on the colouring of colts of different colours, it would be of much use to me, & I do not think troublesome;6 but I daresay you have your hands quite full enough with your own work.—
Can you tell me whether the convolutions in the Trachea of the male of the same species of Bird ever varies much?—
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Eyton, Thomas Campbell. 1856. A catalogue of the species of birds in his possession. Wellington, Salop.
Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.
Summary
Comments on TCE’s work [Catalogue of the species of birds in his collection (1856)].
Mentions African dog’s skin.
Asks about colours of horses
and about variation in tracheae of male birds.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-2103
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Thomas Campbell Eyton
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.146)
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 2103,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-2103.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 6