From F. B. Goodacre 11 August 1879
Wilby Rectory | Attlebro’ | Norfolk
Aug 11/79
Dear Sir,
I trouble you with this thinking you may like to know the results of my experiments for this year in cross breeding between the two forms of domestic geese; I enclose an account of the goslings that have been reared by myself & several friends:—1
Dr. Meadows was prevented doing anything owing to the two birds I sent him (children of your pair) being both of one sex;2 should it so happen that you could give him a female gosling I should be much obliged as then he would try to breed for another generation in & in, I enclose his country address in case you can supply him with one.
I will gladly send you one of my goslings (rather more than Chinese) if for any reason you would care to have one Perhaps you might like to watch the change of colour of the bill from black to orange: I am making a collection of skulls & windpipes thinking they may be interesting for reference, I wish I knew of pictures of the windpipes of Grey lag Bean White fronted & Pink footed Geese3 that I could take tracings of them for comparison:
Hoping you are better than when I last heard with kind regards | Believe me | yrs truly | F B Goodacre
[Enclosure]
Ganders Goslings reared in /79
Chinese & Pure Chinese
Chinese & Pure Common
(brother to above)
Chinese & Common or Chinese some doubt as to which
goose laid the eggs they were hatched from
(brother to yours)
Chinese & Pure Chinese
brother to above
Dr. Meadows country address
To the care of | Mr. Masson | Poyle Park | Colnbrook | Bucks4
CD annotations
Footnotes
Bibliography
Descent: The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1871.
Origin: On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1859.
Summary
Crossbreeding experiments with geese.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-12189
- From
- Francis Burges Goodacre
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Attleborough, Norfolk
- Source of text
- DAR 165: 66
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp †
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 12189,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-12189.xml