skip to content
Home

Darwin Correspondence Project

To G. H. K. Thwaites   20 October [1860]1

Down Bromley Kent [Eastbourne.]

Oct 20

My dear Mr Thwaites

I thank you sincerely for your kind note & very curious little fact about the Ducks.2 I much hope that you will attend a little more to them. Is the breed in any way different externally from the other ducks of Ceylon which do frequent water? Has any body else observed the same facts with these Ducks? Is there any danger in the waters to which the Ducks are exposed? How curious it would be if you were to get some eggs from the aquatic breed of some other district & compare their habits with your own ducks. It really is worth a little trouble.— I have seen ducks in England dabbling in long grass.—

Your sentence about my views more commending themselves to your mind, has pleased me extremely.3 I care much for the opinion of naturalists & very little for that of the public.— The avalanche of Reviews against me has hardly yet ceased; but they have hurt me very little; & I hear from Murray that my Book goes on selling well.— It will be a long battle, before it is known how much truth & how much error there is in my Book. But I find that all those who went at first an inch with me go a foot or so now.— I know of no renegades as yet.— I have no news for I have not seen a naturalist for several months.

With every good wish & thanks | Pray believe me | Yours very sincerely | Charles Darwin

Footnotes

1
The year is given by the reference to reviews of Origin. CD mentioned having received a letter from Thwaites in the letter to Asa Gray, 19 October [1860]. This letter was previously published in Correspondence vol. 8 from a copy in DAR 148: 78.
2
Thwaites’s letter has not been found. He apparently told CD about a breed of ducks that did not regularly frequent water. CD had discussed similar cases in Origin, p. 185. CD did not include any information on the Ceylonese breed in Variation.
3
Thwaites’s comment was quoted by CD in his letter to Asa Gray, 19 October [1860].

Bibliography

Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.

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.

Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.

Summary

Thanks for fact about ducks in Ceylon. Asks for more information.

Pleased by GHKT’s sentence [about Origin].

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 2957,” accessed on 20 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-2957.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 8

letter

Darwin Correspondence Project
darwin@lib.cam.ac.uk

© University of Cambridge 2022

Copyright declaration

Privacy policy

Website by Surface Impression

 

Study at Cambridge

About the University

Research at Cambridge