To A. R. Wallace 5 September [1877]
Summary
Further discussion of evidence for sexual selection. Prefers "conscious" to "voluntary" action. Distinguishes features that serve as charms and those that serve as challenges.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Alfred Russel Wallace |
| Date: | 5 Sept [1877] |
| Classmark: | The British Library (Add MS 46434) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11127 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … you admit that for instance the spur of the cock is due to sexual selection. I am quite …
From Clipson Wray 22 June 1877
Summary
States that the sheep of the Cape will produce twins only when herbage is plentiful before rutting-time.
Makes some observations on bustards and baboons.
| Author: | David Clipson (Clipson) Wray |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 22 June 1877 |
| Classmark: | DAR 181: 162 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11012 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … but could find no difference in plumage between cock and hen. My friends here have told me …
| letter | (2) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (1) |
| Wray, Clipson | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (1) |
| Wallace, A. R. | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (2) |
| Wallace, A. R. | (1) |
| Wray, Clipson | (1) |
Was Darwin an ecologist?
Summary
One of the most fascinating aspects of Charles Darwin’s correspondence is the extent to which the experiments he performed at his home in Down, in the English county of Kent, seem to prefigure modern scientific work in ecology.
Matches: 1 hits
- … I gave two seeds to a confounded old cock, but his gizzard ground them up; at least I cd. not find …
Sexual selection
Summary
Although natural selection could explain the differences between species, Darwin realised that (other than in the reproductive organs themselves) it could not explain the often marked differences between the males and females of the same species. So what…
Matches: 1 hits
- … such as the horns on a stag or the spurs on a cock. Sexual selection, he wrote, depends 'not on …
Beauty and the seed
Summary
One of the real pleasures afforded in reading Charles Darwin’s correspondence is the discovery of areas of research on which he never published, but which interested him deeply. We can gain many insights about Darwin’s research methods by following these …
Matches: 1 hits
- … & looking gorgeous. I gave two seeds to a confounded old cock, but his gizzard ground them up; …
