To W. B. Tegetmeier 21 September [1856]1
Down Bromley Kent
Sept. 21st
My dear Sir
In accordance with your kind offer, I write to say that what I want far most of all is one or two good Carriers, & secondly a Runt of largest size & thirdly a first-rate Fan-tail. I hope to get latter from Mr H. Weir2 or Wicking,3 but when Heaven knows only. I have asked M Corker4 for a Carrier & Mr Gulliver for a Runt5 but strangers very naturally forget or will not take the trouble to send.—
I am become as much interested in Rabbits as in Pigeons & shd be very glad of any assistance in that line. The Angora has made a capital skeleton & is in some small respects rather peculiar. I want much the Great Hare Rabbit. Ducks, also, are very valuable to me & I want a black Buenos Ayrean & Rouen very much. I wd. buy old Drakes at a moderate rate gladly.—
Would you object at any time to put in Cottage Gardener, a query whether any one in England has Finnikin or Turner Pigeons?6
At Leith Hill7 I noticed some very fine rather dark-coloured Dorkings with 5 toes, & all the quarter-grown chickens had hardly any tail at all, but which comes subsequently. Did you know that this was characteristic of any breed: I went to a Farm House whence my Brother got this breed & the good woman assured me that this was their general, but not quite invariable characteristic. The old Birds seemed all alike & true, so that I can hardly suppose the tailless condition to be owing to cross with Cochin, but so it may be.
I have only got as yet 1st nor of the Poultry Book,8 so do not know yet how you are getting on.
My dear Sir | Yours sincerely | C. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Tegetmeier, William Bernhard. 1856. On the remarkable peculiarities existing in the skulls of the feather-crested variety of the domestic fowl, now known as the Polish. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 24: 366–8.
Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.
Summary
States his requirements with regard to pigeons and his interest in ducks and rabbits. Inquires about poultry seen at Leith Hill.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-1957
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- William Bernhard Tegetmeier
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection)
- Physical description
- ALS 6pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 1957,” accessed on 2 May 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-1957.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 6