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Darwin Correspondence Project

From Caroline Shuttleworth   27 November [1871–80?]1

Wykeham Rise | Totteridge | N

Nov. 27

Sir

I am taking the liberty of writing to tell you of a curious instance of what appears to me like aberration of instinct (insanity?) on the part of a fantail pigeon, wh. on no theory can I account for. It is several years ago, before I was acquainted with yr. writings.2 I only wish that I still possessed the eccentric bird that I mt. add to my audacity in asking you to do it & me the honor of paying us a visit. But alas! it is no more. Still I have so often wondered how you wd. have accounted for its conduct, that at last I am constrained to write & ask you:

At that time we kept a few white fantail pigeons in a pigeon-house at the top of the coach house. One day I picked up somewhere an empty ginger-beer bottle—of the ordinary brown stone description, & I threw it, I dont know why, into the middle of the stable yard, just below the pigeon house.

Immediately the father of the fantail family flew down in a state of intense excitement, & to my great amusement began to perform the most extraordinary genuflexions, evidently in homage to the bottle.

He walked solemnly round & round it, cooing continually, & trailing his wing, & bobbing his head up & down, with the most exaggerated antics I ever beheld on the part of an enamoured pigeon. This went on for hours, but he never went quite up to it, & it never ceased until the bottle had been removed.

And this object never failed to attract him. Whenever an amusement was required for our visitors, I produced the bottle with invariably the same results. He flew down with quite as great alacrity, & usually far greater, than when his peas were thrown out for his dinner. The other members of his family regarded his performances with contemptuous indifference, taking no interest whatever themselves in any ginger beer bottle. I often tried him with other things, but only the bottle ever attracted him.

Now what was the cause of this infatuation? He cd. not possibly have thought it was a pigeon. If it was insanity it was a monomania, for on all other points he was as sane a bird as you cd. find.

With many apologies for troubling you with this anecdote3 I am | yr. obedient servant | C. Shuttleworth

Footnotes

The year range is conjectured from the fact that the letter may have been inspired by Descent, published early in 1871, and from the fact that Shuttleworth had probably left Wykeham Rise, Totteridge, by 1881 (Census returns of England and Wales 1881 (The National Archives: Public Record Office RG11/1370/96/2)).
CD discussed the ‘love-antics and dances’ of birds in Descent 2: 68–71.
George John Romanes followed up this story, which became well known through his account of ‘derangement of instinctive organization’ (Romanes 1883, pp. 172–4). The account was illustrated by Harrison William Weir in Chatterbox (1889): 391–2. See plate in Correspondence vol. 30.

Bibliography

Romanes, George John. 1883a. Mental evolution in animals: with a posthumous essay on instinct by Charles Darwin. London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co.

Summary

Reports peculiar behaviour in a fantail pigeon, which persistently courted a ginger-beer bottle.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-13840
From
Caroline Jemima (Caroline) Shuttleworth
To
Charles Robert Darwin
Sent from
Totteridge
Source of text
DAR 177: 158
Physical description
ALS 4pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 13840,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-13840.xml

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