To W. B. Tegetmeier 22 March [1861]1
Down Bromley Kent
March 22d
My dear Sir
I ought to have answered your last note sooner; but I have been very busy.2 How wonderfully successful you have been in breeding Pouters! you have good right to be proud of your accuracy of eye & judgment. I am in the thick of Poultry; having just commenced & shall be truly grateful for the skulls, if you can send them by any conveyance to the Nag’s Head next Thursday.3 If too busy, will you send them whenever you can, addressed, thus
C. Darwin Esq
care of Mr Mitchell
Per S.E Railway Postman
Bromley, Kent
You ask about Vermilion wax: positively it was not in state of comb, but in solid bits & cakes, which were thrown with other rubbish not far from my Hives.—4 You can make any use of fact, you like.—5 Combs could be concentrically & variously coloured & dates recorded by giving for few days wax darkly coloured with vermilion & indigo, & I daresay other substances.
You ask about my crossed Fowls; & this leads me to make a proposition to you, which I hope cannot be offensive to you.— I trust you know me too well to think that I would propose anything objectionable to the best of my judgment. The case is this. For my object of treating Poultry, I must give sketch of several breeds with remarks on various points. I do not feel strong on subject. Now when my M.S. is fairly copied in an excellent hand-writing; would you read it over, which would take you at most an hour or two, & make comments in pencil on it; & accept, like a Barrister, a fee, we will say of a couple of guineas.— This would be a great assistance to me; specially if you would allow me to put note, stating that you, a distinguished judge & Fancier, had read it over. I would state that you doubted or concurred as each case might be: of course striking out what you were sure was incorrect. There would be little new in my M.S. to you; but if by chance you used any of my facts or conclusions, before I published, I shd wish you to state that they were on my authority; otherwise I shall be accused of stealing from you.— There will be little new except that perhaps I have consulted some out of the way books, & have corresponded with some good authorities.
Tell me frankly what you think of this; but unless you will oblige me by accepting remuneration, I cannot & will not give you such trouble.— I have little that several points will arise which will require investigation, as I care for many points disregarded by Fanciers; & according to any time thus spent you will, I trust, allow me to make remuneration. I hope that you will grant me this favour.—6
There is one assistance which I will now venture to beg of you, viz to get me, if you can, another specimen of old white Angora Rabbit. I want it dead for Skeleton; & not knocked on Head.7 Secondly I see in Cottage Gardener (March 19th. p. 375) there are (impure) Half-lops with one ear quite upright & shorter than the other lopped ear. I much want a dead one.— Baker cannot get one.—8 Baily is looking out;9 but I want two specimens. Can you assist me, if you meet any Rabbit fancier? I have had rabbit with one ear more lopped than the other; but I want one with one ear quite upright & shorter, & the other quite long & lopped.—10
My dear Sir | Yours sincerely | Ch. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Tegetmeier, William Bernhard. 1859. Cells of the honey bee. Transactions of the Entomological Society n.s. 5 (1858–61): Proceedings, pp. 34–5.
Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.
Summary
Asks whether WBT will read over his MS sketch on poultry when done.
Wants rabbit specimens.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-3095
- 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 8pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 3095,” accessed on 1 September 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-3095.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 9