To P. L. Sclater 21 [April 1861]
Down Bromley Kent
21.
Dear Sclater
As you are working at Birds of S. America,1 & for my credit sake do oblige me & look at Birds in Zoolog. of Beagle p. 67 & see what I say on the 3 species of Opetiorhynchus & consider whether I am likely to have blundered when I observed difference of Habits of the species;2 so at p. 74 on Scytalopus, when I specify difference of habits.3 I see that I have made a horrid mistake in speaking of O. parvulus, which was a name temporarily attached, I believe, to one of the forms of O. Patagonicus.4 I believe that Capt. Abbot must have confounded O. vulgaris & antarcticus,5 which, as I remarked on the spot, are most closely similar except in habits.—
I much enjoyed my talk with you.—6 This note obviously requires no answer & written chiefly to indicate my self-conceit—
Yours very truly | C. Darwin
The Opetiorhynchus from Chiloe seems case of intermediate variety7
Footnotes
Bibliography
Birds: Pt 3 of The zoology of the voyage of H.M.S. Beagle. By John Gould. Edited and superintended by Charles Darwin. London: Smith, Elder and Co. 1839–41.
Sclater, Phillip Lutley. 1860–1. Catalogue of the birds of the Falkland Islands. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 28 (1860): 383–91; 29 (1861): 45–7.
Sclater, Phillip Lutley. 1862a. Catalogue of a collection of American birds belonging to Philip Lutley Sclater, M.A., Ph.D., F.R.S. London.
Summary
Asks about species of Opetiorhynchus.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-3123
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Philip Lutley Sclater
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.245)
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 3123,” accessed on 27 July 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-3123.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 9