To P. L. Sclater 4 May [1861]
Down. | Bromley. | Kent. S.E.
May 4th
Dear Sclater
Immediately on the receipt of your note & kind offer of inserting in the Ibis a note about the habitats of the Falkland Birds,1 I got out my catalogues & notes made on the spot.2 But I am sorry to say that I can make nothing out definitely, for I always refer to numbers not knowing at the time the names of the Birds; so that if any specimens got wrongly named, it would only be possible to set matters right by looking to my original specimens.3
Accordingly I wrote to Mr Gray & to Gould to know if they had any of my specimens (which most unfortunately were given to Zoolog. Soc & afterwards all distributed), but they have not.—4 Therefore I look at the case as hopeless. I cannot conceive how such a mistake could have occurred; but without fresh & distinct evidence, I do not see that I could do any good publishing a note. A false habitat is a positive mischief, worse than a species not appearing in a list; & therefore I shd. say after Capt. Abbotts careful work, it would be better for the two names to be considered as errors, than to be given without positive evidence.—5
I am sorry to have caused you this trouble, & am myself vexed that I cannot either prove myself right or confess to a great & heavy blunder.
Yours very sincerely | C. Darwin
P.S. | I had a letter the other day from Mr Swinhoe, & he tells me that he has sent you a new rock-pigeon & (as I understand) the wild Anser cygnoides;6 but when next in London I must call on you & enquire about these two Birds,—which surprise me.— Perhaps the Pigeon may be the Himalayan Rock-pigeon.—
Footnotes
Bibliography
Abbott, Charles Compton. 1861. Notes on the birds of the Falkland Islands. Ibis 3: 149–67.
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.
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Origin: On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1859.
Porter, Duncan M. 1985. The Beagle collector and his collections. In The Darwinian heritage, edited by David Kohn. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press in association with Nova Pacifica (Wellington, NZ).
Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.
Summary
CD is unable to locate his specimens of two Falkland Island birds [Opetiorhynchus].
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-3138
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Philip Lutley Sclater
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.246)
- Physical description
- ALS 5pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 3138,” accessed on 27 July 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-3138.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 9