To J. J. Weir 19 October 1871
Down, Beckenham, Kent.
Oct. 19, 1871.
My dear Sir
I am obliged for your interesting fact.1 I have heard of analogous cases, especially of a striking one in Ceylon.2 Like you I have often wondered at the different food of the old and young, as with graminivorous birds feeding their young with insects. I imagine we must look back to primeval times when the young and old lived on the same food. Sir J. Lubbock in his forthcoming Vol. in the Ray Soc. will give some valuable remarks on the means of transition between the mandibulata and haustellata.3 I think the Gonepteryx must feed on some plants besides the Rhamnus, for I believe this bush in many districts is absent, whilst the butterfly is common.4
With many thanks for your note believe me | Yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin.
Footnotes
Summary
"Like you I have often wondered at the different food of the old and young, as with graminivorous birds feeding their young with insects."
Recommends forthcoming book by John Lubbock [Monograph of the Collembola and Thysanura (1873)].
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-8018
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- John Jenner Weir
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 148: 328
- Physical description
- C 1p
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 8018,” accessed on 27 September 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-8018.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 19