To Alfred Newton 12 March [1874]1
Down, | Beckenham, Kent.
March 12th
My dear Prof. Newton
I am very sorry that I cannot answer your questions.2 It wd. take me weeks to find references for the facts stated in the Origin; but I can assure you that I stated nothing without authority which I at the time thought good, though no doubt I was often mistaken. Had health permitted I shd. have published all the chapters in extenso with references; but I do not suppose that I shall now ever have the strength. By the way I was using a note of yours this very morning & striking out passage about a gull dipping a mouse in water to swallow it.3
I cannot give reference about Missel-Thrush; but Gould told me he doubted the truth of statement & I then looked again at my authority & it seemed good, so I left the statement; but I daresay you are right.4 Since my Boyhood, now above 50 years, I feel sure that missel-thrush have much increased: I remember my astonishment when I saw the first which appeared in my Father’s grounds at Shrewsbury.5
Starlings have, also, I believe much increased: Mr Norman a well-known man in Kent, observant & a great sportsman, remarked to me some years ago on the astonishing increase of starlings in Kent during his life.6
How inexplicable most of these cases are & that of your’s about the titmouse.7
Believe me my dear Prof. Newton | Yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin
P.S. By cerebration I have just remembered & found reference about the missel-thrushes. It relates to these birds in Banffshire by Mr. T Edward in Zoologist Vol 13–14—1855–1856 p. 5260—says has lately increased “& bids fair to outnumber the common species, for as the one is gaining ground the other is losing it.”8
This is my copy of the original, for I have not the book
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Descent 2d ed.: The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. By Charles Darwin. 2d edition. London: John Murray. 1874.
Descent: The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1871.
Edward, Thomas. 1856. A list of the birds of Banffshire, accompanied with anecdotes. Zoologist 14: 5117–22, 5199–202, 5258–68.
Origin 4th ed.: On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. 4th edition, with additions and corrections. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1866.
Summary
Cannot answer AN’s questions about Origin; it would take weeks to find the references. Assures AN he stated nothing without an authority he thought good.
Feels sure missel thrushes have increased in number since his youth. Starlings have also increased astonishingly in Kent. "How inexplicable most of these cases are".
In a P.S. remembers his source for statement about increase of missel thrushes in Origin.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-9354
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Alfred Newton
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Cambridge University Library (MS Add. 9839/1D/61)
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9354,” accessed on 19 October 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9354.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 22