Dear Sir

I am much obliged for your kind letter.

I cannot believe in the possibility of the hybrid in question. I have examined one such bird, & cleaned its skeleton & it was a pure duck. Mr Bartlett of the Zoolog. Soc. has examined the bones of several such birds with the same result. The correlation however in all these cases between deficient swimming membrane & a deformed narrow beak, is extremely curious, & accords with some other facts.²

The case of the vine interests me more; but I do not understand whether the whole of the Madresfield Court vine now bears rounded berries, or whether a shoot has been produced from the point of inarchment.³ I do not return home untill the 11^th, & the state of my health prevents my coming to see this vine, which you are so kind as to offer to shew me.⁴

If you are inclined to take the trouble to send me half a dozen berries (ticketed with their names) of the pure Hamburgh, the pure Madresfield C^t, 2 of the modified Madresfield, together with information, or a little sketch of the inarched specimen, the information might be of very great use to me.

I have lately been writing on an allied subject, & my article is not yet printed off—⁵ The specimens, if you kindly agree to send them may be addressed here, or after my return home, to Down Beckenham.— If by Railway, to Orpington Station S.E.R.

Dear Sir | yours faithfully | Charles Darwin