To H. T. Stainton 28 February [1868]1
Down. | Bromley. | Kent. S.E.
Feb. 28th
My dear Mr Stainton
As you said you would be so good as to write again I trouble you with one other question.2 I want to distinguish, as far as I can, sexual & protective colouring. Now do the females of the common Brimstone & common Orange-tips emerge from their cocoons & haunt the same places, mingled with large & small Cabbage Butterflies, for which, it is possible, they might be mistaken by birds, & thus escape danger.—3
Yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Descent: The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1871.
Summary
Asks whether the colouring of particular butterflies has any protective function, to ascertain whether the function is other than sexual.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-5949
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Henry Tibbats Stainton
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- E.W. Classey Ltd (dealers) (1974)
- Physical description
- ALS 1p
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 5949,” accessed on 26 September 2022, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-5949.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 16
