skip to content

Darwin Correspondence Project

To F. B. Goodacre   13 August [1879]1

Waterhead Hotel | Coniston, Ambleside

Augt 13th.

Dear Sir

I am much obliged for your note. With respect to my own success, it has only been moderate, but has sufficed to shew that the hybrids are fertile inter se.2 I was not aware that geese will not copulate except on the water, & I kept the birds enclosed in a large wire enclosure.— As soon as I discovered about the copulation, I sent them to a pond, & afterwards reared 2 young birds, one of which unfortunately killed itself. In a second hatch I reared 3 fine young Birds—so that I now have 4 young birds.— I found it quite necessary to keep my birds enclosed, as they wd wander off to a pond quarter of a mile distant where there were other geeses; but this was discovered before the breeding season.

I shall return home in 2 or 3 weeks & shd. be glad to hear whether you would like to have all the geese returned to you, as under the circumstances just stated, it is too troublesome to keep them any longer. What had I better do with respect to Dr. Meadows?3 is it possible to distinguish males & females whilst the birds are young? Shall I send him the two old Birds?

I shd. like to publish a notice of a few lines in length in the Proc. Zoolog. Soc. on the fertility of the hybrids; & if so may I use your results?4 With respect to the windpipe I think that Yarrell gives figures; but I daresay I could find out when in London later in the autumn.—5

Thanking you very sincerely for all your kindness, I remain | Dear Sir | Yours faithfully | Ch. Darwin

Footnotes

The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from F. B. Goodacre, 11 August 1879.
See letter from F. B. Goodacre, 11 August 1879 and n. 1. Goodacre had sent CD Chinese and common geese for crossing experiments in 1878.
Goodacre had asked whether CD could send Alfred Meadows a female gosling; see letter from F. B. Goodacre, 11 August 1879 and n. 2.
CD published the results in a letter to Nature, 1 January 1880, p. 207, not in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London.
In his letter of 11 August 1879, Goodacre had asked for a source of pictures of the windpipes of different geese. CD probably refers to William Yarrell’s paper ‘Observations on the tracheæ of birds’ (Yarrell 1827).

Bibliography

Yarrell, William. 1827. Observations on the tracheæ of birds; with descriptions and representations of several not hitherto figured. [Read 6 February 1827.] Transactions of the Linnean Society of London 15: 378–91.

Summary

Reports the results of breeding from FBG’s hybrid geese. The hybrids are fertile inter se. Would FBG like the geese back? If CD publishes his observations may he use FBG’s results?

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-12193
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
Francis Burges Goodacre
Sent from
Coniston
Source of text
Dr John Goodacre (private collection)
Physical description
C 1p

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 12193,” accessed on 29 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-12193.xml

letter