skip to content

Darwin Correspondence Project

To J. L. Hawkins   23 December 1880

Down, | Beckenham, Kent. (Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.)

December 23d 80

Dear Sir

I am much obliged for your very courteous note & kindness in sending me a correction.1 I was not at all aware that cats avoided certain species of mice, though I knew that they would not eat shrews. Perhaps Col. Newman was mistaken.2 Should I ever again correct the Origin, (which is not very likely) I would modify the passage.—3

I remain | Dear Sir | Yours faithfully & obliged | Charles Darwin

Footnotes

The letter from Hawkins has not been found. According to the letter from H. M. Wallis, 27 March 1881 (Correspondence vol. 29), Hawkins wrote about ‘mice in their relation to cats & hawks’.
CD had cited Henry Wenman Newman’s information on cats catching mice (Newman 1851) in Origin, p. 74. The passage was not altered in subsequent editions.
The final printing of Origin made during CD’s lifetime was the 1876 reprint of Origin 6th ed.

Bibliography

Newman, Henry Wenman. 1851. On the habits of the Bombinatrices. Transactions of the Entomological Society of London n.s. 1: 86–92, 109–12, 116–18.

Origin 6th ed.: The origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. 6th edition, with additions and corrections. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1872.

Origin: On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1859.

Summary

Thanks for information about cats avoiding certain species of mice.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-12932F
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
John Luther Hawkins
Sent from
Down
Source of text
Private collection
Physical description
ALS 1p

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 12932F,” accessed on 20 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-12932F.xml

letter