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Darwin Correspondence Project

To Gardeners’ Chronicle   11 February [1868]1

Sir,—

I should be very much obliged to you or to any of your readers, if they would have the great kindness to refer me to any observations which may have been published on the proportional number of males and females born to our various domestic animals, such as cattle, sheep, horses, dogs, poultry, ducks, &c. I presume that this point has often been attended to, but I am at a loss where to search, and should be grateful for any reference or for any unpublished facts.2

Sir, your obedient servant,| Charles Darwin

Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E., Feb. 11.

Footnotes

The year is established by the date the letter appeared in the Gardeners’ Chronicle (15 February 1868).
On CD’s interest in the proportion of the sexes in animals, see the letter to H. W. Bates, 11 February [1868] and n. 2.

Summary

Requests information on published observations on the proportional number of males and females born to various domestic animals.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-5863
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
Gardeners’ Chronicle
Sent from
Down
Source of text
Gardeners’ Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette (1868): 160

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 5863,” accessed on 12 May 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-5863.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 16

letter