My Dear Sir

A curious litter of Rabbits has been produced at Camberwell.—¹ Nine were reared

3 perfect

3 without ears

1 without ears or tail

1 without one ear & tail

1 without ears & with but three legs.—

My Brother who at his country residence keeps numerous Rabbits has kindly consented to try whether they will breed true and I have therefore sent him a buck and a doe without ears for the experiment.—²

The result shall be reported to you.—

Since I wrote the Rooks at the back of my house have made two new nests, and I observe them copulating, surely these must have been unpaired birds up to the present time.—³

A friend of mine whose Father kept a great number of Gold Pheasants,⁴ informs me that the antics of the male to attract the female are extraordinary,—he says he erects the plumes of the side of the neck, suddenly depresses them, creeps on the ground with his feathers closely adpressed darts forward, instantaneously ruffles out all the ornamental feathers of his body and turns about in the most lively manner.—

But he also informs me that the Silver Pheasant⁵ is very quiet under similar circumstances and only makes the most of his brilliant red comb & wattles, these become larger in the breeding season & are partially erected.

The Tragopans (Ceriornis) make the greatest use of their bright blue & red wattles blowing them out to an immense size when courting, this perhaps you observed at the Zoological Gardens when there, it may be observed constantly at this time of the year.—⁶

My own belief is that all vivid colors in birds are the result of sexual selection, even the red helmet & garters of the Moorhen.—⁷

I find that all birds that I know of having rich plumage are more quarrelsome than dull colored birds, in an aviary the linnet is of all finches the most inoffensive & the goldfinch the most pugnacious, the latter is always snapping at its companions but from its weakness does little damage.—⁸

I was surprized to read in your work that M^r. Brent thought mules amongst the Finches were not wild,⁹ my experience is exactly the reverse, the Siskin is the tamest of Finches but its mules are as wild when young as newly caught birds, and are constantly lost through their continued efforts to escape.—

Yours very truly | J Jenner Weir

C. Darwin Esq^r.