Dear Mr Darwin

I am just going to have another hunt through all your works with the view of finding something that will throw light upon a Curious bird we have just got down from the interior. They are a pair of creatures said by the Dutchman who brought them down to Natal to be a cross between the common fowl and the guinea fowl (Numida Mitrata)¹

They enjoy the peculiarity as regards voice and gait of the latter but they have few of their feathers and alas! the spur of the former. I am getting Mr Baines who is here now to make good likenesses of them which I will send to you when ready²

And if you really attach value to the objects themselves I dare say it will be possible to find means of sending them dead or alive. They are only one year old. One of them has laid eggs which are spotted and so far as I can credit the description given of them not unsymmetrical like that of the common fowl but pointed at both ends. They do not fraternize for breeding purposes with the domestic fowl although on friendly enough terms in the yard and the roost. I will take the liberty to trouble you again about this³

yours truly | P. C. Sutherland