Summary

Asks her to observe whether her dog exposes his teeth when barking and to think of any facts about expression in her birds.

Summary

Believes beauty of male bird important for attracting mate in wild. Will be interested to hear how a dyed male pigeon is received by the hens.

Summary

Thanks WT for information.

Will not include chapter on man in Variation but plans separate essay in future.

Summary

Chapter 12 [of Variation] finished;

too late to include information on six-fingered men. Plans for book on man [Descent].

Mentions coral reefs of Tahiti.

Discusses volcanic islands; volcanoes of the Cordillera.

Summary

Hopes JM’s friend will give his judgment [on Variation] soon; and urges JM to come to a decision about publishing. CD believes it will have "a fair sale".

Summary

Comments on ARW’s view of colouring in relation to sexual selection and protection. It is not new to CD. Hopes to discuss subject fully in his "Essay on Man" [Descent]. As to the problem of brightly coloured females, CD is not satisfied that it is due to males taking over incubation. Admires "value and beauty" of ARW’s generalisations.

Summary

Thanks for the information about the male plumage. [See 5374.] Will look to the papers in Ibis to which AN has referred him. He finds AN’s theory captivating.

Summary

ARW’s explanation of protective value of conspicuous coloration is ingenious.

CD still holds to sexual selection with respect to beauty in male butterflies.

Sexual selection and the races of man.

Expression of emotions is another subject he plans to include in his essay [Descent].

Asks ARW to suggest an observer in Malay Archipelago to whom he might send queries [on expression].

Summary

Thanks BJS for W. H. Stirling’s answers [to queries about expression]

and for information on cattle and breeding of dogs.

Summary

Sends his photograph.

Asks for any information of well-marked sexual differences in snakes, batrachians, or lizards. The rattlesnakes at the Zoological Garden differ considerably in colour.

Summary

Invites RT to come to Down for a week-end.

Summary

Acknowledgment of article on mimicry [Westminster Rev. 88 (1867): 1–43].

Summary

Thanks for information about rudimentary organs. Asks about rudimentary character of human hair and panniculus carnosus.

Summary

Asks whether WBT can carry out poultry mating experiments for him.

Summary

Thanks for CV’s Mémoire sur les microcéphales [1867]. Curious how CD and CV have come to similar conclusions about atavism.

Summary

He had no idea that the double function of an excretory passage had played a part in the history of religion.

Summary

Struck by singular clarity of EH’s Generelle Morphologie. Remarks on various authors seem too severe. Severity leads the reader to take the side of the attacked person.

Making slow progress in correcting Variation.

Summary

Returns ARW’s notes. He will work up subject much better than CD.

Apologises for the note of illiberality in his letter regarding ARW’s work on the colouring and other sexual differences in mammals.

Discusses laws of inheritance based on sexual selection.

He questions the extent of applicability of principles of protection and sexual selection to lower animal forms, though Ernst Haeckel has shown how protection may account for transparency and absence of colour in lower oceanic animals.

Summary

Close inbreeding and factors acting against it.

Summary

Asks why caterpillars are sometimes beautifully coloured. It poses a problem for view that sexual selection is the explanation of colours of male butterflies.

More on mimetic butterflies.