CONTRIBUTORS TO THE FIRST SERIES OF ' THE IBls/ 215 



furnished by Waliace^s paper. It will be seen from the 

 * Life and Letters' cited above (vol. ii. pp. 11(3 secjq.) that 

 Darwin felt so strongly that Wallace had been actually the 

 first to proclaim his views publich', that he went so far as to 

 doubt whether it would be honourable or fair to his fellow- 

 worker to publish his own memoir on the subject written as 

 early as 1844, although both Sir Charles Lyell and Sir 

 Joseph Hooker had been cognisant of it for many years, 

 fearing that it might detract from the value of Wallace's 

 work. He was most anxious that Wallace's Essay should l)e 

 published as soon as possible. Of this proceeding Sir 

 Charles Lyell and Sir Joseph Hooker highly approved {' Life 

 and Letters/ vol. ii. p. 115), "provided that Mr. Darwin did 

 not withhold from the public, as he was strongly inclined to 

 do (in favour of j\Ir. Wallace), the memoir which he had 

 himself written on the same subject . . ." A joint paper 

 was therefore prepared for the Linncan Society, Avhich was 

 published in its ' Journal ' for 1858 (vol. iii. p. 53j under the 

 title " On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties; and on 

 the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means 

 of Selection.^' It consisted of Wallace's Essay, Avitli the 

 addition by Darwin of (1) Extracts from the above-mentioned 

 ' Sketch ' of 1844, (2) part of a letter addressed by him to 

 Dr. Asa Gray in 1857; the whole being communicated to 

 the Society by Lyell and Hooker, who explained the 

 circumstances under which it was published in a prefatory 

 letter. In this manner, by the co-operation of two great 

 scientific men, were the views which were to revolutionize 

 zoology brought before the world. 



During his travels Wallace paid much attention to the 

 unconscious mimicry of birds and insects, and to the 

 geographical distribution of the various forms ; while he made 

 the personal acquaintance of nearly every species of Paradise 

 Bird then known, and first brought to the notice of 

 naturalists the curious Seiniopiera ivallacii of Batchiau. 



On his return to England in 1862 he was successful in 

 conveying home two live specimens of Paradisea minor, which 

 were deposited in the Zoological Gardens in London. 



