1860.] PIGEON FANCIERS. 



C. Darwin to T. H. Huxley. 



Ilkley, Yorks, Nov. 27 [1859]. 



MY DEAR HUXLEY, Gartner grand, Kolreuter grand, but 

 papers scattered through many volumes and very lengthy. I 

 had to make an abstract of the whole. Herbert's volume on 

 Amaryllidaceae very good, and two excellent papers in the 

 ' Horticultural Journal.' For animals, no resum to be trusted 

 at all ; facts are to be collected from all original sources.* 

 I fear my MS. for the bigger book (twice or thrice as long 

 as in present book), with all references, would be illegible, 

 but it would save you infinite labour ; of course I would 

 gladly lend it, but I have no copy, so care would have to be 

 taken of it. But my accursed handwriting would be fatal, I 

 fear. 



About breeding, I know of no one book. I did not think 

 well of Lowe, but I can name none better. Youatt I look at* 

 as a far better and more practical authority ; but then his views 

 and facts are scattered through three or four thick volumes. 

 I have picked up most by reading really numberless special 

 treatises and all agricultural and horticultural journals ; but 

 it is a work of long years. The difficulty is to know what to 

 trust. No one or two statements are worth a farthing ; the 

 facts are so complicated. I hope and think I have been 

 really cautious in what I state on this subject, although all 



* This caution is exemplified in the following extract from an earlier 

 letter to Professor Huxley : " The inaccuracy of the blessed gang (oi 

 which I am one) of compilers passes all bounds. Monsters have frequently 

 been described as hybrids without a tittle of evidence. I must give one 

 other case to show how we jolly fellows work. A Belgian Baron (I forget 

 his name at this moment) crossed two distinct geese and got seven hybrids, 

 which he proved subsequently to be quite sterile ; well, compiler the first, 

 Chevreul, says that the hybrids were propagated for seven generations 

 inter se. Compiler second (Morton) mistakes the French name, and gives 

 Latin names for two more distinct geese, and says Chevreul himself propa- 

 gated them inter se for seven generations ; and the latter statement is 

 Copied from book to book." 



