The Wallace-Darwin Correspondence 



leisure, you have waded through my book, I trust you 

 will again let me have a few lines of friendly criticism 

 and advice. — Yours very faithfully, 



• Alfred R. Wallace. 



Dowriy Bechenham. June 17, 1876. 



My dear Wallace, — I have now finished the whole of 

 Vol. I., with the same interest and admiration as before; 

 and I am convinced that my judgment was right and that 

 it is a memorable book, the basis of all future work on the 

 subject. I have nothing particular to say, but perhaps you 

 would like to hear my impressions on two or three points. 

 Nothing has struck me more than the admirable and con- 

 vincing manner in which you treat Java. To allude to a 

 very trifling point, it is capital about the unadorned head 

 of the Argus pheasant.* How plain a thing is, when it is 

 once pointed out ! What a wonderful case is that of Celebes ! 

 I am glad that you have slightly modified your views with 

 respect to Africa,* and this leads me to say that I cannot 

 swallow the so-called continent of Lemuria, i.e. the direct 

 connection of Africa and Ceylon'.^ The facts do not seem 

 to me many and strong enough to justify so immense a 

 change of level. Moreover, Mauritius and the other islands 

 appear to me oceanic in character. But do not suppose 



1 See "The Descent of Man," 1st Edit., pp. 90 and 143, for drawings of the 

 Argus pheasant and its markings. The ocelli on the wing feathers were favourite 

 objects of Darwin's, and sometimes formed the subject of the little lectures which 

 on rare occasions he would give to a visitor interested in Natural History. In 

 Wallace's book, the meaning of the ocelli comes in by the way, in the explanation 

 of Plate IX., '* A Malayan Forest with some of its Peculiar Birds." The case 

 is a " remarkable confirmation of Mr. Darwin's views, that gaily coloured 

 plumes are developed in the male bird for the purpose of attractive display." 



» " Geographical Distribution of Animals," i. 286-7. 



' " Geographical Distribution," i. 76. The name Lemuria was proposed by 

 Mr. Sclater for an imaginary submerged continent extending from Madagascar 

 to Ceylon and Sumatra. Wallace points out that if we confine ourselves to 

 facts Lemuria is reduced to Madagascar, which he makes a subdivision of the 

 Ethiopian Region. 



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