mr. darwin's letters. 459 



feathers, and legs of one. The differences are chiefly in the 

 colour of the feathers and scales ; in the legs being feathered 

 below the knee, also in the nidification and geographical dis- 

 tribution."— P. 16. 



" We were driven into Chiloe by some very bad weather. 

 An Englishman gave me three specimens of a very fine 

 lucanoidal insect, which is described in the Cambridge 

 Philosophical Transactions, two males and one female." [Chi- 

 asognathus Grantii, Stephens.] 



" In zoology I have done but very little, excepting a large 

 collection of minute Diptera and Hymenoptera, from Chiloe. 

 I took in one day Pselaphas, Anaspis, Latridius, Leiodes, 

 Cercyon, and Elmis, and two beautiful true Carabi. I might 

 almost have fancied myself collecting in England. A new and 

 pretty genus of nudibranch Mollusca, which cannot crawl on a 

 flat surface, and a genus in the family of Balanidce, which has 

 not a true case, but lives in minute cavities of the shells of 

 Coticholepas, are nearly the only two novelties." — P. 2"Z. 



" I also send a small bottle with two lizards ; one of them 

 is viviparous, as you will see by the accompanying notice. 

 M. Gay, a French naturalist, has already published, in one of 

 the newspapers of this country, a similar statement, and has 

 probably forwarded some account to Paris." — P. 30. 



The following is an extract from the newspaper referred to 

 by Mr. Darwin. 



" Besides these labours I employed myself during the great 

 rains in dissecting various reptiles. It must be interesting to 

 know the influence of the climate of Valdivia on the animals of 

 this family. In the greater part of those which I have been 

 able to submit to my scalpel, I have found a truly extraordinary 

 fact, that they were viviparous. Not only the innocent snake 

 of Valdivia has offered to my notice this singular phenomenon, 

 but also a beautiful and new kind of Iguana, which approaches 

 very near to the Leposoma of Spix, and to which, on account 

 of its beautiful colours, he has given the name of Chryso- 

 saurus. All the species, even those which lay their eggs in 

 Santiago, here produce their young alive ; and the same thing 

 happens with the Batrachia, and particularly with a genus 

 near to the Rhinella of Fitzingen, of which the numerous 

 species have the skin pleasingly spotted with green, yellow, 

 and black. I need not dwell on the importance of this last 



