SEX RELATIONSHIPS OF INSECTS: 1868 243 



I sincerely wish you h^lth, happiness and success in 

 Nat. History in S. Africa. 1 should have much liked to 

 have asked you, if you could have spared time, to come 

 down here for a day or two ; but Mrg. Huxley is coming 

 here in a few days with all her six children and nurses, 

 for healths sake, and stop some weeks. And our House 

 will be, with others, so absolutely full, that today we 

 have had to tell our Brother-in-law, that we cannot 

 possibly receive him. — 



Most truly do I thank you for your great kindness in 

 aiding me in so many ways. Yesterday I was working 

 in much of your information. — 



Believe me 



Yours very sincerely 

 C. Darwin 

 16. 



Jtdy 24th [1871] Down, 



Beckenham, 

 Kent. 

 My dear Mb Tbimen 



I am much obliged for your long and interesting 

 letter. You asked me whether I have any notion about 

 the meaning of moths etc flying into candles, and birds 

 against light-houses. — I have not. — I have looked at the 

 case as one of curiosity, which is very strong with the 

 higher animals, and I presimie even with insects. A light 

 is a very new object, and its distance cannot be judged, 

 but how it comes that an insect is so stupid as to go on 

 flying into the same candle I cannot conceive. It looks 

 as if they were drawn towards it. — Sir C. Lyell, I re- 

 member, made years ago the difficulty greater by asking 

 me, what stops all the moths in the world flying every 

 moon-light night up to the moon, or as near as they could 



get. Perhaps they have instinctively learnt that this 



cannot be done. — 



b2 



