I4O THE WRITING OF THE 'ORIGIN OF SPECIES.' 1858. 



and Affinities, being less worked up, I dare say each of these 

 will take me three weeks, so that I shall not have done at 

 soonest till April, and then my Abstract will in bulk make 

 a small volume. I never give more than one or two instances, 

 and I pass over briefly all difficulties, and yet I cannot make 

 my Abstract shorter, to be satisfactory, than I am now doing, 

 and yet it will expand to a small volume. . . . 



[About this time my father revived his old knowledge of 

 beetles in helping his boys in their collecting. He sent a 

 short notice to the ' Entomologist's Weekly Intelligencer,' June 

 25th, 1859, recording the capture of Licinus silphoides, Clytus 

 mysticus, Panagceus ^-pustidatits. The notice begins with 

 the words, " We three very young collectors having lately 

 taken in the parish of Down," &c., and is signed by three 

 of his boys, but was clearly not written by them. I have 

 a vivid recollection of the pleasure of turning out my bottle 

 of dead beetles for my father to name, and the excitement, 

 in which he fully shared, when any of them proved to 

 be uncommon ones. The following letters to Mr. Fox 

 (November 13, 1858), and to Sir John Lubbock, illustrate 

 this point :] 



C Darwin to W. D. Fox. 



Down, Nov. 13th [1858]. 



. . . W., my son, is now at Christ's College, in the rooms 

 above yours. My old Gyp, Impey, was astounded to hear 

 that he was my son, and very simply asked, "Why, has 

 he been long married?" What pleasant hours those were 

 when I used to come and drink coffee with you daily ! I 

 am reminded of old days by my third boy having just begun 

 collecting beetles, and he caught the other day Brachinus 

 crepitans, of immortal Whittlesea Mere memory. My blood 

 boiled with old ardour when he caught a Licinus a prize 

 unknown to me . . . 



