RECORD: Darwin, C. R. n.d. Gould - no woodpeckers in Australia though so woody. CUL-DAR205.3.78. Edited by John van Wyhe (Darwin Online, http://darwin-online.org.uk/)

REVISION HISTORY: Transcribed by Christine Chua and edited by John van Wyhe 1.2022. RN1

NOTE: See record in the Darwin Online manuscript catalogue, enter its Identifier here. Reproduced with permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library and William Huxley Darwin. The volume CUL-DAR205.3 contains notes on distribution of animals.

The brown crayon number '19' indicates that this document was filed by Darwin in his portfolio for the subject of Island endemism: animals.


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19

Gould - no woodpeckers in Australia though so woody explains by no rough bark!! no true creepers but a spider-feeding genus which climbs trees

No wandering species of any genus he can remember -none in case of Australia (a form allied to Philotis in N. Zealand) about 20 (?) Trogons in America 5 or 6 in India & one in Africa - One distinct species of Albatross in Northern hemisphere - thinks 50 land-birds in N. Zealand (how few G compared to Britain) very peculiar - Madagascar birds very peculiar. - some small African characters

In Australia these are pretty close representative species of coot, moorhen - peregrine falcon - cormorant - common Duck - Shoveller - widgeon? (or teal) (some analogous cases in S. America) X [illeg] in comparison with the distinct genera of Australia) The [Duck] resembles our duck in common plumage very closely, before the bright one comes on - neither of these species goes as far as near Equator - believes this is case with the two coots & moorhens - hence separated in ice-period - Altogether this seems a most beautiful representative series - well worth working out with in Gould's Great Australia Book

Gould showed me a most curious series of the closest species three of them from Van Diemens land, of Euphema, (a small parrot,) in which the most minute differences make evidently good

[illeg] - it was most curious to see how a green band over eye increased in width till it became a fine green head & how finally a red streak developed itself - Gould compared it to the breaking of tulips - In same way in Trogon you

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have a series from short tail-coverts & no crest, to beautifully long coverts & crest - if appears as if there is a contemporary series of what theoretically ought to be a lineal series - Again showed me in a broad-bill flycatcher a fine set of representative species in all of which the male differs greatly from female, except in one species when nearly similar. In this group one species differs from another only in size.

There is one peculiar Australian genus (Falconculus) closely allied to S. American genus.-


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Citation: John van Wyhe, ed. 2002-. The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online. (http://darwin-online.org.uk/)

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