RECORD: Darwin, C. R. 1877. [Letter on Stock Dove]. In Fanny E. Kingsley, ed., Charles Kingsley: his letters and memories of his life. London: Henry S. King & Co. Volume 2: 135-6.
REVISION HISTORY: Scanned, text prepared and edited by John van Wyhe 7.2007. RN3
NOTE: See record in the Freeman Bibliographical Database, enter its Identifier here. The editors of Correspondence vol. 25, p. 64 give the following notes to this item:
1 Kingsley refers to William Bingham Baring, Lord Ashburton, George Douglas Campbell, duke of Argyll, and Samuel Wilberforce, bishop of Oxford. Baring's principal seat was The Grange, Alresford, Hampshire (Burke's peerage 1862).
2 Wilberforce reviewed Origin anonymously in the Quarterly Review ([Wilberforce] 1860). CD thought the review 'uncommonly clever' but 'not worth anything scientifically' (see Correspondence vol. 8, letter to Asa Gray, 22 July [1860]). More famously, Wilberforce had been fiercely critical of the Origin during a debate at the British Association meeting at Oxford in 1860 (see Correspondence vol. 8).
3 The duke of Argyll had discussed Origin in his presidential address, delivered before the Royal Society of Edinburgh on 3 December 1860 (G. D. Campbell 1860, pp. 371-6). He praised CD's 'most curious and original' observations, and his capacity for 'arranging and co-ordinating physical phenomena' (ibid., p. 376), but raised a number of objections to what he described as 'essentially another form of the old theory of development' (ibid., p. 375). CD had been impressed with the liberal tone of the duke's discussion, but did not value his arguments (see Correspondence vol. 9, letter to T. H. Huxley, 1 April [1861]).
4 The duke of Argyll had argued in his presidential address that CD's work on the artificial selection of pigeons only served to illustrate the action of a restraining law of reversion to type' (G. D. Campbell 1860, p. 373). He had earlier told Charles Lyell: 'As regards the effects of breeding, I think the facts he gives in respect to pigeons tell more against than for his theory' (I. E. Campbell ed. 1906, 2: 482).
5 W. B. Baring had no surviving sons, but the reference may be to his nephew, Alexander Hugh Baring, who was a member of parliament for Thetford, Norfolk. Alexander Baring's father, Francis, lived at Buckenham Hall, near Brandon, Norfolk, which stood in extensive parkland (Post Office directory of Cambridge, Norfolk, and Suffolk 1858).
6 Kingsley wrote a letter to CD on 23 March 1862 expressing more of his notions about the human species; he described what he thought to be the physical imperfections of the human body. However, Kingsley did not send the letter until 1867 (see the enclosure to the letter from Charles Kingsley, 1 November 1867 (Calendar nos. 3482 and 5664)).
[page] 135
TO CHARLES DARWIN, ESQ., F.R.S., &c. &c.
January 31, 1862.
"We have just returned from Lord Ashburton's at the Grange, where the Bishop of Oxford, the Duke of Argyle, and I,1 have naturally talked much about you and your book.*
"As for the Bishop, you know what he thinks. The Duke is calm, liberal, and ready to hear all reason; though puzzled, as every one must be, by a hundred new questions which you have opened.
"What started us on you and your theory was the shooting in the park of a pair of 'blue rocks,' which I was called to decide on. There were several men there who knew blue rocks. The Duke said that the specimen was different from the blue rock of the Hebrides. Young Baring, that it was different from the blue rock of Gibraltar and of his Norfolk rabbit warrens (which I don't believe, from the specimens I have seen, to be a blue rock at all, but a stunted stock dove, which feeds in rabbit holes), and I could hardly swear that this was a blue rock (as the keeper held), till I saw, but very weakly developed, the black bars on the wing cornets.
"Do you care enough about the matter to have a specimen of the bird? He comes in twos and threes (from the Isle of Wight, I suppose) to the heart of South Hants, and feeds on ivy berries.
"My own view is—and I coolly stated it, fearless of consequences— that the specimen before us was only to be explained on your theory, and that cushat, stock dove, and blue rock, had been once all one species; and I found—to show how your views are steadily spreading—that of five or six men, only one regarded such a notion as absurd.....
"At least believe me, differing now and now agreeing,
"Yours faithfully,
"C. KINGSLEY."
In answer to this query, Mr. Darwin writes:
"With respect to the pigeons, your remarks clearly show me (without seeing specimens) that the birds shot were the stock C. Œnas,2 long confounded with the cushat and rock pigeon. It is in some respects identical in appearance and habits; as it breeds in holes in trees and in
* "Origin of Species," recently published.
1 Charles Kingsley (1819-1875), Anglican clergyman, author and naturalist. He was the 'celebrated author and divine' quoted in Origin 2d ed., p. 481 See Correspondence vol. 10, p. 71.
2 Columba Œnas or Stock Dove, now written Columba oenas.
[page] 136
rabbit warrens. It is so far intermediate that it quite justifies what you say on all the forms being descendants of one....."
Citation: John van Wyhe, ed. 2002-. The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online. (http://darwin-online.org.uk/)
File last updated 24 August, 2023