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237 DARWIN (CHARLES)

Two A.Ls.s., 8 pages, 8vo, Down, Bromley, Kent, 23 January, 1856-12 December, [c. 1857], to Sir Walter Elliot at Madras: written during the period that Darwin was gathering material for the "Origin of Species" and asking his correspondent's assistance in procuring skins of domestic pigeons and poultry from India, asking for information about tigers (their different proportions), about the stripes which sometimes occur on horses and donkeys, etc.        

. . . Some of the facts it [viz: a Treatise on Pigeons sent by Elliot] contains have interested me, more especially as it shows that some of the very interesting specimens which you formerly sent me are at least nearly a century old. What a curious production it is! It has much amused me and has vividly showed me the differences between an Oriental and European mind. Man, it seems, is not alone subjected to the most atrocious quackery ...