Charles Darwin | Autograph letter signed, to Henry Yates Thompson, on lapwings, 1882

Charles Darwin

Autograph letter signed, to "Dear Sir" [Henry Yates Thompson], thanking him for sending information on the behaviour of lapwings to attract earthworms (“…I have learnt that worms certainly sometimes emerge when the surface of the ground is beaten…”), 1 page, 8vo (203 x 127mm), integral blank, headed stationery of Down, Beckenham, Kent, 23 January 1882, remains of former mount to blank

On 21 January 1882 Darwin had received a letter from Henry Yates Thompson (the noted collector of illuminated manuscripts), enclosing a letter by “Mr Moorhouse of Manchester” which described how “he had frequently seen lapwings beat the ground with their tails in order as he believed to get worms to rise to the surface of the ground” [DCP-LETT-13635]. Thompson evidently thought that this observation would be of interest to Darwin, whose final book on worms had been published the previous year. This unpublished letter is Darwin’s typically courteous reply.

PROVENANCE:

Sale in our New York rooms, 24 September 1986, lot 21 (part lot)