female reindeer, I have hitherto looked at the horns simply as the
consequence of inheritance not having been limited by sex.

Your idea about colour being concentrated in the smaller males seems good,
and I presume that you will not object to my giving it as your suggestion.


LETTER 444. TO J. JENNER WEIR.
Down, May 7th [1868].

I have now to thank you for no less than four letters! You are so kind
that I will not apologise for the trouble I cause you; but it has lately
occurred to me that you ought to publish a paper or book on the habits of
the birds which you have so carefully observed. But should you do this, I
do not think that my giving some of the facts for a special object would
much injure the novelty of your work. There is such a multitude of points
in these last letters that I hardly know what to touch upon. Thanks about
the instinct of nidification, and for your answers on many points. I am
glad to hear reports about the ferocious female bullfinch. I hope you will
have another try in colouring males. I have now finished lepidoptera, and
have used your facts about caterpillars, and as a caution the case of the
yellow-underwings. I have now begun on fishes, and by comparing different
classes of facts my views are getting a little more decided. In about a
fortnight or three weeks I shall come to birds, and then I dare say that I
shall be extra troublesome. I will now enclose a few queries for the mere
chance of your being able to answer some of them, and I think it will save
you trouble if I write them on a separate slip, and then you can sometimes
answer by a mere "no" or "yes."

Your last letter on male pigeons and linnets has interested me much, for