Dear Sir.

I am much obliged for your long and interesting letter— ² You have indeed good right to speak confidently about the habits of wild birds & animals; for I should think no one beside yourself has ever sported in Spitzbergen & Southern Africa!³ It is very curious & interesting that you should have arrived at the conclusion that so called “Natural Selection” had been efficient in giving their peculiar colours to our grouse—   I shall probably use your authority on the similar habits of our grouse & the Norwegian Species.⁴

I am particularly obliged for your very curious fact of the effect produced by the introduction of the lowland grouse on the wildness of the grouse in your neighbourhood—   It is a very striking instance of what crossing will do in affecting the character of a breed. Have you ever seen it stated in any sporting work that Game has become wilder in this country? I wish I could get any sort of proof of the fact, for your explanation seems to me equally ingenious & probable. I have myself witnessed in S. America a nearly parallel [case]⁵ with that which you mention in regard to the reindeer in Spitzbergen, with the C. campestris of La Plata;⁶ it feared neither man nor the sound of shot of a Rifle, but was terrified at the sight of a man on horseback; every one in that country always riding.—

As you are so great a sportsman perhaps you will kindly look to one very trifling point for me, as my neighbours here think it too absurd to notice— Namely whether the feet of birds are dirty, whether a few grains of dirt do not adhere occasionally to their feet. I especially want to know how this is in the case of birds like herons & waders which stalk in the mud— You will guess that this relates to dispersal of seeds—which is one of my greatest difficulties—⁷

My health is very indifferent & I am seldom able to attend the scientific meetings, but I sincerely hope that I may sometime have the pleasure of meeting you—⁸

Pray accept my cordial thanks for your very kind letter, & believe me. Dear Sir. | Your obliged servant | Charles Darwin.