he large one had
not arrived when I was in town last week.

Sir C. Lyell's chapter on Oceanic Islands I think very good.--Believe
me, dear Darwin, yours very faithfully,

ALFRED R. WALLACE.

* * * * *

_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. April 9, 1868._

My dear Wallace,--You allude in your note to several points which I
should much enjoy discussing with you did time and strength permit. I
know Dr. Seeman is a good botanist, but I most strongly advise you to
show the list to Hooker before you make use of the materials in print.
Hooker seems much overworked, and is now gone a tour, but I suppose you
will be in town before very long, and could see him. The list is quite
unintelligible to me; it is not pretended that the same species exist in
the Sandwich Islands and Arctic regions; and as far as the genera are
concerned, I know that in almost every one of them species inhabit such
countries as Florida, North Africa, New Holland, etc. Therefore these,
genera seem to me almost mundane, and their presence in the Sandwich
Islands will not, as I suspect in my ignorance, show any relation to the
Arctic regions. The Sandwich Islands, though I have never considered
them much, have long been a sore perplexity to me: they are eminently
oceanic in position and productions; they have long been separated from
each other; and there are only slight signs of subsidence in the islets
to the westward. I remember, however, speculating that there must have
been some immigration during the glacial period from North America or
Japan; but I cannot remember what my grounds were. Some of the plants, I
think, show an affinity with Australia. I am very glad that you like
Lyell's chapter on Oceanic Islands, for I thought it one of the best in
the part which I have read. If you do not receive the big photo of me in
due time, let me hear.--Yours very sincerely,

CH. DARWIN.

* * * * *

The following refers to Wallace's article, "A Theory of Birds' Nests,"
in Andrew Murray's _Journal of Travel_, i. 73. He here treats in fuller
detail the view already published in the _Westminster Review_ for July,
1867, p. 38. The rule which Wallace believes, with very few exceptions,
to hold good is, "that when both sexes are of strikingly gay and
conspicuous colours, the nest is ... such as to conceal the sitting
bird; while, whenever there is a striking contrast of colours, the male
being gay and conspic