bout it.--Yours very sincerely,

CH. DARWIN

P.S.--I read not long ago a German article on the colours of _female_
birds, and that author leaned rather strongly to your side about
nidification. I forget who the author was, but he seemed to know a good
deal.--C.D.

* * * * *

_Holly House, Barking, E. July 6, 1870._

Dear Darwin,--Many thanks for the drawing. I must say, however, the
resemblance to a snake is not very striking, unless to a cobra not found
in America. It is also evident that it is not Mr. Bates's caterpillar,
as that threw the head backwards so as to show the feet above, forming
imitations of keeled scales.

Claparede has sent me his critique on my book. You will probably have it
too. His arguments in reply to my heresy seem to me of the weakest. I
hear you have gone to press, and I look forward with fear and trembling
to being crushed under a mountain of facts!

I hear you were in town the other day. When you are again, I should be
glad to come at any convenient hour and give you a call.

Hoping your health is improving, and with kind remembrances to Mrs.
Darwin and all your family, believe me yours very faithfully,

ALFRED R. WALLACE.

* * * * *

In "My Life" (Vol. II., p. 7) Wallace wrote: "In the year 1870 Mr. A.W.
Bennett read a paper before Section D of the British Association at
Liverpool entitled 'The Theory of Natural Selection from a Mathematical
Point of View,' and this paper was printed in full in _Nature_ of
November 10, 1870. To this I replied on November 17, and my reply so
pleased Mr. Darwin that he at once wrote to me as follows:"

_Down, Beckenham, Kent, S.E. November 22, 1870._

My dear Wallace,--I must ease myself by writing a few words to say how
much I and all others in this house admire your article in _Nature_. You
are certainly an unparalleled master in lucidly stating a case and in
arguing. Nothing ever was better done than your argument about the term
"origin of species," and the consequences about much being gained, even
if we know nothing about precise cause of each variation. By chance I
have given a few words in my first volume, now some time printed off,
about mimetic butterflies, and have touched on two of your points, viz.
on species already widely dissimilar not being made to resemble each
other, and about the variations in Lepidoptera being often well
pronounced. How strange it is that Mr. B