To W. B. Tegetmeier 5 February 1874
Down, | Beckenham, Kent.
Feb 5 1874
My dear Sir
If you yourself (or through any of the gentlemen connected with the Field)1 know any large breeder of greyhounds, you would confer a great favour on me, by asking the following question, & sending me the answer.
I could answer the question myself with respect to some breeds, but I am anxious for information from some one on whom I can wholly rely.
The question is:
Do great breeders of greyhounds rear more male than female puppies; that is, do they destroy more of the females than of the males? But what I particularly want to know is, supposing one bitch produced 4 males & 2 females, & another produced 4 females & 2 males, how many of each sex in each litter would, as a general sort of rule, be preserved?2
No doubt any large breeder wd know what was the common practice of most other breeders.
If you can aid me, pray do so & believe me | yours sincerely | Ch. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Descent: The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1871.
ODNB: Oxford dictionary of national biography: from the earliest times to the year 2000. (Revised edition.) Edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. 60 vols. and index. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2004.
Summary
Do breeders rear more male than female greyhound puppies?
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-9266
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- William Bernhard Tegetmeier
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection)
- Physical description
- LS 2pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9266,” accessed on 30 May 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9266.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 22