The comb of Spanish [male symbol] has been ordered to be upright and that of Spanish [female symbol] to lop over, and this has been effected.  There are sub-breeds of game fowl, with [female symbol]s very distinct and [male symbol]s almost identical; but this apparently is the result of spontaneous variation without special selection.

I am very glad to hear of the case of [female symbol] birds of paradise.

I have never in the least doubted the possibility of modifying female birds alone for protection; and I have long believed it for butterflies:  I have wanted only evidence for the females alone of birds having had their colours modified for protection.  But then I believe that the variations by which a female bird or butterfly could get or has got protective colouring have probably from the first been variations limited in their transmission to the female sex; and so with the variations of the male, where the male is more beautiful than the female, I believe the variations were sexually limited in their transmission to the males.  I am delighted to hear that you have been hard at work on your MS.—­Yours most sincerely,

CH.  DARWIN.

* * * * *

9 St. Mark’s Crescent, N.W.  January 20, 1869.

Dear Darwin,—­It will give me very great pleasure if you will allow me to dedicate my little book of Malayan Travels to you, although it will be far too small and unpretending a work to be worthy of that honour.  Still, I have done what I can to make it a vehicle for communicating a taste for the higher branches of Natural History, and I know that you will judge it only too favourably.  We are in the middle of the second volume, and if the printers will get on, shall be out next month.

Have you seen in the last number of the Quarterly Journal of Science the excellent remarks on Fraser’s article on Natural Selection failing as to Man?  In one page it gets to the heart of the question, and I have written to the editor to ask who the author is.

My friend Spruce’s paper on Palms is to be read to-morrow evening at the Linnean.  He tells me it contains a discovery which he calls “alteration of function.”  He found a clump of Geonema all of which were females, and the next year the same clump were all males!  He has found other facts analogous to this, and I have no doubt the subject is one that will interest you.

Hoping you are pretty well and are getting on steadily with your next volumes, and with kind regards to Mrs. Darwin and all your circle, believe me, dear Darwin, yours very faithfully,

ALFRED R. WALLACE.

P.S.—­Have you seen the admirable article in the Guardian (!) on Lyell’s “Principles”?  It is most excellent and liberal.  It is written by the Rev. Geo. Buckle, of Tiverton Vicarage, Bath, whom I met at Norwich and found a thoroughly scientific and liberal parson.  Perhaps you have heard that I have undertaken to write an article for the Quarterly (!) on the same subject, to make up for that on “Modern Geology” last year not mentioning Sir C. Lyell.