Who would ever have
dreamed that monkeys influenced the distribution of pigeons and parrots!
But I have had a still higher satisfaction; for I finished yesterday
your paper in the _Linnean Transactions_.[53] It is admirably done. I
cannot conceive that the most firm believer in Species could read it
without being staggered. Such papers will make many more converts among
naturalists than long-winded books such as I shall write if I have
strength.
I have been particularly struck with your remarks on dimorphism; but I
cannot quite understand one point (p. 22), and should be grateful for an
explanation, for I want fully to understand you.[54] How can one female
form be selected and the intermediate forms die out, without also the
other extreme form also dying out from not having the advantages of the
first selected form? for, as I understand, both female forms occur on
the same island. I quite agree with your distinction between dimorphic
forms and varieties; but I doubt whether your criterion of dimorphic
forms not producing intermediate offspring will suffice; for I know of
a good many varieties, which must be so called, that will not blend or
intermix, but produce offspring quite like either parent.
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