……AgainIsay，donothateme。Everyoursmosttruly，C。DARWIN。
CHARLESDARWINTOC。LYELL。
1CarltonTerrace，Southampton（ThehouseofhissonWilliam。），August22，[1862]……Iheartilyhopethatyou（I。e。’TheAntiquityofMan。’）willbeoutinOctober……yousaythattheBishopandOwenwillbedownonyou;thelatterhardlycan，forIwasassuredthatOweninhisLecturesthisspringadvancedasanewideathatwinglessbirdshadlosttheirwingsbydisuse，alsothatmagpiesstolespoons，etc。，fromaREMNANTofsomeinstinctlikethatoftheBower—Bird，whichornamentsitsplaying—passagewithprettyfeathers。Indeed，Iamtoldthathehintedplainlythatallbirdsaredescendedfromone……
YourP。S。toucheson，asitseemstome，verydifficultpoints。Iamgladtosee[that]inthe’Origin，’Ionlysaythatthenaturalistsgenerallyconsiderthatloworganismsvarymorethanhigh;andthisIthinkcertainlyisthegeneralopinion。IputthestatementthiswaytoshowthatI
considereditonlyanopinionprobablytrue。ImustownthatIdonotatalltrustevenHooker’scontraryopinion，asIfeelprettysurethathehasnottabulatedanyresult。Ihavesomematerialsathome，IthinkI