My dear Uncle Charles

Thank you very much indeed for sending me such a full account of the worm castings which I was deeply interested to read. What a wonderfully accurate guess of yours about the amount! The 16 tons an acre is the most astonishing part.²

I have just been teazing the turkey cock— none of us have ever seen one rattle his feathers, wing or tail, but only scrape the wings along the ground, at the same time making a slight sound, apparently from the throat. What he did when angry with me was to puff out all his feathers, spreading tail and wings, but not in the same manner as when shewing off, indeed as Papa remarked quite the reverse, for instead of stiffening his wings, he let them hang down quite loose;—and there was no rattling.³

I saw him make 3 attempts to pick up a grain of corn before he c^d. succeed, for his fleshy nose appendage!⁴

Y^r. aff^t. niece | Lucy Wedgwood