Letter to W. D. Fox, 7 May 1855

I am rather low today about all my experiments,-everything has been going wrong-the fan-tails have picked the feathers out of the Pouters in their Journey home-the fish at the Zoological Gardens after eating seeds would spit them all out again- Seeds will sink in salt-water-all nature is perverse & will not do as I wish it, & just at present I wish I had the old Barnacles to work at & nothing new.