To the Board of the Moscow Zoological Garden, 14 January 1892. Moscow.
В ПРАВЛЕНИЕ МОСКОВСКОГО ЗООЛОГИЧЕСКОГО САДА, 14 января 1892 г. Москва.
Headnote
Dated 14 January 1892, from Moscow. Not a personal letter: the addressee is an institution, the Board (Правление) of the Moscow Zoological Garden.
Chekhov reports that the previous year he brought back from the island of Ceylon a male mongoose (identified, per Brehm’s Life of Animals, as "mungo"), healthy and lively. Facing a long absence from Moscow and unable to take the animal with him, he asks the Board to accept it as a gift and to send for it that day or the next, recommending a small covered basket with a blanket as the best means of transport. He notes the animal is tame and that he has been feeding it meat, fish, and eggs. He closes with a formal "I have the honor to be, with respect" and his signature.