FATHER OF PIGEON-FANCIERS 59 



" pleading guilty to a weakness for dragons," the 

 homing strain, whose symmetry, grace of carriage 

 and powers of flight always appealed to him. 

 After many years of experimental work in the 

 rearing and management of fancy breeds, as well 

 as " homers," he published in 1868 a practical 

 treatise entitled " Pigeons : their Structure, 

 Varieties, Habits and Management," illustrated 

 with coloured plates by his old friend, the late 

 Harrison Weir, himself a poultry-breeder and 

 pigeon-fancier. Tegetmeier took the keenest 

 interest in the doings of Belgian pigeon-ftyers, 

 who had brought their organisation to the highest 

 pitch of any people in Europe, and he paid many 

 visits to Belgium in connection with pigeon 

 flying. He was present at the first banquet given 

 at Brussels to celebrate the return of the pigeons 

 from Rome — some 900 miles — in 1878. 



Impressed, as he was, by the possibilities 

 that lay in the homer as a messenger, the use 

 made of pigeons by the French during the Siege 

 of Paris in 1870 gave him an opportunity of 

 which he was quick to profit. The carriage of 

 birds by balloon out of Paris to return thither 

 with messages that could not possibly be con- 

 veyed in any other way, appealed to the public 

 imagination, and Tegetmeier, ever alert, saw 

 and seized his chance, and organised a pigeon 

 race from London to Brussels — the first inter- 

 national pigeon race organised in England. He 



