104 LIFE OF TEGETMEIER 



and lasted to 1881,* when my father wrote : ' I can 

 assure you that I often look back with pleasure 

 to the old days when I attended to pigeons, 

 fowls, etc., and when you gave me such valuable 

 assistance. I not rarely regret that I have had 

 so little strength that I have not been able to 

 keep up old acquaintances and friendships.' " 

 Mr. Francis Darwin adds : "In reading through 

 the pile of letters one is much struck by the 

 diligence of the writer's search for facts, and it 

 is made clear that Mr. Tegetmeier's knowledge 

 and judgment were completely trusted and highly 

 valued by him. Numerous phrases, such as ' your 

 note is a mine of wealth to me,' occur expressing 

 his sense of the value of Mr. Tegetmeier's help, 

 as well as words expressing his warm appre- 

 ciation of Mr. Tegetmeier's unstinting zeal and 

 kindness, or his ' pure and disinterested love 

 of science.' " 



The value to Darwin of Tegetmeier's " minute 

 accuracy of observation " referred to by Sir 

 Walter Gilbey, is clearly shown in the many 

 curious details with which he furnished the 

 great thinker. Thus, we find him writing that 

 among twenty Barb pigeons the males generally 

 have the larger eye-wattles : that young pigeons, 

 which at maturity become white, yellow, silver 

 (i.e. very pale blue) or dun-coloured, are born 

 almost naked, whereas those of other colours are 



♦ Darwin died on April 19th, 1882. 



