OTHER ZOOLOGICAL WORK 185 



lecture — given perhaps before the Zoological 

 Society of London, or some other scientific body. 

 Of this Society he became a Member in the year 

 1866, and an Honorary Fellow in 1905. 



Although associated in the popular mind with 

 bees, pigeons, poultry and pheasants, Tegetmeier 

 was interested in almost every living thing — 

 from axolotls to zebras — everything animate 

 was " fish " that came to his " net." At one 

 time he is to be found contributing the note on 

 the pythoness, previously referred to, which in 

 1862 made a mild sensation by producing and 

 incubating her eggs in the Reptile House at 

 " the Zoo " ; at another, he is writing on hybrids 

 and their fertility or the reverse ; now on the 

 best method of treating foreign birds whose 

 wildness in captivity renders it difficult to observe 

 their habits ; now he takes up the question of 

 " eccentricities in eggs " ; anon he grows enthusi- 

 astic over a fine collection of specimens of skulls, 

 antlers or skins, and again, he is interesting his 

 readers as keenly as he himself is interested in 

 the intelligence of performing beast or bird, or 

 he is discussing with shrewdness and insight the 

 capacity of animals for education. He was 

 always ready to pay a visit of inspection to a 

 private menagerie owned by a duke, to the back 

 room of a live-stock dealer in the Seven Dials, 

 or to a travelling caravan that contained an 

 interesting or a performing animal. " Sometimes, " 



