210 LIFE OF TEGETMEIER 



child, usualty shy, would prattle freely with her 

 grandfather, with whom she felt no restraint and 

 was alwaj^s " good friends." This companion- 

 ship of the old scientist and the little child was 

 very charming, and, to me at least, Tegetmeier 

 rarely appeared to greater advantage than when 

 sympathetically listening or gravely talking to 

 his infant granddaughter. 



His great practicality of mind was illustrated 

 by his remark, when once I asked him to go for 

 a stroll with me : "I never went for a walk in 

 my life ! " and this I believe was true up to the 

 time of which I have just spoken, and on which, 

 with a parent's pride, I have been tempted to 

 dwell too long. And in the same sense he may 

 be said never to have taken a holiday in his life. 

 He went to Belgium several times in connection 

 with pigeon-flying, and he accompanied Sir Walter 

 Gilbey on several occasions to Loudenne, though 

 even there he was never idle. The Riviera was 

 the utmost limit of his journeyings from his 

 native land — a somewhat strange fact when his 

 interest in foreign animals and birds is considered. 

 He " lived in and for his work," as Sir Walter 

 says ; and his judging at shows and the other 

 expeditions he frequently had to make, seemed 

 to give him ample change of air and scene. 

 For now he would be at Heathfield collecting 

 information for a Government department on the 

 poultry industry as pursued in that district : 



