136 Oh'ituary. 



\111.— Obituary. 



Mr. William Berxhard Tegetmeier. 



At the great age of 96 ]\Ir. Tegetmeier died on November 

 20th last at Golder^'s Green, near Hampstead. Mr. Teget- 

 meier was the son of G. C. Tegetmeier, a Hanoverian, who 

 had, taken service in the Royal Xavy. He was born at Coin- 

 brook, in Buckinghamshire, on November 4thj 1816, and was 

 educated in Loudon for the medical profession, chiefly at 

 University College, where he was a fellow-student with the 

 future Sir William Jenner, Dr. W, B. Carpenter, and 

 Dr. Laukester, all distinguished men of science and all of 

 whom pre-deceased Lim. At this time his father was prac- 

 tising in St. James' and residing at a house in Bury Street, 

 which belonged to Yarrell, and it was due to his influence 

 that the lad acquired a taste for natural history. Although 

 he never qualified in medicine, his knowledge of anatomy 

 and physiology served him well as a practical breeder and 

 writer on Poultry, Pigeons, and general natural history. 

 Yarrell introduced him to Charles Darwin in 1855, and he was 

 able to be of considerable service to the latter, supplying him 

 with a good deal of material and helping and advising him in 

 liis experiments on breeding; the correspondence lasted till 

 1881. Mr. Francis Darwin, in his 'Life and Letters of 

 Charles Darwin,' writes : — 



''My father's letters to Mr. Tegetmeier consist almost 

 entirely of series of questions relating to the various breeds 

 of Fowls, Pigeons, &c. &c., and in reading through the pile 

 of letters it is made clear that Mr. Tegetmeier's knowledge 

 and judgment were completely trusted and highly valued by 

 him." 



As everyone knows, Tegetmeier's special subject Avas the 

 cultivation and breeding of Pigeons, Poultry, and Pheasants^ 

 and on this he wrote many practical works, and was 

 probably fur many years our leading authority. His 

 reputation as a breeder and fancier caused him to be chosen 

 as a judge at the principal shows, and secured his appoint- 

 ment as poultry-editor of ' The Field,' a position which he 



