Page:A veteran naturalist - being the life and work of W.B. Tegetmeier (IA veterannaturalis00richuoft).pdf/14

LIFE OF TEGETMEIER mental alertness and physical activity he pre- served. When far advanced in the 'eighties he was still as keenly interested in matters relating to game and poultry as he had been in his prime, and was capable of physical exertion which might have been envied by men twenty-five years younger.

I recall an incident which serves to illustrate his mental and bodily activity in his eighty-fifth year. Shooting men will remember the unusual mortality among the young pheasants during the summer of 1901. Disease was rife all over the kingdom, and Tegetmeier, at the Field office, was overwhelmed with dead chicks and inquiries concerning cause and remedy. At Elsenham we had enjoyed comparative immunity from disease; there had been the usual mortality but nothing of which to complain, and Tegetmeier, in search of an estate where the birds were healthy, proposed one of his ever-welcome visits; his purpose being to investigate the system pursued by my then head keeper.

He arrived in the evening, sat up late with the rest, and after breakfast next morning set out with the keeper to go round the coverts and rearing grounds, returning to lunch, and spending the afternoon in the same way as in the morning. He must have spent at least seven hours walking and scrambling about the woods, examining the keeper on his methods of management and