Page:A veteran naturalist - being the life and work of W.B. Tegetmeier (IA veterannaturalis00richuoft).pdf/16

LIFE OF TEGETMEIER old friend's exceptional alertness in matters that appealed to him.

During his long and industrious life he had accumulated an enormous fund of information on various subjects and, endowed with a splendid memory, he was a singularly interesting and informing companion. It would be difficult to mention a subject upon which he was ignorant ; and his information was as accurate as it was extensive.

I found common ground with him in our ideas on the best method of treating game and poultry -live stock of all kinds, in fact. He was, like myself, a convinced believer in the wisdom of allowing bird and animal to lead, as far as possible, a life that conforms to natural conditions. I think the method pursued at Elsenham with turkeys, birds generally considered delicate and difficult to rear, was the first point of the kind that revealed the identity of our views. The practice at Elsenham has always been to let the turkeys run in the pheasant coverts where they nest and hatch out their eggs without artificial shelter, roosting in the trees all the year round, leading thus a natural life. Compared with the turkey reared in the farmyard, we get birds plumper, and with better developed breasts; the latter, as Tegetmeier at once pointed out, a result of the greater use they make of their wings under these conditions.