io FRANCIS ORPEN MORRIS 



determination and tender-heartedness in him that 

 gave force to his character and actions. 



His love for natural history showed itself in his 

 earliest years ; indeed, it may be said that as soon 

 as he could think and speak, his powers of obser- 

 vation in this direction were brought into action. 

 These, gathering strength as time went on, afforded 

 him endless channels of delight. If there was one 

 branch of his favourite pursuits that gave him 

 greater pleasure than another, it was what he used 

 to call the " gay science " of entomology. It is hard 

 to say how soon this was first noticed in him ; 

 certainly when but four or five years of age he was 

 wont to observe and remark upon the different 

 kinds of moths and butterflies that flitted about his 

 home. One of them, the buff-tip moth (Pygcera 

 bucephala), he always called, even at that tender 

 age, "the piece-of-stick-moth," from its likeness to 

 a bit of a small branch of the silver birch. 



He was naturally quick at learning, and was gifted 

 with a remarkably good memory. When he was 

 nine years old he gained his first prize, consisting 

 of a prayer-book ; this was awarded to him, after 

 a public examination in Cove Church, for pro- 

 ficiency in religious knowledge ; and again, at 

 eleven years, he obtained the second of two prizes 

 after another examination held under similar cir- 

 cumstances. These books he carefully kept and 

 treasured. 



Captain H. G. Morris returned to England in 

 1824, when his son's education received a fresh 



