14 FRANCIS ORPEN MORRIS 



ing moths after they had retired to bed. A candle 

 was placed near an open window, and a long string 

 tied to the handle of the frame they were old- 

 fashioned lattice ones the boys then got com- 

 fortably into bed, and when a moth made its 

 entree the window was pulled to by the string, 

 and the insect secured and captured within. 



While at school he made, as most boys do, some 

 lifelong friends. Of these none were more highly 

 valued by him than Richard Alington and Henry 

 Hilton, both true lovers of nature, and the former 

 a very accurate observer of bird life ; indeed, my 

 father used to say of him that he was the best 

 outdoor naturalist he ever knew. Many were the 

 letters which passed between the old schoolfellows 

 in latter years, when Richard Alington occupied 

 the sequestered rectory of Swinhope in Lincoln- 

 shire, and Henry Hilton that of Milstead in Kent. 

 Richard Alington was an excellent authority on 

 the ornithology of his own county ; and not only 

 so, but he had a rare power, left-handed though 

 he was, of reproducing with his pencil the attitudes 

 of the birds he had for many years watched so 

 closely. 



It was at school that the future author of the 

 " History of British Birds " began in earnest his col- 

 lections of birds and insects, the latter of which 

 ultimately grew to large dimensions. Of birds he 

 never had any great number, probably for lack of 

 the requisite space in arranging them ; but as time 

 went on there were other reasons that militated 



