2 MEMOIR OF THE LATE ROBERT BALL, LL. D. 
Among his pets was a kite, which had been brought to him with 
a broken leg. He made a wooden one, and this answered so well 
that his feathered favourite hopped about on it long afterwards at 
Youghal. 
He was remarkable from his earliest childhood for his truthfulness. 
Once only he was punished by his father, in consequence of his being 
suspected of breaking a valued rose-tree. He positively denied the act, 
though he bore the punishment quietly; the following day the true 
culprit was discovered. 
When nine years old he was sent to the Bev. Hr. Stewart’s school, 
at Clonakilty, county of Cork. That his observant faculties were then 
active may he inferred from a passage in one of his letters to his friend, 
the late William Thompson, Esq., of Belfast, dated March 3, 1840:— 
“ I have told you before that I found two shells (. Physa ), when nine 
years old, near Clonakilty, which I deposited in my little cabinet at 
vacation time.” 
Another instance of the same characteristic, which occurred when 
he was a year older, is narrated in a letter to the same friend, dated 
December, 1839 :—“ When ahoy I remember watching a turtle resting 
on the surface of the water in the harbour of Cove; it went down on 
coming near it.” 
Perhaps, however, the most striking instance of his early powers of 
observation is that which he himself afterwards communicated to the 
Dublin University Zoological and Botanical Association:— 
“ I recollect, when I was hut a child, the many delightful days I 
spent in examining animals on the shore, and I am conscious of having 
at that time seen many rare species, not a few of which have since been 
brought forward as recent discoveries. I may instance one,—the 
Cydippe pomiformis, which I distinctly recollect to have seen when I 
was not five years old. I found it in a pool, and brought it to my 
father as the lens of a haddock’s eye, which had come to life. I quite 
remember its cilia and iridescence, and how deeply I was absorbed by 
its beauty.”—(Hov. 16, 1855.) 
He was afterwards transferred to the school of Mr. James White, at 
Ballitore, county of Kildare. This gentleman had tastes in some re¬ 
spects congenial to his own, and was therefore disposed to encourage 
the natural history pursuits of his pupil. The friendship that sprang 
up between them did not cease with the school-days of Bobert Ball, 
hut continued in after life. There is now before me a letter of Mr. 
White’s to him, dated “1st Mo. 19, 1835,” stating that he had sent 
him by a carrier some living specimens of a lamprey ( Petromyzon ), 
the species of which appeared doubtful. Mr. White also asks where he 
shall find a description of the urchin {Echinus), “ that hollows for itself 
a hemispherical lodgment in stone,” adding, “ I have sought it in vain 
in Cuvier, Blumenhach, &c.” The schoolmaster who was directing 
his attention to such inquiries showed an appreciation of zoological 
science far in advance of what was usually met with at that period. 
Of those who were the companions of Bobert Ball at Mr. White’s 
