The fair-haired and blue-eyed William not being intended to succeed his father in the business, was permitted from his early years—fortunately for zoological science—to pursue that innate love of natural history which, as we have seen, developed itself in very early years and continued unabated till the close of his career. That career naturally divides into three epochs. Firstly, the period of boyhood and early manhood; secondly, the long period of official life at the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons; and thirdly, the time during which the subject of this memoir occupied the post of Director of the Natural History Branch of the British Museum, together with the short interval which elapsed between his resignation of that position and his untimely death. To each of the latter periods a separate chapter is devoted. It has, however, been found convenient, instead of restricting the present chapter to the first epoch, to include within its limits a general sketch of Flower’s whole life. A fourth chapter is assigned to the period during which he was President of the Zoological Society of London, although this was synchronous with part of the period covered by the second, and with the whole of that treated of in the third chapter. Finally, the full description of his scientific work is reserved for subsequent chapters. According to information kindly furnished by his widow, Lady Flower, delicate health prevented William Flower from being much at school during his boyhood, and he was thus largely dependent upon his mother—a sensible and well-read woman—for his early education. He was also in the habit of accompanying his father in his rides, whereby he became much interested in all that concerns horses and their well-being. Best of all, as regards opportunity for developing a love of animal life, he was in the habit of taking long, solitary rambles in the country, thereby acquiring a knowledge of Nature which could be obtained in no other manner, and developing his powers of observation.