High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Valentine Ball (July 14, 1843 June 15, 1894) was an Irish geologist, and a brother of Sir Robert Ball. Ball joined the Geological Survey of India, becoming an authority not only on geology but also on ornithology and anthropology. His best known work is Jungle-Life in India. He later became director of the National Museum of Ireland. He was a regular contributor to Stray Feathers, the ornithological journal founded by Allan Octavian Hume. The Andaman Scops Owl (Otus balli) is named after him.