“My fascination with birds started with a nature study teacher, Miss Trueblood, when I was eight or nine years old. My first notebook presented a systematic list with dates from 1919 when I was ten. It listed 51 species including such interesting identifications as hoot owl, poll parrot, wild duck, petrel, and crane. In 1920 I had 80 species listed, all of them recognizable and more or less correctly spelled. Two years later I was keeping notes on field identification marks and describing songs quite creditably with words and personally devised symbols.”