Research Is a Passion With Me: The Autobiography of a Bird Lover

by Margaret Morse Nice, Konrad Lorenz

In her incredibly productive lifetime (1883-1974), American-born ornithologist Margaret Morse Nice earned the admiration of ornithologists and naturalists in far distant lands.

Research Is a Passion With Me is an enthralling autobiography of one of the great individuals in her field and of her time. The prominent California nature writer, Donald Peattie, in commenting on Margaret Nice's writing ability, stated: "Your art of telling is so good that it conceals how good the science is." And Professor Ernst Mayer of Harvard University said: "Margaret Nice was a remarkable person and only those who know the state of American ornithology when she started her work will appreciate her contribution."

"An extraordinary bird watcher. Every summer she and her husband would gather the girls, pack their old car with camping gear, and head off into the wilds to look for new birds. This eccentric way of living was unusual in the early 1920s, but even their youngest daughter adjusted to it. Their older girls shinnied up trees to observe nests and helped in housekeeping tasks around the campsite."
- Marcia Bonta, Bird Watcher's Digest

336 pages, Hardcover

First published June 30, 1979

Reviews

[Elizabeth de Moya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Margaret Nice remembers her life by the birds she saw, the conferences she attended, and the friends she made there. She was unappreciated during her time, and could have studied at an ivy league university. It is a research related autobiography and she remembers more about her experiments with the l0cal sparrow population than her family. She was a born bird watcher and was in the habit of recording the birds she saw in her diary from childhood. However I would like to see some of her experiments with songbirds replicated in order to determine if they were objective.

[Auriel Fournier · Rating 5 out of 5]

a wonderful and uplifting read of a remarkable early ornithologist. I found a few chapters wordy and a bit list like in talking about her day to day but the majority of the book around it was inspiring and insightful, written in the humble voice of one who loved birds and loved life.