'No one cares a snap for your opinions.

You must tell something that folks want to know.'" "Did you then take up birds ?" "O no; I went into the library, read some of Harriet Martineau's talks on pottery, and told children how a teacup was made and got one dollar for that.

But those pot-boilers were not inspiring, and about ten years later a second woman adviser turned my course into another channel." "How did that come about ?" "I had a bird-loving friend from the West visiting me, and took her to Prospect Park, Brooklyn, to see our birds.

She pointed out several, and so interested me in their lives that from that day I began to study them, especially the wood-thrush and catbird.

After I had studied them for two years, I wrote what I had seen.