Studies in the Life History of the Song Sparrow Volume II: The Behavior of the Song Sparrow and Other Passerines
(A comprehensive look at song sparrows, their habitats, ne...)
A comprehensive look at song sparrows, their habitats, nesting, mating, laying, migratory habits, survival, innate and learned behavior, development and function of song and more. Includes some black and white photos and several charts and graphs.
(In her incredibly productive lifetime (1883-1974), Americ...)
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.
Margaret Morse Nice was an American ethologist and ornithologist best known for her long-term behavioral study of song sparrows (Melospiza melodia) and her field studies of North American birds. She was the author of Studies in the Life History of the Song Sparrow (1937).
Background
Margaret Morse Nice was born on December 6, 1883 in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. She was the daughter of Anson Daniel and Margaret (Ely) Morse. She was the fourth child with two older brothers Ely and William, an elder sister Sarah, a younger sister Katherine and two younger brothers, Harold and Edward.
Nice spent her childhood on a small farmstead, and in her early years she developed an intense love of nature, especially birds, through gardening and frequent excursions into the countryside. Nice obtained her first book on birds in 1891 at age seven and published her first work, a small booklet on birds in fruit orchards, five years later.
Education
Nice attended Mount Holyoke College, majoring in French, and graduated in 1906. Later that year she began a master’s degree in zoology at Clark University, but obtained it successfully only in 1915.
She also received two honorary Doctorates, one from Mount Holyoke College during a class reunion (1955) and another from Elmira College (1962).
Nice devoted her career to the research in the fields of ornithology and psychology. Nice’s first paper, which dealt with bobwhites, was published after more than two years of research (starting from 1915). Mostly confined to the house during the following years as her four daughters were born and she tended to them, Nice would not publish any more ornithological research until 1920. Frustrated by her inability to pursue her studies in this field, Nice began studying how her daughters acquired language. She later published eighteen articles on child psychology.
In the 1920s, Nice was influenced to return to the study of birds by an older friend, Althea Sherman, an amateur ornithologist. In 1920, Nice published a description of Oklahoma bird life. Thirty-five more articles about Oklahoma birds followed, and in 1924 she published a book on the subject, The Birds of Oklahoma.
In 1927, her husband accepted a teaching position in Columbus, Ohio, and the family moved to a house on the bank of a river which attracted a number of nesting and migratory birds, including sparrows. There, Nice studied the territorial behavior of birds by placing colored bands on them and following them for years in a way no one had before. Her studies resulted in several publications, the most important of which was her two-part Studies in the Life History of the Song Sparrow, published in 1937 and 1943.
Nice and her family moved to Chicago in 1936, where her husband had accepted an appointment at the University of Chicago Medical School. She was not able to do nearly as many field observations there, but she continued to write and study. Her knowledge of languages enabled her to expose Americans to European ornithology through translations and reviews of articles in German and other languages.
In 1938 she journeyed to Austria to study the behaviour of captured birds with famed Austrian zoologist Konrad Lorenz.
During her career Nice was also associate editor of the journal BirdBanding from 1935 to 1942 and 1946 to 1974.
Achievements
Nice worked on the life-histories of birds at a time when most of the focus was on collection, description and geographic listing.
Throughout her life, Nice contributed over 250 scientific articles, thousands of scientific reviews, and seven books, including The Watcher at the Nest (1939), The Role of Territory in Bird Life (1941), and Development of Behavior in Precocial Birds (1962).
In 1969, the Wilson Ornithological Society inaugurated a grant in her name to be given to self-trained amateur researchers.
In 1997 the Wilson Ornithological Society established the Margaret Morse Nice Medal for work in ornithology.
Ornithologist Robert Dickerman named a Mexican subspecies of song sparrow (Melospiza melodia niceae) after her.
Nice was very active as a conservationist, advocating the preservation of wildlife and restrictions on the use of pesticides.
Membership
Nice was president of the Wilson Ornithological Society in 1938 and 1939, the first woman to be elected president of a major American ornithological society. She also held honorary memberships in the ornithological societies of several European countries.
Nice was president of the Wilson Ornithological Society in 1938 and 1939.
Wilson Ornithological Society
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United States
Personality
A person of contrasts, Nice was usually rather demure, soft spoken, and reserved, but could become assertive and somewhat opinionated when convinced that she was in the right or had been misunderstood.
Quotes from others about the person
Dean Richard Bond of Elmira College said about her: "She used the outdoors near her home as her laboratory and common species of birds as her subject. In so doing, she joined the ranks of the eminent ornithologists of all time, who saw so much in what appeared common to so many."
Connections
Nice married Leonard Blaine Nice on August 12, 1909. The couple had 4 children: Constance, Marjorie (Mistress Carl B. Boyer), Barbara (Mistress Stanley Thompson) and Janet.
