Margaret Morse Nice

Margaret Morse Nice (née Morse, December 6, 1883 – June 26, 1974) was an American ornithologist, ethologist, and child psychologist. Honored for her extensive studies of the life history of the song sparrow, she received the AOU's Brewster Medal in 1942. In 1997 the Wilson Ornithological Society established the Margaret Morse Nice Medal.

Quotes

In teaching our child the English language, we talked to her as an adult except that our words were simple and concrete. In general our practice has been not to correct her mistakes, trusting to the force of good example. As much as possible we have tried to have her words stand for real things; for instance, we took her to see pigs and bears and skunks, so that she would not get her conceptions merely from stories, pictures and toys. Finally we make an effort to avoid the dead level of too simple language by at times dealing with familiar situations in new words.
- (1915) . "The development of a child's vocabulary in relation to environment". The Pedagogical Seminary 22 (1): 35-64. DOI:10.1080/08919402.1915.10533949.

The concept of territory proves to be as old as the science of ornithology, since Aristotle was the first writer to mention it. This was pointed out by Lack (Condor, 46, 1944:108) who, however, did not follow the subsequent history of these observations. ...
It was Aristotle, then, who declared that eagles partition out the land according to their needs for food, and this statement was incorporated into the books of Pliny, Frederick II (in regard to birds of prey), Albertus Magnus (transferred to vultures), Gesner, Aldrovandi, Willughby and Buffon.
- (November 1953) . "The Earliest Mention of Territory". Condor 55 (6): 316–317, Article 12.

Each spring the drowsy trill of the American toad called us and armed with pails and strainers and home-made nets, off we started to the nearby railroad cut. Here we found treasures: strings of toad eggs, pollywogs big and little, sedate newts (which we believed were lizards), back-swimmers and alluring whirligig beetles, drab dragonfly larvae, and most tempting of all, caddis fly larvae in their fantastic houses. Caddis flies had fascinated me ever since I had read about them Charles Kingsley's ’’Water Babies’’ (1863), and it was wonderful to find that these almost mythical creatures of English brooks were our neighbors here in our own waters.
- Research Is a Passion With Me: The Autobiography of a Bird Lover. Dundurn. 1979. p. 4. ISBN 9781459715783. (336 pages; with a foreword by Konrad Lorenz)

The most cherished Christmas present of my life came in 1895 — Mabel Osgood Wright's Bird-Craft (1895). For the first time, I had coloured bird pictures. Many of these were adapted from Audubon's Birds of America (1827); single birds, or occasionally a pair, sometimes in surprising attitudes, were depicted. In later years, when looking at the reproductions of Audubon's original plates, every now and then a picture has given me a little tug at the heart, recalling my childhood years of eager search. The simple descriptions, the charming discussions, the enthusiastic introductory chapters of Bird-Craft — all these I pored over and all but learned by heart.
- p. 5

Ornithological Margaret Morse Nice (1883–1974) changed the course of American behavioral science through her two pioneering field studies in 1937 and 1943 on the Song Sparrow, Melospiza melodia. Although students of bird behavior understand her importance, few general readers recognize her name, much less significance. There are many reasons this omission should be remedied: her outstanding professional accomplishments, her ability to balance family and career, her management of gender issues, and her work in conservation, preservation, and the popularization of science.
- Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie, "Introduction". For the Birds: American Ornithologist Margaret Morse Nice. University of Oklahoma Press. 2018. ISBN 9780806162492. (320 pages)