viii BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE. 



through wood and field, exercising his habit of keen and 

 patient observation, and unconsciously the lad trained him- 

 self to be an ornithologist. Nature was his teacher, and he 

 proved himself an apt pupil. Naturally the birds, from their 

 variety and abundance, became an attraction to a boy not 

 only endowed with unusual powers of observation, but with 

 great love of beauty in color, form, and motion. From the 

 first, he recognized the necessity of "great accuracy in his 

 observations. He gathered his own knowledge, and by every 

 test spared no pains to make his facts certain. He had natu- 

 rally a good eye for color, form, movement, and expression ; 

 he had also a nice and delicate ear for music. The notes and 

 songs of birds were readily fixed in his memory, and with 

 such accuracy that he could detect the individual variation in 

 the usual songs of particular species of birds ; a trait in their 

 nature which always interested him. 



He wrote with facility, and soon formed the habit of re- 

 cording his observations daily. In this way he collected a 

 large amount of manuscript, out of which he prepared the 

 text of his book. This he completed in his seventeenth year. 

 He submitted it to his eldest brother, a good amateur natu- 

 ralist, and asked his opinion as to publishing it. His brother 

 was struck with the thoroughness, accuracy, and originality of 

 the work, and procured its publication in an edition of one 

 thousand copies. The book was well received, sold rapidly, 

 and soon became out of print. 



In the mean time the author entered Harvard College in 

 the year 1876. His health, however, failed him in his sopho- 

 more year, and he was obliged to relinquish his studies and 

 devote himself to more active occupations connected with the 

 management and construction of railroads. In this new pur- 

 suit he developed so much capacity that he was intrusted in 

 1888 with the construction of the Eastern Railroad in Minne- 

 sota, a road extending from St. Paul in that State to Superior 

 City in Wisconsin, and on the completion of the road he was 

 appointed to be the president and manager of it, being at the 

 time the youngest railroad president in the United States. 

 When his professional prospects were at the highest, his life 



