INTRODUCTION 
Theodore Roosevelt saw his name in 
type as often as any man. Yet he knew 
that Time has a way of reducing the 
largest headlines to fine print. And he 
knew that a bird-song can drown a brass 
band. So he begged—yes pleaded with— 
John Burroughs to write him down a 
bird-lover, lest it should be thought in 
after days that he was only a President! 
“I do hope/' he wrote, “that you will 
include in your coming volume of 
sketches a little account of the time you 
visited us at Pine Knot, our little Vir¬ 
ginia camp, while I was President. I 
am very proud of you, Oom John, and 
I want the fact that you were my guest 
when I was President, and that you and 
I looked at birds together, recorded 
there—and don't forget that I .showed 
you the blue grosbeak and the Bewick 
wren, and almost all the other birds I 
said I would." 
When those words were printed in the 
