"This is the history," said Mrs. Porter, "of one little tail
piece among the pictures. There were about thirty others, none so
strenuous, but none easy, each having a living, fighting history
for me. If I were to give in detail the story of the two years'
work required to secure the set of bird studies illustrating `The
Cardinal,' it would make a much larger book than the life of the
bird."

"The Cardinal" was published in June of 1903. On the 20th of
October, 1904, "Freckles" appeared. Mrs. Porter had been delving
afield with all her heart and strength for several years, and in
the course of her work had spent every other day for three months
in the Limberlost swamp, making a series of studies of the nest
of a black vulture. Early in her married life she had met a
Scotch lumberman, who told her of the swamp and of securing fine
timber there for Canadian shipbuilders, and later when she had
moved to within less than a mile of its northern boundary, she
met a man who was buying curly maple, black walnut, golden oak,
wild cherry, and other wood extremely valuable for a big
furniture factory in Grand Rapids. There was one particular
woman, of all those the author worked among, who exercised
herself most concerning her. She never failed to come out if she
saw her driving down the lane to the woods, and caution her to be
careful. If she felt that Mrs. Porter had become interested and
forgotten that it was long past meal time, she would send out
food and water or buttermilk to refresh her. She had her family
posted, and if any of them saw a bird with a straw or a hair in
its beak, they followed until they found its location. It was her
husband who drove the stake and ploughed around the killdeer nest