The American Ornithologists’ Union published a journal called The Auk in 1914, with articles in it like “A Plea for the Conservation of the Eider,” and “The Fallacy of the Tendency Toward Ultraminute Distinctions.”
The first thing you see, though, is this handsome individual, with colony in the background, welcoming you to the collected 1914 issues of this quarterly bulletin.
The first item in the first issue is not research, but a remembrance of a deceased ornithologist, Philip Lutley Sclater. It begins, “A Prince in the realm of Zoological Science has fallen, and I am called here today to bid you look upon his face, and hearken to the records of his deeds. Death, whom the Poet has called “The Beautiful Angel,” has in recent years frequently visited within our ranks, and many and wide are the gaps he has made, until the brilliant cohort that embraced all of our noblest and best, is now shattered and dispersed, leaving of its talented members, but a sorrowing remnant, survivors of a glorious host.”
Which is quite a way to send off a beloved colleague, and sort of flavors the descriptions of petrels and stomach contents of Sudanese egrets that follow.