100 Years Ago in the American Ornithologists' Union

[摘要] Cooke was the first luminary in the study of bird migration in North America. He envisioned cooperative observations of bird movements, and in 1881–1882, he invited ornithologists in Iowa to send him lists of winter birds and dates of first arrival of migrants. This quickly spread to the whole Mississippi River Valley, and results were published on an annual basis. After stints in Vermont, Colorado, and Pennsylvania, he took a position with the Biological Survey in Washington, D.C., in 1901, where the remaining 15 years of his career were spent studying migration and distribution of birds. He kept file cards on each migratory record, learning to write with both his right and left hands to avoid writer's cramp, and announced in 1915 that he had surpassed his millionth card. He died in March 1916 after a short bout with pneumonia.

[学科分类] 动物科学