"Lack's life-long passion for birds began at an early age in the marshes of rural Norfolk. At nine, he compiled his first life list, and at fifteen he began his first bird diary, having seen exactly 100 species. These schoolboy notebooks reveal the remarkable attention to detail in field observation that distinguished his later work. In 1929, Lack went up to Cambridge, but apparently he did not enjoy his formal academic training, from biologists of the day such as Saunders, Carter and Salt. Later (Lack, 1978) he reminisced that his zoology course contained 'nothing about evolution, ecology, behavior or genetics, and of course nothing about birds'! However, he enlivened his dry undergraduate programme by running the Cambridge Bird Club and going on expeditions to places like Greenland and St Kilda."