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(ANSI ond ISO TEST CHART No. t,

J APPLIED IfVHGE I

K '65i Eost Mam Street

f Rochester. Ne« rorh 14609 USA

B (716) 482 - 0300 - Phone

B (716) 288 - 5989 -Fax

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Attracting: Wild Fowl

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VklLO CEESE ON FREMISES OF MR. JACK MINER fSJEX CO. ONT

WILD GEESE ON PREMISES OF MR. JACK MINER. ESSEX CO.. OMT.

The aliove ponds am the stopping oH places for the Canida .leeso. m their miijratory flights in Iha spnn i an I autumn.
From a nucleus of five, the numt)er has grown to thousands.

/■»../..., r„url,,y Mr.Jaik Min<r

Commission of Conservation

CANADA

COMMITTEE ON FISHERIES, GAME AND
FUR-BEARING ANIMALS

Attracting Wild Fowl

BY

JACK MINER
Kingtville, Ontario

Reprinted from
' Wild Life: its Conservation and Protection "
of the Commission of Coi^.ervation

OTTAWA — 1919

6814i-lB

Attracting Wild Fowl

•V

Jac Miner, of Kingsvillc. Ont.

I assure you it is a privilege for me to meet with so many bird
lovers. \Vc love out-of-door creatures, or we woulrl not be here
this morning.

Now, you will have to pardon my lack of etluca* i I am one
of those men who are born bare-foote<l and educatt • .of -doors.
However, I was father's favourite. Perhaps it is not just the proper
v-'ng for fathers to show partiality, but mine did. He always called
ne in the morning to build the fires; possibly in that way I got out
a little earlier than the rest to hear the birds singing.

Outside of unavoidable sadness, my life has been one continuous
round of enjoyment; the failures, and disappointments and the dark
storm clouds have been wiped out of existence by success, by out-
of-door life — a light which has brightened my path right up to the
present and given a faint glimpse of the beyond. I have heard people
say they have read that there was never a tribe of heathen discovered
on earth who did not worship some kind of got!. No intelligent
man can live out of doors without being compelkxl to believe that
there is an over-ruling power.

God created the fowls of t
man, according to Genesir, 1st c
26th verse, we find these words:
in our image, after our ' '<encss;

ir, and so on, before he created

ter and 21st verse. Then in the

■ And God said : Let us make man

and let them have dominion over

the fish of thf sea, and < r the fowl of the air, and over the cattle,
and over all fh< earth, a-if' over every creeping thing that creepeth
upon the eaii.i. ' Does that mean that we are to have dominion
over those big flocks o< wild geese, so far away that you have to look
twice to see them? You know how high they sometimes are;
you can just hear them. That is what it says. Then we read further
in Deuteronomy, chapter 22, 6th and 7th verses: " If a bird's nest
chance to be before thee in the vay in any tree, or on the ground,
whether they be young ones, or eggs, and the dam sitting upon the
young, or upon the eggs, thou shalt not take the dam with the young;
but thou shalt in any wise let the dam go, and take the young to thee;

S8141— 2k

4 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION

that it may be well with thee and that thou mayest prolong thy
days." But, if a duck lit in one of the rivers here, all the educated
people in this room would rush down— there would be ten guns out
there to shoot it.

Reading in "he book of Job, we find these words:

" No doubt but ye are the people, and wisdom shall die with
you. But I have understanding as well as you; I am not mferior
to you: yea, who knoweth not such things as these?. . . . . . .But

ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the
air, and they shall tell thee."

When the first barn swallows came to our tile

A^edUte"^ shed, on our little farm at KingsviUe, Ont., they

Protection nested 300 feet away— as far away as they could

get from where we were working. We protected the swallows from

their deadly enemy, the sparrow that man brought to Canada— the

English sparrow; not the one that God put here, don't forget that.

They destroyed the first brood, but we protected the swallows and

consequently the sparrows did not destroy any more. Remember,

the shed had stood there for ten years, equally as inviting. The

second year there were two nests; the fifth year there were twenty

nests in the tile shed, and, instead of being as far from us as tiiey could

possibly get, fifteen out of the twenty nests were within twenty feet

of where we were working. They had come to us for protection.

You have to believe that. They destroy large numbers of house

flies. The ladies say— of course, the ladies never tell what is not

true— that there is not more than one house fly now where there were

five previous to the coming of these barn swallows, purple martins,

and so on. Scientists tell us that the fly will carry that deadly disease,

typhoid, and, if we preserve the swallow which destroys these flies,

surely it shall be well with us and we shall prolong our days. We

protected one nest; now, one hundred swallows are raised in that shed

every year.

Now, what good is the robin? Everybody knows
Enemies"' the robin. A boy came along the road with a . 22

Cut-Worms. ^.jfj^ g^^ ^ ^obin sitting on the fence and killed it.

I went over and picked the robin up. Two cutworms were squirming
on the ground; the robin had had them in his beak. I held the bird
up, and two more fell out of his mouth. Remember, one cutworm
will cut down five tomato plants in a night. This fellow does
his work and then hides under the soil; I-'r. Robin comes hopping
along, picks in there and pulls him out— and turns him into a robm.
If anyone tells you that a robin will destroy one hundred cutworms

ATTRACTING WILD FOWL

in a day, take it from me that it is true. The following morning,
this boy promised me that he would not shoot another robin. In
the fir tree by our house were two little robins dead under the nest
and two in the nest just alive. We took these two little robins in,
warmed them up, and made some custard for them — one egg, half
a cup of milk, no sugar. They couldn't open their mouths, they were
so nearlygone. We took one of them.pried his beak open and dropped
in some custard, and the first thing we knew he 'came to,' and in a
minute or so began to squeak for more custard. The other little
fellow was supposed to be dead, but he, too, soon began to look around,
and these two robins became the sweetest birds we ever had on the
premises.

You know how a door will slam once in a while in the house.
Well, there was a good slam one morning when someone had left
the screen door open and my son Jasper's pet robin had come in and
was resting in what we call the cold storage — a room in the front of
the house which is sometimes called the front ' parlour.' Here he
was on Mother's picture, and the broom was going smartly after
him. Jasper came with a tin and carried friend robin out to safety.
That is how we get enjoyment out of these things.

Do birds come back to their homes? How many times I have
been asked that question. Oh yes, they come back. " Well, how
do you know, Jack?" Then you would have to talk about the
weather — switch the subject. But I will tell you the rest of the
story.

I hatched four wild young mallards — well, I didn't
hatch them; I stole the eggs. A domestic fowl
eventually hatched out four little wild ducks, and
there they were, under the old hen, wilder than March hares.
However, the old hen's voice soon brought them out, and
several little girls began to come out from under their stepmother
and look around, and eventually they would take some of the
custard right in my presence. These ducks soon were so tame that
the tap on a tin pan would bring them to you. They got to be quite
a size and we named them, respectively, Polly, Delilah, Susan and
Helen, and presented each one with an aluminium tag, on which was
printed the words, " Box 48, Kingsville, Ont." The four ducks
migrated on or about December 10, 1912. Dr. Rutherford, of
Chatham, shot Helen at Mitchell bay, lake St. Clair. How they
ot to the west of us I don't know, for they started south. I suppose
•hey had taken such a liking for me, that they started for Ohio, where
I was bom. On March 14, 1913, Polly came home. On March

Wild Ducks
are Tamed

6 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION

18 Delilah came home, and on March 30, Susan, although wounded
in the wing and foot, returned home. Is that not an answer to the
Question, do birds return to the place from whence they migrate?
Well, I wanted to go down, hitch up the 'self-starter, and go to
town, so that someone would ask me, " Do birds return home?

They migrated that autumn, and on March 14, 1914, Polly
again came home. On March 21, Delilah came home for the second
time The two girls brought a Yankee sweetheart with them and
raised families the next year; and it is interesting, when they are
arriving, to see the ducks come down and try to coax their new
mates down too.

Well, they migrated again for the third time. In the spring
of 1915, Delilah got home first; she arrived on March 13, and Polly
came home on March 16. Polly got her beak a little too far ahead,
and a shot had grazed right across it and cut the side off leaving it
hanging. She would just stand around with her mouth open. I got
some porridge and mixed custard with it and, on the second day, I had
Polly in my right hand. In a week or so I took these ducks to a
photographer's, stood them on a table, brushed them down and talked
quietly to them and got a photograph of them.

We often make remarks about 'silly* old geese and
Returned for 'giUy' old ducks; sometimes I wonder what the ducks
Fifth Time ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^^yj^g ^bout us. These ducks have

shied around to keep clear of people hiding in ambush for them;
then they come home. and. in a few days, are eating out of our hands.
Isn't that worth thinking about? Talk about loving these birds;
you simply can't help it. if you are human. Polly said: I am
going to stay with you. Jack, from now on." and she stayed with
my hens in the winters of 1915 and 1916. However, in the spring
of 1916, she was shot, but Delilah migrated and got back on March
5, for the fifth time; migrated again and got back in 1917 on March
25, and. last spring, she came back for the seventh time on March 19.
Do birds return to their homes? I know that it was the same tag
she had on, because my wife and I took it off her leg after it had been
on five years, and presented her with a new tag. I am now making
my tag system a little more interesting, by putting on the blank side
a verse of scripture. Everybody who brings down a goose with my
tag on it it gets a verse of scripture, whether he needs it or not.
Mack Stewart, of Tennesee. writes: " Send me the history of this
bird, or of some other Canadian bird. " Corporal John R- Smith
writes- " White, age 23, still unclaimed, can you help me out f bo
I took the two letters and handed them over to the ladies m our

I

/'W.., Curl, ^11 Mr. A'. K. LemiiUl

YOUNG LIVE BEAVER

FLOODS AT POINT PELEE, ONT.. IN THE SPRING OF 1919
Pho!o shows flooded land at the south end of Point Pelee.

/'»..(ii, (■..ur/..».» Mr. F II. '■'•!..
KNIll

ATTRACTING WILD FOWL

"HeLws 10. 24." (Let us consider one another).

Now where do these ducks go ^^^^

.. Ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee.

Kingsville is the place y'^^^ America, I believe.
X^ine of Flight go than anywhere else '" ^°^^^^;;i''Kentucky.
for Bird. I have twelve tags ^'^^^^''''J^^Ze one from

nine from Tennessee -d seven Jrc- Ala^^^^^^ ,

Saskatchewan, one from Alberta and seve , ^^^,

ha.e only four or five ^f J^^^j^^^^k. as far west as Alberta
them as far east as Long ^^l^"*^' ^^7„^°[h ^s Sault Ste. Marie. I
ri^tTilo^nrd^" n^ttTsa'u Ste. Marie, although I

Carolina, one from Maryland and on from Ne J.^^^ j,,^.

^^^ZXtr r::^- Kingsville pond without

^ ^^tw. they stay with ^^^^-rJ^ZTT^^ri^^'^^^^^
the first of March-in fact, t^-ey have come as e y ^ _^ ^^^.^ ^^ ^^^

and as late as March l^^'lf Jf^^r turned from James bay and
first of May. We have had 25 tags re ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^

Hudson bay. namely 24 '^-^^^l^'^T^^se 25 tags, ladies and
west side of James bay-from Albany^ ^^ ^^^ ^^.^^ ^^^

gentlemen, are in my possession, and 1 am so ry ^^^ ^^^^^^.^

Lng. The ^^^^^^Y'^lXS^J^^'c^Lr^, mostly, and the
Bay Company agent. I suppose tnro g 25 out of

Hji».'s Bav ase„., '-/^ ^«rc<,*»r.h.,e a,. o„,y 9 from

102 that I put on. is nave ucci

the south. j-^ I find out about these wild geese? 1 hav

WW a„« ,k,i, eyes in the mommg. WiU g^„„. There

■r rr rSi"^-ror sT..e„.. a. aavUgn,, ■ se.

t COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION

friend wild goose coming, bringing his family with him. I can just
see the tips of the wings begin to move — a faint hum, coming closer.
Everything is pretty quiet — but my heart sinks; here are two men
coming out there in the next field. It's all off; those fell ^vs will
secure the geese. But no, that old leader goes right over them —
now he has passed them. There I am under the blanket — possibly it
is a sheet if tiiere is a little snow on the ground — the three comers are
tied down and I am underneath it, just hidden there, with a gun
ready. And the leader swings around, and, "-6 he swings around, he
calls and starts to drop his big black feet to come down. But, for
some unaccountable reason, he changes his note and climbs into the
air — everybody looks out for himself ; and the minute he changed his
note they all darted in as many different directions as there were
geese — it was the danger signal. What did he see? One of my red
hairs, possibly, projecting from underneath that blanket. He did
not shy from the other men, but, he said: " That red-headed fellow
over there killed two of my family last year." Ladies and gentlemen,
two and two make four — if the wild goose knows his enemy, why
wouldn't he know his friend?

I have only ten acres; how can I protect the geese?
pJStectUifoo^ie There are eight boys around the neighbourhood.

In 1904, I said to them: "If you won't shoot at the
wild geese around here, I will see that you get a chance to shoot one
in the pond." In 1905, 1906 and 1907 no wild geese came. One
morning in 1908, eleven wild geese came, and they had not been
there ten minutes before the boys came along with their guns. I
said: "Boys, leave it entirely with me; do not shoot at them for a
week or two." "But," they said, "you said we could shoot them?"
I said: "Boys, if you don't get the opportunity to shoot a wild goose
I will give you $10 each, if you let me manage it." They said: "We
don't want your money." Of course, they knew I didn't have it.
Howe 'er, in about three weeks, we hoi^' d a signal, "Go on, boys."
We were behind a bank I had thrown up there. Uncle Jack was to
shoot the two ganders. The boys lined up on one side and cocked
their guns, and, as they raised them, I made it my business to scare
the geese so that the boys could not shoot them. Bang went their
guns. The two ganders got away, but five geese lay dead in the
water — one for each family. I asked the boys not to shoot the others.
To my surprise and delight, the other six did not stay away two
hours; they came back, and stayed until the time came for them
to migrate. If you get one bird to come, there is your opportunity-

ATTRACTING WILD FOWL

The Ocew

Kctumed

Next spring, I wa» asked whether the geese would
come back. On March 18, I heard a strange honking
and I looked up and saw that they were coming— 32
of them. They came down within 100 feet of us; I walked out, and
they never flew away. I had the privilege of seeing them introduce
their families. The boys shot 10, and that left 22 to go away. Next
spring, I was asked: "When will the geese return?" They started
to come on March 4, and, in less than two weeks, there were over 400
there. The boys shot 16 and let the rest go. See how our flock
of geese had multiplied; we now had a flock of over 350. They
started coming on February 20, and, when the first was whirling
down, I counted 175 shots at him between my home and lake Erie.
When the first was lighting in the pond, you couldn't see the end
of the string of families that were coming.

I don't know whether you have experienced it, but
Tiv^Acn* of ^^^^ jg nothing more embarrassing than to have more

guests than you can feed. There I was, on Good Friday
of 1913, with a five-acre field full of wild geese. We couldn't begin
to feed them. Some of the geese must have told their friends what
was not true, and had induced them to come to a place where there
was not enough to eat. We brought the feed close to the house and
let the tamer ones come there to eat. I was speaking at the Rotary
Club in London the other day, and one gentleman asked me how I
moved the birds. This was my explanation to him: If you want to
move your birds, keep moving the food accordingly, and pr tty soon
you can put the spoon in your mouth and the birds will alight on it.

I will tell you about one family, one of a dozen interesting cases
last autumn. On October 10, six geese came. By the way, we have
never had over 150 in the autumn. I went out and called to these six
geese, and the old gander answered. He knew me. I got twelve
ears of corn, and threw c.e of them at him. Just as I did so the four
baby geese jumped in the air, but he called them and they dropped
down. Then I threw more ears of com, and eac' time the same
thing would happen ; he would sound that low not- ^nd every time
he did so the geese would come down. By the tin.e I had thrown
the eighth ear he had convinced them that all was well, and they
did not fly up any more. It was interesting to watch him trying to
educate them to take the kernels of corn off the ear, but it was strange
to them. He would get a kernel off and drop it down, but it was
fully fifteen minutes before he got those goslings to take the com;
when they did start, they cleaned off every kemel of the twelve ears.
That told me these young goslings had never seen an ear of com before.

Wild Oeete
Came Back

10 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION

and that they had come all the way from Hudson bay without a
mouthful and had dropped down there. The old gander had led them
all the way down.

My mother-in-law'9 daughter and I coaxed this old gander and
his five goslings into the coop and she held the door while I went in
and clamped a tag on his leg. After I tagged him I took h.m to the
door and threw him out-this same old gander that had been telling
his boys and girls to eat the corn and to stay there and not be afraid.
When I threw the gander out, did he fly to the lake? To know the
Canada goose is to love him forever, and if there is any person in
Ottawa who can tell me how that most intelligent, self-sacrificmg
bird came to be honoured by being called the Canada goose. I wish
he would write me. You cannot show me any of his actions that one
need be ashamed of. not one.

To resume my story. This old gander went out, and
when he was about two rods away he turned around
and looked back You could hear him calling for
the rest of his family in that little catd. pen. At this moment.
Mrs Miner would rather have been on the inside looking out than on
the outside looking in. because, as I was catching Number 2. the gan-
der came right back to the door and tried to break in and get at me.
We are talking about the same bird that I tried to get a shot at three
fields away ; here he is now fighting to get at me to protect his young-
trving to get his young out. He didn't leave that door until every
one of his family had been liberated; he stood right there and fought
for them. We caught him the second time, put a cuff on each leg and
named him "Sir John Moore," and we put on the lag this verse of

scripture: . . ■ ..

"No good thing will He withold from them that walk uprightly.

Thev migrated as usual, and, on March 17 following, the boys
said "Look. Dad." and there was Sir John Moore looking for more
corn with the t>v'o cuffs on his legs. Five of his family had returned ;
he had taken care of them down in the southern states all winter
and brought them back. The last: week in April they disappeared
and my heart sank when I opened a letter from Fort George. James
bay. and found four of the tags. The letter read: The Indian
says that seven geese came into their decoys, and they killed our of
them. Each one had a tag on it." You know just how I would feel,
although that is part of the game. To the fellow who wants to shoot,
let me say this: I am not opposed to a man shooting a bird or two,
but will you not join with us in limiting your bag? Remember
the bird that falls out of the air from our deadly aim gives you and

ATTRACTING WILD FOWL

II

me a little pleasure, but deprives thousands of people o( pleasure
and recreation in seeing it alive. Let us consider that; let us think

it over.

Effect of
Protection

Delilah raised during the six seasons, five families,
two of eight, and two of nine, and, this year, she
came home with twelve. What does game protection
mean? Protect one duck, and you can quickly figure out what the
total increase in six years will be. Delilah returned for the sixth
time and raised these five families. I have not seen her since August.
The Canada goose is the most faithful and self-sacrificing bird
on earth, i kept one for four years, and I know. 1 kept old Jack
Johnson for two years and a half, but I got rid of him. I wouldn't
keep a wild goose or gander around the premises after he had lost
his sweetheart; they just keep on honking in that sad way. But the
poorest principled piece of live flesh in feathers is the drake; he is
nothing but a Brigham Young, that's all.

Dr. Murray: I think you will agree with me that we have
heard something very much out of '.le ordinary this morning;
Mr. Miner's address has been the embodiment of red hot
enthusiasm. I think it can be well understtod how Mr. Miner—
I beg his pardon, Jack Miner— and his "mother-in-law's daughter"
live a very happy life among the birds they love and that love them.
Some exrcedingly interesting things have been brought to our attention
by the lecturer, perhaps not the least interesting being the different
standards of morality existing between the goose and the duck. The
goose, apparently, might be held up as a standard for the human
race.

Mr. Miner: The question has been asked me if
these geese all migrate. They do, this is only a stop-
ping place for them; they are never there in the
winter or in the summer. Someone enquired whether I supplied all
the food? You have all noticed that the poorer a man is the more
dogs he keeps. As a matter of fact, I got what we call "cold feet."
A hard-working man, with no advantages, you understand— what
could I do? Just at that time my particular friend, who is to speak
this afternoon, Mr. John Bumham, of New York, invited me to go
to Buffalo and to meet some of his friends there. I went, and they
found out what I was doing. Before I left the building that night,
they donated $125 to help feed the birds, and New York state that
winter carried the feeding right through. A gentleman of New York
state sent me enough money to feed the birds, but last spring costs
got pretty heavy. Geese were lowering, feed was soaring, and I fed

Feeding
the Birdi

12 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION

them out o( my own pocket over $600 worth of fe^ during the
month! of March and April. Our Ontario Government gave me

*^^m j!2^ White: I a.ked Hon. Mr. McDiarmid. Minister of
Public Works for Ontario, who is also in charge of the Department
of Game and Fisheries, to do something in this matter, and we hope
that the estimates of the Province of Ontario, when brought down,
will contain an item sufficient to recompense Mr. Mmer for any expen-
diture that he may incur in feeding this wild game.

Mr Miner: Don't think that there are any hard feehngs at all.
1 am glad as it is; I wouldn't undo it for $5,000. We have demon-
strated what a man with no natural advantages and very limited
means can do alone; what can the people cf North America do for
these God-given creatures with their combined forces? "" "°*
wh^ we can have; it is what we will have. We want bird protection
and we are going to have it.