"Write Jack Miner"

A puzzled man was Boyd Mayhew of Washington, D. C. when he shot a wild goose on the Patuxent River and found upon its leg an aluminum band with the legend: "Have faith in God! Write Jack Miner, Kingsville, Ont." (TIME, Dec. 29).

Investigation revealed last week that any similarly puzzled gunner who writes to Jack Miner receives in reply a long printed letter addressed to "My Dear Sir and Brother Sportsman." The letter explains why Jack Miner spends his time banding birds, requests the hunter to return the band and give a future thought to God and bird protection.

Twenty-nine years ago Jack Miner, owner of a small brick factory, thought of making his home comfortable for migrating birds. He had become interested in animals when as a young man he helped support his family by hunting for market. In 1904 he planted a few live decoys in a small pond near his brick factory, scattered ears of corn. Eleven ducks and geese came, spent a few weeks, flew away. The next year 32 arrived. Four years later he caught a duck, banded it to see if he could find out how far it flew in its migrations. The tag was returned to him from Anderson, S. C. where the bird was shot.

Then Jack Miner went into bird-banding enthusiastically. He constructed large nets to catch the ducks. His correspondence increased: people all over eastern North America were shooting his birds. He began to include a quotation from Scripture to make Miner ducks worth while. Returned tags were kept in a mink skin.

In the spring of 1915 he built a goose trap, started to band the great wild Canadian goose. Naturalists knew that the Canadian goose flew into the North in the spring, but they needed more information about its nesting place, its migratory paths. In October, Jack Miner received word of his first banded goose. It had been shot by an Indian in unsurveyed territory in Hudson's Bay Co.'s district. Several years later Rev. W. G. Walton, Anglican missionary to northern Indians and Eskimos, returned to civilization for the first time in 30 years, went to Kingsville with a pocketful of jack Miner's goose tags gathered from Moose Factory, James Bay, to Baffin Land. From all tags returned the nesting place of the eastern Canadian goose was revealed to be around the shores and islands of Hudson Bay and Baffin Land. The nesting time is April, May.

Last week, tall, 200-lb., 66-year-old Jack Miner was gathering news of his last autumn's banding. From gunners' letters he draws maps of the paths of migratory birds. His duck tags have been returned from 33 States and Provinces, covering an area of four million square miles. Farthest southern point is Gueydan, La.; farthest west, Englefeld, Sask. Each year he feeds his migratory visitors 4,000 bu. of corn. His three sons, William, Manly and Jasper, run the brick factory. Manly helps him with the bird sanctuary. So popular have his corn cobs and ponds become that two years ago he had to appeal to the Government for help. Canadian officials gave him $5,000 per year.* Friends help with donations. Deficits are pieced out by the bird lectures which Jack Miner delivers in Canadian schools and clubs. The Jack Miner Bird Sanctuary costs $15,000 per year to run, is host to 20,000 migratory birds. In spring and autumn when Miner's birds gather, people gather also, 4,000 per day, to see (but not to shoot) the waddling ducks, the long-necked, majestic Canadian geese.

*The U. S. Government in 1929 appropriated eight million dollars to found similar sanctuaries.

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