Jack Miner and the Birds | by Jack Miner (1865-1944)
Born on April 10, 1865 John Thomas Miner, or “Wild Goose Jack”, was a Canadian conservationist, a pioneer in banding migrating birds. Data collected from the work conducted at the Jack Miner Migratory Bird Sanctuary paved way to the establishment of the Migratory Bird Treaty of 1916 between Canada and the United States.
There is a room for disagreement on Miner’s conservation ethic which is largely driven by his faith and as such he advocated for selective conservation for ‘good’ birds and had no pity for “bad’ ones. In nature, however, the relationship of predator to prey is much more complex as we know. Despite some scientific shortcomings it would be unfair to disregard his contribution to conservation.
This, a sportsmen’s problem, may appear to you as being entirely out of place in a book like this; yet I want you to read, for I feel fully qualified to discuss this matter in a conscientious, fair and square, look-you-in-the-face manner, as I have the itching of my own trigger-finger fairly well harnessed, and have no desire to shoot any bird other than the cannibals; but on the other hand my boy, Ted, who is twenty-three years of age, and for whom I would willingly lie down and give up the ghost if it were actually necessary, likes to shoot, and I sometimes think he is as crazy for a gun as I once was, but that seems impossible.
Nearly twenty years ago I organized the South Essex County Game Protective Association, which, by the way, now has advanced into the hands of some of the best and most self-sacrificing sportsmen this earth can produce. And let me say right here that they have stood, and are still standing, right behind me, backing me up in every just undertaking. If every county had an association of the same material the question would all be solved, for when these men asked our Dominion Government to proclaim a bird sanctuary around Jack Miner’s home, in less than three months no shooting was allowed within a mile of my house, and the game warden came and declared it a Crown Lands’ Bird Sanctuary.
To be sure, I have tasted the insults one experiences when he changes from a pull-down to a builder. An insulting doctor once said to me, as he stood in the safety zone and shook his fists at my red face, “ Jack, you are just like old Uncle Joe; when he used to dance he wanted everybody to dance, but when he got religion he wanted everybody to pray.”
Now the first thing to consider is that over ninety per cent, of the people in America don’t want to shoot. They want to see the birds alive. They take nothing from the shooter, but the shooter takes all from them. Which should control, the ninety per cent, or the ten? I say there can be pleasure for both, if properly managed ;but the shooter must be considered last, for the fall of one bird out of the air from his deadly aim gives pleasure to one only, while thousands are deprived of the thrilling enjoyment of seeing that bird alive. God says, “In any wise let the mother go and take the young to thee;” yet some of our people want to shoot the mother before she lays the eggs to hatch the young that He says we can have. Yes, a man may be a good, shrewd business fellow, but when he gets a gun in his hands he appears to lose all self-control and does not expose enough brains to give him a headache.
Excerpted from
Jack Miner and the birds : and some things I know about nature by Miner, Jack, 1865-1944
Online at archive.org
English: Children with birdhouses, Peterborough, Ontario, 1923
Fred Roy (1881-1950), Peterborough, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Thumbnail Image: Jack Miner and his wife, photographed in Miner's migratory bird sanctuary in Kingsville, Ontario
Not stated, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
For a short bio go to Wikipedia page