GAME BIRDS AND LARGER NON-GAME BIRDS 147 



to arrive "in clouds" on February 20. Every year since 

 they have visited Mr. Miner, not in hundreds but in thou- 

 sands. On Good Friday, 1913, it was a very windy day 

 and Lake Erie was extremely rough; the geese came to his 

 farm in such numbers that they filled a five-acre field. 



For several weeks each year they enjoy his hospitality 

 and consume annually several hundred dollars' worth of 

 corn. For years Mr. Miner has borne the cost of feeding 

 his wild visitors, and it is impossible to praise too highly 

 the spirit that has prompted so great a financial sacrifice on 

 the part of a lover of wild Ufe, who can ill afford the ex- 

 penditure involved in this unique experiment. To accom- 

 modate the increasing number of his visitors Mr. Miner 

 made new and enlarged ponds and added to his farm, the 

 whole of which was devoted to and specially laid out for 

 the protection of the geese, wild ducks, — which also visit 

 him in large mmabers, — quail, and insectivorous birds. So 

 successful was the work that the Ontario government has 

 created the Miner farm and adjacent farms a game sanc- 

 tuary, which, each year, is visited by thousands of peo- 

 ple, particularly in the spring, when the geese are staying 

 there. 



One of the most wonderful and inspiring sights I have 

 ever seen is the return of the flocks of geese during the early 

 hours of sunrise on an April morning. While the heavens 

 are still glowing with the rosy light of the rising sun, the 

 geese begin to leave the water of Lake Erie, where they 

 have spent the night, and in their characteristic A-shaped 

 flocks, they head straight for the sanctuary, where they 

 alight and spend the day, fed by the generous hand of their 

 protector. Such pleasures cannot be purchased; they are 

 the natural sequence to a genuine love of wild life and a 

 patient winning of its confidence. 



Mr. Miner was not satisfied with demonstrating the re- 

 sponse of the wild geese and ducks to his encouragement 



