David Hamilton Mack Laing (6 February 1883 – 15 February 1982), known for most of his life as Mack Laing, was a Canadian naturalist, writer, ornithologist, artist, photographer, taxidermist, and hunter who significantly advanced the knowledge of Western Canadian flora and fauna in the early twentieth century. He was a prolific nature writer, with approximately 900 of his stories appearing in popular magazines of the era.
Early Life and Education
Laing was born in Hensall, Ontario, to William Oswald Laing, a Scottish immigrant, and Rachel Melvina Mack, an Irish immigrant. Shortly after his birth, his family returned to their pioneer homestead in Clearsprings, Manitoba (near Steinbach), where Laing was raised on a farm. From a young age, he demonstrated a strong interest in birds and a talent for sketching and painting. At age 15, he moved to Winnipeg to attend the Winnipeg Collegiate Institute, graduating in 1900, after which he earned a teacher's diploma.
Career
Teacher and Principal
Laing taught in small schools for four years, during which he began keeping a daily diary of wildlife observations—a habit he maintained for the rest of his life. He also took a correspondence course in story writing, publishing his first story, "The End of the Trail," in 1907. He became a high school principal in 1908 and started one of the first Boy Scout troops in Canada.
Artist, Writer, and Traveller
In 1911, Laing resigned his principalship and moved to Brooklyn, New York, to study art at the Pratt Institute. He also learned photography and began illustrating his nature stories with his own photographs. His first book, Out with the Birds (1913), describing the birds of Manitoba, was well received. After graduating in 1914, he purchased a Harley-Davidson motorcycle and undertook extensive cross-continental journeys, including a notable ride from Winnipeg to San Francisco in 1915 with his brother.
During World War I, Laing enlisted in the British Royal Flying Corps and served as a machine gun instructor at Beamsville, Ontario. During this period, he met prominent ornithologists and began publishing scientific papers.
Collector and Naturalist
In 1920, Laing served as assistant to Francis Harper on a Smithsonian-sponsored expedition to Lake Athabasca, cataloguing over 500 birds and plants. He published Wildfowling Tales in 1921. In 1922, he met renowned bird illustrator Allan Brooks in the South Okanagan Valley and, at Brooks's urging, moved to Comox, British Columbia, where he purchased oceanfront property and built a house he called "Baybrook."
In 1925, Laing was the naturalist and photographer on the Alpine Club of Canada's expedition to Mount Logan, Canada's highest peak. He collected 245 plants, 203 bird skins, and 61 mammal skins. One of the plants, a previously undocumented subspecies of rosy pussytoes, was named Antennaria laingii in his honour. His footage was featured in the documentary The Conquest of Mount Logan.
Marriage and Later Life
Laing married Ethel May Hart in 1927. The couple established a successful nut and fruit orchard in Comox. After Ethel's death in 1944, Laing sold the farm and built a new house, "Shakesides," on the remaining portion of his property. He continued writing and, in 1979, published Allan Brooks: Artist Naturalist, a biography of his friend.
Legacy
Laing collected approximately 10,000 birds, mammals, and plants during his lifetime, now held by museums and universities worldwide. He published two dozen scientific papers and over 900 popular articles. Two birds, two mammals, and one plant were named after him. His personal collection of 2,500 stuffed birds was left to the Royal Museum of British Columbia.
Laing's property in Comox became the Mack Laing Nature Park. His manuscript about his 1914–1915 cross-continental motorcycle journey, discovered after his death, was published in 2019 as Riding the Continent.
Laing died in Comox, British Columbia, on 15 February 1982, nine days after his 99th birthday.
