Sonic Harmless Beasts. 163 



the grief of the hind then ranks with the poets only second 

 to that of the " turtle-dove " when similarly afflicted. But 

 no amount of sympathy seems excessive for the loss of 

 such offspring by such a parent 



In all circumstances of life, therefore, the deer is pictur- 

 esque, whether "crushing the heath-bells as they tread" 

 the mountain side, or in the hollows, " belling from ferny 

 bed " (Faber). The poet — 



" Sunk deep in fern marks the stealthy roe. 

 Silent as sleep or shadow, cross the glade, 

 Or dart athwart his view as August stars 

 Shoot and are out." 



At rest, when " the summer sun shines on fhe trees, and 

 the deer lie in the shade " (Mary Howitt) ; or when, " m 

 summer's moonUght, the gentle deer lie sleeping ; " 



" The gentle deer lie sleeping in the moon. 

 With their own fairy shadows at their side" (Faber) ; 



or (Grahame) "in ruminating peace, the fallow deer, a 

 grove of antlers." 



In the daytime, under the elms, " in herds, the troubled 

 deer shake the still-twinkling tail and glancing ear " (Words- 

 worth), or "couched on the close sward, while ears and 

 antlers in the grass with restless movement twinkle " 

 (Faber), So Bloomfield has "with rattling horns and 

 twinkUng ears." 



The solitary stag quenching his thirst at noon ; the hind 

 leading her fawn in the evening to the stream ; the whole 

 herd pacing out from the tree-shadows to drink ; the stag, 

 starting to run, " proudly tossing his antlered head." 



Cowper's quiet park, "haunt of deer, and sheep-walks 

 f)opulous with bleating lambs;" Mackay's "nooks where 

 the shy deer browse the bent;" Thomson's forest glade 

 where the wild deer trip and, often tiuning, gaze ; Camp- 

 bells birchen glades, with the deer " glancing in the sun- 



