AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 



285 



TO A WILD DEER. 



A FINE live Deer was run down recently in the borough 

 of Columbia, Lancaster county. It is supposed that it was 

 driven in by some of the neighbouring dogs, and when 

 taken was much exhausted. 



Why didst thou leave thy native woods, 



Child of the forest! here to roam, 

 And quit the murmur of the floods 



That revel in thy mountain home? 

 Why did'st thou thus resign thy glen 

 To die amid the haunts of men ? 



There's freedom on the rocks and hills, 



A liberty that nature gives. 

 Whose very inspiration fills 



The heart of every thing that lives, 

 And seems to throw a noble air 

 O'er every form that wanders there. 



Nay, e'en the very trees that rear 



Their branches to the summer sky, 

 In their wind-shaken leaves appear 



To have a sense of majesty, 

 And lift their heads as though they felt 

 They grew in scenes where freedom dwelt. 



There couldst thou lift thy antlered brow, 

 And pace the wilds in conscious pride, 



Climbing the steeps where wild flowers grow, 

 Or plunging in the torrent's tide, 



Daring alike to scale or swim, 



With 63-6 unmoved and dauntless limb. 



The crags and peaks were all thine own. 

 The rivers and the rocks were thine. 



Thou wert a monarch on tliy throne. 



Treading the cliSs where sun-beams shine; 



The monarch of the hills wert thou — 



Chief of the proud and antlered brow! 



Along the misty valley's shade 



Thy footstep roamed at break of morn, 



The echoes of thy native glade 



Ne'er heard the clang of hound or horn. 



The blackbird's note, the wolf's loud bay 



Were all that met thee on thy way. 



Wild nature was around thee there 

 In all its rich, romantic grace; 

 4 C 



It seemed as though the very air 

 Partook the spirit of the place; 

 Whate'er it was in other eyes, 

 To thee it seemed a paradise. 



Then why did'st thou forsake thy wild, 

 Amid the haunts of men to stra}^? 



The rocks that on thy hills are pil'd 



Are not more hard — more bleak than they. 



Thou'st come from sunny glen and sky. 



By human hearths at last to die! 



Like thee, poor deer! when genius leaves 

 The quiet home it once had known, 



And from the ingrate world receives 

 The meed of cold neglect alone, — 



Like thee it turns away in pain. 



And wishes for the shades again. 



C. W. T. 



Gentlemen: 



I observed in one of your Nos. of the Cabinet, an account 

 of an attempt to domesticate the Partridge. If an attempt 

 of a similar kind, though not of equal success, made by my- 

 self, with the common Quail,"* dui-ing the fall and winter of 

 1S30, is of any service to your work, you have my entire 

 liberty to use it. I had been passing a few weeks in the 

 country, about fifteen miles from this city, and was out one 

 morning in pursuit of woodcock, when my dog came upon 

 a dead point, in an open meadow, upon a bird not twelve 

 feet beyond him. Surprised at the apparent tameness or 

 stupidity of the bird, I approached with a view of taking it, 

 if possible, alive; and I was able to advance within about 

 six feet of her, before she flew. I then perceived it was a 

 Quail upon her nest, which contained fifteen young, appa- 

 rently not more than a day old. I thought this would be an 

 excellent opportunity of making an experiment I had long 

 wished for — of domesticating the Quail; and, therefore, not- 

 withstanding my compunctions of conscience in thus bereav- 

 ing the distressed mother of her offspring, I took them up, 

 nest and all, and carried them home, accompanied by their 

 mother, who was continually uttering the most violent out- 

 cries, as if to reproach me with my cruelty. When I arrived 

 at home I put the nest, with all its contents, in a large cage, 

 and suspended it from a limb of an apple tree, out of the 

 way of cats and other enemies of the feathered tribe. I 

 then retired to a distance, leaving the door of the cage open, 

 for the purpose of observing, whether the mother would 



* One is the Quail of the North, and tlie other the Partridge of the South. 



