Extinct Pennsylvania Animals PDF Download

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1917 edition. Excerpt: ... XIII. ODE TO A STUFFED PANTHER. (These lines were written upon seeing the effigy of the Dorman panther in the Natural History Museum of Albright College, Myerstown, Lebanon County, on November 6, 1912.) At twilight when the shadows flit, Within the ancient museum I sit, Gazing through the dust-encrusted glass. (While hosts of savage memories pass) At your effigy, ludicrously stuffed. The fulvous color faded, the paws all puffed, And bullet-holes in jowl and side Tell where your life blood ebbed like some red tide; A streak of light--the last of day-- Gleams through a window on your muzzle gray, And lights your glassy eyes with garnet fire. You almost stir those orbs in fretful ire Which gape into the sunset's dying flame Towards the wild mountains whence you came; Revives old images which dormant lie-- Outside the wind is raising to a sigh Like oft you voiced in the primeval wood. In your life's pilgrimage, I'd trace it if I could In white pine forests, tops trembling in the breeze Like restless sable-colored seas, Beneath, in rhododendron thickets high, You crouched until your prey came by. Grouse, or sickly fawn, or, even fisher-fox You rent, and then slunk back into the rocks, And on cold wintry nights, lit by the cloud-swept moon Your wailing to the music of the spheres atune, Rose to a roar which echoed over all, Beside which wolves' lamenting to a treble fall; And through the snows your mate so slim draws nigh Noiselessly, with strange love-light in her eye You lick her coat, and stroke her with your tail, Whi&pering a love-song weirdsome as the gale, You leave her with a last long fond caress Adown the glen you go in stealthiness, . . . A loud report! another! how you leap; With a resounding thud into the snow you fall asleep....