Twins(孪生鹿)
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On a warm, miserable morning last week we went up to the Bronx Zoo to see the moose calf and to break in a new pair of black shoes. We encountered better luck than we had bargained for. The cow moose and her young one were standing near the wall of the deer park below the monkey house, and in order to get a better view we strolled down to the lower end of the park, by the brook. The path there is not much travelled. As we approached the corner where the brook trickles under the wire fence, we noticed a red deer getting to her feet. Beside her, on legs that were just learning their business, was a spotted fawn, as small and perfect as a trinket seen through a reducing glass. They stood there, mother and child, under a gray beech whose trunk was engraved with dozens of hearts and initials. Stretched on the ground was another fawn, and we realized that the doe had just finished twinning. The second fawn was still wet, still unrisen.Here was a scene of rare sylvan splendor, in one of our five favorite boroughs, and we couldn’t have asked for more. Even our new shoes seemed to be working out all right and weren’t hurting much.The doe was only a couple of feet from the wire, and we sat down on a rock at the edge of the footpath to see what sort of start young fawns get in the deep fastnesses of Mittel Bronx. The mother, mildly resentful of our presence and dazed from her labor, raised one forefoot and stamped primly. Then she lowered her head, picked up the afterbirth, and began dutifully to eat it, allowing it to swing crazily from her mouth, as though it were a bunch of withered beet greens. From the monkey house came the loud, insane hooting of some captious primate, filling the whole woodland with a wild hooroar. As we watched, the sun broke weakly through, brightened the rich red of the fawns, and kindled their white spots. Occasionally a sightseer would appear and wander aimlessly by, but of all who passed none was aware that anything extraordinary had occurred. “Looka the kangaroos!” a child cried. And he and his mother stared sullenly at the deer and then walked on.In a few moments the second twin gathered all his legs and all his ingenuity and arose, to stand for the first time sniffing the mysteries of a park for captive deer. The doe, in recognition of his achievement, quit her other work and began to dry him, running her tongue against the grain and paying particular attention to the key points. Meanwhile the first fawn tiptoed toward the shallow brook, in little stops and goes, and started across. He paused midstream to make a slight contribution, as a child does in bathing. Then, while his mother watched, he continued across, gained the other side, selected a hiding place, and lay down under a skunk-cabbage leaf next to the fence, in perfect concealment, his legs folded neatly under him. Without actually going out of sight, he had managed to disappear completely in the shifting light and shade. From somewhere a long way off a twelve-o’clock whistle sounded. We hung around awhile, but he never budged. Before we left, we crossed the brook ourselves, just outside the fence, knelt, reached through the wire, and tested the truth of what we had once heard: that you can scratch a new fawn between the ears without starting him. You can indeed. 在上周一个温和多云的早晨， 我们去布朗克斯动物园看驼鹿的幼崽并逐渐适应我们新的黑 色的鞋。我们比预期更幸运，驼鹿和她的幼崽正站于在猴屋下面的鹿园墙边。为了能观察得更清晰，我们漫步到公园小溪较低的的角落，在那里有一条人迹罕至的小径。 当我们到达那条从金属篱笆下缓缓流过的小溪时，我们看到一头红色的鹿慢慢走向母鹿的脚边。在她旁边，一头花斑幼鹿好似在倾听它们的谈话，那头小鹿看起来就像缩小透镜中的一件小饰品。它们一家站在一棵树干上雕刻着许多心形图案和大写字母的老山毛榉下面。我们在公园的另一头又发现了一头幼鹿，这才意识到这头雌鹿刚完成分娩。第二头幼鹿身上还是湿的，无法站立起来。能在五个受欢迎的自治镇中看到这千载难逢的乡村美景，我们也很知足了。我们的新鞋似乎也很合脚，穿着不会搁脚了。雌鹿距离金属篱笆只有两三米远，我们坐在一块小径边上的岩石上，看着那头刚刚在布朗克斯区诞生的小鹿。 雌鹿对我们的造访略感生气，带着分娩后的晕眩，抬起前脚，慢慢地走过去，然后低下头，咬住那个胞衣并认真地吃着它，咀嚼着胞胎，就好像它是一堆枯萎的甜菜。从猴屋里传出一阵发自那些灵长类动物高亢的啼叫声，响亮而疯狂，使整个林区充满生机活力。我们看到，太阳徐徐破晓而出，使幼鹿身上的红色更加鲜艳，白斑更加突出。偶尔会有一个观光者驻足观看，然后漫无目的地走过，但是这些路人都没意识到有什么不寻常的事发生。“看那些袋鼠！”一个小孩叫道，他和他的妈妈顿时看了看那头鹿，然后走开了。过了一会儿，第二头幼鹿灵巧地撑起它的脚，总算站了起来，第一次站起来，领略公园里那神秘的气氛。为了庆祝第一步的成功，雌鹿立即不再吃胞胎而过来舔干幼鹿身上的湿气，并用她的舌头舔掉幼鹿身上的草屑沙粒，尤其是那些重要部位。同时，第一头小鹿踮着脚走向那条小溪，停停走走，然后开始走向小溪对面。它在小溪中间 停了下来，撒了一把尿，就像小孩子洗澡时那样。在它妈妈的注视下，它继续走过小溪，到达小溪对面，在篱笆旁边堆满叶子的地上的挑了一个完美的隐秘处，干净的脚跪下，躺了下来。不需要完全脱离妈妈的视线，它在阳光和树荫下成功地隐藏起来。响起了十二点的钟声后，我们又闲逛了一会，但它依然没有动。在我们离开之前，我们穿过小溪，就在篱笆外面，跪着，伸手穿过金属网，体会我们曾经听说过的事实，那就是当你抚摸幼鹿耳朵间的部位时，并不会吵醒它，的确如此。 本文来源：https://www.wddqw.com/doc/98a5c61ba300a6c30c229fd0.html