XXXI 



THE GRAFTER 



ALMOST any time in the spring and summer I could 

 look out over the cow pasture and see a dozen or more 

 dull-brownish black birds (the males were a shiny black) 

 either picking around on the ground near the cows or sit- 

 ting on their backs. They would actually sit on the back 

 of a cow for a half hour at a time, and the cow seldom paid 

 any attention to them, or if she did she seemed rather to 

 encourage this friendliness. These birds were not shy, and 

 when I would go to drive the cows into the lot to be milked 

 it was not unusual for me to get within fifteen or twenty 

 feet of them. They came for a while to be great favorites, 

 even though they never sang and were not pretty. Their 

 color was not attractive and I have always believed a bird 

 should sing; but nevertheless I liked the way these birds 

 caught the flies off the cows' backs. 



There is a certain insect that lays its eggs so that the 

 cow gets them in her mouth and swallows them. When 

 these hatch and the little grub finds its way into the cow's 

 circulation, and finally lodges in the tissue, just under 

 the skin along both sides of the back ; there the grub grows 

 and feeds until spring. By that time they are almost as 

 large as the grub worms we often find in old straw stacks 

 or in the ground in our gardens. They eat holes through 



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