10 GuENON ON Milch Cows. 



All animals of the bovine species, without excepting even wild animals, 

 are marked with an escutcheon, large, small, or medium, I'egular or irregular. 

 Their characteristic sign is transmitted with the generating germ. 



I have not thought it necessary to say much on that portion of the 

 escutcheon which extends on the stomach of the beast towards the navel. 

 This addition has been thought useless. Enough is shown of the escut- 

 cheon when she is standing. 



In order to see well the escutcheons with all the fullness which my 

 sketches give them, it must be supposed that the udder of each cow is seen 

 at its greatest plenitude of milk, such as would separate the hind legs to 

 the greatest extent. In this way the escutcheon is seen as if the entire 

 skin of the animal was placed flat, or as if the envelope of the milk bear- 

 ing apparatus formed a plain surface, on which are drawn the elevations, 

 the depressions, and all that is not visible to the eye, without the aid of 

 hands or of movement of the cow, both that which is hidden at the fur- 

 ther side and in the folds of the udder and of the thighs of the animal on 

 foot. 



In order to examine and to distinguish perfectly the escutcheon, one 

 should place himself behind the animal and make it advance some steps, 

 in such manner that the movements which it makes in walking should 

 show, one after another, the parts which one needs to see. 



One can also, in passing the nails over the space occupied by the escut- 

 cheon and leading the hand downward from above, in a manner contrary 

 to the rising hair, and ruffling it, recognize without diflSculty its form and 

 its extent. 



Theoretical explanations are always abstract and diffuse in their develop- 

 ment. My method may at first appear diflScult and complicated, which, 

 indeed, pretended savans have chosen to affirm. Nevertheless it is not so, 

 and in order to comprehend it, it is sufficient to study it. It is with this 

 as with everything else, to know it is necessary to study and to practice. 



The beautiful art which I am about to explain to agriculturists is most 

 easily acquired. Its technical dictionary is composed only of certain 

 words, of which the readers should, first of all, know perfectly the precise 

 signification. 



These words are Escutcheons^ Epis or Tufts ascending, and Epis or 

 Tufts descending. After he knows perfectly the different forms and the 

 importance of these characteristic signs, he will know the whole subject as 

 well as I do myself. 



The Epis or Tuft, as one will see, participates with the escutcheon in the 

 distinction of the orders — it multiplies the sub-divisions. It seems at the 

 same time to complicate my method and to render it less accessible ; but 

 I have not felt myself at liberty to omit it, since it has an incontcstiblo 

 and important value. 



If, among certain animals, the form and extent of characteristic signs 

 are not exactly those of the drawings, but a sort of intermediate between 



