NEW GLEANINGS IN FIELD AND WOOD 



III. HEADS AND TAILS 



I HAVE heard a story of a young artist who, after 

 painting a picture of a horse facing a storm, was 

 not satisfied with it, and, feeling that something 

 was wrong, asked Landseer to look at it. In- 

 stantly the great artist said to him, "Turn the 

 horse around." 



The cow turns her head to the storm, the horse 

 turns his tail. Why this difference? Because 

 each adopts the plan best suited to its needs and its 

 anatomy. How much better suited is the broad, 

 square head of the cow, with its heavy coating of 

 hair and its ridge of bone that supports its horns, 

 to face the storm than is the smooth, more nervous 

 and sensitive head of the horse! What a contrast 

 between their noses and their mode of grazing! 

 The cow has no upper front teeth; she reaps the 

 grass with the scythe of her tongue, while the horse 

 bites it off and loves to bite the turf with it. The 

 lip of the horse is mobile and sensitive. Then the 

 bovine animals fight with their heads, and the 

 equine with their heels. The horse is a hard and 

 high kicker, the cow a feeble one in comparison. 

 The horse will kick with both hind feet, the cow 

 with only one. In fact, there is not much "kick" 

 in her kind. The tail of the cow is of less protection 

 to her than is that of the horse to him. Her great 

 need of it is to fight flies, and, if attacked in the 

 rear, it furnishes a good hold for her enemies. Then 



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