290 TBAXSACTIOyS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



singular attachnients for animals wholly differing from themselves in 

 structure and habits. When a young lamb is placed in their company 

 some one of them generally gives more attention to the little stranger 

 than others. The lamb soon appreciates it, and attaches itself to the 

 foster mother, regardless of all others in the herd. 



It walks, feeds and sleeps by her side. AYlien the pet strays away, 

 the cow manifests concern, and expresses satisfaction when her favorite 

 returns. A trait in the character of the sheep thus reared, under the 

 famili&r name of cosset, is equally anomalous. Under no system of 

 persuasive discipline can the lamb become reconciled to its own kin- 

 dred. If placed with a fold, on the lirst opportunity it will escape 

 and seek companionship with cattle if the old friend cannot be found. 



There is another still more extraordinary attachment cows are repre- 

 sented to form, revolting to our sense of fit companionship, as most 

 quadrupeds exhibit an instinctive hostility to reptiles. It has been 

 repeatedly related that cows have been detected in nursing serpents, 

 going aside at obscure points as though there were a wrong being 

 perpetrated, and looking for the unnatural associate to come and nurse. 



I cannot credit fully these assertions. They are said to be most 

 common in border regions, where cattle graze near extensive marshes, 

 the home of the black snake, the kind accused of this practice. 

 Discovery was prompted by an effort to ascertain how the cow had 

 lost all her milk, days in succession, when it was apparent no theft 

 had been committed by men, for there were no inhabitants in the 

 vicinity ; cows occasionally nurse themselves from a morbid appetite 

 for fluids. 



Serpents are all carnivorous ; slaying the animals, they swallow 

 them whole ; but they requii-e water, and it is possible, by a nice sense 

 of smell and a keen instinct, they go to the fountain of milk ; exer- 

 cising a magnetic power called fascination, over the cow, till they 

 have actually drained the bag. My experience furnishes me with no 

 facts in the case, and yet it is difficult to disprove the declarations of 

 apparently very honest people who testity to what they have seen 

 and declare to be absolutely true. A gentleman of New York from 

 Kentucky, assures it a positive fact that the black snake performs 

 that singular feat. 



Another resident of this city, who was reared in the country, 

 assures me that there is no doubt in regard to the impression among 

 farmers, that the black snake, the boa-constrictor of this continent, 

 does all it is accused of doing. He says they select a cotv, perhaps 

 grazing remotely from others, approaching her so as to get her fixed 



