CONCERNING THE COW HEESELF 17 



the whole, she obeys certain instincts, but obeys 

 them feebly. If at pasture, she will commonly 

 choose an isolated or partially concealed spot 

 where her calf will be born, but she is likely to be 

 surprisingly careless about it afterwards. I have 

 seen more than one cow so lost to the sense of duty 

 that she absolutely refused to grant her offspring 

 its first meal. However, the manifestation of 

 mother-love varies greatly in different individuals. 

 There are some cows, who are, to use a barn phrase, 

 "crazy .for their calf," but this is the exceptional 

 animal. Many cows trouble themselves very little 

 about it. The idea of a cow mourning for her calf 

 like "Eachel weeping for her children and will not 

 be comforted because they are not," is a pretty bit 

 of fiction which is hardly borne out by the facts. 

 In most cases, the cow, given her choice between 

 her calf and a feed of silage, will basely take the 

 silage. 



There is one strange bovine habit, however, that 

 at least gives ground for surmises. Many, per- 

 haps most cows, will, on the birth of a calf, devour 

 the fetal membranes, a procedure surely utterly 

 at variance with her usual ideas of diet. There is 

 really no rational explanation for this most as- 

 tonishing practice unless we assume that the prim- 

 itive cow did this in order that it might not at- 

 tract the beast of prey and so reveal the location 

 of her calf. If so, does the mother cow, standing 

 at ease and safety in a box-stall, respond to some 



