s of bad milking races, but are very
rarely seen on the best milch cows. They consist of one or two ovals, or
small bands of up-growing hair, and serve to indicate the continuance of
the flow of milk. The period is short, in proportion as the tufts are
large. They must not be confounded with the escutcheon proper, which is
often extended up to the vulva. They are separated from it by bands of
hair, more or less large, as in cut marked F.

[Illustration: MILK-MIRROR [F.]]

Milk-mirrors are sometimes symmetrical, and sometimes without symmetry.
When there is a great difference in the extent of the two halves, it
almost always happens that the teats on the side where the mirror is
best developed give more milk than those of the opposite side. The left
half of the mirror, it may be remarked, is almost always the largest;
and so, when the perinean part is folded into a square, it is on this
side of the body that it unfolds. Of three thousand cows in Denmark,
but a single one was found, whose escutcheon varied even a little from
this rule.

The mirrors having a value in proportion to the space which they occupy,
it is of great importance to attend to all the rows of down-growing
hairs, which diminish the extent of surface, whether these tufts are in
the midst of the mirror, or form indentations on its edges.

These indentations, concealed in part by the folds of the skin, are
sometimes seen with difficulty; but it is important to take them into
account, since in a great many cows they materially lessen the size of
the mirror. Cows are often found, whose milk-mirrors at first sight
appear very large, but which are only medium milkers; and it will
usually be found that lateral indentations greatly diminish the surface
of up-growing hair. Many errors are committed in estimating the value of
such cows, from a want of attention to the real extent of the mirror.

All the interruptions in the surface of the mirror indicate a diminution
in the quantity of the milk, with the exception, however, of small oval
or elliptical plates which are found in the mirror, on the back part of
the udders of the best cows, as represented in the cut already given,
marked A. These ovals have a peculiar tint, which is occasioned by the
downward direction of the hair which forms them. In the best cows these
ovals exist with the lower mirrors very well developed, as represented
in the cut just named.

In short, it should be stated that, in order to