In some countries cattle-dealers shave the back part of the cows. Just after this operation the mirrors can neither be seen nor felt; but this inconvenience ceases in a few days. It may be added that the shaving, designed, as the dealers say, to beautify the cow, is generally intended simply to destroy the milk-mirror, and to deprive buyers of one means of judging of the milking qualities of the cows. It is not necessary to add that the cows most carefully shaven are those which are badly marked, and that it is prudent to take it for granted that cows so shorn are bad milkers. Milk-mirrors vary in position, extent, and the figure they represent. They may be divided, according to their position, into mirrors or escutcheons, properly so called, or into lower and upper tufts, or escutcheons. The latter are very small in comparison with the former, and are situated in close proximity to the vulva, as seen at S in Figs. 38, 39, 40, etc. They are very common on cows 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 Figs. 40, 42, &c. The mirrors shown in Figs. 38 to 42, and 29 to 35, &c., exist, more or less developed, on nearly all cows, and indicate the quantity of milk, which will be in proportion to their size. Sometimes they form only a small plate on the posterior surface of the udder, as in Fig. 49. In other cases they cover the udder, the inner surface of the legs and the thighs, the perineum, and a part of the buttocks, as in Figs. 29, 30, 31, &c. Two parts may be distinguished in the lower tufts: one situated on the udder, the legs, and the thighs, as at M M, Fig. 30; and the other on the perineum, extending sometimes more or less out upon the thighs, as at P P, in the same figure. The first part is represented by itself, in Figs. 37 and 49. We shall call the former _mammary_, and the latter _perinean_. The former is sometimes large, extending over the milky glands, the thighs, and the legs, as shown in Figs. 29 to 37; and sometimes circumscribed, or more or less checked over with tufts of downward-growing hair, as in Figs. 43 to 52. It is sometimes terminated towards the upper part of the udder by a horizontal line, straight, as in Fig. 37, or angular, as in Fig. 49; but more frequently it continues without interruption over the perineum, and constitutes the _perinean_ part. [Illustration: Fig. 29.] [Illustration: Fig. 30.] [Illustration: Fig. 31.] [Illustration: Fig. 32.]