84? ^ Retrospective Criticism. 



room, you will publish entire from Jameson's Journal, and 

 which appear to me unanswerable. I will also, with much 

 deference to Mr. Waterton (being a fervent admirer of that 

 talented gentleman's Wanderings, on account of which I am 

 sorry Professor Rennie has not included its author in his list of 

 "philosophic naturalists and original observers;" no one, in my 

 humble opinion, being more justly entitled to that honourable 

 distinction), make bold to remark that his account of the habits 

 of the Fultur Aura (Vol. V. p.233.) are at variance with the ob- 

 servations of Wilson, Humboldt, and Azara; three of the most 

 philosophic and observant naturalists that ever lived. According 

 to them, the Fultur Aura is gregarious, being generally found in 

 flocks of from forty to fifty, "who," says Audubon, " go turning 

 in large circles, often intersecting each other in their lines, as if 

 forming a vast chain of rounded links : some are high, while 

 others are low; not a spot is passed unseen, and, conse- 

 quently, the moment that a prey is discovered, the favoured 

 bird rounds to, and by the impetuosity of its movements, gives 

 notice to its nearest companion, who immediately follows 

 him, and is successively attended by all the rest." The VxA- 

 tur Aura does feed on live animals, even in preference, where 

 they can be procured with facility, to carrion, being in some 

 parts the terror of the poultry-yard ; and frequently, to use 

 Mr. Waterton's own words, " do soar to an immense height in 

 the sky" I am, Sir, yours, &c. — Perceval Hunter. Oxford, 

 July 2. 1832. 



Extracts from an article published in No. 3. of Jameson's 

 "Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, entitled " Account of 

 the Habits of the Turkey Buzzard (Fultur Aura Lin.), parti- 

 cularly with the view of exploding the Opinion generally en- 

 tertained of its extraordinary Power of Smelling. By John 

 James Audubon, Citizen of the United States :" — 



" As soon as, like me, you shall have seen the turkey buzzard 

 follow, with arduous closeness of investigation, the skirts of 

 ±he forests, the meanders of creeks and rivers, sweeping over 

 the whole of extensive plains, glancing his quick eye in all 

 directions, with as much intenseness as ever did the noblest 

 of falcons, to discover where below him lies the suitable prey ; 



when, like me, you have repeatedly seen that bird pass over 



objects calculated to glut his voracious appetite, unnoticed, 

 because unseen ; and when you have also observed the greedy 

 vulture, propelled by hunger, if not famine, moving like the 

 wind, suddenly round his course, as the carrion attracts his 

 eye ; then will you abandon the deeply rooted notion, that this 

 bird possesses the faculty of discovering, by his sense of smell, 

 his prey at an immense distance. 



« This faculty of smelling so acutely, I adopted as a fact from 



