82 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 



by the sense of sight only; thus it was found that they 

 would come readily to the effigy of a calf or sheep painted 

 on canvas and set up in plain view, or to a skin stuffed 

 with straw, but failed to detect their quarry when the 

 dead bodies of these animals were placed on the ground 

 and screened from their eyes, if only by the thinnest 

 cover, though the carrion was calling loudly to the nose 

 but a fraction of an inch away. An attack by Water- 

 ton, 17 who hurried to the fray whenever a statement in 

 his jealously guarded Wanderings was called in ques- 

 tion, led to a lively tilt, in which the advocates of the 

 nose and the eyes were sometimes humorously referred 

 to as the "Nosarians" and the "Anti-Nosarians," some 

 of the most eminent anatomists of the day eventually 

 taking part. 



Bachman felt keenly the aspersions which were cast 

 upon his friend, and in the winter of 1833 he undertook 

 with Audubon the series of experiments to which we 

 have referred. The tests which were then made sup- 

 ported Audubon's statements in every particular, and 

 the faculty of the Medical College of South Carolina 

 were invited as a body to witness them; this they did 



and although they were standing on a quantity beneath them, and although 

 their bills were frequently within the eighth of an inch of the putrid 

 matter, they did not discover it. We made a small rent in the canvass, 

 and they at once discovered the flesh and began to devour it. We drove 

 them away, replaced the canvass with a piece that was entire; again they 

 commenced eating the flesh exhibited to their view, without discovering 

 the hidden food they were trampling upon. 



"As it [the organ of smell] does however exist, (although in an 

 inferior degree,) I am not disposed to deny to birds the power of smell 

 altogether, nor would I wish to advance the opinion that the Vulture does 

 not possess the power of smelling in the slightest degree, (although it has 

 not been discovered by our experiments). All that I contend for is, that 

 he is not assisted by this faculty in procuring his food — that he cannot 

 smell better for instance, than Hawks or Owls, who it is known are 

 indebted altogether to their sight, in discovering their prey." 



"See Bibliography, No. 104, and Vol. II, p. 55; also Ornithological 

 Biography, vol. ii, p. 46. 



