THORNS ON THE ROSE 83 



willingly, and the following memorial signed by all the 

 witnesses present was published by Bachman in 1834. 18 



We, the subscribers, having witnessed several of the ex- 

 periments made on the habits of the vultures of South Caro- 

 lina (Cathartes aura and C. atratus), commonly called the 

 turkey buzzard and the carrion crow, feel assured that these 

 species respectively are gregarious, the individuals of each 

 species associating and feeding together; that they devour 

 fresh as well as putrid food of any kind, and that they are 

 guided to their food altogether through their sense of sight, 

 and not of smell. 



In a letter written to Ord, on March 4, 1834, Water- 

 ton said: 



You will see that the Charleston parson [Bachman], Doc- 

 tors, Surgeons and Professors are up in arms against me and 

 are determined to cut off the Vulture's nose. But do not be 

 alarmed for me, I promise you that I will answer them to your 

 heart's content and tomorrow I shall send up a paper to Lou- 

 don for his May number which will make your Philosophers 

 appear very small and put Audubon's claim to literature and 

 ornithology in so clear a light that no one will be in doubt 

 hereafter. . . . Audubon's gulled friends and supporters in 

 London are in the highest spirits and feel sure that I cannot 

 answer the Charleston letter. By the first of May next their 

 crowing will cease. 



When anatomists came to consider the question and 

 found that well developed olfactory lobes and nerves 

 were present in these birds, they favored the theory of 

 smell, 19 and Edinger has more recently expressed the 

 opinion that this consideration renders the possession of 



1S See Bibliography, No. 125, and for the quotation to follow, Samuel N. 

 Rhoads, "George Ord," Cassinia, No. xii (Philadelphia, 1908). 



19 See W. Sells (Bibl. No. 140), Proceedings of the Zoological Society 

 of London, pt. v, p. 33 (1837), 



