SMELL GENERAL 93 



on a dish ; yet many of my parrots, including my present 

 African Grey, show every sign of interest as soon as cheese 

 appears on the table. 



This parrot, almost without fail, betrays its wish for 

 some special kind of food by saying, "What do you want?" 

 And should a cheese of any kind be at hand, this utterance 

 is given forth with special vigour. Could this be due to a 

 well-developed sense of smell? I just do not know. What I 

 do know is that the more smelly the cheese, the more quickly 

 does the bird take an interest and say its piece. 



Puzzling and intriguing as are the scents and scenting 

 powers of the animals dealt with up to date, it is in the 

 mammals that scent becomes a very dominant feature of 

 their daily and seasonal life. Much has been discovered 

 about mammalian scents and their uses, but it is a fair bet 

 that much more remains to be found out. 



In mammals the uses to which their own scent is put, 

 and the accuracy with which they can smell the odours of 

 other animals are rightly regarded as wonderful ; but what- 

 ever complexities there may be in connection with scent, it is 

 basic to any investigation that the conditions under which 

 scent is diffused are all important. A mammal has its various 

 ways of using scent but unless wind, temperature, and 

 humidity are at their best for scenting, the mammal is handi- 

 capped, whether it be a stoat trailing a rabbit or a foxhound 

 casting around to pick up the scent of a fox. 



Under cold conditions — frost and cold winds — but other- 

 wise fine, the atmosphere will be dry and scent will be poor. 

 Should the weather be rather damp and dull, the ground 

 warmer than the air and the wind from a warmer quarter, 

 then scent will be good. Of course, there are many modifica- 

 tions of these simplified weather conditions, and these will 

 affect scenting for good or bad. It is necessary, too, to 

 remember that true ground scent is the result of contact be- 

 tween the feet, paws, or hoofs of mammals and the soil 

 beneath them. Body scent is different, and may be the 

 product of special glands in a mammal's body ; or it may 

 be solely sexual in its function and therefore not continually 

 present, while normal excretory matter — particularly urine 

 — can also be regarded as a component of body scent. At 



