THE SENSE OF SMELL IN BIRDS 



Some time ago, Dr. A. Hill, writing in Nature, 



asked for information about the powers of scent 



if any, possessed by birds. His own experiments 



with a pair of turkeys pointed to an extreme 



obtuseness in this respect in these birds, and no 



information appears to have been forthcoming 



from other observers. As a matter of fact, there 



appears to be very little direct evidence that 



birds have any power of scent at all, and it seems 



to be worth while to collect together a few facts 



bearing on the subject, as a nucleus to which 



other nature-students will doubtless contribute. 



My own personal experience, save for one 



instance, would have led me to conclude that 



birds have no sense of smell ; and that after 



a long series of experiments designed to test 



the truth of the current theories about the 



"warning" coloration of distasteful animals and the 



"mimicry" of these by more palatable creatures. 



I have found in most cases that a bird did not 



know whether any given insect was unpalatable 



on the first presentation of that particular kind, 



until it had tasted it, and sometimes not until the 



theoretically ill-reputed morsel had actually been 



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