By the Rev. A. C. Smith. 247 
in the vulture, as to silence all dispute on the subject. The family 
of the crows also claims our attention as possessing very great 
powers of scent: it is this which so often directs them to their food 
from great distances in such a mysterious manner, as to cause the 
wonder and incredulity of man: some observers who have seen 
troops of ravens hurrying along, to the banquet of some fallen 
animal, where not a bird till then could be seen, have attributed 
their discovery of the feast, not to the true cause, their keen sense 
of seeing and smelling, but to some unknown faculty, thinking it 
impossible that scent could be carried so far, and having little 
conception of the superior acuteness of some of the senses of birds: 
again the rook discovers the grubs hidden in the earth by the same 
wonderful sense: the carrion crow scents the tempting morsel from 
a distance: the magpie is not behind hand in the same perception. 
Some of the water birds too seem to have this faculty very highly 
developed: the curlew will take wing when you are at a great 
distance, if you approach them down the wind: the hungry wood- 
cock will discover by the smell, where it will be profitable to probe 
the mud with his beak: most of the ducks are so sensitive, that the 
man who works a decoy, knows full well that he has no chance of 
success, unless he keeps to leeward of the flock; and, as an 
additional precaution burns a piece of turf and holds it smoking in 
his hand, to prevent their scenting him. Thus we see the faculty 
of scent no less conspicuous in birds than in other animals: the 
well known properties of the pointer and the foxhound will not 
surpass the exquisite sense of smell of some of the birds, and even 
the notorious bloodhound will scarcely outdo the vulture in the 
same faculty. 
Bnt besides these three powers of seeing, hearing, and smelling, 
with which we have seen them to be remarkably endowed, we find 
the feathered tribe gifted with the power of feeling or handling (if 
Il may apply such a term to the beak) not usually allotted to the 
inferior races of the animal kingdom. Their beaks serve them 
for hands, as well as for lips and teeth, and wonderfully are they 
adapted to a variety of purposes; but as in addition to their 
exceeding interest and variety of form and use, the beaks are 
