THE SENSE OF SMELL IN BIRDS. 373 



At first sight I thoug-ht a magpie, ha virij^ discovered this mine- of 

 slug's, had exploited it to his own profit as well as to the great advan- 

 tage of the vegetation. But the footprints that a little more attention 

 brought to my notice on the little heaps of freshly stirred earth could 

 only be due to some much smaller bird, such as a blackbird. 



The fact was of sufiicient interest to engage my further attention, 

 and the next day I posted myself so as to get a sight of the avenue, 

 and it was not long before I heard a blackbird and recognized the 

 presence in the bushes of young ones just out of the nest. Soon after 

 I saw the mother come out from under the lilacs and hop into the 

 avenue here and there and then suddenly stop and fall to picking at 

 the ground with her beak while she shoveled away the loosened earth 

 with her claws. She very soon took out of the hole she had dug a 

 slug with which she hastened to go back under the lilacs to give it to 

 her young. The depth of the hole from the surface to the bottom of 

 the l)ox which the larvw occupied was about two inches (5 centimeters). 



Unless we are to attribute to this bird's eyesight a sensibility to 

 Roentgen rays, we must admit that it discovered the subterranean 

 presence of the larvge by smell. 



I shall close these observations by recalling how the turtledove 

 abandons its eggs at every stage of incubation as soon as the hand of 

 man has touched them, although having been absent at the time it 

 could not discover the fact otherwise than by scent, which enables it to 

 perceive the infinitesimal odoriferous smear left by the finger on the 

 eggshell. 



Birds are, then, endowed with a sense of smell to a degree at least 

 equal to that of the dog, to cite but one universally known example, 

 and it is a great error of scientific literature to represent these animals, 

 though provided with an exceedingly complete olfactory apparatus, 

 as unable to discover their food otherwise than b}^ sight. 



