ZCJO Hopkins on Sense of Smell in the Turkey Buzzard. [July 



I have, upon two occasions, seen them come into view at a 

 great altitude, and sailing down into the wind, pass by, one after 

 another, with a rushing sound and great velocity, until a dozen 

 to twenty or more had come into view, bound for some carrion 

 which was beginning to 'smell to heaven,' carrion which I knew 

 of, and knew to be concealed in dense scrub growth. In one 

 case of a large wild boar killed and left in a dense growth of 

 scrub higher than my head, and in which it was almost impossi- 

 ble to make any headway, and which was a mass of verdure 

 overhead, the Buzzards found the place and were perched all 

 about on the scattering trees ; but I saw none down in the brush, 

 which was so dense I almost doubt the possibility of their rising 

 out of it if once they had got in. It would have been a case of 

 wonderfully sharp vision which could have discovered this, un- 

 aided by any other sense. A 'razor-back,' killed and dressed in 

 the morning, in a dense growth of palmetto, overtopped by high, 

 dense brush, all of it higher than a man's head, and the offal 

 thrown out of the way, back into the growth, was found by the 

 Buzzards before night. I do not think it was possible for it to 

 have been seen from above. 



In the case of offal taken and covered up with care under a 

 pile of muck and weeds, when it was old enough to throw off a 

 strong smell, the Buzzards scented it, but had not noticed or 

 descended to the spot before. 



While plowing at one time, I killed a quite large coach-whip 

 snake, and turned a furrow over it, covering it up completely 

 from sight ; the next day the Buzzards had found the place and 

 were down tramping about over the spot in their efforts to find 

 and get it out. 



Scrap meat and lungs, from dressing meat, were put into my 

 poultry house, which was shut up, with the exception of a small, 

 low opening into the high picket yard about the building ; the 

 Buzzards were attracted in a couple of days, and haunted the 

 spot as long as any smell was left ; this occurred a number of 

 times. 



One morning I shot and killed a skunk upon the bank of the 

 lake just in front of my house. With a hoe, I pulled it out from 

 the brush and roots, dug a hole and buried it, covering it com- 

 pletely. Going to the house I awaited developments ; the wind 

 was then in the northeast ; in less than a half hour there were 



