238 Mr. J. H. Gurney on the [Ibis, 



{Tringa ochropus), by no means an abundant bird at any- 

 time, and occasionally T. plareola or 7\ hjpoleiica. But how 

 do they manage to discover the freshly-turned mire which is 

 to provide them with a meal unless they smell it, and if they 

 smell it, it must often be from a great distance, yet of course 

 there is the possibility that they may see it when on the wing 

 at night. But although Green Sandpipers may find a muddy 

 pond by smell, when they have got there they seem to probe 

 for their food by touch. 



6. Shearwater and Petrel. — No more convincing proof 

 has been published of there being certain sea-birds which 

 scent their food than the testimony borne by Captain J. W. 

 C/ollins in his narrative of the methods employed by the 

 New England fishermen in catching Petrels for bait off 

 Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. 



Collins confidently affirms that the Great Shearwater 

 (Pu^mis gravis), Leach's Petrel (Oceayiodroma leueorrhoa) , 

 and Wilson's Petrel (Oceanites oceanicus) are all able to 

 discover — apparently by smell — liver at a distance, and, 

 moreover, they can do it in a thick mist when sight would 

 not avail them. " On many occasions during the prevalence 

 of a dense fog, when not a bird of any kind has been seen 

 for hours," he writes, " I have thrown out as an experiment 

 pieces of liver to ascertain if any birds could be attracted to 

 the side of the vessel. As the ])articles of liver floated away, 

 going slowly astern of the schooner, only a short time would 

 pass before either a Mother-Carey Chicken or a Hag*, 

 generally the former, could be seen coming up from the 

 leeward out of the fog, flying backward and forward across 

 the vessel's wake, seemingly working up the scent until the 

 floating pieces of liver were reached '^ (4). 



7. Storm Petrel. — On 10 October, 1867, a skate's liver 

 was floating near the pier at Brighton, which attracted 

 several Storm Petrels [Thalassidroma pelagka) f, but what 

 brought them, if not the odour of the liver, for they are not 

 common birds in that part of the Channel ? 



* Hag or " Hagdon," the Greater Shearwater {Puffinui gravis). 

 t ' Land and Water,' 19 Oct., 18G7. 



