1922.] Sense of Smell possessed h/j Birds. 241 



formulate the evidence and leave future enquirers to pass 

 Judo m en t. 



The most important pro-scent witness to be called is a 

 medical man in Jamaica, apparently ver}'- trustworthy, 

 Mr, W. Sells, by whom the following communication was 

 made to the Zoological Society *. 



After premising that on one occasion he had to make a 

 post-mortem on a body, and whilst so engaged the roof of 

 the house was studded with Vultures {Cathartes aura f and 

 (\ atrafa), he goes on to tell the following: — "Another 

 instance was that of an old patient and much valued friend 

 who died at midnight. The family had to send for neces- 

 saries for the funeral to Spanish Town, distant thirty miles, 

 so that interment could not take place until noon of the 

 second day, or thirty-six hours after his decease, long before 

 which time — and a most painful sight it was — the ridge of 

 the shingled roof of his house, a large mansion of but one 

 floor, had a number of these melancholy-looking heralds of 

 death perched thereon, besides many more which had settled 

 in trees in its immediate vicinity. In these cases the birds 

 must have been directed by smell alone, as sight was totally 

 out of the question.'^ 



Mr. S. R. H. Rhoads, another reliable observer, relates an 

 incident which, though not quite similar to the above, leads 

 to exactly the same inference |. A horse and cow had been 

 buried in a certain place, where they lay some years, but on 

 the top soil being removed for potatoes, although the carcases 

 were invisible and the arising odour imperceptible to human 

 nostrils. Vultures were soon attracted to the spot. Several 

 other cases might be cited, but the above seem to be the 

 most trustworthy. 



Now to turn from America to the Vultures of South 

 Africa {Gi/ps kolhii, (t. rueppelli, G. au7'icidaris, Neophron 

 percnopterus), for a great deal has been said and written 



* See P. Z. S. 1837, pt. v. p. 33. 



t Called '•Turliey-Biizzixrd,'' and the Black Yulturn sometimes nick- 

 named a Carrion Crow. 



X ' The American Natinalist,' xvii. 18S3, p. 829. 

 SER. XI. — VOL. IV. B 



