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



the decoyman should have his chance, and to make doubly 

 sure he took a piece o£ smouldering peat in his hand, 

 without which the fowl might smell him and rise in a 

 moment. 



" Such is the acute sense oF smelling,^' writes a well-known 

 sportsman o£ the old school, William Daniel (1812), "which 

 wild-fowl possess that should the (decoy-) pond be full of 

 fowl, if they scented a man, not a bird would remain in it a 

 moment " *. 



The Rev. II. Lubbock, whose description of the Norfolk 

 decoys has become a classic, goes on to aver the sense of 

 smelling to be also very acute in the Heron [Ai'dea cinerea) 

 (7), and this I am ready to confirm, having on different occa- 

 sions observed a Heron rise from a position where it could 

 not have seen my approach, although it is just possible that 

 it heard me. 



The evidence concerning Wild Geese (^Anser hracliy- 

 rliynclms, A. ferus, A. alhifrons) is mixed. Reports from 

 the Hebrides and the Wells marshes in Norfolk indicate 

 that they can be very sensitive to the human presence at 

 times, but that they are not always so. What the agency is 

 that regulates their apprehensions is not clear, but they do 

 not behave like Wild Ducks. . 



Lord William Percy mentions his giving his wind at a 

 distance of about seventy yards to three White-fronted 

 Geese, which were asleep in a bog. All three immediately 

 lifted up their heads and walked about uneasily, looking in 

 the direction whence the scent came, evidently alarmed 

 by something t, which he naturally concluded to be a proof 

 of their having scented him. 



On the other hand, Mr. F. M. Ogilvie is more ready to 

 attribute the alertness of Wild Geese to sight, remarking 

 that they seem to " discern any strange object which may 

 be a source of danger, at what seems to us quite impossible 

 distances " (6). 



lliat Birds smell Eggs tainted by Human contact. — Again, 



* ' Kural Sports,' iii. p. 268. 

 t * The Field,' vol. cxix. p. 48. 



