SMELL. 251 



these prominent nostrils are probably intended to 

 render them 



" Sagacious of their quarry from afar." 



This opinion is rendered more probable from the 

 very different structure of the nostrils in birds which 

 feed on live fish. The pelicans, for example, have 

 the cavity of the nostrils in general very small, and 

 the marginal cartilage, as well as the opening in the 

 bone, scarcely perceptible, even in the skeleton. 

 The cormorant (Carbo cormoranus, MEYER), again, 

 which is ranked in the same group (Pelecanid^ 

 LEACH), has the nostrils so small that De Blainville 

 says it is with difficulty a very small slit can be dis- 

 tinguished at the base of the bill in the living birds, 

 hence he designates them by the term Cryptorhinia. 

 The same author describes in several species a sort 

 of scale covering the nostrils like a lid, which must, 

 we should imagine, diminish their power of smell 

 by admitting only a minute portion of the air con- 

 taining odoriferous particles. It is worthy of re- 

 mark, that the kingfisher (Alcedo), though not a 

 swimming bird like the pelicans and cormorants, 

 has very small nostrils, with a cartilaginous lid ; 

 smell being, so far as we can judge, of inferior mo- 

 ment to them, inasmuch as they feed almost exclu- 

 sively on live fish, which they must discover and 

 pursue by the eye. 



In ducks (Anatida, LEACH), many of whom seek 

 their food among the mud at the bottom of standing 

 water, the nerves of smell are greatly expanded, a 

 fact which has been long known. "Flat-billed 

 birds," says Mr. Clayton, "that grope for their 

 meat, have three pairs of nerves that come into their 

 bills, whereby they have that accuracy to distin- 

 guish what is proper for food and what to be reject- 

 ed, by their taste, when they do not see it. This 

 was most evident in a duck's bill and head ; ducks 

 having larger nerves that come into their bills than 



