TASTE. 253 



" The senses of smell and taste," says the doctor, 

 " in many other animals, greatly excel those of man- 

 kind; for in civilized society, as our victuals are 

 generally prepared by others, and are adulterated 

 with salt, spice, oil, and empyreuma, we do not hes- 

 itate about eating whatever is set before us, and 

 neglect to cultivate these senses ; whereas other 

 animals try every morsel by the smell before they 

 take it into their mouths, and by the taste before 

 they swallow it ; and are led each to his proper 

 nourishment by this organ of sense."* 



The woodcock (Scolopax rusticola, CHARLET), 

 which feeds upon earthworms, exhibits great dex- 

 terity in discovering them. " These birds," as Col- 

 onel Montagu says, " rambling through the dark, are 

 directed by an exquisite sense of smelling to those 

 places most likely to produce their natural suste- 

 nance, and by a still more exquisite sense of feel- 

 ing in their long bill collecting their food. The eye 

 is not called into use, for, like the mole, they actu- 

 ally feed below the surface ; and, by the sensibility 

 of the instrument which is thrust into the soft earth, 

 not a worm can escape that is within reach. A 

 woodcock in our menagerie," he adds, " very soon 

 discovered and drew forth every worm in the ground, 

 which was dug up to enable it to bore ; and worms 

 put into a large gardenpot, covered with earth five 

 or six inches deep, are always cleared by the next 

 morning without one being left. The enormous 

 quantity of worms that these birds eat is scarcely 

 credible ; indeed, it would be the constant labour of 

 one person to procure such food for two or three 

 woodcocks."! 



Taste in Birds. We have tried numerous exper- 

 iments upon soft-billed song-birds (Sylvicolce, VIEIL- 

 LOT), which are, in some measure, omnivorous, in 

 order to discover whether or not they were guided 



* Zoonomia, i., 195. t Ornith. Diet., p. 562, 2d edit. 



