260 TOUR IN SUTHERLANDSHIRE. 



conspicuous, the carrion birds usually found them out in the 

 same afternoon. Now buzzards, ravens, and other birds who 

 feed on dead bodies are in the habit of frequently soaring for 

 hours together, at an immense height in the air, wheeling 

 round and round in wide circles. I have no doubt at these 

 times they are searching with their keen and far-seeing eye 

 for carcases and other substances fit for food. The eagle, 

 who also feeds on dead bodies, wheels and circles in a similar 

 manner, at such a height in the air that he frequently looks 

 like a mere speck in the sky. There can be no doubt that it 

 is upon his eye only that he depends. When, even at this 

 vast height, his quick eye catches sight of a grouse in the 

 heather, down drops the bird of prey as if shot, till within 

 some thirty yards of the ground, when suddenly stopping 

 his downward course, he again hovers stationary, over the 

 grouse, till a fair opportunity offers itself for a swoop. I 

 have frequently seen the eagle do this ; and he has sometimes 

 discovered the grouse from a height and distance so great as 

 to make it appear impossible that he should have dis- 

 tinguished so small an object. 



It is certain, however, that birds have a tolerably acute 

 sense of smelling, although I know that it has been positively 

 denied that ducks are guided by their scenting powers in 

 taking alarm, and that it is by their quick sense of hearing only 

 that they are warned of the approach of danger. But this I 

 utterly deny ; for I have constantly seen wild fowl, when I 

 have been sitting perfectly motionless in an ambuscade, swim 

 quietly towards me without the slightest warning of my 

 vicinity, till coming to that point where my place of conceal- 

 ment was directly to windward of them, they immediately 

 caught the scent, took wing, and fle\^ in as great alarm as if 

 I had stood up in full view. The same thing has occurred 

 very frequently when I have been in pursuit of geese ; the 

 birds invariably taking alarm as soon as they came in a line 

 with me and the wind, and just as much so when I was 

 motionless and riot making the slightest noise, as when I was 

 creeping towards them. The same sense of smelling doubt- 

 less guides birds, in many cases, to their food, but it is 

 certainly not the sole or even the principal guide of the 

 ravens or the eagles. 



When one of the carrion-birds has found a booty, others of 

 the same species who may be wheeling about at a greater 

 distance at once see by his manner of flight and other signs 



