1V PREFACE. 
the Wanderings for information concerning the 
Humming-Bird; and that, having got what he 
wanted, he had coupled my name with an epi- 
thet* any thing but congenial to my feelings. 
Upon this, with no other sensation than that 
which a man experiences when he receives a 
pinch which he knows that he does not deserve, 
I took up the new edition of the Ornithological 
Dictionary, and having given it a few hearty 
shakes, by way of retaliation, I laid it down 
again upon the table, and bade it rest in peace. 
This will account to the reader for the appear- 
ance of an extract from the Ornithological 
Dictionary in the first page of the following 
Essays. 
Having had every possible opportunity of 
paying attention to the habits of the Vulture, 
during a long residence in the hottest parts of 
South America, where this bird is found in vast 
abundance, I was convinced, and am still con- 
vinced beyond all doubt whatever, that the 
Vulture possesses the faculty of scent in a most 
superior degree; and I made mention in the 
* The eccentric Waterton. 
