80 THE TURKEY BUZZARD. 
garious, after the closest attention to its habits, for 
a long series of years; and I am still of decided 
opinion that this bird ought not to be considered 
gregarious. 
Wilson was never in-Guiana. As for Humboldt, 
I cannot think of submitting to his testimony, in 
in matters of ornithology, for one single moment. 
The avocations of this traveller were of too multi- 
plied a nature to enable him to be a correct practical 
ornithologist. Azara is totally unknown to me. 
Ihave read Mr. Audubon’s paper very attentively, 
‘and upon taking the length, breadth, height, and 
depth of it, and trying them at home, upon an exact 
scale,” ‘tis out, my lord, in every one of its dimen- 
sions. 
In the paper in Jameson’s Journal, after some 
preliminary observations, the author says, “ When I 
visited the Southern States, and had lived, as it were, 
amongst these vultures for several years, and dis- 
covered, thousands of times, that they did not smell 
me when I approached them covered by a tree, 
until within a few feet; and that, when, so near, 
or at a greater distance, I showed myself to them, 
they instantly flew away much frightened, the 
idea evaporated, and I assiduously engaged in a 
series of experiments to prove, to myself at least, 
how far the acuteness of smell existed, if it existed 
at all.” 
Here the author wishes to prove to us, through 
the medium of his own immediate person, that the 
vulture is but poorly off for nose; but he has left 
the matter short, on two essential points. First, he 
has told us nothing of the absolute state of his own 
