ORGANS OF SMELL. 199 



within and of the absence of which, not one of his senses, 

 it appears, was able to inform him. 



618. Finding that his efforts after a long trial, led to no 

 satisfactory results, and that nothing could be obtained but 

 a bundle of hay, the bird took its flight in search of other 

 game ; " to which," says the observer, " he was led by 

 sight alone, and which he was not long in finding." 



619. Another experiment, the converse of this, was 

 next tried. A large dead hog was concealed in a nar- 

 row and winding ravine, about twenty feet deeper than 

 the surface of the earth around it, and filled with briars 

 and high canes. This was done in the month of July, 

 in a tropical climate, where decomposition took place 

 rapidly. Yet although many vultures were seen, from 

 time to time sailing in all directions over the spot, none 

 ever discovered it ; but in the meantime several dogs 

 found their way to it, before which it was fast disap- 

 pearing. 



620. In other experiments Mr. Audubon found that 

 young vtiltures confined in a cage, never seemed to per- 

 ceive that their food was near them, until it was seen. It 

 therefore appears that vultures are guided to their food by 

 the acuteness of their visual, and not by their olfactory or- 

 gans, as has heretofore been supposed. The above re- 

 sults have been fully verified by Mr. Bachman, and a 

 detailed account thereof published in London's Magazine 

 of Natural History. 



621. Organ of Smell in Fishes. It has been doubted 

 by some physiologists, whether water is capable of con- 

 veying odoriferous particles, and consequently, whether 

 fish had any use for olfactory organs. But almost every 

 angler knows that at least, with some sorts of fish, he has 

 much better luck when his bait is scented with some 

 strong odoriferous drug, as assafoetida, musk, or camphor. 

 It is well known, indeed, both by other experiments, as 

 well as by dissection, that fishes are endowed with organs 

 of smell. 



What were the results of Audubon's experiments on the smell of vul- 

 tures ? What is said of the organs of smell in fishes ? 



