SMELL. 3()1 



and indicates a greater affinity to vegetable than 

 to animal feeders. Man, indeed, distinguishes 

 more accurately vegetable odours than those pro- 

 ceeding from animal substances; while the reverse 

 is observed with regard to quadrupeds whose habits 

 are decidedly carnivorous. A dog, for instance, is 

 regardless of the odour of a rose or violet ; and 

 probably, as he derives from them no pleasure, is 

 unable to discriminate the one from the other. 

 Predaceous animals, as Sir Busick Harvvood ob- 

 serves, require both larger olfactory nerves, and a 

 more extensive surface for their distribution, than 

 the vegetable eaters. The food of the latter is 

 generally near at hand ; and as they have occa- 

 sion only to select the wholesome from the noxious 

 plants, their olfactory organs are constructed for 

 the purpose of arresting the effluvia of odorous 

 substances immediately as they arise. The former 

 are often under the necessity of discovering the 

 lurking places of their prey at a considerable dis- 

 tance, and are therefore more sensible to the weak 

 impressions of particles widely diffused through 

 the surrounding medium, or slightly adhering to 

 those bodies, with which the object of tlieir pursuit 

 may have come into contact. 



The olfactory bones of Birds are constructed 

 very much on the model of the spiral bones of 

 herbivorous quadrupeds, and vary but little in 

 the different species. Fig. 38G exhibits their ap- 

 pearance in the Turkey : but the size of the olfac- 

 tory nerves of birds of prey greatly exceeds that of 

 the same nerves in granivorous birds. In the latter, 

 indeed, they are exceedingly small ; and as the 

 natural food of that tribe has but little odour, we 



