SMELL. 363 



the ramifications of wliich are spread over the 

 mandibles, both within and without. For tlie pro- 

 tection of the highly sensible extremity of the 

 beak against the injurious impressions of hard 

 bodies, a horny process (p), similar, both in form 

 and office, to the human nail, is attached to it, and 

 its edges guarded by a narrow border of the same 

 horny material ; these receive a first, and fainter 

 impression, and admonish the animal of approach- 

 ing danger ; if none occur, the matter is then sub- 

 mitted to the immediate scrutiny of the nerves 

 themselves, and is swallowed or rejected according 

 to their indication.* 



The cells in the bill of the Toucan communi- 

 cate with the nostrils, and, being highly vascular, 

 confer, no doubt, great delicacy of smell.t It has 

 been generally asserted that Vultures, and other 

 birds of prey, are gifted with a highly acute sense 

 of smell ; and that they can discover by means of 

 it the carcass of a dead animal at great distances : 

 but it appears to be now sufficiently established 

 bv the observations and experiments of Mr. Au- 

 dubon, that these birds in reality possess the sense 

 of smell in a degree very inferior to carnivorous 

 quadrupeds; and that so far from guiding them to 

 their prey from a distance, it affords them no in- 

 dication of its presence, even when close at hand. 

 The following experiments appear to be perfectly 

 conclusive on this subject. Having procured the 

 skin of a deer, Mr. Audubon stuffed it full of hay ; 

 and after the whole had become perfectly dry and 



* Such is the account given by Sir Busick Harwood, in his 

 ' System of Comparative Anatomy and Physiology," p. 26. 

 t Traill, Trans. Linn. Soc. xi, 288. 



