SMELL. 67 



which there was nothing but bread, which I saw 

 him take up and reject ; and it appeared to me that 

 he was thus reduced from necessity to the above 

 mode of solacing his palate with animal food. His 

 food consists of bread, boiled vegetables, eggs, and 

 flesh ; to which a little bird is now added, about 

 every second or third day. He shows a decided pre- 

 ference for animal food, picking out all morsels of 

 that description, and not resorting to the vegetable 

 diet till all of the former is exhausted*." 



It will appear from these observations, that Baron 

 Cuvier is in error, when he says of the toucans, " the 

 structure of their bill obliges them to swallow their 

 food without mastication ; when they have seized it, 

 they throw it in the air, the more easily to swallow 

 itf.'' It is always hazardous to venture upon general 

 observations of this kind without personal observa- 

 tion to support them, for, how plausible soever they 

 may appear on paper, they seldom accord with facts. 



With respect to the smell of vultures, Willughby 

 says, " they have an excellent sagacity of smelling 

 above all other birds, so that they can perceive the 

 savour of dead carcasses from far," to which Ray 

 adds, " many miles off they sayj." Some of the 

 old authors indeed, such as Thomas Aquinas, specify 

 the distance at which a vulture can scent out a dead 

 body to be five hundred miles , and Isidore alleges it 

 is no matter even if the sea itself intervene || ; both of 

 which statements are intended, we presume, as a 

 comment on the passage in Pliny, where it is affirmed 

 that the vulture has a more sagacious scent, as the 

 eagle has a clearer sight, than man ; or on that of 

 Lucretius, in which he compares the scent of the 

 vulture for carrion to the scent of bees for honey. 



* Zool. Journ. i. 487. f Regne Animal, i. 460, edit. 1829. 

 I Ornith. by Ray, p. 66. De Anim. Comment, ii. 97. 

 || Origin, xii. 7. 



