THE WESTERN BEND 241 



or, at most, referred to it quite incidentally ; and, without 

 such aid from the fountain-heads of science, my own 

 technical knowledge was then necessarily inadequate to 

 form an opinion. During several subsequent years, there- 

 fore, I carried out a series of rough field-observations 

 and experiments and published the results in The Field,' 1 

 partly in the hope (which did not materialise) of eliciting 

 further light on the subject. Those investigations have 

 led me to answer the question provisionally (and subject 

 to sundry minor modifications and exceptions), as 



WHISTLING TEAL. 

 " Checking to Alight." " Rising." 



follows : No birds within my circle possess the sense of 

 smell (or, if they do, they do not utilise it as a protec- 

 tive faculty) excepting the ducks and geese, and certain 

 of the waders (Ckaractriidce}. 



Here, on the Nile, I essayed several experimental 

 stalks, all of which corroborated the above opinion in 

 respect, among others, of the following species : 

 Marabou and jabiru storks, pelican, hagedash and wood- 

 ibis, stone-curlew and spur-winged plover, purple heron 

 and egrets. Eagles and vultures certainly possess no 

 sense of smell whatever,, though they have invariably been 

 credited with it in extraordinary degree. 



1 December 3oth, 1911, and January 1912. 



Q 



