BIRDS, 315 



occasion,'' says he, " I had to make a post-mortem exa- 

 mination of a body within twenty-four hours after death, in a 

 mill-house completely concealed; and while so engaged, the 

 roof of the mill-house was thickly studded with these birds"* 

 (the Turkey Buzzards). On another, " the family had to send 

 for necessaries for the funeral to Spanish Town, distant thirty 

 miles, so that the interment could not take place until noon 

 of the second day, or thirty-six hours after his decease; long 

 before which time and a most painful sight it was the 

 ridge of the shingled roof of his house, a large mansion of but 

 one floor, had a number of these melancholy-looking heralds 

 of death perched thereon, besides many more which had 

 settled in the vicinity. In these cases, the birds must have 

 been directed by smell alone, as sight was totally out of the 

 question."! 



The obtuseness of the sense of smell, in another species, 

 seems to be no less clearly established. Mr. Darwin saw, at 

 Valparaiso, between twenty and thirty Condors, which were 

 kept in a garden there, and fed once each week. The Con- 

 dors were tied, each by a rope, in a long row at the bottom 

 of a wall; he was thus enabled to try the following experi- 

 ment: Having folded up a piece of meat in white paper, he 

 walked backwards and forwards, carrying it in his hand, at 

 the distance of about three yards ; but no notice whatever was 

 taken. He then threw it on the ground, within one yard of 

 an old cock bird, which looked at it for a moment with atten- 

 tion, but then regarded it no more. Mr. Darwin pushed it 

 closer and closer with a stick, until the Condor touched it with 

 his beak; the paper was then instantly torn off with fury, 

 and, at the same moment, every bird in the long row began 

 struggling and flapping its wings. \ 



The controversy between some authors, as to whether 

 Vultures are guided to the carrion on which they feed by the 

 sense of sight or that of smell, is like the combat of the two 

 knights, as to whether the statue bore a shield of gold or of 

 silver. It was composed of both. And, in like manner, there 

 seems no good reason for doubting that both senses are made 



* Penny Cyclopaedia, article Turkey Buzzard. 



f Zoological Proceedings, March, 1837. The same evening on which 

 Professor Owen's communication on the development of the olfactory nerves 

 was read. 



| Journal, p. 222. Voyage of the Adventure and Beagle. 



