Faculties Smell. 27 



while from those which would not be benefited by it, it is in a 

 measure withheld. 



I have spoken of the powers of sight and hearing so con- 

 spicuous in birds ; I come now to the other sense with which 

 they are provided, that of smell. This, too, we shall find to be 

 peculiarly delicate in some families, though perhaps generally it 

 is but little required, and therefore but little developed ; and we 

 shall for the most part find that those birds whose nostrils are 

 the most conspicuous and open will possess this sense in the 

 highest degree, while those whose nostrils are concealed and 

 almost impervious will share in it but little. The bird which is 

 certainly most remarkable for this faculty, though of late years 

 it has been gainsaid by certain American naturalists, is the 

 Vulture. Blest, as I have already remarked, with a keen 

 sense of sight, the Vulture soaring through the air, and above 

 the dark forests, is also directed to his prey by the extraordinary 

 perfection of his organs of smell. His food is always putrid, 

 and the effluvium arising therefrom is necessarily most rank; 

 but yet when we watch their proceedings, as I have done, 

 in their own tropical countries, the wonderful manner in 

 which these birds will congregate at a putrid carcase, hidden 

 though it may be in a pit or a thick forest; and how, first 

 appearing as a speck in the distant heavens, then gradually 

 increasing in size as they come nearer, they arrive singly from 

 all quarters, whereas till then, not a single individual was to be 

 seen, we can form some idea of the great powers of smell which 

 these birds must possess. Mr. Waterton, who has seen them in 

 Guiana, Demerara, and other parts of Southern America ; and 

 Mr. Gosse, who more recently has seen them in the West Indian 

 islands, have published in their respective most interesting little 

 volumes such strong and conclusive evidence of the amazing 

 extent of this sense in the vulture, as to silence all dispute on 

 the subject. The family of the crows, also, claims our attention 

 as possessing very great powers of scent. It is this which so 

 often directs them to their food from great distances in such a 

 mysterious manner as to cause the wonder and incredulity of 



