244 THE FACULTY OF SCENT IN THE VULTURE. 



that a gentleman in the Magazine of Natural History, vol. iii. p. 

 449, gives to this writer the honour of being the first man who, by 

 his "interesting treatise," caused the explosion to take place. I 

 grieve from my heart that the vulture's nose has received such a 

 tremendous blow ; because the world at large will sustain a great loss 

 by this sudden and unexpected attack upon it. Moreover, I have a 

 kind of fellow-feeling, if I may say so, for this noble bird. We have 

 been for years together in the same country ; we have passed many 

 nights amongst the same trees; and though we did not frequent 

 the same mess (for " de gustibus non est disputandum" and I could 

 not eat rotten venison, as our English epicures do), still we saw a 

 great deal of each other's company. 



Sancho Panza remarks, that there is a remedy for everything but 

 death. Now, as the vulture has not been killed by the artillery of 

 this modern writer in Jamesons Journal, but has only had its nose 

 carried away by an explosion, I will carefully gather up the shattered 

 olfactory parts, and do my best to restore them to their original 

 shape and beautiful proportions. In repairing the vulture's nose, I 

 shall not imitate old Taliacotius, but I will set to work upon my 

 own resources, and then the reader shall decide whether the vulture 

 is to have a nose or to remain without one. 



We all know what innumerable instances there are, in every 

 country, of the astonishing powers of scent in quadrupeds. Thus, 

 the bloodhound will follow the line of the deer-stealer hours after he 

 has left the park ; and a common dog will ferret out his master in a 

 room, be it ever so crowded. He is enabled to do this by means of 

 the well-known effluvium which, proceeding from his master's person, 

 comes in contact with his olfactory nerves. A man even, whose 

 powers of scent are by no means remarkable, will sometimes smell 

 you a putrid carcass at a great distance. Now, as the air produced 

 by putrefaction is lighter than common air, it will ascend in the 

 atmosphere, and be carried to and fro through the expanse of heaven 

 by every gust of wind. The vulture, soaring above, and coming in 

 contact with this tainted current, will instinctively follow it down to 

 its source, and there find that which is destined by an all-wise 

 Providence to be its support and nourishment. 



I will here bring forward the common vulture of the West Indies, 



