252 THE TURKEY BUZZARD. 



moment The avocations of this traveller were of too multiplied a 

 nature to enable him to be a correct practical ornithologist. Azara 

 is totally unknown to me. 



I have read Mr Audubon's paper very attentively, " and upon 

 taking the length, breadth, height, and depth of it, and trying them 

 at home, upon an exact scale," 'tis out, my lord, in every one of 

 its dimensions. 



In the paper in Jameson's Journal, after some preliminary observa- 

 tions, the author says, " When I visited the Southern States, and had 

 lived, as it were, amongst these vultures for several years, and dis- 

 covered, thousands of times, that they did not smell me when I 

 approached them covered by a tree, until within a few feet ; and 

 that when, so near, or at a greater distance, I showed myself to 

 them, they instantly flew away much frightened, the idea evaporated, 

 and I assiduously engaged in a series of experiments to prove, to 

 myself at least, how far the acuteness of smell existed, if it existed 

 at all." Here the author wishes to prove to us, through the medium 

 of his own immediate person, that the vulture is but poorly off for 

 nose; but he has left the matter short on two essential points. 

 First, he has told us nothing of the absolute state of his own person, 

 at the actual time he approached the vultures ; and, secondly, he is 

 silent as to the precise position of his own person with regard to 

 the wind. This neglect renders his experiment unsatisfactory. If, 

 on his drawing near to the birds, no particular effluvium or strong 

 smell proceeded from his person, it is not to be expected that they 

 could smell him. " De nihilo nihilum, in nihilum nil posse reverti" as 

 the old saying is. If, again, he had a smell about him, and he 

 happened to be to leeward as he approached the vultures, their 

 olfactory nerves could not possibly have been roused to action by 

 it, although he had been Gorgonius himself (Gorgonius hircum), for 

 every particle of smell from his person would have been carried 

 down the gale, in a contrary direction to the birds. 



I will now proceed to examine the author's first experiment. " I 

 procured," says he, "a skin of our common deer, entire to the hoofs, 

 and stuffed it carefully with dried grass until filled rather above the 

 natural size, suffered the whole to become perfectly dry and hard as 

 leather, took it to the middle of a large open field, laid it down on 



