Habits of the Vldtur Aura. 639 



The writer states that this bird is found in great abundance 

 in the Island of Jamaica, where it is known by the name of 

 John Crow, and so valuable are its services in the removal of 

 carrion and animal filth, that the legislature have imposed a 

 fine of 51. upon any one destroying it within a stated distance 

 of the principal towns. Its ordinary food is carrion ; but, when 

 hard pressed with hunger, it will seize upon young fowls, rats, 

 and snakes. After noticing the highly offensive odour emitted 

 from the eggs of this bird when broken, Mr. Sells relates the 

 following instances which have come under his own personal 

 observation, for the purpose of proving that the Vultur Aura 

 possesses the sense of smell in a very acute degree. 



" It has been questioned whether the vulture discovers its 

 food by means of the organ of smell or that of sight. I ap- 

 prehend that its powers of vision are very considerable, and 

 of most important use to the bird in that point of view ; but 

 that it is principally from highly organised olfactories that it 

 so speedily receives intelligence of where the savoury morsel 

 is to be found will plainly appear by the following facts : — In 

 hot climates, the burial of the dead commonly takes place in 

 about twenty-four hours after death, and that necessarily, so 

 rapidly does decomposition take place. On one occasion, I 

 had to make a post-mortem examination of a body within 

 twenty hours after death, in a mill-house, completely con- 

 cealed ; and while so engaged the roof of the mill-house was 

 thickly studded with these birds. Another instance was that 

 of an old patient and much valued friend who died at midnight. 

 The family had to send for necessaries forthe 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 a 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 trees in its immediate vicinity. In these 

 cases the birds must have been directed by smell alone, as 

 sight was totally out of the question. 



" In opposition to the above opinion, it has been stated by 

 M. Audubon that vultures and other birds of prey possess 

 the sense of smell in a very inferior degree to carnivorous 

 quadrupeds, and that, so far from guiding them to their prey 

 from a distance, it affords them no indication of its presence, 

 even when close at hand. In confirmation of this opinion, he 

 relates that he stuffed the skin of a deer full of hay, and 

 placed it in a field. In a few minutes, a vulture alighted near 

 it and directly proceeded to attack it; but, finding no eatable 

 food, he at length quitted it. And he further relates that a 



