1 837 .] Nest of the Bengal Vulture. 1 1 7 



appetite with the rich and tantalizing morsel, be compelled reluctantly 

 to quit the perfumed spot. 



Thus the faculties of sight and scent are both necessary to enable 

 the vulture to discover its prey, — sometimes singly, as when it is 

 fresh, — sometimes combined, as when it is decayed and hidden. 



Thus 1 should pronounce the power of scent in these birds, although 

 strongly developed, to be in aid of sight, and it may be deemed a 

 secondary and auxiliary means of discovering food. 



The following experiment I tried at Neemuch. A recently killed 

 dog was encased in a coarse canvas bag, and hung up in a large bar- 

 kut tree, so that no bird soaring above could possibly see it. On the 

 morning after, I went to reconnoitre, and saw a number of vultures 

 sitting on the upper branches of the tree, and on some of the neigh- 

 boring ones, of which there might be about a dozen. These birds 

 were not, however, attracted to the spot by any effluvium from the 

 dog, as it was still quite fresh, — but they had resorted there to roost 

 the evening before, and had not as yet aroused themselves from their 

 lethargy. 



On the fourth day I again repaired to the spot and found about 

 twenty vultures sitting on the tree, all of them being on that side, 

 directly over the body of the dog, which had now become very offen- 

 sive ; — there were also several vultures soaring aloft in wide circles 

 above the tree, one of them every now and then descending and 

 alighting. Not one bird was to be seen on any of the neighboring 

 trees, — nor on any part of the chosen tree, excepting that immedi- 

 ately over the carcass. That these birds were not roosting, is proved 

 from the hour of the day being eleven ; — and besides on the morning 

 that I saw them at roost, they were scattered over the whole top of 

 the tree, which is an enormous barkat or banyan tree, — as well as on 

 some of the adjoining ones, while on this forenoon they were confined 

 to the tree, and also the one portion of the tree in which the putrid 

 carcass of the dog was concealed. 



I therefore conjecture that the smell of the decomposing body had 

 mounted on high, and the vultures wheeling above had come in con- 

 tact with the savoury vapour, soaring round in wide circles in hope 

 of espying the object from which the scent that told of prey pro- 

 ceeded. 



Seeing nothing below, but still smelling the putrid carcass, they 

 had gradually narrowed their flight, until they alighted on the iden- 

 tical tree in which lay the hidden banquet. Thus I conclude that the 

 powers of scent in these birds has been ascribed to them, in truth, and 

 that it is this faculty' which gives them notice of the prey awaiting 

 them and induces them to search with keen and eager glances over 



