THE VULTURE. 



17 



ON THE FACULTY OF SCENT IN THE 

 VULTURE. 



Et truncas mhonesto vulnere nares.'* Mndd. lib. vii 



I NEVER thought that I should have lived to see 

 this bird deprived of its nose. But in the third num- 

 ber of Jameson! s Journal^ a modern writer has actu- 

 ally given " An account of the habits of the Turkey 

 Buzzard (Vultur Aura), with a view of exploding the 

 opinion generally entertained of its extraordinary 

 power of smelling;" and I see 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 ex- 

 plosion 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 coun- 

 try ; 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 

 every thing 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 

 c 



