528 



VISION OF BIRDS. 



to the rank fishy flavour of its flesh, it is seldom sought after by our 

 sportsmen or gunners, and is very little esteemed." 



" It is not uncommon in Denmark, Russia, and Siberia. It is also found 

 in some parts of Kamtschatka, where it is said to breed, going far inland 

 to lay ; the eggs are eight or ten in number, and white ; the males depart 

 and leave the females to remain with the young untilthey are able to fly. 

 In the river Ochotsky, they are so numerous that the natives, in large 

 bodies, drive them up the river before them, and when the tide ebbs, 

 knock them on the head with clubs in such numbers, that each man 

 will have from twenty to thirty to his share." 



VENT FEATHERS.— Those which He between the Vent and 

 Under-tail Coverts. 



VELVET RUNNER.— A name for the Water Rail. 



VIBRISSA PECTINATE.— Stiff hairs that grow on each side of 

 the mouth in a regular form ; as in the Nightjar. 



VISION OF BIRDS.—* Ross in his voyage to Baffin's Bay, proved 

 that a man under favourable circumstances could see over the surface of 

 the ocean to the extent of one hundred and fifty English miles. It is 

 not probable that any animal exceeds this power of vision, though 

 birds, perhaps, excel men and most quadrupeds in sharpness of sight. 

 Schmidt threw at a considerable distance from a thrush ( Turdus mu- 

 sicus) a few small beetles, of a pale grey-colour, which the unas- 

 sisted human eye could not discover, yet the thrush observed them 

 immediately and devoured them. The bottle tit (Parus caudatus,) flits 

 with great quickness among the branches of trees, and finds on the very 

 smooth bark its particular food, where nothing is perceptible to the 

 naked eye, though insects can be detected there by the microscope. A 

 very tame red-breast (Sylvia rubecula, Latham,) discovered crumbs 

 from the height of the branch where it usually sat, at the distance of 

 eighteen feet from the ground, the instant they were thrown down, and 

 this by bending its head to one side, and using, of course, only one eye. 

 At the same distance a quail discovered, with one eye, some poppy- 

 seeds, which are very small and inconspicuous. 1 



In a recent number of the Medico Chirurgical Review, Dr. James 

 Johnson has shrewdly combated the opinion, that birds of prey are led 

 by scent, and thinks that they are usually, if not uniformly, guided by 

 vision. 



" It has always appeared to us," says he, " most extraordinary, in- 

 deed unaccountable, that birds of prey could scent carcasses at such a 



1 Schmidt, Blicken en den Haushalt der Natur, p. 26, edit. 1826. 



