THE VULTURE. 
17 
ON THE FACULTY OF SCENT IN THE 
VULTURE. 
Et truncas mhonesto vulnere nares." JEneid. lib. vi. 
I NEVER thought that I should have lived to see 
this bird deprived of its nose. But in the third num- 
ber of Jamesons 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 1 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 
