TURKEY VULTURE. 
15 
fetid.” But is it reasonable to suppose that that effluvia can be 
offensive to them, which arises from food perfectly adapted to 
their natui'e, and which is constantly the object of their desires? 
Many birds, and particularly those of the granivorous kind, 
have a similar habit, which, doubtless, is attended with the 
same exhilarating effect, that an exposure to the pure air of the 
morning has on the frame of one just risen from repose. 
The Turkey-buzzards, unless when rising from the earth, 
seldom flap their wings, but sweep along in ogees, and dipping 
and rising lines, and move with great rapidity. They are often 
seen in companies, soaring at an immense height, particularly 
before a thunderstorm. Their wings are not spread horizontal- 
ly, but form an acute angle with the body, the /tips having an 
upward curve. Their sense of smelling is astonishingly exqui- 
site,* and they never fail to discover carrion, even when at the 
distance from it of several miles. When once they have found a 
carcass they will not leave the place, if unmolested, till the whole 
is devoured. At such times they eat so immoderately, that 
frequently they are incapable of rising, and may be caught 
without much difflculty; but few that are acquainted with them 
will have the temerity to undertake the task. A man in the 
state of Delaware, a few years ago, observing some Turkey-buz- 
zards regaling themselves upon the carcass of a horse, which 
was in a highly putrid state, conceived the design of making a 
captive of one, to take home for the amusement of his children. 
* The British public has lately been amused with the tales of a traveller, 
on some of tlie animals of our countiy. Among several particulars, which 
force themselves upon the attention of the American reader by theh novelty, 
we are presented with the result of a series of experiments, which were insti- 
tuted to prove, that the Tui-key-buzzard does not possess the sense oj smel- 
ling! This important enunciation woidd be calculated to disabuse us, with re- 
spect to the popular opinion on this subject, did we not recollect, that the 
sense of seeing had, also, by some ingenious naturalists, been denied to the 
Mole; and that the Bu-d of Pai’adise had been aflSrmed to be deficient of tliose 
useful organs of locomotion — legs\ The lovers of romance may now felicitate 
themselves upon die ascendancy of an observer, whose credible nari’atives may 
aspire to the honour of ranking with the tales of the artless John Dunn Hun- 
ter, or the wonders of that pink of veracity, the renowned Sh John Mandeville. 
