ig87.] 
Sayles on the Sense of Smell in Catkaries aitfa. 
51 
Gosse, Bds. Jam. p. i (1847). — Bryant, Pr. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist. 
Vh, p. 104 (1859) (Bahamas) ; ib. Brewer, p. 306 (i860) (Cuba). 
— O. 1862, p. 303 (Jamaica). — March, Pr. Acad. 
Nat. Sci. Phila. 1863, p. 150 (Jamaica). — Gundl. Repert. Fisico-Nat. 
Cuba, I, p. 221 (1865); ib.].i. O. 1871, p. 253 (Cuba). — Cory, 
Bds. Bahama I. p. 134 (1880). — A. & E. Newton, Handb. Jamaica, 
p. Ill (1881). — Cory, List Bds. VV. I. p. 23 (1885). 
Recorded from the'’'jSaJiai[ pas, C uba, and Jamaica. 
Genus Catharis'ta Vieill. 
Catharista Vieillot, Analyse, p. 21, 1816. 
Catharista atral%»»«JBAKTR,) . 
Vultnr atraius JiAKTR. Trav. Car. p. 285 (1792). 
Cathartes atratus March, Pr. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phifk,. 1863, p. 151 (Ja- 
maica).: — A. & E. Newton, Handb. Jamaica, p. iif'(T88i). 
Catharistp atrata CoRY, List Bds. W. 1 . p. 23 (1885). 
TlRs^species is claimed to have occurred in Jamaica. TSio 
West Indian record. 
THE SENSE OF SMELL IN CATHARTES AURA. 
BY IRA SAYLES. 
In the ‘Standard Natural History,’ edited by John Sterling 
Kingsley, published by S. E. Cassin & Co., Boston, Vol. IV, p. 
271, in an article written by Walter B. Barrows, I read as 
follows : 
“The name condor, Humboldt says, is from a word in the 
language of the Incas, signifying to smell,” and adds : ‘There 
is nothing more astonishing than the almost inconceivable sagac- 
ity with which the condor distinguishes the odor of flesh from an 
immense distance.’” 
Mr. Barrows then adds : “This belief in the extraordinary 
power of smell possessed by carrion vultures is largely an inher- 
ited or traditional one, and was long ago shown to be without 
foundation. That they have some smell is well known, and Owen 
has even shown that in the turkey buzzard the olfactory nerves 
