CALIFORNIAN VULTURE. 259 
apparent, and the matter, in an almost fluid state, 
abandoned by the vultures.” 
So far Audubon. We may add, that the toucan is a 
bird which ranks next to the vulture in discovering 1 , 
whether by smell or sight, the carrion on which it 
feeds. The great size of its bill was supposed to admit 
of an extensive distribution of the olfactory nerve, and 
thus to account for its supposed power of smelling at 
great distances; but careful examination shews that 
there is no such extensive distribution of the nerve 
for smelling : but the eye of this bird is rather larger 
than the whole brain, and its power of vision is most 
acute. Hence, in countries where the toucan occurs, 
it generally arrives a little in the rear of the vulture, 
and remains until the larger bird is glutted; while 
smaller birds of prey, at a still more retired distance, 
pay similar respect to the toucan. 
2 . VULTUR CALIFORNIANUS , SHAW. — CALIFORNIAN VULTURE. 
Dr Richardson, in the Northern Zoology , says, — * 
<£ This great vulture, which is four feet eight inches in 
length, and between the tips of the wings nine feet 
eight inches, is an inhabitant of the shores of the 
Pacific, and was first introduced to the notice of natu- 
ralists by Mr Menzies, who brought a specimen from 
California, and deposited it in the British Museum.. 
It has not been discovered to the eastward of the 
Rocky Mountains, and I can, consequently, make no 
addition to its history from personal observation ; but 
Mr David Douglas has given an interesting account of 
the habits of the species in the Zoological Journal , 
from which the following notices are extracted. He 
represents it as a common bird in the woody districts 
of California, and that he met with it in the summer 
as far north as the forty-ninth degree of latitude ; but 
no where so abundantly as in the valley of the Colum- 
bia,* between the Grand Rapids and the sea. They 
build, he says, in the most secret and impenetrable 
