THE WESTERN BEND 
241 
or, at most, referred to it quite incidentally; and, without 
such aid from the fountain-heads of science, my own 
technical knowledge was then necessarily inadequate to 
form an opinion. During several subsequent years, there¬ 
fore, I carried out a series of rough field-observations 
and experiments and published the results in The Field? 
partly in the hope (which did not materialise) of eliciting 
further light on the subject. Those investigations have 
led me to answer the question provisionally (and subject 
to sundry minor modifications and exceptions), as 
follows :—No birds within my circle possess the sense of 
smell—(or, if they do, they do not utilise it as a protec¬ 
tive faculty) —excepting the ducks and geese, and certain 
of the waders ( Charadriidce ). 
Here, on the Nile, I essayed several experimental 
stalks, all of which corroborated the above opinion in 
respect, among others, of the following species : — 
Marabou and jabiru storks, pelican, hagedash and wood- 
ibis, stone-curlew and spur-winged plover, purple heron 
and egrets. Eagles and vultures certainly possess no 
sense of smell whatever, though they have invariably been 
credited with it in extraordinary degree. 
1 December 30th, 1911, and January 1912. 
Q 
