65 
and ambergris%, the products of different species of 
mammalia, are to many highly grateful. The scent 
of the Solan goose is notoriously coarse, and to many 
nauseous: many of the carnivorous and insectivo- 
rous birds, the flesh of which is vulgarly called car- 
rion, although not remarkable for scent when living, 
emit most fetid odour when heated by fire: even 
the elegant hoopoe is an instance of this kind. The 
heath tops and wild thyme impart a fragrant and 
generally agreeable savour to the flesh of grouse, 
and the pine buds to that of the capercaile. The 
snake when incensed emits a most nauseous odour, 
although scentless in its tranquil state. The croco- 
dile is musky, and offensive to the olfactories of Ku- 
ropeans, perhaps grateful to those of the Indians, 
who eat it. The flesh of the shark is similarly dis- 
gusting. The smelt derives its name from an agree- 
able savour, not unlike that of our garden cucumber. 
Sea crabs, when boiled, yield an odour stronger and 
less generally agreeable than that of fresh boiled 
prawns. The common ant is scentless ; but another 
species, formica foetida, is most nauseous. Many 
wild bees are distinguished by a pungent smell of 
garlic, apis melitta, and andrena". Musca cynipsea 
emits a fragrant odour of balm. Julus terrestris 
& Ambergris is a hard light substance found in the viscera of 
whales of the physeter kind. It probably derives its odour from 
one of the cuttle fish, sepia moschata, on which these whales are 
known to feed. In the larger pieces of ambergris the horny 
beaks of these small cuttle fish are frequently found imbedded. 
Shaw’s Lectures. 
h Kirby, vol. li. p. 244. 
