ANIMALS AN SCENT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 59, 26 March 1907, Page 4

ANIMALS AN SCENT.

The human ncfce is not as a rule (tfiys the Globe) remarkable fur tile .sliar))ihto of its powirs, though there are exceptions. TliUo the taliinl, diiif mute James Mile hell used to recognise his friends by their smell when they iame iivto his room. Dean Buck land, the famous geologist, again, must have hid a keen sense oi smell. Out riding v,-illi some friends one day they were benighted, and lost their way. Buckland dismounted, took up a handful of soil, smelt it, and said "Uxbridge!" And Berkeley relates that a poor crippled boy was so keen oi smell that he could detect traffics with a certainty superior even to thflt of the best dog. By the exercise of tins faculty he was able to earn a livelihood. So, also, some races of men appear to be keener of &cent than others. The Puongs, of Cambodia, in French IndoChina, for example, are remarkable for the acuteness of this sens?. With their eyes shut, or in the dark, tiny can d;s----i-ngirish different animals, and even different human beings, by their smell. They can even HI oik* metal from another by its scent. The Ainu l ;, too, of Japan, are keen scented, although they only rank second to the Puongs. In ninny animals scent teems to bo tho mest highly deeloped faculty. Thus the wild camels keenest scense, according to ven Hcdin, is that of tmell. This travel lex was told by an experienced camel hunter that it can scent a man thirteen miles off! The deir, again, lias been known to take (right at the s-jrut of a man 24 hours after he had passed the spot. In two species of ermadila, according to Mr W. H. Hudson, the sense of smell is so marvellously acuto that it has made sight superfluous, and they are blind or next- door to it. It is nfe easy to see what use the characteristic smell possessed by so many animals can be to the species, except in such extreme cases as the skunk and civet. Here, indeed it is a veritable "nol me taJigaie" addressed to the rest of the animal world. But in the case of the fox, for example, it seems altogether a disadvantage ajid dangerous to have such a strong smell. A very interesting fact, however, showing how the danger .is m'niniised at certain seasons, is Tolatid by an experienced M.F.H. In the spring, he says, when the vixens are with oub they have so little smell that it is difficult f<*r the hounds to follow even on a gpod day. A spo : al provision, he considers, for the safety of the fox. In a similar way, he coaisideas that partridges and pheasants are protected when sitting on their eggs by a lack of the usual scent. A pheasant had its nest in a wood near his house for two or three years, and yet was novex discovered by the dogs—retrievers, pointers, and fox-terriers—which passed and repassed it several times a day. In the case of the pampas dec-T, described by t.je "Naturalist in La Plata," the smell may be a warning to its enemies tnat it is not good to cat. The scent is as strong as that of the skunk. though less disagreeable. Its powerful odor reaches the wanderer oai the pampas when the animal is not even in sight. The Gauc.he>s of the district says that it preserves the deer from snakes, ■which dislike the smell. And such great faith have they in the efficacy of the protection that they tie strips of the deer's skin, which still retain the smell, round the necks of valuable horses, and turn th?m out to graze where snakes abound.