ANIMALS AND SCENT.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 87, 6 January 1908, Page 5

ANIMALS AND SCENT.

A HIGHLY DEVELOPED FACULTY. Tho human nose is not as a rule (says the "Ulooo"). remarkable ror tKo • its' powers, • tiiougli there ■ are exceptions, i'nub the blind, ueaf niuto, James ivjkclicU, used to recognise his friends by their smell wlicu they came into the room. Dean buckland, t-iip famous geologist ,again, must have had a keen sense of smell, out riding with some friends one (lay tuey wero .benighted, and lost tlieir way. BucKland dismounted, tool; up a handful of soii, smelt it, anu sai ( l '-JxbnUgel" And Berkeley relates than a poor cripple boy was so keen of smell

that he could uetcet traffics with a certainty superior even to that- of tlio best dog. l)y. t-hu exercise of this faculty he was able to' earn a livelihood. So, also,' some races of men appear to bo -.keener of seent than others. The Puongs, of Cambodia, 111 French Indo-China, tor example, are remarkable for. the acuteness or this sense. With their eyes shut,- or 111 the dark, they con distinguish different animals, and even different human beings, by- their smell. Tliev can even tell one metal from another by its scent. The Ainus, too, of Japan, are keen scented, although they, only rank second to : the Puongs. ' • In, many animals -scent 'seems to be the most highly developed faculty. Thus the wild camel's, keenest sense, according tc Sven Hedin, is that- of smell. 'This traveller was told by an experiencef] camel huntor that it can scent a man thirteen miles: off! The deer, again,- has been, known to .take

fright at of a man 24 hours after he had passed the spot-.' In two-species of nrmadilla, according to Mr. W. H. Hudson, the sense of smell is so marvellously acute that it-has made sight superfluous; and they are blind, o rnqxt door to it.

It is not 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 an dcivet. Here, indeed, it is a veritable "noli me tangere" addressed to the rest of the animal world. But in the case of the fox, for example, it seems altogether a disadvantage and a danger to have such a strong smell. A very interesting fact', however/ showing how the danger is minimised at certain seasons, is related by an experienced M.F.H. In the spring, ho say's, when the vixens are with cub they havo so little smoll that it is difficult, for'the

hounds to follow ovon on a good day. A (special provision, ho considers, for tho safety'of tho fox. In a similar way, he considers that partridges and pheasants are protected when sitting on their eggs by a iaclt of tho' usual'scent. A- pheasant had its nest in a wood near ' his house for two or three years,' and yet was never discovered by tho dogs—retrievers, pointers, and fox terriers—which passed and repassed it several times a day. In the case of the pampas deer, described by tho "Naturalist in I/a Plata," tho smell may be a warning to its oiiomies that it js not good to eat. Tho scent is as strong as that of the skunk, though less disagreeable.' Its powerful odour reaches the wanderer oil the. pampas when the animal is not even"in sight.' The-Ganchos of the district say that it preserves tho deer from snakes, which dislike the-smell. And such great faith have they in the eflicacy '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 them ou,t to graze! where snakes abound.