ELUSIVE SMELL

摘要

Ornithologists long believed that birds lack a sense of smell. This prejudice seemed to be confirmed in the early 1900s by poor research designed to "prove" its absence. One such study, published in Nature no less, involved offering a single turkey two plates of food, one placed on top of some smelly substance such as lavender oil, the other free from additional smells. The turkey promptly ate the lot, then downed a third helping contaminated with malodorous prussic acid, and died. Conclusion: birds have no sense of smell.