Abstract
THE pheasant, from nesting on the ground, is peculiarly exposed to the attacks of four-footed or ground vermin, and the escape of any of the sitting birds and their eggs from foxes, polecats, hedgehogs, &c., appears at first sight almost impossible. This escape is attributed by many, possibly by the majority, of sportsmen to the alleged fact that in the birds when sitting the scent which is given out by the animal at other times is suppressed; in proof of this statement is adduced the fact that dogs, even those with the keenest powers of smell, will pass within a few feet, or even a less distance, of a sitting pheasant without evincing the slightest cognizance of her proximity, provided she is concealed from sight. By others this circumstance is denied, they reason à priori that it is impossible for an animal to suppress the secretions and exhalations natural to it—secretion not being a voluntary act. I believe, however, that the peculiar specific odour of the bird is suppressed during incubation, not, however, as a voluntary act, but in a manner which is capable of being accounted for physiologically. The suppression of the scent during incubation is necessary to the safety of the birds, and essential to the continuance of the species. I believe this suppression is due to what may be termed vicarious secretion. In other words, the odoriferous particles which are usually exhaled by the skin are, during such time as the bird is sitting, excreted into the intestinal canal, most probably into the cæcum or the cloaca. The proof of this is accessible to every one; the excreta of a common fowl or pheasant, when the bird is not sitting, have, when first discharged, no odour akin to the smell of the bird itself. On the other hand, the excreta of a sitting hen have a most remarkable odour of the fowl, but highly intensified. We are all acquainted with this smell as increased by heat during roasting; and practical poultry keepers must have remarked that the excreta discharged by a hen on leaving the nest have an odour totally unlike those discharged at any other time, involuntarily recalling the smell of a roasted fowl, highly and disagreeably intensified. I believe the explanation of the whole matter to be follows: the suppression of the natural scent is essential to the safety of the bird during incubation; that at such time vicarious secretion of the odoriferous particles takes place into the intestinal canal, so that the bird becomes scentless, and in this manner her safety and that of her eggs is secured. This explanation would probably apply equally to partridges and other birds nesting on the ground.
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Suppression of Scent in Pheasants * . Nature 8, 48 (1873). https://doi.org/10.1038/008048a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/008048a0