until at last it is driven into a corner and becomes too weary to make further attempts to escape or elude pursuit. * * * * * The TRUMPETERS (_Psophia_) possess a powerful body, moderately long neck, medium-sized head, and short, curved beak, compressed at its sides and hooked at its tip. The feet are high, the tarsi long, the toes short, and armed with curved sharp claws; the exterior and centre toes are united by a short skin; the arched wing has its fourth quill longer than the rest; the tail is short and weak, and the plumage principally composed of large feathers. Those on the head and neck are of velvety, and those on the under side of downy texture. These birds frequent the South American forests, where they render themselves conspicuous by their most peculiar and noisy cry. This loud trumpet-like sound is uttered six or seven times in succession, without opening the beak, and is so deep and sonorous that it appears to proceed from the bird's entire body. According to Pallas, the strange noise results from a peculiar construction of the windpipe, which at its upper portion is as thick as a Swan's quill, but becomes more slender as it enters the chest, when it gives off two membranous semicircular air-bags, of which the right is the largest, and divided into three or four cells. The hollow internal drumming, preceded by a wild cry, is evidently produced by the vibration of the air forced into these air-bags by the action of the muscles of the thorax. During the performance the chest heaves as in birds when singing. THE AGAMI, OR GOLD-BREASTED TRUMPETER. The AGAMI, or GOLD-BREASTED TRUMPETER (_Psophia crepitans_), is black upon the head, neck, upper back, wings, lower breast, belly, and rump; the shoulder-feathers are purplish black, shaded with blue or green; the upper breast is steel-blue, with a copper-red sheen. The eye is reddish brown, the bare ring around it flesh-pink, the beak greenish white, and the foot yellowish pink. This species is twenty inches long; the wing measures eleven inches, and the tail one inch.