"The noise creatures make depends more on the construction of the windpipe, its relation to the lungs and the strength of the muscles which force out the breath, than on their size. As, for example, how loud is the song of the nightingale and the little canary bird. Some people say the bittern booms with his long bill partly thrust into the boggy ground, which increases the hollow muffled sound of its very peculiar cry." Franz was very anxious that the first trophy of his gun should be so rare a bird as the bittern; the dogs were sent into the wood, and we waited some distance apart, in readiness to fire. All at once there was a great rustling in the thicket, Franz fired, and I heard his happy voice calling out: "I've hit him! I've hit him!" "What have you hit?" shouted I in return. "A wild pig," said he; "but bigger than Fritz's." "Aha! I see you remember the agouti! Perhaps it is not a hog at all but one of our little pigs from the farm. What will the old sow say to you, Franz?" I soon joined my boy, and found him in transports of joy over an animal certainly very much like a pig, although its snout was broad and blunt. It was covered with bristles, had no tail, and in color was a yellowish gray. Examining it carefully, and noticing its webb feet and its curious teeth, I decided that it must be a capybara, a water-loving animal of South America, and Franz was overjoyed to find that he had shot "a new creature," as he said. It was difficult to carry it home, but he very sensibly proposed that we should open and clean the carcase, which would make it lighter--and then putting it in a game bag, he carried it till quite tired out; he then asked if I thought Bruno would let him strap it on his back. We found the dog willing to bear the burden, and reached Woodlands soon afterward. There we were surprised to see Ernest surrounded by a number of large rats which lay dead on the ground. "Where can all these have come from?" exclaimed I. "Have you and your mother been rat-hunting instead of gathering rice as you intended?" "We came upon these creatures quite unexpectedly," he replied, "while in the rice swamp. Knips, who was with us, sprang away to a kind of long-shaped mound among the reeds, and pounced upon something, which tried to escape into a hole. He chattered and gnashed his teeth, and the creature hissed and squeaked, and running up I found he had got a big rat by the tail; he would not let go, and the rat could not turn in the narrow entrance to bite him, but I soon pulled it out and killed it with my stick. "The mound was a curious looking erection, so I broke it open with some difficulty, and in doing this dislodged quite a dozen of the creatures. Some I killed, but many plunged into the water and escaped. "On examining their dwelling I found it a vaulted tunnel made of clay and mud, and thickly lined with sedges, rushes, and water-lily leaves.