344 Mr. R. B. Sharpe on the Genus Todns. 



XXXVII. — On the Genus Todus. By R. Bowdler Sharpe, 

 r.L.S., F.Z.S., &c., Senior Assistant, Zoological Depart- 

 ment, British Museum. 



(Plate XIII.) 



The discovery of an apparently new species of Todus is an 

 event of some interest; and I am indebted to Mr. Henry 

 Whitely, of Woolwich, for the specimen which first set me 

 working on this genus. It is certainly the most beautiful 

 species yet known, and apparently undescribed. The col- 

 lection in which it came to England was said to have been 

 sent direct from Jamaica ; but, although the bulk of the birds 

 were undoubtedly from that island, it may be doubted whether 

 there is any corner so little explored as to produce a new 

 Todus and the curious Phyllomanes iora, lately described by 

 me from the same collection. 



In order to assure myself that the new bird had not received 

 a name, I set to work to revise the whole genus ; and I com- 

 mence by detailing its literary history. Happily the genus 

 Todus has had a comparatively uneventful career, no worse 

 luck having befallen it than a constant bandying backwards 

 and forwards from the Tyrannidae to the neighbourhood of 

 the Momotidse ; but it seems to have now settled down near 

 the latter family. Its few species have not been determined 

 without the greatest confusion as regarded their habitats, the 

 chief offender being Lesson, who called the Todus from Porto 

 Rico T. mexicanus, and gave the title of portoricensis to the 

 Cuban species. This complication I have endeavoured to 

 unravel in the second portion of this paper. 



1760. Brisson first characterizes the genus Todus (Om. 

 iv. p. 528), and takes the description of the type from an ex- 

 ample in the collection of the Marquis de Reaumur, said to 

 have been collected in Martinique by M. Thibault de Chan- 

 valon. The figure given (pi. xh. fig. 2) is by no means good, 

 not showing the red gorget ; but the description, as far as it 

 can be interpreted, seems to suit best the San-Domingo bird, 

 and not the Jamaican species. 



1766. Linnaeus in his 'Systema Naturae^ (p. 178) adopts 



