970 TODY 



French Todier of Brisson {Orn. iv. p. 528) of the somewhat obscure 

 Latin word Todus,^ not unhappily applied in 1756 by Patrick 



Browne (Ilisf. Jamaica, p. 476) to a little bird 

 remarkable for its slender legs and small feet, 

 the "Green Sparrow" or "Green Humming- 

 Bird" of Sloane (Foy. ii. p. 306). The name, 

 having been taken up by Brisson in 1760, was 

 ,.,^ „ . , adopted by Linnseus, and has since been recoe- 



ToDus. (After Swainson.) • ■, ■, "^ . , , . . ,., ° 



nized by ornithologists as that of a valid genus, 

 though many species have been referred to it which are now known 

 to have no affinity to the type, the T. viridis of Jamaica, and ac- 

 cordingly have since been removed from it. The genus, from its flat 

 l)ill, was at one time jslaced among the Muscicajndai (Flycatcher) ; 

 but Dr. Murie's investigations (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1872, pp. 664-680, 

 pi. Iv.) have conclusively proved that it is not Passerine, and is 

 nearly allied to the Momotidx (Motmot, p. 593) and Alcedinidx 

 (Kingfisher, p. 485), though it should be regarded as forming a 

 distinct Family Todidai, peculiar to the Greater Antilles, each of 

 which islands has its own species, all of small size, the largest not 

 exceeding four inches and a half in length. 



Of the species already named, T. viridis, Gosse (B. Jam. pp. 

 72-80) gives an interesting account. "Always conspicuous from 

 its bright grass-green coat, and crimson-velvet gorget, it is still a 

 very tame bird ; yet this seems rather the tameness of indifference 

 than of confidence ; it will allow a person to approach very near, 

 and, if disturbed, alight on another twig a few yards distant . . . 

 commonly it is seen sitting patiently on a twig, with the head 

 drawn in, the beak pointing upwards, the loose plumage puffed 

 out, when it appears much larger than it is. It certainly has an 

 air of stupidity when thus seen. But this abstraction is more 

 apparent than real ; if we watch it, we shall see that the odd- 

 looking grey eyes are glancing hither and thither, and that ever 



^ In Forcelliui's Lexicon (ed. De Vit, 1875) we find " Todiis genus parvissimae 

 avis tibias liabens jJerexiguas. " Ducange in his Glossarvum quotes from Festus, 

 an ancient grammarian, "Toda est avis qnne non liabet ossa in tibiis ; quare 

 semper est in motu, nnde Todius (al. Todinus) dicitur ille qui velociter todet 

 et movetur ad modum todse, et todere, nioveri et tremere ad modum todae. " 

 The evidence that such a substantive as Todus or Toda existed seems to rest 

 on the adjectival derivative found in a fragment of a lost play {Syrus) by 

 Plautus, cited liy this same Festus. It stands "cum extritis [cxtortis'} talis, 

 cum todillis [lodinis] crusculis " ; but the jiassage is held by scholars to be 

 corrupt. Among naturalists Gesner in 1555 gave currency {Hist. Anim. iii. 

 p. 719) to the ■word as a substantive, and it is found in Levins's Manipulus 

 Vocahulomm of 1570 (ed. Wheatley, 1867, col. 225) as the equivalent of the 

 English "Titmouse." Ducange allows the existence of the adjective todinus. 

 Stephanus suggests that todi comes from tvtOoI, but his view is not accepted. 

 The verb todere may jierhaps be Englished to " toddle" ! . 



