97° LODY: 
French Todier of Brisson (Orn. iv. p. 528) of the somewhat obscure 
Latin word Yodus,) not unhappily applied in 1756 by Patrick 
Browne (List. Jamaica, p. 476) to a little bird 
remarkable for its slender legs and small feet, 
the “Green Sparrow” or ‘Green Humming- 
Bird” of Sloane (Voy. ii. p. 306). The name, 
having been taken up by Brisson in 1760, was 
adopted by Linnzus, and has since been recog- 
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 7. viridis of Jamaica, and ac- 
cordingly have since been removed from it. The genus, from its flat 
bill, was at one time placed among the Muscicapide (FLYCATCHER) ; 
but Dr. Murie’s investigations (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1872, pp. 664-680, 
pl. lv.) have conclusively proved that it is not Passerine, and is 
nearly allied to the MJomotide (Mormot, p. 593) and Alcedinidx 
(KINGFISHER, p. 485), though it should be regarded as forming a 
distinct Family Todidx, 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, 7. 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 
Topus. (After Swainson.) 
1 In Forcellini’s Lewicon (ed. De Vit, 1875) we find ‘‘ Todus genus parvissime 
avis tibias habens perexiguas.” Ducange in his Glossariwm quotes from Festus, 
an ancient grammarian, ‘‘Toda est avis que non habet ossa in tibiis; quare 
semper est in motu, unde Todius (al. Todinus) dicitur ile qui velociter todet 
et movetur ad modum tod, et todere, moveri 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 (Syrws) by 
Plautus, cited by this same Festus. It stands ‘“‘cum extritis [extortis] talis, 
cum todillis [fodinis] crusculis” ; but the passage is held by scholars to be 
corrupt. Among naturalists Gesner in 1555 gave currency (Hist. Anim. iil. 
p. 719) to the word as a substantive, and it is found in Levins’s Manipulus 
Vocabulorum 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 tvrGol, but his view is not accepted. 
The verb federe may perhaps be Englished to ‘‘ toddle”! 
