I8i2 THE PIC A RI AN BIRDS 



THE TODIES 

 Family 



Curious little green and red birds, commonly known as todies, constitute the 

 family Todidce, all the members of which are included in the single genus Todiis. 

 They are represented only by five species, four of which respectively inhabit the 

 islands of Cuba, Jamaica, San Domingo, and Porto Rico, while the fifth ( T. pul- 

 cherrimus} has been stated to come from Jamaica, although its real home is still 

 unknown. In these birds the beak is long and flattened, the palate of the desmog- 

 nathous type, the breastbone has four closed perforations on its hinder border, and 

 the oil gland is tufted; while there are twelve tail feathers, and the first toe is pres- 

 ent. The habits of the todies are said to be very much like those of flycatchers, 

 but Mr. Scott states that sometimes they hunt insects in trees and bushes after the 

 manner of the American warblers. He found them to be entirely insect eaters, and 

 no vegetable remains were met with in the stomach of those he has dissected. The 

 todies are becoming rarer in Jamaica, owing to the introduction of the mungoose 

 into the island, as the burrows on which the eggs are laid are very shallow and easily 

 robbed by the animal. Of the Jamaica tody ( T. viridis) Mr. Taylor writes that it 

 ' ' appears to be very generally dispersed throughout the island, and may even be 

 said to be common in most parts. In all localities that I have visited, whether on 

 the mountains at high elevations or among the woods of the plains, it has appeared 

 equally abundant at all seasons. Banks of ravines and gullies, where the fringing 

 forest is of dense and varied but slender growth, hedges with deep banks, woods 

 and thickets bordering many roadways, and especially the steep, narrow bridle paths 

 that wind up the mountain sides, where the banks are high, may be mentioned as 

 some favored haunts. But of all'localities there are few, perhaps, where these birds 

 occur constantly in such numbers, or which offer more .perfect situations for nest- 

 ing, than the gullies before mentioned. Many of these dry water courses that dur- 

 ing prolonged rains become transformed into rushing, impassable torrents, are of 

 considerable extent, and their sandy beds may be traced for miles inland. One 

 gully, in particular, where most of my observations on the habits of the todies have 

 been made, has a wide and tortuous course, and banks that vary in places from low, 

 weed-covered mounds to precipitous cliffs of clay, between ten and twenty feet in 

 height. In their choice of a situation for nesting, the birds are somewhat particu- 

 lar, preference being given to low, overhanging, weed-covered banks, where the soil 

 is light and friable. The tunnels are rarely, if ever, in high situations, but, on the 

 contrary, may frequently be found at the sides of the shallow ditches and hollows 

 that are commonly formed in soft soil during heavy rains. I have often surprised 

 the todies at work. In beginning a tunnel, they cling in an awkward manner to the 

 face of the cliff or bank, fluttering their wings frequently, as if for support. So fai 

 as I have been able to observe, in digging they appear to employ the beak only, and 

 I once took a tody that had almost the entire half or side of the upper mandible 

 worn away; this, however, was during a period of drought, when all vegetation was 



