348 ON THE ANATOMY OF THE TODIES. 



Momotidae. The chief difference from the former is that in the Alcedi- 

 nidae the intrinsic muscle, often very broad, passes down over the syrin- 

 geal box to be inserted on one or more of the movable bronchial semirings, 

 instead of ceasing before doing so, as in Todus. In Galbula there is a 

 bony box nearly similar to that of Todus, but with its sides more strongly 

 concave below, and produced downwards anteriorly into strongly pro- 

 jecting points ; the lateral muscle only passes on to the lower margin of 

 the box, thus stopping short, as in Todus and Momotus, of the movable 

 bronchial semirings. 



. As regards the pterylosis, there is a strange oversight on the part of 

 Nitzsch * and Murie t as to the condition of the oil-gland, both these 

 observers stating it to be nude. In fact it is, in all the four species of 

 the genus, provided with a very well developed, and even long, tuft of 

 plumes, therein completely differing from that of the Momotidae, in which 

 the tuft is either altogether absent or quite rudimentary J. In both T. 

 viridis and T. dominicensis I count twenty remiges, ten being secondaries ; 

 Nitzsch and Murie give nine, having apparently failed to observe the 

 most proximal, smallest one. Nitzsch's figure of the pterylosis in Todus, 

 having nearly certainly been constructed from an examination of the 

 skins only, is not quite accurate it making the outer pectoral branch to 

 the inferior tract too markedly divergent, and not showing the weaker 

 lines of contour-feathers that run from its apex to the hypopterum. 

 The connexion between the dilated part of the main pectoral tract as it 

 passes on to the breast and the patagial feathering is also made unduly 

 important in his figure, this connexion in reality consisting only of some 

 P. Z. S. 1882, slight, scattered, irregularly-placed contour-feathers lying outside the 

 p. 446. ma i n tract on the surface of the breast, between that tract and the 

 patagial one. 



Concerning the external characters of Todus, I may remark that the 

 structure of the foot, when carefully compared with that of the Momotidae, 

 presents considerable differences. In the first place, the long tarso- 

 metatarse, instead of being covered by distinct transverse scutes anteriorly, 

 and by two or more series of smaller scutella behind, is " ocreate," being 

 invested anteriorly by a single long scute, without any traces of division ; 

 this spreads round both external and internal aspects of the leg, leaving 

 behind a narrow margin of naked skin, with some indication of scutella- 

 tion. The feet (fig. 2) are much more syndactylous than they are in the 

 Momotidae. The second digit is united to the third beyond the first 

 phalanx of each, and the third to the fourth beyond the second joint of 

 the third. In Momotus and its allies (vide fig. 3) the union between the 

 second and third digits only extends for about the basal half of their first 



* ' Pterylography,' Ray Soc. ed. p. 88. 

 | Cf. G-arrod, 1. c. p. 427. 



t L. c. p. 679. 



