ON THE ANATOMY OF THE TODIES. 



349 



phalanges, and that of the third and fourth for about half the second 

 phalanx of the former. The feet of Todus resemble rather those of the 

 Kingfishers, though the syndactylism has advanced further than in these 

 birds. The position of the hallux is quite normal, it being directed 



Fig. 2. 



Fig. 3. 



Foot of Todus dominicensis. 



Foot of Momotus lessoni. 



p. 447. 



altogether backwards, not largely inwards, as imagined by Dr. Murie. 

 The nostrils have a well-defined circular aperture ; they lie, unconcealed 

 by the frontal plumes, close to the culmen. Behind them, and extending 

 back as far as the gape, is a well-developed series of rictal vibrissae, 

 directed downwards and forwards. Another smaller patch of similar 

 vibrissae, but directed upwards, springs, as in Steatornis, from the inter- 

 ramal skin of the lower jaw just behind the mandibular symphysis. 



Dr. Murie has so elaborately described the osteology of Todus viridis 

 that I have not much to add to his account. 



In the two skeletons of that species which I possess the manubrium P. Z. S.J882, 

 sterni is distinctly bifurcated, therein departing from the Momotidae and 

 reminding one of the Passeres, and of Merops, Harpactes, &c. 



Careful examination of the skull of that species, as well as of one of 

 Todus dominicensis, has shown me that the lower edge of the nasal 

 septum is, for its entire extent, free from the inner edges of the maxillo- 

 palatine plates, a narrow fissure existing on each side between it and 

 them, along which it is possible, with care, to pass the blade of a fine 

 scalpel. In the Motmots (of which I have examined skulls of the genera 

 Momotus, Barypliihengus, and Hylomanes) the maxillo-palatines, though 

 apposed to each other in the middle line, do not actually ankylose for 

 the greater part of their length ; so that if the skull be cut across trans- 

 versely behind the line of union, and the maxillo-palatines with their 

 connected bones separated from the rest of the skull, the two lateral 



