THE 



WILSON BULLETIN 



A QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF 

 ORNITHOLOGY 



Vol. IX. DECEMBER, 1902. No. 4. 



THE CUBAN TODY (Todus multicolor). 

 JOHN W. DANIEL, JR. 



One of the most interesting birds to be met with in Cuba 

 is the Cuban Tody (Todus multicolor). A fiycatching, 

 kingfisher-like species, it leads the life of a Passerine bird, 

 yet its relationships are not in keeping with its perching 

 habits. It is an unusual bird in coloration, form, and habit. 

 Flat mandibles and fiycatching habits at one time caused 

 the family to which it belongs to be classed with the Fly- 

 catchers, but its affinities are now recognized as with the 

 Motmots and Kingfishers. Strange, quaint little birds that 

 they are, the Todies in more than one sense are peculiar, 

 in view of the fact that of all the birds of the West Indies, 

 the family Todidae is the only one not occuring elsewhere, 

 its six species being confined to the Greater Antilles, a 

 separate species upon each island. While there are now 

 no species upon the mainland which closely approach them 

 in form, it is safe to surmise that there was, in earlier times, 

 a mainland branch of the family which has long since 

 perished in the rigor of the continental struggle for exist- 

 ence while the insular species have survived under more 

 favorable conditions of habitat. 



Throughout Cuba the Tody is an abundant species. 



