2 PICARIA# 
KEY TO THE GENUS TODUS 
1. — Flanks with more or less pink. 
a. Chest washed with green, moustachial stripe greyish, lores green, abdomen 
pale yellow wy themidale.. . = = 4) 6 ae) evs WRITS. 
b. Chest with a brownish grey wash, moustachial stripe whitish, lores greeit, 
abdomen yellow in the middle. . . . . . . . =. . . . J. VIRIDIS SUBULATUS. 
c. Chest with a clear grey wash, moustachial stripe whitish, lores yellow, 
abdomen wate mthe middle. 1 a) ee ee ek IRI DIS AMUN RICOLOR: 
2. — Flanks without avy pink colour . . . . . =... . . . . . +. JL. VIRIDIS HYPOCHONDRIACUS. 
Characters. I have not had the opportunity to examine the anatomical characters of the 
species of this small family, and therefore reproduce what Sharpe says in Vol. 17 of the Cat. of 
Birds in the British Museum p. 333 (1892) : « The palate is desmognathous, the basipterygoid 
» processe is absent. The sternum with four notches on the posterior margin open and not 
» converted into foramina as in the Womoti. Caeca large. The ambiens muscle is absent and no 
» carotid arteries are present. The spinal feather-tract is well defined on the neck, and is not 
» forked on the back. The oil-gland with well-developed tufts. The foot is anisodactyle. » 
The bill is long, in triangular shape, moderately long, straight and flat and acuminated. 
There are some black bristles near the nostrils before the eyes. The top of the head, the hind 
neck, the back are green in all the species or subspecies. The tail is moderately long, the tail 
feathers, numbering Io, are green above and grey below, and the upper tail coverts are green, 
the under tail coverts yellowish. The throat is carmine or reddish. The chest is pale yellowish, 
greenish or pinkish. The flanks are carmine or yellowish. The secondaries, the primary coverts, 
the greater, median and lesser wing coverts and bastard wings are green, with the underside 
blackish. The foot is anysodactyle, the tarsus is slender, the toes are long and of the same 
thickness as the tarsus. The eyes are very pale grey (Gosse) in 7. viridis. 
Actual nest none, a hole being tunnelled by the birds themselves, at the end of which the 
eggs are deposited. The eggs are four in number and are white. 
Bibliography. Murie, The Ibis, p. 644 (1872). — Sharpe, The Ibis, p. 339 (1874). — Cory, Birds 
of West Indies, p. 164 (1889). — Gosse, Birds of Jamaica (1857). — Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. 
Mus. Vol. 17, p. 333 (1892). — Dubois, Synopsis Avium, Vol. 1, p. 95 (1899). 
Range. This family is entirely confined to the Greater Antilles (Jamaica, S. Domingo, 
GubarePonrtowkico): 4 
GENUs TODUS LINN-ZUS 
Todus Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. Vol. 1, p. 178 (1766) (Type of the genus T. viridis); Sharpe, Cat. Birds 
Brit. Mus. Vol. 17, p. 333 (1892). 
Geographical Distribution. Peculiar to the Greater Antilles (Jamaica, S. Domingo 
and Haiti, Cuba, Porto Rico). One species in four distinct subspecies. 
