442 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



The Todies are very small Kingfisher-like birds with a long, flat- 

 tened, instead of compressed, bill, minutely serrated along the edgesj 

 and a peculiar coloration — bright grass-green above, whitish beneath, 

 with a bright red throat. In habits they are flycatchers, snapping 

 up insects on the wing, then returning to the perch and sitting 

 quietly, with head drawn in, the beak pointing upward, patiently 

 awaiting the near approach of another victim. In their nesting 

 habits, however, they resemble the Kingfishers and Motmots, depos- 

 iting their pure white eggs in holes which they dig in banks of ravines 

 or ditches. 



They are peculiar to the Greater AntiQes, one species being found 

 in Cuba, two in Haiti, one in Jamaica, one in Porto Rico, and another 

 of unknown habitat. They are general favorites with the natives on 

 account of their excessive tameness and pretty plumage, the Jamai- 

 can species being known to the inhabitants as "Robin Redbreast." 



Genus TODUS Brisson. 



Todus Brisson, Orn., iv, 1760, 518. (Type, Alcedo todus Linnaeus.) 



In addition to the characters already given under the heading of 

 Family Todidse the following may be mentioned: 



Very small Anisodactyle Coraciiformes (length about 87-110 mm.) 

 with the much flattened biU nearly half as long as wing, color of 

 upper parts bright green, and throat br^ht red. 



Bill as long as or longer than head (nearly half as long as wing), 

 straight, much depressed (its width at nostrils half as much again 

 as depth at same point), in vertical profile gradually tapering term- 

 inally, with tip more or less broadly rounded; cvdmen distinctly 

 ridged, straight for basal half or more, slightly decurved terminally, 

 the tip of maxilla slightly decvu-ved but not uncinate; gonys nearly 

 to quite twice as long as mandibular rami, nearly straight, very 

 broadly rounded; tomia (especially that of mandible) minutely ser- 

 rate; maxillary tomium without trace of sub terminal notch, not 

 deflected basaUy. Nostril rather large, broadly longitudinally oval, 

 in anterior end of the rather large nasal fossa. Latero-frontal and 

 rictal regions with long and strong antrorse or divaricate bristles, 

 these with distinct lateral barbules in some species, the chin with simi- 

 lar but much smaller bristles; head completely feathered. Wing 

 rather short, much rounded, with fifth to eighth (usually seventh 

 and eighth) primaries longest, ninth shorter than fifth (sometimes 

 shorter than fourth), the tenth (outermost) nearly to more than 

 three-fourths as long as longest. Tail two-thirds to nearly three- 

 foiu-ths as long as wing, slightly rounded, the rectrices rather narrow, 

 with broadly rounded tip. Tarsus nearly as long to decidedly longer 

 than length of bill from nostril, decidedly longer than middle toe with 



