TODUS. 85 
(98.) The restricted genus Todus is at once dis- 
criminated from the last by having directly opposite 
characters. With the exception of one of its subgenera, 
Platystera, the whole are natives of Tropical America, 
where, in conjunction with the tyrant flycatchers, orrather 
shrikes, they represent the true 
Muscicapide of the Old World. 
The todies (fig. 146. a) have 
the bill equally depressed with 
that of the true flycatchers (6), 
but it is considerably longer, and, 
instead of being triangular, it is 
boat-shaped: the wings are so 
short and rounded as to be obviously incapable of any 
other than the most feeble flight ; while the legs, which, 
in the Muscicape, are so very short, are here much 
lengthened. Although the toes are equaily small, and 
imperfectly developed, this great difference of organis- 
ation in the organs of locomotion carries with it a 
corresponding diversity of habits. The todies, so much 
restricted in their powers of flight, depend more upon 
their legs than their wings. Such of the Brazilian 
species as we occasionally met with, appear to hop about 
among the slender branches of trees, something in the 
manner of titmice, hanging from the twigs, and occasion- 
ally making a short flitting with their wings, for about 
two or three feet, to capture an insect that attempted to 
escape ; but how far this habit is shared by the majority 
of the genus future observations must determine. 
(99.) The subgenera, or types of form, intimately cor- 
respond to those in the last genus: this assertion we shall 
elsewhere endeavour to establish, by the most complete 
analysis that has ever been bestowed upon an ornitholo- 
gical group. We have only space, however, in this 
work, to enumerate their names and some few of their 
peculiarities. In the first, which is Lepturus, the bill 
still retains much of that triangular shape characteristic 
of a flycatcher ; but the legs are remarkably long and 
the wings uncommonly short. This type is connected to 
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