2 



THE GREEN TODY. 



Baron Cuvier's description is, " Fine green above ; yellowish white 

 beneath ; throat with a red spot ; four inches in length." " It will be 

 always easy," says M. Montbeillard, " to distinguish the bird ; for, 

 besides the peculiarity in the bill, the upper side of the body in the 

 male is of a dilute blue, and the under side rose-coloured ; and, in the 

 female, the back is of a line green, and the rest of the plumage similar 

 to that of the male. In both, the bill is reddish, but lighter below 

 and browner above ; the legs are grey, and the claws long and hooked. 

 The bird feeds on insects and small worms, and inhabits wet and 

 sequestered spots." Professor Ranzani mentions that the bill changes 

 its colour after death, being " in the living bird, reddish above and 

 brown yellow beneath ; in the dead bird, the upper mandible brownish 

 red, the tip clear reddish brown, the under mandible yellowish." It 

 is probable, I think, that a similar change of colour may occur in the 

 legs and feet. This accounts for Latham describing the " upper 

 mandible brown, the lower orange ; " but he seems only to have seen a 

 female, which he mistook for a male. 



The accounts given of the nest and eggs differ considerably. M. 

 Chervain says, " that, in the pairing season, the male has a feeble 

 though pleasant warble. The female builds her nest on the dry 

 ground, and preferably on the friable mould, and for that reason these 

 birds choose the ravines and water gullies. They often nestle also in 

 the low galleries of houses, yet always on the ground. They make an 

 excavation with their bill and claws, give it a round form, hollow out 

 the bottom, and place pliant straws, dry moss, cotton, and feathers, 

 which they artfully arrange. They lay four or five eggs, which are 

 grey and spotted with deep yellow" M. Ranzani follows this account. 



M. Vieillot again says it makes its nest of dry grass and moss, 

 feathers, cotton, and other soft materials within, laying three or four 

 blue eggs, the size of those of the redstart. i 



M. Drapiez says, " it establishes its nest in the ground, or rather 

 in the crumbly earth on the edges of ravines, at such a height as may 

 not endanger it from inundations, and that the cradle of the young 

 family may be perfectly sheltered from the rain. This nest, or rather 

 subterranean lodging, exhibits a rounded apartment, to which the 

 approach is by a winding gallery. The lining of the nest consists of 

 bits of straw covered with down, upon which the female lays four or 

 five eggs of a grey colour spotted with brownish" 



Prince Maximilian, of Neuwied, says the bird is not uncommon in 

 Brazil, where it makes a conical bag-shaped nest, composed of wool, 



