152 
TODUS. 
nevertheless so much longer. We know, however, 
that a syndactyle foot, from its giving greater 
breadth to the sole, is much more adapted for 
grasping than one in which all the toes are cleft to 
their origin ; and as this power is called more into 
exertion among the todies than in the flycatchers, 
strictly so termed, we see that their toes are accord- 
ingly more united. Now the pre-eminent type of 
the whole group seems to he the Todus viridis. 
And it is consequently this veiy bird which has the 
most syndactyle foot ; while the strong curvature and 
breadth of its claws would seem to disprove at once 
the assertion that it feeds upon the ground*. No 
bird, out of thousands which we know of, having 
the peculiar sort of claw possessed by the Todus 
viridis, has hitherto proved to he in any way terres- 
trial. On the contrary, their habits, whenever they 
come to light, turn out to he strictly arboreal. Now, 
in proportion as we recede from a type, its distinc- 
tions become less marked ; and hence it is that in 
the black-capped tody the feet are less syndactyle, 
and the claws more like those of a raptorial type. 
The preceding observations on the natural history, 
properly so called, of the todies, chiefly relate to 
the typical examples ; for as to the manners of 
Platyrynchus , and of the aberrant sub-genera, we 
know absolutely nothing. Let us now, therefore, 
consider the group more in detail ; for which pur- 
pose we shall designate the suh-genera as follows : — 
1. Conopopliaya, or short-tailed todies; 2. Platy- 
* Vieillot, Ois. d’Amerique. 
