Tonus. 
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 suhgcnera, 
Platystera, the whole are natives of Tropical America, 
where,in conjunction with the tyrant flycatchers, or rather 
shrikes, they represent the true 
Muscicapido! of the Old World. 
The todies (Jig. 14(5. a) have 
the bill equally depressed with 
that of the true flycatchers (6), 
but it is considerably longer, and, 
instead of being triangtdar, it is 
boat-shaped : the wings are so 
short and rounded as to he obviously incapable of any 
other than the most feeble flight ; while the legs, which, 
in the Muscicapee, are so very short, are here much 
lengthened. Although the toes are equally small, and 
imperfectly developed, this great difference of organis- 
ation in the organs of locomotion carries with it a 
corresponding diversity of habits. The tocUes, 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, ai)pear to hop aliout 
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 .mhgenera, 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 hill 
atill 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 
G 3 
