344 
Mr. R. B. Sharpe on the Genus Todus. 
XXXVII.— On the Genus Todus. By R. Bowdler Sharpe, 
F.L.S., F.Z.S., &c., Senior Assistant, Zoological Depart¬ 
ment, British Museum. 
(Plate XIII.) 
The discovery of an apparently new species of Todus is an 
event of some interest; and I am indebted to Mr. Henry 
Whitely, of Woolwich, for the specimen which first set me 
working on this genus. It is certainly the most beautiful 
species yet known, and apparently undescribed. The col¬ 
lection in which it came to England was said to have been 
sent direct from Jamaica; but, although the bulk of the birds 
were undoubtedly from that island, it may be doubted whether 
there is any corner so little explored as to produce a new 
Todus and the curious Phyllomanes iora , lately described by 
me from the same collection. 
In order to assure myself that the new bird had not received 
a name, I set to work to revise the whole genus; and I com¬ 
mence by detailing its literary history. Happily the genus 
Todus has had a comparatively uneventful career, no worse 
luck having befallen it than a constant bandying backwards 
and forwards from the Tyrannidse to the neighbourhood of 
the Momotidae; but it seems to have now settled down near 
the latter family. Its few species have not been determined 
without the greatest confusion as regarded their habitats, the 
chief offender being Lesson, who called the Todus from Porto 
Rico T. mexicanus, and gave the title of portoricensis to the 
Cuban species. This complication I have endeavoured to 
unravel in the second portion of this paper. 
1760. Brisson first characterizes the genus Todus (Orn. 
iv. p. 528), and takes the description of the type from an ex¬ 
ample in the collection of the Marquis de Reaumur, said to 
have been collected in Martinique by M. Thibault de Chan- 
valon. The figure given (pi. xli. fig. 2) is by no means good, 
not showing the red gorget; but the description, as far as it 
can be interpreted, seems to suit best the San-Domingo bird, 
and not the Jamaican species. 
1766. Linnaeus in his f Systema Naturae ’ (p. 178) adopts 
