Birds and Birding's Guide to:

Watching THE ROLLER-LIKE BIRDS

THE ROLLERS AND THEIR ALLIES

THE MOTMOTS AND TODIES

Todies Nesting

The burrows run horizontally and to a considerable depth, but invariably (so far as my experience goes) turn at right angles at a few inches from the entrance. The tunnel terminates in a somewhat rounded cell, where upon a little heap or bed of fine soft earth, without any lining whatever, the eggs are laid.”The number of eggs in this, as with the other forms, appears to be three or four. Of the tameness of the Cuban Tody, Mr. Taylor adds that it”seems rather the tameness of indifference than of confidence.

I have accomplished the capture of specimens with a butterfly net at different times with little difficulty, and frequently a Tody has permitted so near an approach that I have been tempted to put out my hand in the hope of taking it.”They keep much in pairs, if not constantly, at least for the greater part of the year, and appear to wander but little,”returning constantly to the same twig, where they will patiently sit and watch, with head drawn in and beak pointing obliquely upward, the plumage much puffed out, the wings meanwhile being flirted by a continuous, rapid, vibratory movement.”

It is to be regretted that in many localities these engaging little birds are becoming rare, due in large measure to the introduction of the mungoose, which seeks the burrows, destroying the eggs and young as well as the old birds.

The various species of Tody are, with possibly one exception, confined in distribution to separate islands of the Greater Antilles. Thus the Green Tody (T. viridis) inhabits Jamaica, the Cuban Tody (T. multicolor) of course the island of that name, while other species are limited to Santo Domingo (T. subulatus and T. dominicensis) and Porto Rico (T.hypochondriacus),with one (T. pulcherrimus) of unknown habitat, but presumed to be from Jamaica. To give some idea of the beautiful appearance of these little birds, the following description maybe given of the Green Tody, or Robin, as it is locally called.

Only three and seven tenths inches long, the entire upper surface is bright grass-green, the wings blackish, the chin white, and the throat crimson, passing below into white washed with yellow, while the sides of the breast are green and the flanks ornamented by a tuft of pink feathers. Finally, mention may be made of a peculiar whirring noise made by the birds in flight, produced, it is said, by the attenuate outer primary.

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