Zoological Illustrations Series II/Plate 66



This singular little bird has long excited the particular attention of those naturalists who study the affinities of groups, more than the details of species. It is a native of the West Indian Islands, and although stated to be not uncommon, the accounts given of its manners are perfectly contradictory. One author asserts that it is almost always seen upon the ground, from whence it receives the name of Perroquet de Terre: another, that it only frequents the "lonely part of moist places" (woods?), where it sits in a couched manner, with its head thrown considerably back, and is so stupid, as almost to be taken by the hand. M. Vieillot confirms part of the latter particulars, although he repeats, without denying, the former. In our opinion the last is entitled to the most credance, although it is contradictory to the idea of this being a terrestial bird.

We cannot but feel surprise and regret, that the "very interesting account" of this bird, long ago announced (Zool. Journ. Dec. 1827. p. 439), as having been sent from Cuba, by Mr. Macleay, to the Linnean Society, should still be unknown to the scientific world. There is, indeed, a valuable paper by this gentleman on certain birds of Cuba, in the first part of the sixteenth Vol. of the Society's Transactions, where its author alludes to the "description and anatomy of two birds" (p. 12) both of which are nevertheless omitted: The Todus viridis, we apprehend is truly "one of those solitary species," which, as Mr. Macleay observes, "from having been neglected, may serve to unfold an exception, sufficient to destroy the most plausible system." For ourselves, we shall feel much surprised if this bird is entitled, in the slightest degree, to a station among the Fissirostres, in which order it has been placed by M. Vigors, in his paper "On the Natural affinities of Birds."