by William Swainson

“ 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. ”

“ 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." ”

“ 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. ”