170 



RALLIDiE. 



The Purple Gallinule {Porphyrio ccernleiis), and the 

 Green-backed Gallinule (P. smaragdonotus) , have both been 

 captured several times in the British Islands. The former 

 inhabits the swamps of North Africa, the Caspian, and the 

 marshes of the islands and the northern shores of the 

 Mediterranean, and has once occurred in Germany; the 

 latter is essentially an African species, and a doubtful 

 straggler even to Sardinia and Sicily. Both species are 

 frequently kept in confinement in this country, and as many 

 of the individuals captured can be clearly proved to have 

 escaped, it seems reasonable to assume that the others were 

 not genuine migrants. 



The Martinique Gallinule {Porphyrio martinicus), a 

 common species in Tropical America, is stated by Thompson 

 (Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist, xviii. p. 311), to have once 

 occurred on the south-west coast of Ireland. 



