6O THE CHICAGO ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



Porzana jamaicensis BATED, Lit. Rec. & Jour. Linn. Assoc. Penn. 



Coll., 1845, 257. 

 Popular synonym: LITTLE BLACK RAIL. 



A very rare summer resident. Mr. E. W. Nelson says re- 

 garding the occurrence of this species in our region :* "During 

 the spring of 1875 I saw three specimens in the Calumet Marshes. 

 The first was observed early in May. On the nineteenth of June, 

 the same season, while collecting with me near the Calumet 

 River, Mr. Frank DeWitt, of Chicago, was fortunate enough to 

 discover a nest of this species containing ten freshly laid eggs. 

 The nest was placed in a deep cup-shaped depression in a per- 

 fectly open- situation on the border of a marshy spot, and its 

 only concealment was such as a few straggling carices afforded. 

 It is composed of soft grass blades loosely interwoven in a cir- 

 cular manner. The nest, in shape and construction, looks much 

 like that of the meadow lark. The eggs are a creamy-white 

 instead of clear white, as I stated in a recent article (Bull. Nutt. 

 Orn. Club, Vol. I, p. 43), and average i.oo by .81 inches. They 

 are nearly perfectly oval, and are thinly sprinkled with fine red- 

 dish-brown dots, which become larger and more numerous at 

 one end. Minute shell markings in the form of dots are also 

 visible. Owing to the small diameter of the nest the eggs were 

 in two layers." 



The range of the Black Rail covers North America from 

 Massachusetts, northern Illinois, Nevada and California, south- 

 ward through Central America and western South America to 

 Chili. It is also found in the West Indies. 



Genus IONORNIS Reichenbach, 1852. 



lonornis martinica (Linnasus). Purple Gallinule. 



Fulica martinica, LINNAEUS, S. N., ed. 12, I, 1766, 259. 



Gallinula martinica LATH. 1790. 



Porphyrio martinica GOSSE, Birds Jam., 1874, 377. 



Jonornis martinica REICHENBACH, Av. Syst., 1852, p. XXI. 



Popular synonyms: BLUE COOT. BLUE PETEB. BLUE MUD-HEN. 



The Purple Gallinule is essentially a southern species, and the 

 only record I have found of its occurrence within our limits is 

 that of a male specimen taken by Mr. C. N. Holden, at Lake View, 

 Chicago, in May, 1886. Mr. E. W. Nelson says that Dr. Hoy 

 informed him of its capture at Racine, Wisconsin. 



*Birds of Northeastern Illinois. Bull, of the Essex Institute, Vol. VIII, 1876, 134. 



