11 



Several specimens were procured by Mr. Gaumer in the Island of Cozumel in May, 

 and Messrs. Salvin and Godnian state that they have received a specimen from British 

 Honduras from Mr. Blancaneaux. They did not procure the species in Guatemala, and 

 we believe that the above records constitute all the occurrences in Central America. 

 Nor does it appear to visit the Antilles, unless we except the island of Cuba, where, 

 according to Mr. Cory, P. cryptoleuca is found. We have, however, never ourselves seen 

 a specimen from this island. 



The Purple Martin of North America winters in the continent of South America, 

 apparently in Brazil. It has never been found in British Guiana, but specimens are in 

 the British Museum from Bahia and Para, while Natterer met with the species at Barra 

 do Rio Negro, from December to February, again at Manaqueri in December, and also 

 at Pernambuco and Bio de Janeiro. 



What the species recorded by Tschudi as common on the coast of Peru (cf. Tacz. 

 Orn. Perou, i. p. 236) can be, we are unable to say. 



The following is Dr. Brewer's account of the habits of the Purple Martin, as given 

 by him in the ' History of North-American Birds ' : — 



" The Purple Martin is emphatically a bird common to the whole of North America. 

 It breeds from Florida to high northern latitudes, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. 

 It is very abundant in Florida, as it is in various other parts of the country further 

 north, and the large flocks of migrating birds of this species which pass through Eastern 

 Massachusetts the last of September attest its equal abundance north of the latter State. 

 It occurs in Bermuda, is resident in the Alpine region of Mexico, and is also found at 

 Cape St. Lucas. Accidental specimens have been detected in England and in Ireland. 

 It is abundant on the Saskatchewan. Burmeister states that this species is common in 

 the vicinity of Bio de Janeiro, and that it is distributed in moderate abundance through 

 the whole of tropical South America. Von Pelzeln also cites it as occurring on the Rio 

 Negro and at Manaqueri through the three winter months, nesting in old buildings and 

 in holes in the rocks. It is, however, quite possible that he refers to an allied but 

 distinct species. 



" In a wild state the natural resort of this species, for nesting and shelter, was to 

 hollow trees and crevasses in rocks. The introduction of civilized life, and with it other 

 safer and more convenient places, better adapted to their wants, has wrought an entire 

 change in its habits. It is now very rarely known to resort to a hollow tree, though it 

 will do so where better provision is not to be had. Comfortable and convenient boxes, of 

 various devices in our cities and large towns, attract them to build in small communities 

 around the dwellings of men, where their social, familiar, and confiding disposition 

 makes them general favourites. There they find abundance of insect food, and repay 

 their benefactors by the destruction of numerous injurious and noxious kinds, and there, 

 too, they are also comparatively safe from their own enemies. These conveniences vary 

 from the elegant Martin-houses that adorn private grounds in our Eastern cities to the 

 ruder gourds and calabashes which are said to be frequently placed near the humbler 



