Nat. Hist, xviii. 1846, p. 120) gives an account of Progne clominicensis in the island of 

 Tobago, from the notes of Mr. Kirk ; hut we believe that the species of Purple Martin 

 inhabiting that island will turn out to be Progne cliahjbea, with which P. clominicensis 

 was confounded by naturalists for a great many years. 



Mr. Gosse gives the following account of the species : — - 



" In Jamaica it is very common, at least in the lowlands and inferior mountain- 

 ranges, during the summer ; some remain with us during the winter, but as there is a 

 very marked diminution of their numbers, I conclude that a large body of them migrate 

 on the approach of that season, probably to Central America. About the end of March 

 we see them in great numbers, assembled early in the morning on the topmost branches 

 of the lofty cotton-trees, which at that season are leafless. On these they crowd so 

 closely, side by side, that I have known five to be killed at one discharge. In the 

 autumn we observe exactly the same habit, and perhaps we may trace some analogy here 

 to those periodical congregations of other species which are known to be connected with 

 migration 



" The Blue Swallow has the same propensity to bring up his family in 



darkness as his purple brother. The stipe of an old palm, whose porous centre decays, 

 while the iron fibres of the exterior remain strong, is his ordinary resort. At the 

 beginning of April, I observed several pairs flying in and out of holes, bored, I suppose, 

 by the Woodpecker, in the stipe of a dead cocoanut still tall and erect, but a mere 

 leafless post, tottering in the breeze and ready to fall. At the middle of May, Sam 

 observed several pairs flying in and out of holes, about two inches in diameter, beneath 

 the eaves of Belmont house. 



" Near the end of June, when on my wav in a coasting-boat from Bluefields to 

 Kingston, I was lying wind-bound in Starvegut Bay. There the inhospitable shore is 

 strewn with immense fragments of limestone rock, honeycombed and fretted into holes, 

 through which the surf breaking furiously, finds vent in perpendicular jets and spouts 

 of water, or iu columns of spray resembling steam from an engine-pipe, accompanied 

 with a crashing roar. Yet I observed with interest that the Blue Swallows were frequent- 

 ing these rocks, and I noticed one repeatedly going in and out of a small hole near the 

 summit of a rugged mass, separated from the shore, and completely isolated from the 

 boiling surf. Lansdown Guilding, in some notes on the Zoology of the Caribbean Islands 

 (Zool. Journ. iii. p. 408), observes: 'We have but few of this family in St. Vincent : 

 among them is a Swallow, which roosts and, I believe, builds in the rock of the sea-shore.' 

 ' It is curious,' he adds, ' to observe the bird in calm weather skimming patiently along the 

 sea in search of insects, evidently ignorant of the fact that they are confined to fresh 

 water, and do not sport on the surface of salt waters.' I cannot agree, however, with 

 this accomplished naturalist here : that the Swallows do occasionally skim over the sea, 

 is undeniable ; and that gnats and other minute insects are also in the habit of frequent- 

 ing the salt water, though not in such numbers as over the fresh ponds and rivers, is no 

 less certain, at least in Jamaica." 



