514 BIBDS — RALLID^. 



Giaros POEPHTEIO. Temminck. 

 Toes without marginal membrane. Nostrils oval. 



PoBPHYBio MABTiNicA (L.) Temm. 



Piurple Gt-aUinule. 



eallinula marHnioa, Whbaton, Ohio Agric. Eep. for 1860, 369, 378 ; Reprint, 1861, 11, 20, 

 Porphyria martinica, Whbaton, Bnll. Nntt. Orn. Club, ii, 1877, 83.— Langdoh, Cat. 

 Birds of Cin., 1877, 16; Revised List, Jonrn. Cin. Soo. Nat. ffist., i, 1879, 184; Re- 

 print, 18. 



Head, neck and nnder-parts beautiful purplish-blue, blackening on the belly, the cris- 

 snm white; above olivaceous-green, the cervix and wing-coverts tinted with blue^ 

 frontal shield blue ; bill red, tipped with yellow ; legs yellowish. Young with the head, 

 neck and lower back brownish, the under-parts mostly white, mixed with oohrey. 

 Length, 10-12 ; wing, 6J-7 ; tail, 2J-3 ; bill from gape, about li ; tarsus, about 2J ; mid- 

 dle toe and claw, about 3. 



Habitat, South Atlantic and Gulf Statss, north casually to New England. (Maine. 

 Nova Scotia), 



Bare in spring. The Purple Grallinule was given in my Catalogue 

 of Ohio Birds (1861) and afterward omitted from a subsequent list for 

 reasons below stated. Mr. Langdon restores it to its place with abundant 

 authority as follows : 



" Dr. Hunt informs me of the capture of this Species near the month of the Big Miami 

 Biver, on March 31, 1877 "; and further in foot note, " Two specimens of the Purple 

 Gallinule have since been taken at Madisonville, one by the writer in the latter part of 

 April, and another by Mr. WUliam H. Whetsel, early in May. Mr. John W. Shorten also 

 reports one killed May Ist, at Jones' Station, Ohio (about thirty miles from Cincinnati), 

 by J. H. Kelly, Esq. 



" Being a species of rare occurrence so far north, the capture of four specimens here in 

 one season is worthy of note." 



In the Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological Club, July, 1877, I had 

 the pleasure of recording another specimen as follows : 



' ' I have just received ftom my friend. Dr. Howard E. Jones, a fine sMn of the Purple 

 Gallinule {Porpkyrio martinita), killed by him at Circleville, Ohio, May 10, 1877. This 

 bird' is now recorded for the first time on unimpeachable authority, as a visitor of the 

 State. Dr. Jones tells me that it has been seen before in the vicinity of Circleville. In 

 my Catalogue of the Birds of Ohio ("Ohio Agric. Rep. 1860), it was inserted on what I 

 afterwards discovered to be insufficient authority, and for that reason it was omitted 

 from a subsequent list (Food of Birds, etc., 1875). I have several times been favored 

 with reports, and once or twice with skins, presumed to be of this species, which proved, 

 however, to be those of the Florida Gallinule, which is not a rare summer resident 

 thionghont the State." 



I have no authentic account of the eggs of this species, nor of it& breed- 

 ing in the State. Careful observation will be necessary to determine 

 whe^er its occurrence here, in such numbers as the above notes would 

 indicate, is exceptional or regular. 



