384 
ALECTORIDES. 
Char. Similar to Gallinula, but form more slender, nostrils small and oval, middle toe shorter 
than the tarsus, and the toes without trace of lateral membrane. Colors very handsome (chiefly 
opaque blue, purple, and green). 
Whether the American species, to which the generic name adopted above is properly applicable, 
are congeneric with the Old World species ( Porphyrio chloronotus, Blyth, nec Yieill.), which is 
the type of the genus Porphyrula, Blyth, is at present uncertain. [Cf. D. G. Elliot: “The 
Genus Porphyrio and its Species separate pamphlet, from “Stray Feathers,” pp. 1-20.] 
There are two American species of this genus, which differ in the following particulars : — 
I. martinica. Lower parts slaty purple in adult, light buff in young. Wing, 6.80-7.50 
inches; culmen, 1.80-1.95; tarsus, 2.20-2.50; middle toe (without claw), 2.25-2.35. 
Hub. Warmer parts of North and South America ; West Indies. 
I. parva . 1 Lower parts pure white at all ages. Wing, 5.00 inches ; culmen, 1.20 ; tarsus, 
1.75 ; middle toe ( with claw), 2.50. Hob. Northern South America (Cayenne and 
Amazons). 
Ionornis martinica. 
THE PURPLE GALLINULE. 
Fulica martinica, Linn. S. N. I. 1766, 259. 
Gallinula, martinica, Lath. Ind. Orn. II. 1790, 769. — Nutt. Man. II. 1834, 221. — Aud. Orn. 
Biog. IV. 1838, 37, pi. 305 ; Synop. 1839, 210 ; B. Am. V. 1842, 128, pi. 303. — Cass, in Baird’s 
B. N. Am. 1858, 753. — Baird, Cat. N. Am. B. 1859, no. 561. 
Porphyrio martinica,, Gosse, Birds Jam. 1847, 377. — Coues, Key, 1872, 275; Check List, 1873, 
no. 473. 
Ionornis martinica, Reicii. Av. Syst. 1853, 21. — I! mow. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. Vol. 3, 1881, 202, 
227 ; Nom. N. Am. B. 1881, no. 578. — Coues, Check List, 2d ed. 1882, no. 685. 
Fulica martinicensis, Jacq. Beitr. 1784,12, pi. iii. — Gmel. S. N. I. ii. 1788, 700. 
Fulica flavirostris, Gmel. S. N. I. ii. 1788, 699. 
Porphyrio tavona, Vieill. Gal. Ois. II. 1825, 170. 
“ Porphyrio cyanicollis, Vieill.” 
Gallinula porphyrio, Wils. Am. Orn. IN. 1824, 69, pi. 73. 
Porphyrio americanus, Swains. Classif. B. II. 1837, 357. 
Martinico Gallinule, Lath. Synop. III. i. 1785, 255, pi. 83. 
Hab. The whole of tropical and warm -temperate America, south to Brazil ; north, casually, 
to Massachusetts, Maine, New York, Ohio, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Missouri ; Bermudas, and 
throughout West Indies. Not recorded from any part of the Western United States. 
1 Ionornis parva (Bodd.). 
La Favorite, de Cayenne, Buff. PI. Enl. 897. 
Fulica, parva, Bonn. Tabl. P. E. 1783 (ex PI. Enl. 897). — Gallinula parva, Schleg. — Por- 
phyrio parvus, Scl. & Salv. P. Z. S. 1868, 460, fig. 
Gallinula flavirostris, Gmel. S. N. I. 1788, 699. — Glauccstcs flavirostris, Reichenb. 
