514 BIRDS—RALLIDA. 
¥ GENUS PORPHYRIO. Temminck. 
Toes without marginal membrane. Nostrils oval. 
PORPHYRIO MARTINICA (L.) Temm. 
Purple Gallinule. 
Gallinula martinica, WHEATON, Ohio Agric. Rep. for 1860, 369, 378; Reprint, 1861, 11, 20. 
Porphyrio martinica, WHEATON, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, ii, 1877, 63.—LANGDON, Cat. 
Birds of Cin., 1877, 16; Revised List, Journ. Cin. Soc. Nat. Hist., i, 1879, 184; Re- 
print, 18. 
Head, neck and under-parts beautiful purplish-blue, blackening on the belly, the cris- 
sum 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 ochrey. 
Length, 10-12; wing, 64-7; tail, 24-3; bill from gape, about 14; tarsus, about 24; mid- 
dle toe and claw, about 3. 
Habitat, South Atlantic and Gulf States, north casually to New England. (Maine. 
Nova Scotia). 
Rare in spring. The Purple Gailinule was given in my Catalogue 
of Ohio Birds (1861) and afterward omitted from a subsequent list for 
reasons below stated. Mr. Langdon restores it toits place with abundant 
authority as follows: 
‘¢ Dr. Hunt informs me of the capture of this Species near the mouth of the Big Miami 
River, 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. William 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: 
‘‘T¥ have just received from my friend, Dr. Howard EK. Jones, a fine skin of the Purple 
Gallinule (Porphyrio martinica), killed »y him at Circleville, Ohio, May 10, 1877, This 
bird is now recorded for the first time on unimpeachable authority, as a visitor ef 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), ii was inserted on what I 
afterwards discovered te be insufficient authority, and for that reason it was omitted 
from a subsequent list (Food of Birds, ete., 1875). I have several times been favored 
with reports, and once or twice withskins, presumed to be of this species, which proved, 
however, to be those of the Florida Gallinule, which is not a rare summer resident 
throughout the State.” 
I have no authentic account of the eggs of this species, nor of its breed- 
ing in the State. Careful observation will be necessary to determine 
whether its occurrence here, in such numbers as the above notes would 
indicate, is exceptional or regular. 
