Grey-breasted martin
The grey-breasted martin is a large swallow from Central and South America.
Taxonomy
In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the grey-breasted martin in the second volume of his Ornithologie based on a specimen collected in Cayenne, French Guiana. He used the French name L'hirondelle de Cayenne and the Latin name Hirundo Cayanensis. Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. The grey-breasted martin was subsequently described by the French polymath, the Comte de Buffon, in 1779 and by the English ornithologist John [Latham (ornithologist)|John Latham] in 1783. Latham used the English name "Chalybeate swallow" but neither Buffon nor Latham introduced a scientific name.The German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin included the grey-breasted martin when he revised and expanded Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae in 1789. He placed it with the swallows in the genus Hirundo and coined the binomial name Hirundo chalybea. The specific epithet chalybea is Latin meaning "steely". The grey-breasted martin is now one of nine species placed in the genus Progne that was introduced in 1826 by the German zoologist Friedrich Boie.
The three subspecies and their distributions are:P. c. chalybea – Nominate subspecies#Nominotypical [subspecies and subspecies autonyms|nominate], breeds from Mexico through Central America south to central Brazil, and on TrinidadP. c. warneri Phillips, A.R., 1986 – found in western MexicoP. c. macrorhamphus Brooke, 1974 – breeds further south in South America to central Argentina
The southern subspecies migrates north as far as Venezuela during the southern hemisphere's winter, and the nominate form also undertakes local movements after the breeding season.