678 



APPENDIX. [No. V. 



eastern to the western shores ; it does not remain in the colder parts in the winter, 

 but migrates southward. It is met with in the islands of the New World under the 





tropics, and even extends itself to the southern continent, living on the banks and 

 shores of rivers. From the different states of plumage of this bird, a number, to 

 the extent of four varieties, as they are erroneously called, have been described or 

 figured. If we can depend on the accuracy of Wilson, which is rarely questionable, 

 those with ferruginous markings on the breast, and where the upper plumage is 

 spotted, are females ; the other varieties are probably immature birds. It is 

 sometimes exposed for sale in the markets of America, and, when fat, is good eating. 



* 



Wilson's description is correct ; it is the only perfect one of the male, for Brisson, 

 Linnaeus, Latham, and Pennant, describe only the female ; some of these authors 

 also err much in their account of the size of the bird. The figures in the Planches 

 Enluminees, and in Edwards, are either females or immature* Wilson's also is a 

 female ; so that the male does not appear to have been represented. The species is 

 not mentioned, either in Hearne's Voyage, or by Forster, in the Catalogue of the 

 Hudson's Bay birds, in the Philosophical Transactions for 1772. Our specimen is 

 that of a male ; it is rather more than twelve inches long, and has a narrow slate- 

 coloured belt across its breast, without any ferruginous colour on its under parts, 

 which are white, with the exception of some markings of slate colour on the sides 

 under the wings. The bill seems to vary in its length; Wilson makes it three 

 inches ; in the present specimen it is only two inches and a half. 



Hirundo Purpurea. Purple Martin. 



This bird, which, in size and rapidity of flight, approaches the Swift, has the 

 habits and manners of the House Martin (H. Urbica), and seems equally to have 

 attached the favour of the Americans, to whom the European bird is unknown. 

 It is probably the Swallow of Hearne. The Martins breed generally over the whole 

 of North America, and retire, it is supposed, within the tropics in the winter. They 



May 



5 



retire later in the more southern districts. The male, of which alone a specimen 

 was received, is an uniform glossy black ; the female is more brown, with dingy 

 white on its under parts. Latham, in his Synopsis, had described it as the Violet 

 Swallow, Purple Swallow, and Canada Swallow ; but in his Index he brought these 

 names together under Hirundo Purpurea. The food of this bird is a much larger 

 class of winged insects than its congeners destroy with us. 



Hirundo Viridis. White-bellied Martin. 



peculiar 



Wilson 



Its habits and manners are somewhat similar to the House Martin 



