BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 31 



paler, tlu' former more broken by i)aler ti[>s to tlie featlnTs, less 

 strongly contrasted with white of abdomen. 



Progne chalybea, adult male and female and young (pp. 40,41)" 

 '<■. I Miler parts entirely sooty brown (except, sometimes, for Avhitish, but not 

 pure white, margins to feathers. 

 (/. Win^ more tlian 130; feathers of under j)arts broadly margined with paler. 



Progne furcata, ailult female and young. 

 dd. Wing less than 130 (usually less than 125); feathers of under parts with 

 very indistinct, if any, paler margins. 



Progne modesta, adult female and young (p. 43) 



PROGNE SUBIS SUBIS (Linnaeus). 

 • PTTRPLE MARTIN. 



Adult male. — Uniform glossj' violaceous steel blue (the feathers 

 dark sooty g"ray lienoath the surface, ])ecoining* black next to the steel 

 l)hie or violaceous tip); lesser and middle wino-coverts gdoss}" dark 

 violaceous steel l)lue, the feathers darker centrally; rest of wings, and 

 tail, dull black, or sooty black; a concealed tuft of white feathers on 

 sides of lower Inick and opposite to this another on upper margin of 

 sides; bill black; iris brown; legs and feet dark brown or brownish 

 black; length (skins), 170-204 (1S-1:.5); wing, 139-153 (146.3); tail, 

 68.5-78 (73.9); exposed culmen, 10.5-12.5 (J 1.6); width of bill at 

 frontal antite, 7.5-9 (8.5); tarsus, 14-16.5 (15.1); middle toe, 15-17 

 (15.7); depth of fork of tail. 15-21.5 (18.8).^ 



Adult fi'iiiale. — Above nuich duller and less uniform violaceous 

 steel blue than in adidt male, the sooty gray of basal portion of 

 feathers more or less exposed; forehead (sometimes forepart of crown 

 also) more or less distinctly and extensively sooty gray, the feathers 

 of the anterior portion of the forehead being grayish with small 

 central, mostly concealed, spots of dusky, those of the posterior 

 portion with the dusky centers larger and the grayish margins 

 narrower; lores and auricular region dusky, the latter glossed with 

 violaceous steel blue; sides of neck light grayish, the hindneck 

 usually crossed ))v a dull sootj^ grayish band or collar, these usually 

 indistinct, sometimes obsolete; chin, throat, chest, sides, and flanks 

 sooty gray. th(^ feathers of throat and ch<\st margined with i)aler, 

 producing a more or less distinctly s(]uamate appearand^ breast, abdo- 



of adult females of P. crt/ptoleuca and P. dominicensis are practically identical, and 

 inosculate with those of /*. chah/hea; therefore, those that are given in the above key 

 are intended only as a sort of clue in identifying specimens. 



"A southern representative, Progne chnlybea domextica, occurring in southern 

 lirazil, Paraguay, and Argentina, differs chiefly if not only in larger size. {Ifirnndo 

 domrsticd Vieillot, Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat., xiv, 1817, 520.— Plnxjui-] donieMicn 

 <jray, (ten. Birds, i, 1845, 59. — Progne domcstira Baird, Review Am. Birds, 1865, 284, 

 footnote; Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., x, 1885, 177; Sharpe and Wyatt, Mon. 

 Ilirmul., 1804, 460. — /'cnr/z/c rliidiihni dniinxlirn l*,erle]wh, Jonrii. fiir Orn., iSS7, 5.) 



'' Thirty-si.\ specimens. 



