PURPLE MARTIN. 217 



itj, has consequently a pretty long annual nap in those frozen regions, 

 of eight or nine months, under the ice ! We, however, choose to con- 

 sider him as advancing northerly with the gradual approach of spring, 

 and retiring with his young family, on the first decline of summer, to a 

 more congenial climate. 



The summer residence of this agreeable bird is universally among the 

 habitations of man ; who, having no interest in his destruction, and 

 deriving considerable advantage as well as amusement from his com- 

 pany, is generally his friend and protector. Wherever he comes, he 

 finds some hospitable retreat fitted up for his accommodation and that 

 of his young, either in the projecting wooden cornice — on the top of 

 the roof, or sign post — in the box appropriated to the Blue-bird ; or, 

 if all these be wanting, in the dove-house among the pigeons. In this 

 last case, he sometimes takes possession of one quarter or tier of the 

 premises, in which not a pigeon dare for a moment set its foot. Some 

 people have large conveniences formed for the Martins, with many 

 apartments, which are usually fully tenanted, and occupied regularly 

 every spring ; and in such places, particular individuals have been 

 noted to return to the same box for several successive years. Even the 

 solitary Indian seems to have a particular respect for this bird. The 

 Choctaws and Chickasaws cut off all the top branches from a sapling 

 near their cabins, leaving the prongs a foot or two in length, on each 

 of which they hang a gourd, or calabash, properly hollowed out for 

 their convenience. On the banks of the Mississippi the negroes stick 

 up long canes, with the same species of apartment fixed to their tops, 

 in which the Martins regularly breed. Wherever I have travelled in 

 this country I have seen with pleasure the hospitality of the inhabitants 

 to this favorite bird. 



As superseding the necessity of many of my own observations on 

 this species, I beg leave to introduce in this place an extract of a letter 

 from the late learned and venerable John Joseph Henry, Esq., Judge 

 of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, a man of most amiable manners, 

 which was written to me but a few months before his death, and with 

 which I am happy to honor my performance. — " The history of the 

 Purple Martin of America," says he, "which is indigenous in Pennsyl- 

 vania and countries very far north of our latitude, will, under your 

 control, become extremely interesting. We know its manners, habi- 

 tudes, and useful qualities here ; but we are not generally acquainted 

 with some traits in its character, which in my mind rank it in the class 

 of the most remarkable birds of passage. Somewhere (I cannot now 

 refer to book and page) in Anson's Voyage, or in Dampier, or some 

 other southern voyager, I recollect that the Martin is named as an 

 inhabitant of the regions of southern America, particularly of Chili ; 

 and in consequence from the knowledge we have of its immense emigra- 



