272 THE PURPLE .MARTIN. 



finished, but others are quite as carefully built as the one actually occupied. 

 The purpose of this strange habit is unknown, except as it is probable that the 

 male spends the night in one of them. 



No. 119. 



PURPLE MARTIN. 



A. O. U. Xo. 611. Progne subis (Linn.). 



Description. — Adult male: Rich, purplish black, glossy and metallic; wings 

 and tail dead black. Adult female: Similar to male, but blue-black of upper 

 parts restricted and duller; forehead, hind-neck, and lower parts sooty gray, 

 paler on belly and crissum. Bill black, stout, and broad at the base, decurved 

 near tip; nostrils exposed, circular, opening upward; feet moderately stout. 

 Young males: resemble adult female but are somewhat darker, the steely blue 

 appearing at first in patches. Length 7.25-8.50 1 184.2-2 15.9) ; av. of eight Co- 

 lumbus specimens: wing 5.75 (146.1); tail 2.72 (69.1); bill, breadth at bas>' 

 .73 (18.5) ; length from nostril .33 (8.4). 



Recognition Marks. — Chewink size ; the largest of the Swallows ; blue- 

 black, or blue-black and sooty-gray coloration. 



Nest, of leaves, grass, and trash, in some cavity, usually artificial, — bird- 

 boxes, gourds, etc. Eggs, 4-5, rarely 6, pure, glossy white. Av. size, .98 x .73 

 (24.9 x 18.5). 



General Range. — Temperate North America, north to Ontario and the Sas- 

 katchewan, south to the higher parts of Mexico, wintering in South America. 



Range in Ohio. — A common resident of cities and villages; seldom abund- 

 ant, but locally restricted and variable. 



FROM time immemorial the garrulous Martin has enjoyed the hospi- 

 tality of man. Before the advent of the Whites the Indian is said to have 

 prepared for the yearly return of the Martin by trimming the boughs from 

 some saplings hard by the wigwam, and "leaving the prongs a foot or two in 

 length, on each of which he hung a gourd or calabash properly hollowed out" 

 for the birds' accommodation. The white men were quick to follow the ex- 

 ample set, and for many years Martin-houses, some of them quite ornate, have 

 been a familiar feature of village and country places. These artificial quar- 

 ters are exclusively used in the prairie states, but here, where timber has been 

 so abundant, a considerable proportion have either never abandoned the ances- 

 tral fashion of nesting in hollow trees or old Woodpecker holes, or else have 

 been driven hack to it by the English Sparrows. The Martins have suffered 



