IIIRUNDINID^. — PROGNE PURPUKEA. 103 



one end. The ground color is -white, with a few sub-markings of a grayish color, 

 but without any of the usual shadings of purple. It is spotted, chiefly at the larger 

 end, with scattered markings of a burnt terra-sienna color. 



PROGNE PURPUREA. 



Hirundo purpurea, Linn. Syst. Nat. I, 1766, 344. 



" Wilson, Am. Orn. V, 1812, 58, pi. .\x.\ix, figs. 2 and 3. 



" " BoNAP. Syn. 1828, p. 64. 



" " Sabine, Franklin's Journ. p. 678. 



Rich. & Swains. F. B. A. II, 1831, 335. 

 AuD. Orn. Biog. I, 1832, 115 ; V, 408 ; pi. .xxii. 

 " " NuTTALL, Manual, I, 1832, 598. 



II, 1834, 608. 

 " " AuD. Syn. 1839, p. 34. 



" " " Birdsof Am. I, 1840, 170, pi. xlv. 



" " De Kay, Nat. Hist. N. Y., Birds, 1844, pi. xxviii, fig. 61. 



Hirundo violacea, Gmelin, Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 1026. 



Hirundo candea, Vieill. Ois. d'Am. Sept. I, 1807, 57, pis. xxvi and xxvii. 

 Hirundo versicolor, Vieill. Nouv. Diet. XIV, 1817, 309. 

 Hirundo ludoviciana, Cuvier, Eeg. An. I, 1817, 374. 

 Progne purpurea, Bonap. Geog. and Comp. List, 1838, p. 8. 



Cassin, Syn. N. A. Birds (Illust. Birds of Cal.), 1854, p. 245. 

 VuLG. — The Martin. The Purple Martin. The House Martin. Great American Martin 

 (Edwards). Purple Swift (Pennant). Sashun-peeshew (Cree Indians). Hirondelle bleu de la 

 Caroline (Buffon). 



The introduction of the modes and customs of civilized life, and provident atten- 

 tions to their wants and conveniences, have induced in the Purple Martin yet an- 

 other instance of total change from natural habits in the breeding season. Social, 

 familiar, and confiding, they have become general favorites, and, in return for obli- 

 gations conferred upon man by keeping far off other and more dreaded feathered 

 intruders and depredators, receive from him many favors. Comfortable, convenient, 

 and safe dwellings, adapted to their wants, tempt them to rear their young in the 

 society of their protectors and friends, no longer seeking for that purpose the holes 

 of hollow trees. This change has become quite universal. Martin-boxes abound 

 throughout the country. Even the Indians and Southern slaves are said to tempt 

 them around their cabins by suspending hollow gourds and calabashes from saplings 

 and cane-poles, and in these rude cradles they construct their nests. Audubon men- 

 tions an instance of a pair of Martins driven from the eaAcs of a house, where they 

 had been in the habit of nesting, on account of the vermin they brought Avith them, 

 who, having no convenient place to build in, resumed their natural resort, a hollow 



