PROGNE SUBIS. 439 



List of specimens. 



1104,^ ad; Antelope. Island, Great Salt Lake, Utah, Jiine4, 1800. r)||— 7J. Rill, 

 tarsi, and toes, deep black ; iris, brown. 



Family IIIIIUNDINID.E— Swallows. 



PllOGNE SUBIS. 



Purple illai-tiii. 



Himndo suhis, LrNN., Syst. Nat. (lOtb cd.), 1758, 192. 



Progne snbk, Baird, Review Am. B., 1865, 274.— B. B. & R., Hist. N. Am. B., I, 



1874, 329, pi. XVI, figs. 7, 10.— Uensiiaw. 1875, 21.}. 

 nirundo purpurea, LiNN., Syst. Nat. (12th ed.), 1700, 344. 

 Progne purpurea, BoiE, Isis, 182G, 971. — Baikd, B. N. Am., 1S58, 314; Catal., 



1859, No. 231.— Cooper, Orn. Oal., 113.— OouES, Key, 1872, 114; Check List, 



1S73, No. 117 ; B. N.W., 1874, 91. 



In the more thickly-populated districts of (.'alifornia, the handsome 

 Purple Martin has become, as it lias long since in the Eastern States, 

 semi-domesticated, and almost entirely allured from its original haunts, the 

 forests, by the superior advantages afforded by the surroundings of ci\ilized 

 man; but in the more scantily-settled Interior it was found still retaining 

 its pi-imitive habits. In the cities of San Francisco and Sacranicntu it was 

 a very abundant species, while eastward of the Sierra Nevada it was rare, 

 except among the aspen woods of the pine-region on certain of the higher 

 mountain ranges. In Carson City it was not common, while in Virginia 

 City but a single individual was seen, the date being June IS, ISIiS. Among 

 the aspens of the Wahsatch, near Parley's Park, ho\vever, it was extremely 

 abundant, and nested in the deserted or cajitured excavations of the Ped- 

 naped Woodpecker {Spliurapicns tiiicli(!lis\ most of which were bored int<» 

 the trunks of living trees, tliese holes being freely shared with the Wliite- 

 bellicil Swallows [TacJiijcii/rlit hico/or}. 



As a rule, the Swallows, alth(tug]i true Oscines, are not considered 

 singers; the present specie.s, however, is at least one notable exception, .since 

 it is a warbler of high merit. Often have we reclined on some mossy or 

 fern- covered bank beneath the aspens, and given respectful attention to the 

 performance of a voluble male Purple Martin, as, with glossy violet head 



