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PURPLE MARTIN. 
AMERICAN PURPLE MARTIN. 
Hirundo purpurea, WiLson. AUDUBON, 
Fitrundo—A Swallow. Purpurea—Purple—purple-coloured. 
Tuts Swallow appears to hold the place in America that 
our own does with us. Wilson says, ‘I never met with more 
than one man who disliked the Martins, and would not 
permit them to settle about his house. ‘This was a penurious, 
close-fisted German, who hated them because they ‘eat his 
peas. I told him he must certainly be mistaken, as I never 
knew an instance of Martins eating peas; but he replied 
with coolness that he had many times seen them himself 
‘blaying near the hife, and going schnip, schnap;’ by which 
I understood that it was his ‘bees’ that had been the sufferers; 
and the charge could not be denied.’ 
It is a sociable and half-domesticated bird; and it would 
appear that in America it is the custom to encourage these 
Martins to frequent the neighbourhood of farmsteads, as they 
are supposed, or rather indeed known to be useful in driving 
off birds of prey. They are the terror of Eagles, Hawks, 
and Crows; which at their first appearance they assail so 
vigorously, that they are instantly compelled to have recourse 
to flight. Poultry, as soon as they hear the voice of the 
Martin engaged in fight, instinctively know what is the 
matter, and exhibit alarm and consternation. The King-bird 
is in like manner attacked, but if a common enemy appears, 
he is united with in repelling such. Wilson relates an anec- 
