BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 



277 



according to S. Jillson. One 1 was taken at Swampscott in June, 1866. The 

 fourth is a mounted specimen in the Peabody Academy collection, taken at 

 Boxford in July, 1888, by A. F. Killian. The two other records for the State, 

 according to Howe and Allen (p. 112), were of specimens taken at Amherst in 

 August, 1867, and at Framingham in May, some years prior to 1870. 



249 [611] Progne subis (Linn.). 

 Purple Martin. 



Uncommon and local summer resident ; April 20 to September 16. 



Eggs: June 18. 



In i860, Mr. S. P. Fowler 2 stated: "During a period of less than fifty 

 years, the purple martin has become comparatively scarce in the eastern part of 



Essex County It is certain they were numerous in this vicinity, forty years 



ago, and that they are now very scarce." Mr. Maynard tells me that there was 

 a colony at Ipswich in the years 1867 to 1872, but they have long since departed. 

 Up to two or three years ago they bred in Georgetown, Peabody, Lynnfield, 

 Salem, and Beverly, but in the prolonged wet storm of June, 1903, they were 

 practically all exterminated. Mr. Carl H. Russell, of Lynnfield, writes me under 

 date of August 2d, 1904, that about fifteen pairs of Purple Martins nested in two 

 boxes at his home, but they were all destroyed by the June storm in 1903, there 

 being none seen at the boxes after the storm. No Martins appeared in the 

 spring of 1904, and the English Sparrows took full possession of the houses. I 

 saw a single female Martin near my summer house at Ipswich on June 26th, 

 1904. 



250 [612] Petrochelidon lunifrons (Say). 

 Cliff Swallow ; Eave Swallow. 



Common summer resident, locally ; May 1 to September 9. 



Eggs : May 25 to July 20. 



Putnam, 3 writing in 1856, says : "Twenty years ago, this bird was hardly 



'J. A. Allen: Bull. Essex Inst., vol. 10, p. 15, 1878. 



2 S. P. Fowler: Proc. Essex Inst., vol. 3, p. 35, i860. 



3 F. W. Putnam: Proc. Essex Inst., vol. 1, p. 205, 1856. 



