450 THE BIRDS OF MAINE 



Genus PROGNE Boie. 



611. Progne suhis (Linn.). Purple Martin; Martin; 

 Black Martin; House Martin; Cape Cod Swallow. 



Plumage of adult male : glossy blue black. Plumage of adult female : 

 above similar to the males but duller and less glossy and wings and tail dull 

 black ; throat, breast and sides brownish gray, feathers somewhat slightly 

 white tipped ; belly white ; under tail coverts smoke gray with whitish 

 edgings. Immature plumage : feathers of chin, lower breast and abdomen 

 with narrow dusky shaft streaks, otherwise quite similar to adult female. 

 Wing 5.90; tail 3.00 ; tail forked about 0.85 deep. 



Geog. Dist. — Temperate North America, breeding from Texas to Ontario, 

 the Saskatchewan, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia ; wintering in South 

 America. 



County Records. — Androscoggin; abundant summer resident, (Johnson)- 

 Aroostook ; seen at Fort Fairfield and Houlton, (Batchelder, B. N. 0. C, 7, 

 p. 110) ; they nest on my premises at Presque Isle, (Smith). Cumberland ; 

 common summer resident, (Mead). Franklin; common summer resident, 

 (Swain). Hancock; local but where found common summer resident, 

 (Knight). Kennebec; very rare summer resident, (Larrabee). Knox; 

 summer, (Rackliff). Oxford; common breeder, (Nash). Penobscot; very 

 locally distributed, less common than ten years ago, still decreasing, but 

 found as yet in local abundance in a few places, (Knight). Piscataquis ; 

 common, breeds, (Homer). Sagadahoc; (Spratt). Somerset; common 

 summer resident, (Morrell) ; not known by me in northern wilderness, 

 (Knight). Waldo; locally common in summer, (Knight). Washington; 

 common summer resident, (Boardman). York; common summer resident, 

 (Adams). 



Mr. Brown gives the date of their arrival at Portland as 

 about the last of April, earliest April twenty-second, while at 

 Bangor the date of arrival can be almost surely counted on as 

 April thirtieth, or at latest May first, save in very abnormal 

 and backward seasons, such as 1906, and the very latest date I 

 have access to of their arrival here is May fifth. The latest 

 date of departure is September fourth, but they are more often 

 gone by August twenty-fifth. 



As is well known, these birds nest in small colonies in the 

 houses erected for them by benevolently inclined persons, and 

 the number of pair of birds in a colony varies from five to ten, 

 more or less, according to the accommodations provided for 



