BIRDS OF THE AIR. 169 



THE PURPLE MARTIN. 



It is seldom in these days we hear the sweet hilarious 

 notes of the Purple Martin in Eastern Massachusetts. 

 From some not very accountable cause the species have 

 left many of their former habitations, and we are no 

 longer pleasantly roused from our sleep by their sportive 

 garrulity near our dwellings. The absence of these birds 

 is a truly sorrowful bereavement. When I visit the 

 places where I formerly heard them and note their ab- 

 sence, I feel as I do when strolling over some old familiar 

 ground upon which every scene has been changed, where 

 wood has become open space, old houses are removed 

 and replaced by new, and strangers occupy the homes of 

 the old inhabitants. 



We no longer see any large assemblages of Purple 

 Martins in Eastern Massachusetts; and in almost all 

 parts of New England, where they were formerly the most 

 common of our birds, their numbers are greatly dimin- 

 ished. Why, it may be asked, have they so generally left 

 these parts, especially the vicinity of Boston ? May it 

 not be that the Wood- Swallows, which have multiplied in 

 the same ratio as the Purple Martins have decreased, have 

 been the cause of their disappearance ? They breed in 

 the boxes formerly used by the Martins, who, upon their 

 later arrival, finding them preoccupied by the Wood-Swal- 

 low, and failing to obtain other accommodations, fly away 

 to another vicinity. In a contest for a box the Purple 

 Martin would be the victor, but would prefer seeking a 

 habitation elsewhere to making an attempt to dislodge 

 birds which had already built their nests there. 



The Purple Martin is the largest of the American Swal- 

 lows, with plumage of a bluish-black intermingled with 

 purple and violet. In beauty it is not surpassed by any 

 of the species. It seems to have no fear of man, who 



