GENUS 46. HIRUNDO. SWALLOW. 



SPECIES 1. H. PURPURErf. 



PURPLE MARTIN. 



[Plate XXXIX. Fig. 1, Male. Fig. 2, Female.'} 



LATH. %w. iv, p. 574, 21. /&/. iv, p. 575, 23. CATESB. Car. i, 51. 

 Jlrct. Zoot. n, JV0. 333. Hirondelle bleue de la Caroline, 

 BUFF, vi, p. 674. PL Enl. 722. Le Martinet couleur depoupre, 

 BUFF, vi, p. 676. TURT. Syst. G29. EDW. 120. Hirundo 

 subis, LATH, iv, p. 575 24. PEALE'S Museum, JVa. 7645, 

 7646.* 



THIS well known bird is a general inhabitant of the United 

 States, and a particular favourite wherever he takes up his 

 abode. 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, 

 as he said, " 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, schnapf by 

 which I understood that it was his bees that had been the suf- 

 ferers; and the charge could not be denied. 



This sociable and half domesticated bird arrives in the south- 

 ern frontiers of the United States late in February or early in 

 March; reaches Pennsylvania about the first of April, and ex- 

 tends his migrations as far north as the country round Hudson's 

 Bay, where he is first seen in May, and disappears in August; 



* We add the following synonymes: Hirundo pwpurea, LINN. Syst. r, p. 344. 

 GMEL. Syst. i, p. 1020. Hirundo c<erulta, ViEiit. Ois. de VJlm. Sept. pi. 25, 

 male; pL 27, female. 



