PURPLE MARTIN. 361 



PA SSERES. 1IIR UN DIN I DM. 



PROGNE PURPUREA (Linnaeus*). 



PUKPLE MARTIN. 



Hirundo pur pur ea. 



PROGNE, F. Boie^. Bill stout, depressed and very wide at the base, culmen 

 and commissure much decurved. Nostrils round, inoperculate and opening up- 

 wards. Wing* with nine primaries, long and pointed. Tail much forked, of 

 twelve feathers, the outermost tapering gradually to a point. Legs and feet 

 pretty strong, bare ; toes three in front, one behind. 



THE PURPLE MARTIN of America is here included on the 

 authority of Prof. M'Coy, who, early in the year 1840, in- 

 formed the Author that a female example had been lately 

 shot near Kingstown, in the county Dublin, and a few hours 

 after sent for dissection to the late Dr. Scouler. It was 

 subsequently placed in the Museum of the Royal Dublin 

 Society, which now forms part of the Museum of Science 

 and Art in that capital, and the specimen is still preserved 

 there, as Mr. More informs the Editor, j 



The Purple Martin is a common summer- visitor to nearly the 



* Hirundo purpurea, Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 344 (1766). 



t Isis, 1826, p. 971. 



J It is said that in the first week of September, 1842, two examples of this 

 species were shot at Kingsbury Reservoir. One of them, a young bird of the 

 year from which the above figure was taken, passed into Mr. Bond's collection. 

 Subsequently the other specimen, an adult male in brilliant plumage, was brought 

 to the Author. The Editor agrees with Mr. Harting (Handb. Br. B. p. 125) in 

 thinking that Mr. Yarrell was misinformed on this subject, and has failed to get 



