148 



PURPLE MARTIN. 



AMERICAN PURPLE MARTIX. 



Hirundo purpurea, WILSON. 



Hirundok Swallow. Purpurea Purple purple-coloured. 



THIS Swallow appears to hold the place in America that 

 our own does with us. Wilson says, '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 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, schnap;' by which 

 I understood that it was his 'bees' that had been the sufferers; 

 and the charge could not be denied.' 



It is a sociable and half-domesticated bird; and it would 

 appear that in America it is the custom to encourage these 

 Martins to frequent the neighbourhood of farmsteads, as they 

 are supposed, or rather indeed known to be useful in driving 

 off birds of prey. They are the terror of Eagles, Hawks, 

 and Crows; which at their first appearance they assail so 

 vigorously, that they are instantly compelled to have recourse 

 to flight. Poultry, as soon as they hear the voice of the 

 Martin engaged in fight, instinctively know what is the 

 matter, and exhibit alarm and consternation. The King-bird 

 is in like manner attacked, but if a common enemy appears, 

 he is united with in repelling such. Wilson relates an anec- 



