200 Birds of Buzzard's Roost 



graph wires, gutters and the eaves of barns and other out- 

 buildings. 



The purple martin is the largest of the swallow family. 

 The bill of the adult male is brownish black, larger than that 

 of the other swallows, with a wide gape and is arched and 

 somewhat curved at the tip; eye full and dark. His general 

 color is of glossy steel blue with purple and violet reflections. 

 Wings are about six inches long and when closed are rather 

 longer than the tail. The tail is considerably forked and edged 

 with purple blue. The tarsi and toes are naked, and he can 

 walk on the ground better than the other swallows. The adult 

 female differs from the male in that she is not quite so large; 

 her upper parts are blackish brown, with blue and violet re- 

 flections thinly scattered ; chin and breast grayish brown ; 

 sides under the wings darker ; belly and vent whitish, not pure, 

 with stains of dusky and yellow ochre ; wings and tail blackish 

 brown. 



The flight of the blue martin is graceful, easy and swift. It 

 is a migrant who comes north the latter part of March. I al- 

 ways look for them on the 23d of that month and almost in- 

 variably they come. My lookout for them has been from the 

 lunch room on the eighth floor of the building in which our 

 offices are located. A colony of these birds have nested in 

 the building just opposite, in the very center of the city. For 

 several years, while at lunch, I have been watching them. In 

 1904 they did not come until after the middle of April no 

 doubt because of the very cold and backward spring of that 

 year. Their range extends north from the Argentine Repub- 

 lic and Bolivia through the eastern part of the United States 

 to Manitoba, Ontario and Newfoundland. They winter south 

 from Mexico and they breed throughout their entire range. 

 With those that come north, mating and nest building com- 

 mences soon after their arrival. One theory of migration is 

 that the birds come north to have their young. The fact that 

 the blue martin breeds throughout its entire range would seem 

 to prove that this theory is not well founded. 



Formerly these birds built their nests in cavities and hol- 

 lows of trees, but in this regard their habits have changed. 

 They now prefer to nest in gourds and boxes put up for them 



