120 PURPLE MARTIN. 



The circumstance of their leaving the United States so early in au- 

 tumn, has inclined me to think that they must go farther from them than 

 any of om- migratory land birds. This, however, is only conjecture, of 

 wliich, kind reader, you may better judge when you have read my account 

 of the Cliff Swallow. 



HiRUNDO PUKPUREA, Linn. Syst. Nat. vol. i. p. 844. — Lath. Ind. Ornith. vol. ii. 



p. 578 — Ch. Bonaparte, Synopsis of Birds of the United Slates, p. 64. 

 Purple Martin, Hirundo purpurea, Wils. Americ. Ornith. p. 58, PL xxxix. 



fig. 1. Male ; fig. 2. Female. 



Adult Male. Plate XXII. Fig 1, 1. 



Bill short, rather robust, much depressed and very broad at the base ; 

 compressed towards the tip ; ujiper mandible notched near the tip, which 

 is rather obtuse and a little declinate ; lower mandible nearly straight ; 

 gap as Avide as the head, and extending to beneath the eye. Nostrils ba^ 

 sal, lateral, roundish. Head large. Neck short. Body rather elongated 

 and depressed. Feet very short ; tarsus and toes scutellate anteriorly, 

 lateral toes nearly equal, the outer united to the second joint ; claws short, 

 weak, arched, rather obtuse. 



Plumage silky, shining, and blended. Wings very long and slender, 

 sickle-shaped when closed, the first primary longest. Tail of ordinary 

 length, shortP'' ^'^^^^ thewmgd, foi-V.oaj-n-Kcu spread even, of twelve straight, 

 narro^^istt feathers. 



Bill deep brownish-black. Iris dark brown. Feet purphsh-black. 

 The plumage is generally of a deep blackish-blue, with intense purphsh- 

 blue reflections ; the quills and tail-feathers brownish-black. 



Length 7i inches, extent of wings 16 ; bill along the back ^, along 

 the gap 1, width of the gap | ; tarsus f, middle toe the same. 



Adult Female. Plate XXII. Fig. 2, %. 



Fore and upper part of the head brownish-grey, mottled with black ; 

 upper parts generally of the same tints as the male, with more grey. 

 Throat, fore neck, and upper breast, dark grey, transversely lined with 

 black. The rest of the under parts hghtish grey, longitudinally streaked 

 with blackish, darker and transversely streaked on the sides, and under 

 the tail nearly white, with slight lines. 



1 



