8 



May, the other in July. The nest is huilt of hay, sometimes with twigs intermixed, and 

 is lined with feathers." 



In the District of Columhia Mr. Richmond says it is rather common. There are 

 several nesting-sites where the Martins still " hold the fort," despite the English 

 Sparrows, notably the Masonic Temple and the Post Office Department building. In 

 his paper on the summer birds of the Pennsylvania Alleghanies, Mr. Dwight says that 

 some of these birds were nesting at Altoona, and there is every likelihood of its being 

 found on the mountains. In Eordton County, Kentucky, according to Mr. Pindar, it is 

 a common summer resident, and the same is recorded of Ptoane County, Tennessee, by 

 Mr. Fox. Mr. Langdon says that in the Chilhowel Mountains, of Tennessee, he only 

 noticed it at Knoxville and Marysville in August. 



Mr. Brewster says that in Western North Carolina the present species is common 

 in most of the towns and villages, building chiefly, if not wholly, in the Martin-boxes ; 

 and Mr. Loomis states that in the parts of South Carolina he visited, the birds nested 

 wherever gourds were put up for their accommodation. 



Mr. Coombs, writing from the Calumet plantation, in the parish of St. Mary's, 

 Louisiana, says that the Purple Martin was common from April to August, breeding 

 wherever gourds or boxes were prepared for the birds. He states that they generally 

 disappeared quite early in the autumn, the last brood being usually fledged by the 

 middle of August. Writing of the birds of Bayou Sara, Mr. Beckham says that the 

 Purple Martin was abundant in the towns, but was seen nowhere else. 



Many of the western localities for the species will require verification, as the distri- 

 bution of Progne purpurea and P. hesperia is by no means satisfactorily determined, and 

 the whole subject requires strict examination. Mr. Mearns says that in the Arizona 

 mountains the Purple Martin is " an abundant summer resident throughout this high 

 region, especially near water. It usually builds its nest in holes in the largest dead 

 pines, several pairs living in the same tree. The Martin of this region, while differing 

 somewhat from the Eastern bird, is not the subspecies P. hesperia recently described by 

 Mr. Brewster, to whom I am indebted for the means of making the comparison." 

 Mr. Scott states that it was rather uncommon about Tucson. In Colorado, according to 

 Mr. Drew, it breeds from 6000 to 8000 feet. 



Mr. Henshaw, in his ' Report of the Exploration of the 100th Meridian,' writes as 

 follows : — 



" This species is universally distributed throughout the United States, and in the 

 West its abundance is fully as great as in the East. It occurs throughout Utah, being 

 found in the vicinity of towns, and breeding plentifully in boxes placed for its con- 

 venience, as at Salt Lake City, or retiring in large colonies to the solitudes of the 

 mountains, where it rears its young in the abandoned Woodpeckers' holes. Wherever 

 found, it is never content to remain isolated in pairs, but associates together in colonies 

 of greater or less number. Earther south, in New Mexico and Arizona, they are of no 

 less common occurrence, but seemingly are more confined to the mountains, though this, 



