PURPLE MARTIN. 189 



PROGNE PURPUREA. 

 PURPLE MARTIN. 



(Plate 18.) 



Hirundo apos carolinensis, Briss. Orn. ii. p. 616 (1760). 



Hirundo subis, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 344 (1766). 



Hirundo purpurea, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 344 (1766) ; et auctorum plurimorum— 



Omelin, Latham, Audubon, (JBoie), (Begland ^ Gerbe), (Brewer), (Baird), 



(Newton), &c. 

 Hirundo violacea, Gmel. Syst. Nat. i. p. 1026 (1788). 

 Hirundo coerulea, Vieill. Ois. Amer. Sept. i. p. 67, pi. 26 (1807). 

 Hirundo versicolor, Vieill. N Diet. d'Hist. Nat. x. p. 609 (1817). 

 Hirundo ludoviciana, Cuv. Rhgne An. i. p. 396 (1817). 

 Progne purpurea (Linn.), Boie, Isis, 1826, p. 971. 

 Progne subis (Linn.), Baird, Rev. Am. Birds, p. 274 (1864). 



The Purple Martin has a very slender claim to be considered a British 

 bird. A single specimen is said to have been shot^ early in the year 1840^ 

 near Kingstown^ co. Dublin. The late Dr. Scouler examined and dissected 

 it, and it eventually found a place in the Royal Dublin Society's Museumj 

 where it still is. Two other examples were said to have been obtained at 

 Kingsbury Reservoir, Middlesex, in September 1843, one of which went 

 into Mr. Bond's possession. Another example is said by Mr. Clarke 

 (' Handbook of Yorkshire Vertebrata,' p. 39) to have been shot at Colne 

 Bridge, Huddersfield, in 1854 ; but the statement requires confirmation. 



The Purple Martin is a summer visitor to the United States and Canada, 

 ranging northwards above the Arctic circle. It winters in Mexico, where, 

 however^ a few retire to the mountains to breed. Stragglers have occurred 

 in the Bermudas. 



The Purple Martin is as well-known and familiar a bird in America as 

 the House-Martin is in England. It arrives, according to Wilson, on the 

 south-eastern borders of the United States, from its winter-quarters, late in 

 February or early in March, reaches Pennsylvania about the first of April, 

 but does not arrive at Hudson's Bay until May, and leaves the latter 

 district again in August. Richardson states that it arrives within the 

 Arctic circle before the snow is off the ground, and when the waters are 

 still ice-bound. The Purple Martin seems almost as closely associated with 

 man in America as the House-Sparrow is in England, with the difference 

 that it is a very popular favourite and is encouraged in various ways. 

 Wilson states that even the solitary Indian seems to have a particular respect 

 for it, and fits up hollow gourds on the tops of the trees near his cabin for its 

 reception. It haunts the largest and busiest towns of America and seems 



