CLIFF SWALLOW. 345 
It is the duty of all friends of nature, of all who love our beautiful native birds, 
to do their utmost to proteét the Martins and other birds of song and beauty. By its 
familiarity, cheerfulness, and graceful flight, its beauty and song the Martin adds 
greatly to the charms of rural life. No country place where sentiment and refined taste 
dominates, ought to be without its Martins.. Convenient nesting-boxes and Martin- 
houses should be provided for these birds, and the Sparrows and other enemies should 
be kept continually in check by killing them and destroying their nests. 
The Martin inhabits the whole of temperate America, from the Atlantic to the 
Pacific, and from Mexico and Florida north to the Saskatchewan. 
NAMES: PurpLe Martin, Martin, Purple Swallow, Black Martin, Black Swallow, Great American Martin, 
Blackbird Swallow.— Martin and Martinschwalbe. (German). 
SCIENTIFIC NAMES: Hirundo subis Linn. (1758). PROGNE SUBIS Bairn (1865). Hirundo purpurea 
-Linn. (1766). Progne purpurea Boie (1826). 
DESCRIPTION: ‘Male, adult: lustrous blue-black. Female and young: duller steel-blue; below, more or 
less extensively white with dark gray streaks. Bill and feet, black; the former very stout and much 
curved for a bird of this family; nostrils, circular and prominent. 
“Length, 7.00 inches or more; extent, 16.00; wing, nearly 6.00; tail, 3.50 inches, simply forked.” 
(S. & C., “N. E. B. L.,” Vol. I, p. 189.) 
The CuBpan Martin, Progne cryptoleuca Bairp, inhabits Cuba and southern 
Florida. 
CLIFF SwALLow: EAvVE SwWALLow. 
Petrochelidon lunifrons Batrp. 
Pirate XVIII. Fic. 4. 
i HEN the Swallows homeward fly’’—these words of a popular song came into 
KN my mind, when late in August I noticed large numbers of Swallows soaring 
through the air over the prairies of south-western Missouri. Quietly and restlessly they 
fly at this time over corn-fields, over pastures, and woodlands. They gather now. In 
a few days they will be ready to migrate to countries where majestic palms and other 
tropical trees, covered with gigantic climbers, border the Magdalena, the Orinoco, and 
the Amazon, or to regions where orchids, fuchsias, gloxinias, and other plants of our 
green-houses grow in the cool shade of the mountain-sides, where many species of 
Hummingbirds, vieing in color with the ‘splendor of diamonds and other precious stones, 
dart and buzz from flower to flower. But our Swallows do not fly “homeward.” On 
the contrary, they depart in a melancholy mood to their winter-quarters in a foreign 
land. Their home is where they spend the summer, where they twitter their love-songs, 
and raise their young. Among the thousands of Swallows which are thus preparing 
for their journey, we notice numerous CLIFF SWALLOWS, popularly known as Eave, 
or Mup SwALLows. 
Ade 
