BIRDS OF THE AIR. 347 
very numerous in Massachusetts up to about 1865, but since 
the introduction of the Sparrow their numbers have been 
slowly decreasing here, and now there are large areas where 
they do not breed. Apparently they are now more plentiful 
than ever in some parts of Maine, and possibly some of the 
Massachusetts birds may have migrated there. 
Their ordinary note is a rather harsh chirp. Their food 
is very similar to that of the Barn Swallow, as they frequent 
similar situations. Wherever a colony of these birds is 
located they must have a considerable effect on insect life. 
They fiy much over bogs and meadows, and with the Barn 
Swallows are useful in destroying the pests of the grass lands 
and cranberry bogs. 
Purple Martin. Black Martin. 
Progne subis. 
Length. — About eight inches. 
Adult Male. — Deep, lustrous steel-blue ; wings and tail dark brown; tail slightly 
forked. ; ; 
Adult Female.— Brown above, glossed on head and back with blue or purplish; 
forehead and throat mottled with gray; breast brownish; belly whitish. 
Nest.—In a hollow tree or bird house. 
Eggs. — White. 
Season. — April to August. 
Many years ago Dr. Brewer wrote Audubon that an un- 
usually cold season had destroyed all the Purple Martins in 
the neighborhood of Boston. Since then other occurrences 
of this kind have been re- 
ported, but there was no per- 
manent widespread diminution 
in their numbers until the 
“English” Sparrows became 
numerous. Then the Martins 
were gradually driven away, 
until they bred only locally, Fig. 149.— Purple Martin, male, about 
and had disappeared from a ROSS pera tee! 
large part of the State. The June storms of 1903-04 
nearly completed their extirpation from the State as breed- 
ers, and except in a few favored localities their boxes are 
now (1906) all taken by the Sparrows. 
The Martin is a southern bird, and cuanot long withstand 
