BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. - 31 



paleV, the former more broken by paler tips to the feathers, less 

 strongly contrasted with white of abdomen. 



Frogne chalybea, adult male and female and young (pp. 40, 41) « 

 IT. Under parts entirely sooty brown (except, sometimes, for whitish, but not 

 pure white, margins to feathers. 

 d. Wing more than 130; feathers of under parts broadly margined with paler. 



Frogne furoata, adult female and young. 

 dd. Wing less than 130 (usually less than 125); feathers of under parts with 

 very indistinct, if any, paler margins. 



Frogne modesta, adult female and young (p. 43) 



PROGNE SUBIS SUBIS (Linnseus). 

 PTTRPIE MARTIN. 



Adult male. — Uniform glossy violaceous steel blue (the feathers 

 dark sooty gray beneath the surface, becoming black next to the steel 

 blue or violaceous tip); lesser and middle wing-coverts glossy dark 

 violaceous steel blue, the "feathers darker centrally; rest of wings, and 

 tail, dull black, or sooty black; a concealed tuft of white feathers on 

 sides of lower back and opposite to this another on upper margin of 

 sides; bill black; iris brown; legs and feet dark brown or brownish 

 black; length (skins), 170-204 (184.5); wing, 139-153 (146.8); tail, 

 68.6-78 (73.9); exposed culmen, 10.5-12.6 (11.6); width of bill at 

 frontal antias, 7.5-9 (8.5); tarsus, 14^16.5 (15.1); middle toe, 15-17 

 (15.7); depth of fork of tail, 15-21.5 (18.8).* 



Advlt female.- — Above much duller and less uniform violaceous 

 steel blue than in adult male, the teooty gray of basal portion of 

 feathers more or less exposed; forehead (sometimes forepart of crown 

 also) more or less distinctly and extensivelj^ sooty gi'ay, the feathers 

 of the anterior portion of the forehead being grayish with small 

 central, mostly concealed, spots of dusky, those of the posterior 

 portion with the dusky centers larger and the grayish margins 

 narrower; lores and auricular region dusky, the latter glossed with 

 violaceous steel blue; sides of neck light grayish, the hindneck 

 usually crossed by a dull sooty grayish band or collar, these usually 

 indistinct, sometimes obsqlete; chin, throat, chest, sides, and flanks 

 sooty gray, the feathers of throat and chest margined with paler, 

 producing a more or less distinctly squamate appearance; breast, abdo- 



of adult females of F. cryptoteuca and P. dominicensis are practically identical, and 

 inosculate with those of P. chalybea; therefore, those that are given in the above key 

 are intended only as a sort of clue in identifying specimens. 



"A southern representative, Progne chalybea domestica, occurring in southern 

 Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina, differs chiefly if not only in larger size. {Hirundo 

 domestica Vieillot, Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat., xiv, 1817, 520. — Plrognel domestic'a 

 Gray, Gen. Birds, i, 1845, 59. — Progne domestica Baird, Review Am. Birds, 1865, 284, 

 footnote; Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., x, 1885, 177; Sharpe and Wyatt, Mon. 

 Hirund., 1894, 469. — Progne chalybea domestica Berlepsch, Journ. fiir Orn., 1887,5.) 



6 Thirty-six specimens. 



