Purple Martin 413 
ALTERNATIVE PLUMAGE KEY TO THE COLORADO SPECIES. 
A. Larger—wing over 5. 
a. Glossy blue-black above and below. P. subis, ¢ p. 413. 
b. Glossy blue-black above, grey below. P. subis, 2 p. 413. 
A. Smaller—wing under 5. 
a. Rump rufous, contrasting with the glossy blue-black back. 
P. lunifrons, p. 415. 
b. Rump purplish, contrasting with green back. 
T. t. lepida, p. 420. 
c. Rump the same colour as the back. 
a? Forehead and throat rufous. H. erythrogastra, p. 417. 
b? Forehead and throat without rufous. 
a3 Glossy blueish above. I. bicolor, p. 418. 
b? Mouse-brown above, without gloss. 
a4 Throat white, contrasting with the brown chest- 
band. R. riparia, p. 422. 
b* Throat and chest smoky-brown. 
S. serripennis, p. 423. 
Genus PROGNE. 
Large Swallows—wing over 5-0—with a stout strong bill and curved 
culmen with deflected tip ; nostrils opening superiorly, large, rounded 
and without scale or operculum ; tail moderately forked, the lateral 
rectrices tapering and obtusely pointed ; tarsus shorter than the middle 
toe and claw ; sexes quite distinct ; eggs white. 
The Purple Martins, of which six species are recognized by Ridgway, 
range over the whole of temperate and tropical America. 
Purple Martin. Progne subis. 
A.O.U. Checklist no 611—Colorado Records—Ridgway 73, p. 181; 
Drew 81, p. 15 ; Morrison 86, p. 153 ; 88, p. 73 ; Cooke 97, pp. 18, 110, 
217 ; Warren 06, p. 23 ; 08, p. 24 ; Rockwell 08, p. 174 ; Cary 09, p. 183. 
Description.—Male—General colour above and below metallic steely- 
blue-black ; wings and tail dull black, a concealed white patch on 
both sides beneath the wing; iris brown, bill black, legs dark 
brown to blackish. Length 7-25; wing 5-75; tail 3-00; culmen -50; 
tarsus -52. 
The female resembles the male above but is much duller in shade, 
and the forehead shows a good deal of greyish; the hind-neck has a 
collar of grey more or less distinct ; below pearly-grey, duskier on the 
breast and flanks, paler on the abdomen and under tail-coverts, most 
of the feathers with dusky shaft streaks ; wing 5-55, tail 2-75. Young 
birds closely resemble the adult female but are usually less 
glossy. 
