PURPLE MARTIN. ! 5 5 



destruction, and deriving considerable advantage, as well as 

 amusement, from his company, is generally his friend and 

 protector. Wherever he comes, he finds some hospitable re- 

 treat fitted up for his accommodation, and that of his young, 

 either in the projecting wooden cornice, on the top of the roof, 

 or sign-post, in the box appropriated to the blue bird ; or, if 

 all these be wanting, in the dove-house among the pigeons. 

 In this last case, he sometimes takes possession of one quarter, 

 or tier, of the premises, in which not a pigeon dare for a 

 moment set its foot. Some people have large conveniencies 

 formed for the martins, with many apartments, which are 

 usually full tenanted, and occupied regularly every spring ; 

 and, in such places, particular individuals have been noted to 

 return to the same box for several successive years. Even 

 the solitary Indian seems to have a particular respect for 

 this bird. The Choctaws and Chickasaws cut off all the 

 top branches from a sapling near their cabins, leaving the 

 prongs a foot or two in length, on each of which they hang a 

 gourd, or calabash, properly hollowed out for their conveni- 

 ence. On the banks of the Mississippi, the negroes stick up 

 long canes, with the same species of apartment fixed to their 

 tops, in which the martins regularly breed. Wherever I 

 have travelled in this country, I have seen with pleasure the 

 hospitality of the inhabitants to this favourite bird. 



As superseding the necessity of many of my own observa- 

 tions on this species, I beg leave to introduce in this place an 

 extract of a letter from the late learned and venerable John 

 Joseph Henry, Esq., judge of the supreme court of Pennsyl- 

 vania, a man of most amiable manners, which was written to 

 me but a few months before his death, and with which I am 

 happy to honour my performance : — " The history of the 

 purple martin of America," says he, " which is indigenous in 

 Pennsylvania, and countries very far north of our latitude, 

 will, under your control, become extremely interesting. We 

 know its manners, habitudes, and useful qualities here ; but 

 we are not generally acquainted with some traits in its 



