158 
PURPLE MARTIN. 
others more low and guttural. Soon after the 20th of August, 
he leaves Pennsylvania for the south. 
This bird has been described, three or four different times, 
by European writers, as so many different species, — the 
Canadian Swallow of Turton, and the Great American Martin 
of Edwards, being evidently the female of the present 
species. The Violet Swallow of the former author, said to 
inhabit Louisiana, differs in no respect from the present. 
Deceived by the appearance of the flight of this bird, and its 
similarity to that of the Swift of Europe, strangers from that 
country have also asserted that the Swift is common to North 
America and the United States. No such bird, however, 
inhabits any part of this continent that I have as yet visited. 
The Purple Martin is eight inches in length, and sixteen 
inches in extent ; except the lores, which are black, and the 
wings and tail, which are of a brownish black, he is of 
a rich and deep purplish blue, with strong violet reflections ; 
the bill is strong, the gap very large; the legs also short, 
stout, and of a dark dirty purple ; the tail consists of twelve 
feathers, is considerably forked and edged with purple blue ; 
the eye full and dark. 
The female measures nearly as large as the male; the upper 
parts are blackish brown, with blue and violet reflections 
thinly scattered; chin and breast, grayish brown ; sides under 
the wings, darker ; belly and vent, whitish, not pure, with 
stains of dusky and yellow ochre ; wings and tail, blackish 
brown. 
