38 
HIRUNDO AMERICANA. 
ance 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, how- 
ever, 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 tw r elve 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 w ings, darker ; belly and vent, 
whitish, not pure, w ith stains of dusky and yellow r ochre; 
wings and tail, blackish brown. 
71 . HIRUNDO AMERICANA , WILS . — HIRUNDO RUFA, GMELIN. 
BARN SWALLOW, WILSON. 
WILSON, PLATE XXXVIII. FIG. I. MALE. FIG. II. FEMALE. 
There are but few persons in the United States 
unacquainted with this gay, innocent, and active little 
bird. Indeed the whole tribe are so distinguished from 
the rest of small birds by their sweeping rapidity of 
flight, their peculiar aerial evolutions of wing over our 
fields and rivers, and through our very streets, from 
morning to night, that the light of heaven itself, the 
sky, the trees, or any other common objects of nature, 
are not better know n than the swallows. We welcome 
their first appearance with delight, as the faithful 
harbingers and companions of flow r ery spring, and ruddy 
summer; and when, after a long, frost-bound, and 
boisterous winter, we hear it announced, that “ The 
