SWALLOWS: PURPLE MARTIN 
467 
buildings under eaves and rafters. They eat great quantities of insects 
(MS). 
PURPLE MARTIN: Progne subis subis (Linnaeus) 
Description. — Male: Length (skins) 6.7-8 inches, wing 5.5-6, tail 2.7-3.1, bill 
.4-.5, tarsus .6-.7. Female: Length (skins) 6.7-7.9 inches, wing 5.3-5.8, tail 2.7-3 
(forked for .7-.9), bill .4-.5, tarsus .6-.7. Adult male: Uniform glossy violet or steel- 
blue (feathers gray and black beneath the surface); tail and wings dull black, scapulars 
like body. Adult female and young: Forehead and collar grayish, rest of upperparts 
duller and less uniform than in the male, the gray bases of feathers showing through; 
tail and wings black; throat, breast, and sides grayish, more or less tipped with white, 
giving scaled effect; rest of underparts white or pale grayish, usually more or less 
streaked. 
Range. —Breeds from Idaho, Montana, Manitoba, northwestern Ontario, New 
Brunswick, and Nova Scotia south to southern Florida, Vera Cruz, and Tepic; 
migrates through Central America and northern South America, and winters in Brazil. 
State Records. —Throughout New Mexico the Purple Martin is a well known 
and fairly common breeder, nesting mainly in Transition Zone from as high as 9,000 
feet at Clouderoft (Bailey); down to at least 8,200 feet in Socorro County (Ligon); 
to 8,000 feet in the Capitan Mountains (Gaut); at Tres Piedras (Loring); and to the 
head of the. Rio Mimbres at 6,500 feet (Bailey). [A specimen was taken June 6, 
1917, at Silver City (Kellogg).1 A few also breed in the valleys down to Mesilla 
Park, 3,800 feet (Merrill); and [one record) at Roswell, 3,500 feet (Bailey). The 
nest near Mesilla Park was found by Merrill on May 26, 1913, and young were being 
fed in a nest found by Gaut in the Capitan Mountains the middle of July, 1903. 
[About Mount Taylor it is common, nesting in July and August (Ligon, 1916-1918).] 
It is one of the earliest migrants to complete its departure from the State, only 
stragglers being left after the first week in August; Guadalupe Mountains, August 
4, 1901 (Bailey); Mescalero, August 12, 1898 (Barber); and Sawyer, about August 
6, 1911 (Dearborn); exceptionally late birds were seen at Beaver Lake, August 27, 
1908 (Birdseye). 
The first returning migrants were noted in 1913 on April 18, at 8,000 feet in 
Socorro County; at Chloride May 1, 1914, and April 28 and 30, 1915 (Ligon). [At 
Lake Burford, migrants were observed on June 8, 9, and 13, 1918 (Wetmore).] 
W. W. Cooke. 
Nest. —In holes in trees, including giant cactus, or about buildings and in bird 
boxes. Eggs: 3 to 5, plain white. 
Food. —Wholly insects and a few spiders. More than three-fourths consist of 
wasps, bugs, and beetles (including several species of harmful weevils, as the clover- 
leaf, nut, and cotton boll weevil). Besides these there are many crane flies, moths, 
May flies, dragon flies, and ants. “A quart of wing covers of cucumber beetles 
were found in one Martin nesting box” (Attwater). 
General Habits. —In New Mexico the Purple Martins have been 
found by Mr. Ligon in heavy pine timber in the mountains, nesting in 
old woodpecker holes, frequently in dead pines. On the Mimbres, 
Mr. Bailey found numbers of them nesting in this way, sometimes 
several families living in one tree. They seemed to prefer lone trees 
with the bark off, especially where the holes were high. In the Capitan 
Mountains, Mr. Gaut also found them nesting in dead trees. Four 
