_Hirundo subis_, LINN. S. N. 10th ed. 1758, 192 (_Hirundo cœrulea
canadensis_, EDWARDS, Av. tab. 120, Hudson’s Bay). _Progne subis_,
BAIRD, Rev. Am. Birds, 1864, 274. _H. purpurea_, LINN. S. N. 12th
ed. 1766, 344 (_H. purpurea_, CATESBY, Car. tab. 51).—AUD. Orn.
Biog. I, pl. xxiii.—IB. Birds Am. I, pl. xlv.—YARRELL, Br. Birds,
II, 232, 274 (England and Ireland, Sept. 1842).—JONES, Nat.
Bermuda, 34 (Sept. 22, 1849). _Progne purpurea_, BOIE, Isis, 1826,
971.—BREWER, N. Am. Ool. I, 1857, 103, pl. iv, fig. 47
(eggs).—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 314.—COOPER & SUCKLEY, P. R. R.
Rep. XII, 2, 186 (Fort Steilacoom).—BLAKISTON, Ibis, 1863, 65
(Saskatchewan)—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 113.—SAMUELS, 260.
_Hirundo violacea_, GM. _H. cœrulea_, VIEILL. _H. versicolor_,
VIEILL. _H. ludoviciana_, CUV.
[Line drawing: _Progne subis._
1561]
SP. CHAR. (No. 1,561 ♂.) Entirely lustrous steel-blue, with a purplish
gloss; the tail-feathers and the wings, except the lesser and middle
coverts, and edge inside, dull black scarcely glossed. Tibiæ dark
brownish. A concealed patch of white on the sides under the wings.
Concealed central portion of anal feathers light whitish-gray.
(No. 1,129 ♀.) Above somewhat similar, but much duller. Beneath smoky
brownish-gray, without lustre, paler behind, and becoming sometimes
quite whitish on belly and crissum, but all the feathers always with
dusky shafts, and more or less clouded with gray centrally, even
though fading into whitish to the edges. This is particularly
appreciable in the longer crissal feathers. The edges of the dark
feathers of throat and jugulum are usually paler, imparting somewhat
of a lunulated appearance, their centres sometimes considerably
darker, causing an appearance of obsolete spots. There is a tendency
to a grayish collar on sides of neck, and generally traceable to the
nape; this, in one specimen (5,492) from California, being hoary gray,
the forehead similar.
The young male of the second year is similar to the female, with the
steel-blue appearing in patches.
Total length (of 1,561), 7.50; wing, 6.00; tail, 3.40; difference
between inner and outer feather, .75; difference between first and
ninth quills, 2.88; length of bill from forehead, .55; from nostril,
.34; along gape, .94; width of gape, .74; tarsus, .61; middle toe and
claw, .80; claw alone, .25; hind toe and claw, .54; claw alone, .27.
HAB. The whole of the United States and the Provinces; Saskatchewan;
Cape St. Lucas and Northern Mexico (winter); Orizaba (SUMICHRAST);
Bermuda. Accidental in England. South American and West Indian birds
apparently belong to other races.
Many Western adult males are considerably less violaceous than any
Eastern one; but there is so much variation in this respect among
specimens from one locality, that this difference in lustre does not
seem of much importance.
[Illustration: _Progne subis._]
An adult female (No. 61,361, G. A. Boardman) from Lake Harney,
Florida, is so unlike all other specimens in the collection as to
almost warrant our considering it as representing a distinct local
race. It differs from females and young males of all the other races
(except _elegans_, from which it differs in other striking
particulars) in the following respects: Above, the lustrous steel-blue
is uninterrupted, the forehead and nape being uniform with the other
portions; beneath, dark smoky-gray, inclining to whitish on the middle
of the abdomen; the jugulum and crissum have a faint gloss of
steel-blue, the feathers of the latter bordered with grayish-white.
The chief difference from _elegans_ is in lacking the conspicuous
grayish-white border to the feathers of the whole lower part, the
surface being uniform instead of conspicuously squamated. Wing, 5.60;
tail, 3.00; fork of tail, .80 deep.
HABITS. The Purple Martin is emphatically a bird common to the whole
of North America. It breeds from Florida to high northern latitudes,
and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. It is very abundant in Florida,
as it is in various other parts of the country farther north, and the
large flocks of migrating birds of this species which pass through
Eastern Massachusetts the last of September attest its equal abundance
north of the latter State. It occurs in Bermuda, is resident in the
alpine regions of Mexico, and is also found at Cape St. Lucas.
Accidental specimens have been detected in England and in Ireland. It
is abundant on the Saskatchewan. Burmeister states that this species
is common in the vicinity of Rio de Janeiro, and that it is
distributed in moderate abundance through the whole of tropical South
America. Von Pelzeln also cites it as occurring on the Rio Negro and
at Manaqueri through the three winter months, nesting in old buildings
and in holes in the rocks. It is, however, quite possible that they
refer to an allied but distinct species.
In a wild state the natural resort of this species, for nesting and
shelter, was to hollow trees and crevasses in rocks. The introduction
of civilized life, and with it of other safer and more convenient
places, better adapted to their wants, has wrought an entire change in
its habits. It is now very rarely known to resort to a hollow tree,
though it will do so where better provision is not to be had.
Comfortable and convenient boxes, of various devices, in our cities
and large towns, attract them to build in small communities around the
dwellings of man, where their social, familiar, and confiding
disposition make them general favorites. There they find abundance of
insect food, and repay their benefactors by the destruction of
numerous injurious and noxious kinds, and there, too, they are also
comparatively safe from their own enemies. These conveniences vary
from the elegant martin-houses that adorn private grounds in our
Eastern cities to the ruder gourds and calabashes which are said to be
frequently placed near the humbler cabins of the Southern negroes. In
Washington the columns of the public buildings, and the eaves and
sheltered portions of the piazzas, afford a convenient protection to
large numbers around the Patent Office and the Post-Office buildings.
The abundance of this species varies in different parts of the
country, from causes not always apparent. In the vicinity of Boston it
is quite unusual, though said to have been, forty years since, quite
common. There their places are taken by the _H. bicolor_, who occupy
almost exclusively the martin-houses, and very rarely build in hollow
trees.
Sir John Richardson states that it arrives within the Arctic Circle
earlier than any other of its family. It made its first appearance at
Great Bear Lake as early as the 17th of May, when the ground was
covered with snow, and the rivers and lakes were all icebound.
In the Southern States it is said to raise three broods in a season;
in its more northern distribution it raises but one. Their early
migrations expose the Martins to severe exposure and suffering from
changes of weather, in which large numbers have been known to perish.
An occurrence of this kind is said to have taken place in Eastern
Massachusetts, where nearly all the birds of this species were
destroyed, and where to this day their places have never been supplied.
Within its selected compartment the Martin prepares a loose and
irregular nest. This is composed of various materials, such as fine
dry leaves, straws, stems of grasses, fine twigs, bits of string,
rags, etc. These are carelessly thrown together, and the whole is
usually warmly lined with feathers or other soft materials. This nest
is occupied year after year by the same pair, but with each new brood
the nest is thoroughly repaired, and often increased in size by the
accumulation of new materials.
The Martins do not winter in the United States, but enter the extreme
Southern portions early in February. Audubon states that they arrive
often in prodigious flocks. On the Ohio their advent is about the 15th
of March, and in Missouri, Ohio, and Pennsylvania about the 10th of
April. About Boston their appearance is from the 25th of April to the
middle of May. Mr. Audubon states that they all return to the Southern
States about the 20th of August, but this is hardly correct. Their
departure varies very much with the season. In the fall of 1870 they
were to be found in large flocks, slowly moving southward, but often
remaining several days at a time at the same place, and then
proceeding to their next halt. Their favorite places for such stops
are usually a high and uninhabited hillside near the sea.
The Martin is a bold and courageous bird, prompt to meet and repel
dangers, especially when threatened by winged enemies, never
hesitating to attack and drive them away from its neighborhood. It is
therefore a valuable protection to the barnyard. Its food is the
larger kinds of insects, especially beetles, in destroying which it
again does good service to the husbandman. The song of the Martin is a
succession of twitters, which, without being musical, are far from
being unpleasant; they begin with the earliest dawn, and during the
earlier periods of incubation are almost incessantly repeated. The
eggs of the Purple Martin measure .94 of an inch in length by .79 in
breadth. They are of an oblong-oval shape, are pointed at one end, are
of a uniform creamy-white, and are never spotted. They are quite
uniform in size and shape. Eggs from Florida are proportionally
smaller than those from the Northern States.
Progne subis, var. cryptoleuca, BAIRD.