Length: About 8 inches, the largest of the six common species of swallow. Wings nearly 6 inches long—very large when spread.

Male: Glossy purplish-black head, body, and shoulders; wings and tail duller. No reddish-brown or white. Tail forked.

Female: Bluish-black head and back; black wings and tail; brownish-gray throat, neck, and sides, mottled with white-tipped feathers; belly, grayish-white.

Young: Similar to female.

Note: A sweet, rich, joyous warble. Mr. Forbush describes it as “a full-toned chirruping carol, musical and clear, beginning peuo-peuo-peuo.”[94]

Habitat: Farm-lands and the vicinity of dwellings shaded by trees. These birds were formerly more numerous in the North than at present. They are more abundant in the South than in the North.

Nests: Made of twigs, grass, straw, or leaves, placed in gourds or martin-houses. Martins are very social and seem to revel in large “bird-apartment-houses.” They formerly nested in hollow trees or caves.

Range: North and South America, except Pacific Coast region. They breed in southern Canada, east of the Rockies; in the United States from Montana and Idaho, south to the Gulf Coast, Florida, and Mexico. They winter in Brazil. A WESTERN MARTIN is found on the Pacific Coast.

Purple Martins have long been favorites. Mr. Dutcher tells us that Indians, keen observers of nature, realized that it was beneficial to have them near their long-houses. They therefore hung hollowed gourds to entice them. Southern negroes have done likewise. They sometimes suspend a number of gourds from crossbars surmounting a pole, to form nesting-sites for a small colony.

Martins form an ideal community—busy, happy, harmonious—unless English sparrows attempt to evict them and appropriate their homes. Martin-houses and bluebird nesting-boxes seem to be the envy of these pugnacious sparrows. Martins attack crows and hawks but cannot endure the persecutions of the English sparrow.

Martins are so useful that they should be protected and encouraged whenever possible. A friend of mine told me that she was never obliged to have her trees sprayed while the martins remained. They feed on wasps, bugs, and beetles, several varieties of which are harmful, and they devour many flies and moths.

Dr. Dutcher quotes from Audubon regarding the flight of martins as follows:

“The usual flight of this bird ... although graceful and easy, cannot be compared in swiftness with that of the Barn Swallow. Yet the martin is fully able to distance any bird not of its own genus. They are very expert at bathing and drinking while on the wing, when over a large lake or river, giving a sudden motion to the hind part of the body, as it comes in contact with the water, thus dipping themselves in it, and then rising and shaking their body, like a water spaniel, to throw off the water.”[95]