PUBPLE MAETIN.
AMERICAN PURPLE MARTIN.
Hirundo purpart,!, WILSON. AUDUBON.
Hirundo—A Swallow. Purpurea—Purple—pur pie-coloured.
TH I S Swallow appears to hold the place in America that our
own does with us. Wilson says, ' I never met with more than one
man who disliked the Martins, and would not permit them to settle
about his house. This was a penurious, close-fisted German, who
hated them because ho said they 'eat his peas.' I told him he
must certainly be mistaken, as I never knew an instance of Martins
eating peas; but he replied with coolness that he had many times
seen them himself 'Maying near the hife, and going schnip, schnap;'
by which I understood that it was his 'bees' that had been the
sufferers; and the charge could not be denied.'
It is a sociable and half-domesticated bird; and it would appear
that in America it is the custom to encourage these Martins to
frequent the neighbourhood of farmsteads, as they are supposed, or
rather indeed known to be useful in driving off birds of prey.
They are the terror of Eagles, Hawks, and Crows, which at their
first appearance they assail so vigorously, that they are instantly
compelled to have recourse to flight. Poultry, as soon as they hear
the voice of the Martin engaged in fight, instinctively know what
is the matter, and exhibit alarm and consternation. The King-bird
is in like manner attacked, but if a common enemy appears, he is
united with in repelling such. Wilson relates an anecdote communicated
to him by the late John Joseph Henry, Esq., Judge of the
supreme court of Pennsylvania, of the place put up by him for the
reception of the Martins having been forestalled by Blue-birds. The
latter succeeded in repelling the former, and kept possession of their
abode, and this for eight successive years, the Martins always attempt