Plate 86
Havell XXII
Purple Martin
(Progne subis)
Audubon observed that Indians frequently hollowed out gourds and hung them near their camps; the gourds were then taken over by martins, which were so audacious that they chased away the vultures attracted to the Indians’ venison. “Almost every country tavern has a Martin box on the upper part of its sign-board,” Audubon noted, “and I have observed that the handsomer the box, the better does the inn generally prove to be.” This painting was done in Mississippi or Louisiana in 1822. The two birds at left are males, and the two at right are females; they are gathered about a gourd like the ones that Audubon described.
Source: The Original Water-Color Paintings by John James Audubon. Copyright 1966 by American Heritage Publishing Co., Inc.
Learn more about this print on the National Audubon Society's website.