barn martin n
1 Usu the barn swallow n 1, but also the cliff swallow n. chiefly IN, KY, MO, TN
1879 Neosho Co. Rec. (Erie KS) 18 July [4]/1, Ask John Brunt to tell you how his little boy knows that there is young barn martins in the nest in his stable. 1887 IN Horticult. Soc. Trans. for 1886 26.70 ceIN, My barn was filled with about two hundred barn martins; the sparrow came and drove the martins away. 1892 Macon Times (MO) 5 Feb [7]/1, Charley says when the barn martins and wasps come in the spring time they will build their nests in the cracks and hold the front end in tack. 1900 Inland Educator 10.156 IN, Hundreds of “barn martins” nested there every summer; I used to watch them ply their masonry, hours and hours, shaping their curious bottle-like nests to corners and angles and to one another until there was no more room for a nest. 1920 IN Farmer’s Guide 32.567/2, Back on the home place we had an old barn with long eaves and wide rafters which was inhabited by a great number of barn martins or swallows during the summer. 1932 Bennitt Check-list 44 MO, Barn swallow. Hirundo erythrogaster. . . Barn martin. 1967–70 DARE (Qu. Q14) Infs CA105, KY11, 65, MO3, TN1, Barn martin; (Qu. Q20) Infs KY5, 53, 75, Barn martin. 1999 Republic (Columbus IN) 12 Sept sec D 7/5, This summer while making some repairs to a barn here on Woods farm, the nest of some baby barn martins was jarred loose. 2012 News–Herald (Owenton KY) 22 Aug (Internet), The barn martins have flown.
2 Perh = purple martin n. Cf black martin n
1883 Pub. Rec. (Cawker City KS) [20 July 3]/3, One day last week a snake . . entered the bird house belonging to Mrs. Stansbury, who lives in the southeast part of town, and made a very toothsome repast on a young and promising family of barn martins that lived there. There would be nothing extraordinary about this if it was not for the fact that the bird house is situated at the top of a smooth pole over twenty feet high. 1906 News & Observer (Raleigh NC) 4 Aug 3/3, Recently quite a large number of black or barn martins have been killed by gunners who gather on the outskirts of the city and shoot these useful and harmless birds.