Birds 77 



common bird is the Red-shafted Flicker (C. cqfer collar is), which 

 feeds on ants, but also on fruits. I have seen it eating the berries 

 of the Virginia Creeper in Boulder. Sometimes a strange noise 

 is heard on the University of Colorado Campus, due to the drum- 

 ming of a flicker on the iron roof of the library. The bird certain- 

 ly appears to enjoy the sound, as we enjoy music. The specific 

 name "cafer" (caffer) was given under the mistaken idea that 

 the original specimen came from South Africa. The Yellow- 

 shafted Flicker (C. auratus luteus) occasionally occurs in Eastern 

 Colorado, and intermediates, assumed to be hybrids, are not rare. 

 A third form, described by Ridgway in 1911 as C. a. borealis, 

 occurs only as a casual visitor. Another easily recognized species 

 is the Lewis Woodpecker (Asyndesmus lewisi), the name of which 

 commemorates the famous explorer of the west.* The body is 

 greenish-black above, including the wings, but the under side is 

 pinkish-red. It is a common bird in the foothills, as at Boulder. 



The Three-toed Woodpecker (Picoides americanus dorsalis) 

 is known in the hand by the three toes, but when at large it may 

 be recognized by the black and white colors, wholly without red. 

 The male has a yellow patch on the crown, but in the female this 

 is wanting. Sclater says it rarely comes below 7,000 feet, but on 

 January 1, 1925, I saw one in Boulder, busily pecking on an apple 

 tree. The weather had been unusually cold. The genus Sphy- 

 rapicus is known by the yellow of the under parts, the colors 

 otherwise being black and white, with red markings on the head. 

 In the Red-naped Sapsucker (S. varius nuchalis) the back is black, 

 spotted with white and yellowish; the crown, nape and throat 

 are red. Williamson's Sapsucker (S. thyroideus) has the back all 

 black in the male, cross-banded black and white in the female. 

 The red is confined to the throat, and nearly or quite lacking in 

 the female. This difference in the sexes is unique among our 

 woodpeckers. The species of Dryobates are wholly without yellow, 

 and the red is confined to the crown. In the Texan Woodpecker 

 (D. scalaris cactophilus of Oberholser) the back has numerous 

 cross-bars of black and white; it occurs in the southeastern part 

 of the State. There is another race of this species (D. s. symplec- 



*In our local flora, we have blue flax, Linum leuisii, and the bitter root, Lewisia, also 

 named after Meriwether Lewis. An analysis of the zoological results of the Lewis and Clark 

 expedition is given by Coues in Bull. U. S. Geol. and Geog. Surv. Terr., Feb. 1876. 



