582 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



C. W. Plass, of Napa Cit}-, writes me that this Woodpecker " makes himself 

 too much at home with us to be agreeable. He drills large holes thougli the 

 weather-boards of tlie house, and shelters himself at night between them and 

 the inner wall. He does not nest there, but simply makes of such situations 

 his winter home. We have had to shoot them, for we find it is of no use to 

 shut up one hole, as they will at once make another by its side." 



Mr. J. A. Allen mentions finding this species, in the absence of suitable 

 trees on the Plains, making excavations in sand-banks. 



According to ilr. Ridgway, tlie Ked-shafted Flicker does not differ from 

 the Yellow-shafted species of the east in tlie slightest particular, as regards 

 habits, manners, and notes. It is, however, more shy than the eastern spe- 

 cies, probal)ly from the fact that it is pursued by the Indians, who prize its 

 quill and tail-feathers as ornaments with which to adorn their dress. 



Their eggs are hardly distiuguishalde from those of the aurutus, but range 

 of a very slightly superior size. They average 1.12 inches in length by .89 

 of an inch in breadth. Their greatest length is 1.15 inches, their least 1.10, 

 and their breadth ranges from .87 to .90. 



Colaptes hybridus, Baird. 



HYBRID FUCKER. 



Colaptes ayrcsii, Atjd. Birds Am. VII, 1843, 348, pi. ccccxciv. Colaptes hybridus, 

 Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 122. Colaptes mexicanus. Max. Cab. Jour. 1858, 422 

 (mixed with mexicanus). Ficits Jiybridus aurato-inexkanus, Sundevall, Consp. Pic. 



1866, 721. 



Sp. Guar. Yellow shafts or feathers on wing and tail comljined with red, or red spotted 

 cheek-patche.^. Orange-red shafts combined with a well-defined nuchal red crescent, and 

 pinkish throat. Ash-colored throat combined with black cheek-patch or yellow shafts. 

 Shafts and feathers intermediate between gamboge-yellow and dark orange-red. 



Hab. Upper Missouri and Yellowstone ; Black Hills. 



The general distribution of Colaptes mexicaniis, as already indicated, is 

 from the Pacific coast of the United States, eastward to the Black Hills and 

 the Upper Missouri and Yellowstone ; that of the C. aiiratus from the At- 

 lantic Coast to about the eastern limits of mexicanus. But little variation 

 is seen in the two species up to the region mentioned ; slight differences in 

 shade of color, size, and frequency of spots, etc., being all. Where they 

 come together, however, or overlap, a most remarkable race is seen, in which 

 no two specimens, nay, scarcely the two sides of the same bird, are alike, 

 the characters of the two species becoming mi.xed up in the most extraor- 

 dinary manner. Thus, the shafts show every shade from orange-red to pure 

 yellow ; yellow shafts combine with red cheek-patch (as in C. ayresii of Au- 

 dubon) ; a red nape, with orange-red shafts ; cheek-patches red with black 

 feathers intermixed, or vice versa ; perhaps the feathers red at base and black 



