BIRD BIOGRAPHIES 



States east of the Rockies and southward to the Gulf 

 Coast and Texas in the winter. Resident in the U. S. 

 except in the more northern parts. 



The SOUTHERN FLICKER, a resident as far south as 

 southern Florida and central Texas, is smaller and 

 darker than the Northern Flicker. 



The RED-SHAFTED FLICKER, a wcstern species, has 

 red cheek-patches instead of black, red wing and tail 

 feathers, instead of yellow; it lacks the red band on 

 the head. It is found in the Rocky Mt. and Pacific 

 Coast regions from British Columbia to Mexico, and 

 east to western Texas, Nebraska, and South Dakota. 

 In regions where the northern flicker also is found, 

 these two species have hybridized. In the National 

 Museum of Washington there are numerous speci- 

 mens of these hybrids, where the red and black 

 cheek-patches, the red and yellow wing-feathers and 

 red band on the head appear in various unusual com- 

 binations. 



THE Flicker is a bird of distinction. A glimpse of 

 him at once arouses interest, curiosity, and a de- 

 sire for further acquaintance. He is handsome, well set 

 up, full of vitality and power — the personification of ef- 

 ficiency. 



We like his cheerful voice — a trifle too loud for a gen- 

 tleman of refinement, but a welcome sound in the season 

 when the whole world wishes to shout with joy at the re- 

 lease from winter's confinement. Thoreau wrote: "Ah, 

 there is the note of the first flicker, a prolonged, monoto- 

 nous wick-wick-wick-ivick-wick-wick, etc., or, if you please, 

 quick, quick, quick, heard far over and through the dry 

 leaves. But how that single sound peoples and enriches 

 all the woods and fields. They are no longer the same 

 woods and fields that they were. This note really quickens 



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