120 U. S p. R. R. EXP. AKD SURVEYS— ZOOLOGY— GENERAL REPORT. 



COLAPTES MEXICANUS, S w a i n s o n . 



Red-shafted Flicker. 



Colaptes meiiconiis, Sw. Syn. Mex. birds, in Philos. Mag. I, 1627, 440.— Ib. F. Bor. Am. II, 1631, 315.— 



Newberht, Zool. Cal. &Or. Route, 91 ; P. R. H. Rep. VI, 1857. 

 Pkus mexicanus, Aud. Orn. Biog. V, 1839, 174 ; pi. 416.— Ib. Birds America, IV, 1842, 295 ; pi. 274. 

 Colaptes collars, ViGons Zool. Jour. IV, Jan. 1829, 353.— Ib. Zool. Beechey's Voy. 1839, 24; pi. ix. 

 Picks rubricatus, Waclf.r, Isis, 1829, v. May, 516. " (Liclilenstein Mus. Berol.)" 

 Colaptes rubrictttus, Bon. Pr. Zool. Soc. V, 1837, 108.— Ib, List, 1838.— Ib. Conspectus, 1850, 114. 

 ?Picns cq/er, Gmelin, Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 431.— Lath. Index Ornitli. II, 1790, 242. 

 ? Pkus lathami, Wagler, Syst. 1827, No. 85 (Cape of Good Hope ?) 



gp Ch. Shafts and under surfaces of wing and tail feathers orange red. A red patch on each side the cheek ; nape without 



red crescent ; sometimes very faint indications laterally. Throat and stripe beneath the eye bluish ash. Back glossed with 

 purplish brown. Female without the red cheek patch. Length about 13 inches ; wing over 6| inches. 



Additional Characters.— Spots on the belly, a crescent on the breast, and interrupted transverse bands on the back, black. 

 liab. — Western N. America from the Black Hills to Pacific. 



In describing this species I have taken as types a very fine pair collected on the Coliimhia 

 river, by Mr. Townsend, in October, 1834. In size these skins considerably exceed specimens of 

 C. auratus. The bill is moderately long, a little broader than high, and gently curved. The 

 •wings are long, but do not reach the middle of the tail. The first quill is very short ; the fifth 

 longest ; the fourth but little shorter ; the third intermediate between the fifth and sixth. 



The prevailing color of the back, scapulars, and wings is brownish ash, each feather with 

 one, two, or three bars of black. These are sub-crescentic, or nearly straight, short and wide, 

 extending across the feather. The entire head and neck all round may be described as j)lumbe- 

 ous ash, glossed with dull cinnamon brown above, darkest towards the base of the bill. There 

 is a decided tinge of cinnamon in an obscure stripe passing from the base of the upper mandible 

 above, and a little behind the eye, and involving the lower eyelid. There is a very distinct 

 whisker-like stripe of bright crimson or carmine red passing from the base of the lower mandible, 

 over and to the posterior extremity of the jaw bone, truncate and rounded behind. This is 

 never mixed with black. There is a large, broad crescentic spot of velvet black on the upper 

 part of the breast. The under parts generally are of a dull brownish white, (palest along the 

 median line,) each feather with a circular sharply defined spot .15 to .20 of an inch in diameter. 

 On the flanks these spots become larger, more transverse, and sub-cordate, several on a feather ; 

 on the tail coverts they are more like transverse bars. 



The rump is pure white, (in this one specimen with a few short streaks of black on the 

 middle of some of the feathers ; in most specimens, however, the rump is immaculate.) The 

 upper tail coverts are white and black in transverse bands, the adjacent black bands sometimes 

 confluent along the midrib so as to interrupt the enclosed white band. 



The shafts and under surfaces of all the quills, both of wing and tail, are of a bright orange 

 red, the shafts alone of this color on the upper surface in the wing ; in the tail the shafts are 

 black above, except at the base. The wing quills are dark brown, (except in the outer primaries,) 

 spotted with series of blotches like the color of the back, producing bauds. The inner webs are 

 similarly spotted, except that here they are more confluent and bave an orange tinge. Tlie longer 

 ])rimaries are narrowly tipped with brownish wliite. Tlie tail fcatliers are black on their upper 

 surface and extremity, the first and second only with a few slight indentations of whitish. The 

 exposed under surface of the outer feather is orange, tipped with black. 



