164 



BIRDS OF AMERICA 



with dull whitish, the inner web often notched or 

 spotted along edge with the same ; shafts of tail 

 feathers (except middle pair) bright pure yellow with 

 extremities black; before and above the eye, deep 

 reddish cinnamon, below eye and sides of head together 

 with chin, throat, foreneck, and upper chest, uniform 

 lilac-brown ; cheeks, black, forming a conspicuous 

 elongated patch or " mustache " ; lower chest, black, 

 forming a conspicuous crescentic patch ; rest of under 

 parts pale lilac-brown or dull buff-pinkish fading into 

 white or pale yellowish on sides and on under tail- 

 coverts, conspicuously spotted with black, the spots 

 mostly roundish, larger and subtriangular, sometimes 

 V-shaped, on under tail-coverts ; under wjng-coverts, 

 pale buff yellow, paler along edge of wing, where 

 spotted with black; inner webs of wings, deep yellow 

 (in certain lights), the basal portion of outer primaries 

 and greater part of other feathers broadly edged with 

 bufif-yellow, extremities broadly barred or transversely 

 spotted with the same; under surface of tail, safTron or 

 dull yellow, broadly and abruptly tipped with black, 

 the outside pair of feathers with a terminal spot or edg- 

 ing of whitish, the outer web usually narrowly edged or 

 notched with the same, or with blackish alternating with 

 whitish ; bill, black in summer, more brownish or dusky 

 horn color (especially on basal half above) in winter; 

 iris, dark reddish-brown or brownish-red. Adult 

 Female: Similar to the adult male, but without the 

 black cheek patch or " mustache." this replaced by the 

 color of throat (sometimes tinged with dull grayish). 



Photo by H. K. Job Courtesy of Outin(^ Pub. Co. 



FEMALE FLICKER FEEDING YOUNG IN THE NEST 



Nest and Eggs. — Nest : In tree or stub. Eggs : 

 5 to 9, white. 



Distribution. — Eastern North America from tree 

 limit south to the Gulf coast. 



Drawing by R. I. Brasher 



FLICKER (i nat. size) 

 One of the most interesting of the Woodpeckers 



The Flicker is the most interesting bird of all 

 the \\''oodpeckers. The fact that it has been 

 called by so many different names besides that 

 of Flicker shows how very different kinds of 

 people have made very different kinds of obser- 

 vations of the bird. One observer has seen the 

 bird fly into a hole it has chiseled out \vith its 

 bill near the top of a high dead tree-sttib and 

 he has given the bird the name of Pligh-hole or 

 High-holder. Another person has heard the bird 

 calling its Yarntp-yarrup while flying about from 

 tree to fence post and to tree again in quest of 

 food ; hence the common name of Yarrup. 

 Another person hearing the loud one-syllable 

 call across the fields or the swamp lot has named 

 the bird the Clape. Yet another, hearing the 

 swish of his friendly zveechcin call as he wings 

 along in a wavy up and down flight from ten to 

 a hundred feet above the ground, has named the 

 bird the Flicker. 



