NORTHERN FLICKER 283 



etc., given singly or repeated two or three times, as a ringing call of 

 considerable carrying power. 



Field marhs. — While hopping about on the lawn, the flicker may 

 be recognized as a brown bird somewhat larger than a robin and 

 with a rather long bill; if facing the observer, tha black crescent 

 on the spotted breast is rather conspicuous, but the red crescent on 

 the nape does not show up nmch except at short range, nor does the 

 black malar patch of the male. The most conspicuous field mark is 

 the white rump, wliich shows plainly as the bird rises from the 

 ground and flies away; this probably serves as a direction mark, or 

 a warning to the companions with which it is often associated. Then, 

 of course, the flash of bright yellow in the wings and tail marks 

 the bird in flight, chiefly when high in the air, but somewhat also 

 in straightaway flight. 



Enemies. — Wlien I was a boy, 50 or 60 years ago, flickers, meadow- 

 larks, and robins were considered legitimate game, and they were 

 very good to eat. Bunches of these birds were often seen hanging 

 in the game dealers' stalls. During our fall vacations on the coast, 

 when the weather was unfavorable for coot shooting, my father and 

 uncle used to resort to the uplands to shoot "partridge woodpeckers" 

 and "brown backs" (robins) among the bayberry bushes and sumacs. 

 And flickers were slaughtered in large numbers in the South. Man 

 was then the flicker's worst enemy, but that is now all ancient history, 

 as these birds are now protected. But a new enemy has been intro- 

 duced, which is probably worse than the old one. The European 

 starling has come to compete with the flicker in its search for a food 

 supply. The starlings are now so abundant that they swoop down 

 in flocks on the formerly plentiful supply of wild fruits and berries, 

 stripping the trees and bushes clean of the fruits on which the 

 flickers and robins depended for their summer and fall food. They 

 also compete for nesting sites, fighting for or usurping every avail- 

 able cavity, even driving the flickers from the homes that they had 

 made. Lester W. Smith writes to me: "For several years after the 

 starling became common in Connecticut, other birds, especially the 

 flicker, were seldom ejected, or not until all available nesting possibil- 

 ities about buildings were used and filled up. Never have I seen 

 the flickers actually fight to retain their hole or bird house. On 

 the sanctuary they were exceptionally noisy whenever starlings at- 

 tempted to take or had taken possession. On one occasion tliree 

 starlmgs took part; one remained in the entrance hole of the box 

 and took dry grass that a second brought to it; the third chased off 

 either of the pair of flickers, as it flew near the nest box, which was 

 about 8 feet from the ground on a sawed-off tree in a white-pine 

 grove. On shooting one of the starlings, the other four birds flew 

 away temporarily, and, on examination, I found a thin layer of 



