298 BULLETIN 17 4, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



its j)rey was cutworms. But what was of particular interest was the 

 painstaking way in which the flicker worked over every inch of the 

 small space to which it confined its attentions, for the spot was not 

 larger than 10 by 15 feet, and this was gone over again and again. 

 During the time I watched the flicker it captured more than a dozen 

 earthworms, all of which were of good size, and also eight cutworms. 

 Another action of the bird while it was hunting caught my attention. 

 At odd times it would vigorously scratch the surface of the lawn as if 

 to uncover some prey, and I noticed that each time this took place, a 

 worm would be pulled from the earth by the bird." 



He says further, in a letter, regarding this observation : "At the time 

 we watched it, the bird was so close we had difficulty at times in using 

 the field glasses, so could readily see what it obtained. Sometimes it 

 would pull an angleworm from the ground very much as a robin does, 

 the worm stretched out to quite an extent." 



Behavior. — There is nothing peculiar in the behavior of this flicker 

 that would not apply to its close relatives equally well. But J. Hooper 

 Bowles (1926) had his attention called in an interesting way to the 

 regularity of its habits in going to roost. He was callmg on a friend 

 one afternoon in the fall of 1924, of which he writes : "I happened to 

 remark that it v/as half past three, when my friend answered quickly, 

 'In five minutes it will be bedtime for our Flicker.' This somewhat 

 astonished me, but we went outside the house and took a station where 

 we could command a good view of a certain section of the eaves of 

 the house. Sure enough, in about five minutes a Northwestern Flicker 

 swooped up and hung itself woodpecker-fashion against a board under 

 the eaves, where it composed itself for spending the night. The bird 

 had been doing tliis with absolute regularity for some time, although it 

 was of course broad daylight and bright sunshine." 



COLAPTES CAFER MAETIRENSIS Grinnell 

 SAN PEDRO FLICKER 



HABITS 



Under the above name. Dr. Josej)h Griimell (1927b) has separated 

 and described the red-shafted flicker of the Sierra San Pedro Martir 

 region of northern Baja California. He describes it as follows: 



Similar iu general characters to Colaptes cafcr collaris Vigors (topotypes 

 from Monterey, California), but averaging slightly smaller, bill more attenu- 

 ated (especially more compressed in terminal half), and tone of ground color 

 on head and on upper and lower surfaces in fresh plumage much more gray 

 (rather than brown or vinaceous). * * * 



The relative depth and clearness of the gray on the throat and sides of 

 head and neck in martirensis is a nearly constant character, as is also the 

 deep fuscous (of Ridgway, Color Standards and Color Nomenclature, 1912, 

 pi. XL VI) tone of the back and of the top of the head, in fresh, new plumage; 



