SAN FERNANDO FLICKER 305 



They are peaceable and impress me as being eminently practical and matter of 

 fact. Each one minds his own business and seems willing to live and let live. 

 They do not assemble in numbers as the Gilas do sometimes, but are solitary 

 or in pairs. They have the same habit of pecking the walls of buildings as have 

 the red-shafted flickers, and one has worked spasmodically at the shingled 

 gable of the school hoi;se here for the past three years. I take it to be the 

 same individual, for he is rather tame and roosts each night above one of the 

 window casings. * * * 



They are not close sitters, and usually leave the nest before the tree is reached 

 or the ladder placed against the trunk. As soon as an intruder's footsteps be- 

 conae audible the landlady pokes her head from the entrance, and soon after 

 departs, never giving opportunity for capturing her on the nest. 



Voice. — The gilded flicker apparently possesses as good a vocabu- 

 lary as any other flicker, uttering practically all the varied notes 

 common to the genus, but evidently it is not quite so noisy as its 

 relatives. ]\Ir. Gilman (1915) thinks that its notes are "not so fre- 

 quent nor quite so loud" as those of the red-shafted flicker. 



Field marks. — The gilded flicker can be recognized easily as a 

 flicker by the characteristic markings of the genus, by its flight and 

 by its voice. It looks like an eastern flicker with a red malar patch 

 (in the male) instead of a black one, and with no red crescent on 

 the nape in either sex. It looks like a pale red-shafted flicker with 

 yellow, instead of red, in the wings and tail. Its smaller size is 

 hardly noticeable in the field. 



COLAPTES CHRYSOIDES BRUNNESCENS Anthony 



SAN FERNANDO FLICKER 



HABITS 



The gilded flicker of middle Baja California, between latitude 

 28° and latitude 30° N., is a well-marked subspecies. A. W. Anthony 

 (1895b), naming it, characterized it as "differing from C. 

 chrysoides in darker upper parts and slightly smaller size." He says 

 further : "It would be quite natural to expect specimens of CoJaptes 

 from the northern half of Lower California to be more or less inter- 

 mediate between those of Arizona and Cape St. Lucas. They are, 

 however, further removed from the type form from the Cape than 

 are those from Arizona and northern Mexico, and in the series I 

 have examined the Arizona skins are exactly intermediate in the 

 color of the upper parts betwen a series from Cape St. Lucas and 

 my skins from San Fernando," 



RidgAvay (1914) describes hrunnescens as "similar to C. c. chry- 

 soides, but coloration decidedly darker and browner, color of pileum 

 more rufescent (russet, or between russet and mars brown, in typical 

 specimens), immaculate area of rump more restricted (sometimes 

 whole rump spotted with black), wing and tail averaging shorter, 

 and bill longer." 



