103 



THE OSPREY. 



THE MALAR STRIPE OF YOUNG FLICKERS AND THE MOLT. 

 By William Pai.mkk. Washington, D. C. 



On September 16, 1894. while skinning a young 

 molting specimen of rhe Flicker (Cola/>fes aura- 

 tus) which from the black malar stripe I had con- 

 cluded was a male. I was surprised upon dissec- 

 tion to find that it was a female bird. Subse- 

 quently I compared it with others in my own 

 collection, and in the collections of Mr. J. 1). 

 Figgins and Mr. C. W. Richmond, all of which 

 were collected in the immediate vicinity of 

 Washington. I have also examined much of the 

 literature on the subject, have collected and 

 arranged the facts, and am thus enabled to trad- 



authority. In no instance have I been able to 

 find or hear of a female immature bird without 

 a black malar stripe. In a few cases, however, 

 of both female and male birds the tips of many 

 of the black feathers composing the stripe are . 

 similar in color to the adjacent parts, while the 

 anterior portion is very much so, shading off 

 rapidly into the surrounding color (Fig.2). Lit- 

 tle reliance can be placed in the statements of 

 authors generally on this subject. I find every 

 possible degree of accuracy and inaccuracy tho' 

 ill- last is much the more common. 



Four specimens of <Y.ia;:tes a unit us showing the L'radual disap] earance 

 of the mala i' stripes in the female. 



out the changes incident to the loss of the ^tripi- 

 by the female with some additional evidence in 

 the same connection. 



I shall premise by stating that the nestling 

 Yellow-shafted Flicker always has in both sexes 

 a black malar stripe as shown in Figure 1. This 

 is shown by over one hundred examples which 

 I have either seen or know of on reliable 



Dr. Cones, in the Birds of the Northwest, p. 

 293, says oi the malar stripe of C. auratus, in a 

 footnote, "these black patches are supposed 

 to in' entirely wanting in the female. But Mr. 

 W. I). Scott says, (Pr. Bost. Soc, Oct. 1872): 

 An immature female Isex noted by careful dis- 

 section) had a dark cheek-patch, differing only 

 from that of the mature male in having gray 



