74 THE FLICKER. 



this bird. It.s cavity-haunting habits gradually wear away the 

 light-colored tips which have more or less obscured the bars 

 and spots until all of the darker markings are fully exposed, 

 resulting in a mvich heavier and darker appearance. 



Geographical Variation. Dr. Allen, in the Bulletin Amer- 

 ican Museum Natural History, Vol. IV., p. 36, says : "It has 

 been suggested that the resident form of South Florida would 

 prove separable as a sub-species from the birds at large further 

 north on the basis of its smaller size and darker colors. The 

 average difference, however, as shown by a large amount of 

 material, proves too slight and too inconstant, in either size or 

 color, to make a separation practicable, as is readily shown by 

 comparison of a considerable number of breeding birds from 

 South Florida with a corresponding series from the Middle 

 States or New England. Specimens nearly as dark occur, 

 however, in New Jersey and Massachusetts, so that the ave- 

 rage difference in color between Florida and northern birds is 

 not appreciable. There is a lightening of colors as we ap- 

 proach the Plains. This is very noticeable, even in Minnesota 

 specimens, and still more so in specimens from the Dakotas, 

 Nebraska and Kansas. ' ' . Since the above was written the sep- 

 aration has been made and the southern form given as resident 

 in the South Atlantic and Gulf Coast region. Comparing my 

 series of skins — twenty-three specimens — collected in DeKalb 

 county, Georgia, with those collected in Chester and Mont- 

 gomer}^ counties, Pennsjdvania, Lorain county, Ohio, and 

 Walworth count}^ Wisconsin, I fail to find 2i\\y constant dif- 

 ference in coloration, and defy any one to select the so-called 

 C. a luteus from the mixed lot with any degree of certainty, 

 except by means of the labels. 



A small spring specimen taken in Bradford count}', Florida, 

 has a dull, faded appearance, slightly exceeding in size a breed- 

 ing male, taken in Cleburne county, Arkansas. Both of these 

 birds should belong to the southern form. It strikes me, how- 

 ever, that the stability of a sub-species must be ver}^ uncertain 

 when it requires a painful scrutiny in the best light to deter- 

 mine the best shade effects of the upper plumage or a careful 

 and laborious measurement of width of crossbars, combined 

 with the slight and consistent geographical gradations in size, 

 observable in all species having a wide range. 



