78 THE FLICKER. 



absorbed, which, strange as it may .seem, is a not impo.ssible 

 happening, it appears to me that it would not be replaced by 

 a richer colored bird, such as the Palo Alto specimen for in- 

 stance, combined with the more advantageous hardiness and 

 aggressiveness of the eastern and northern bird, as suggested 

 by a recent writer (Rhoads in Science, Vol. XX., p. o25), but 

 rather, conforming to the general rule that complete hybrids 

 are seldom fertile, a constant infusion of pure aiu-atus blood 

 would cause the cafcr characteristics to become less and less 

 evident until obliterated entirely. The very close affinity of 

 the North American tj'pes in which the divergence in colors is 

 the greatest, tempts me to propound the following question : 

 Is it less than improbable that the original Colaptes stock has 

 been dichromatic, the yellow phase evolutionizing into one 

 group of which auratus is an example, and the red phase 

 into another group of which cafer is a representative and 

 chrysoides standing for the intermediate ? The Red-shafted is 

 less prone to wander ; a few specimens have been taken in 

 Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas. A hitherto unpublished record 

 from Forest City, Winnebago county, Iowa, by J. Eugene 

 lyaw is the eastermost perfectly authentic record I have seen. 

 Mr. lyaw assures me that it is an unquestionablj- pure cafcr, 

 shot and brought to him by some of his scholars on Sept. 19, 

 '90. The specimens taken in Van Buren county, Iowa, in 

 March, '78, by William vSavage, proves to be a well-defined 

 hybrid. 



