582 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



C. W. Plass, of Napa Cit}^ writes nie that this Woodpecker " makes liimself 

 too much at home witli us to be agreeable. He drills large holes though the 

 weather-boards of the house, and shelters liimself at night between them and 

 the inner wall. He does, not nest there, but simply makes of such situations 

 his winter home. We have had to shoot them, for we find it is of no use to 

 sluit up one hole, as they will at once make another by its side." 



Mr. J. A. Allen mentions finding this species, in the absence of suitable 

 trees on the Plains, making excavations in sand-banks. 



According to Mr. Ridgway, the Eed-shafted Flicker does not differ from 

 tlie Yellow -shafted species of tlie east in the slightest particular, as regards 

 iiabits, manners, and notes. It is, however, more shy than the eastern spe- 

 cies, probably from the fact that it is pursued by the Indians, who prize its 

 (juill and tail-feathers as ornaments with which to adorn their dress. 



Their eggs are hardly distinguishable from those of the auratus, but range 

 of a very slightly superior size. They average 1.12 inches in length by .89 

 of an inch in breadth. Their greatest length is 1.15 inches, their least 1.10, 

 and their breadth ranges from .87 to .90. 



Colaptes hybridus, Baird. 



HYBRID FLICKER. 



Colaptes ayrcsii, Aud. Birds Am. VII, 1843, 348, pi. ccccxciv. Golaptcs hybridus, 

 Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 122. Colaptes mexicanus, Max. Cab. Jour. 1858, 422 

 (mixed with Tnexicanus). Picas hybridus aurato-mexicanus, Sundevall, Consp. Pic. 

 1866, 721. 



Sp. Char. Yellow shafts or feathers on wing and tail conilMned with red, or red spotted 

 cheek-patches. Orange-red shafts combined with a well-defined nuchal red crescent, and 

 pinkish throat. Ash-colored throat combined with black cheek-patch or yellow shafts. 

 Shafts and feathers intermediate between gamboge-yellow and dark orange-red. 



Hab. Upper Missouri and Yellowstone ; Black Hills. 



The general distribution of Colaptes 'nic.ximnns, as already indicated, is 

 from the Pacific coast of the United States, eastward to the Black Hills and 

 the Upper Missouri and Yellowstone ; that of the C. auratus from the At- 

 lantic Coast to about the eastern limits of mexicanus. But little variation 

 is seen in the two species up to the region mentioned ; slight differences in 

 shade of color, size, and frequency of spots, etc., being all. Where they 

 come together, however, or overlap, a most remarkable race is seen, in which 

 no two specimens, nay, scarcely the two sides of the same bird, are alike, 

 the characters of the two species becoming mixed up in the most extraor- 

 dinary manner. Thus, tlie shafts show every shade from orange-red to jjure 

 yellow ; yellow shafts combine with red cheek-patch (as in C. ayrcsii of Au- 

 dubon) ; a red nape, with orange-red shafts ; cheek-patches red witli black 

 feathers intermixed, or vice versa ; perhaps the feathers red at Ijase and black 



