278 DAVENPORT ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



Dr. T. S. Roberts (Auk., xvi, 189^, p. 236-246) reports the 

 occurrence of the Red-bellied Woodpecker in Minnesota for the 

 first time in the heavy timber of the Mississippi bottom lands in 

 Houston county, a station many miles north of the usually as- 

 signed northernmost limit of its range in the Mississippi Valley. 

 " They undoubtedly occur here regularly, and not so very infre- 

 quently, over a small area extending northward not to exceed 

 twenty or thirty miles from the Iowa line, 43° 30' N. latitude. 



In Iowa the species is more or less migratory. The fact that 

 it appears to be more abundant during the winter in some sec- 

 tions in the northern parts of its range has led some observers to 

 believe that the species wanders northward in winter (Cooke, 

 Bird Migr. in Miss. Val., 1884-85, p. 132; Coues, Birds of N. W., 

 p. 289). Nesting records are rare in Iowa, but Morton E. Peck 

 states that it breeds rather infrequently in Blackhawk county, 

 and is a frequent winter resident. 



Genus Coi^aptes Swainson. 



184. (412). Colaptes auratus lutens Bangs. Northern Flicker. 



The northern variety of the Yellow-shafted Flicker, the " Yel- 

 low-hammer" or Golden-winged Woodpecker, is the commonest 

 Woodpecker in Iowa, being an abundant summer resident in all 

 parts of the state. It arrives early in March and usually departs 

 in September. Occasionally individuals are observed in winter. 

 In Winnebago county, I have seen specimens in November, De- 

 cember and February, but very rarelj- during these months. The 

 nest is usually in a hole in a tree but sometimes other locations 

 are chosen. Dr. G. C. Rich describes a nest near Sioux City 

 with eggs in a hole in the bank of a " washout " (West. Orn., v, 

 3, 1900, p. 60), and W. A. Bryan saw a Flicker excavate a nest 

 in the perpendicular-cut side of a haystack; hole twenty inches 

 deep, eight feet from ground, dug directly into the stack for six 

 inches, then turning directl>- downward ; seven eggs taken May 

 28, 1890, and a second set June 14. When the eggs are taken 

 the birds will frequently keep on la3'ing eggs in the same nest. 

 I have known as many as thirty eggs to be taken from a single 

 pair of birds in this manner, and Keyes and Williams state that 

 more than fifty have been taken. 



