312 LAND-BIRDS AND GAME-BIRDS 
I. COLAPTES 
(A) auratus. Golden-winged Woodpecker. Pigeon Wood- 
pecker. Flicker.” ‘* High-hole.” ‘* Yellow-shafled Wood- 
pecker.” ‘+ Yellow-hammer.” (Also eight other names.) 
(In Massachusetts, a common summer-resident, but much 
less abundant in winter.) 
(a). About 124 inches long. Above, umber brown, black- 
barred ; tail and primaries, 
chiefly black ; rump, white. 
Crown and nape, dark 
gray, with a scarlet cres- 
cent behind. Throat, and 
upper breast, cinnamon or 
‘¢ lilac-brown ;”” the latter 
with a black crescent, and 
g with a black maxillary 
patch. Under parts, oth- 
erwise white, variously 
tinged, and black-spotted. 
Wings and tail, (chiefly) 
bright yellow beneath. 
(b). The nests of our 
various woodpeckers differ 
but little except in size 
Fig. 18. Golden-winged Woodpecker Gs). or situation. They always 
consist of a hole, gener- 
ally excavated by the birds themselves in a tree, or rarely a 
post, which may be either sound or rotten. They are usually 
made more than six feet from the ground, and more often in a 
trunk than in a limb. They vary in length from six to even 
forty inches, and are enlarged near the bottom, though rarely 
or never lined. They are not always straight, but the entrance 
is almost invariably round, unless arched, as is often the case 
with those of the present species. No nests require more pa- 
tience in construction than these; yet they are, in their way, 
master-pieces, being smooth, symmetrical, and, as it were, 
highly finished. 
