450 



THE NORTHWESTERN FL%KER. 



111! )r('.ll ri,l%SS people ■.ittn call the Flickers of Washiiigton 

 "Velliiw-hammers, " quite rcganlless of the fact that the western Flicker 

 is MO longer yellow, but orange-red. Such an oversight is unpardonable, but 

 it would require a nice eye to distinguish out of hand this really deei)ly-linted 

 bird from its lighter brotlier, tiie Red-shafted, across the Cascades. The 

 Cascade Mountains mark the ground of intergradation Ijetween Dicxicauiis 



. ,. , ..a . i.u. J^'-i •>"<' It would 



' * I see ni |)robable 

 ■"X:] that specimens 

 taken in winter 

 ,^■'1 in eastern 

 ';^ Washington and 

 dubbed saliirali- 

 or, are really 

 birds wliich sum- 

 mer on the east- 

 ern slopes of the 

 Cascades, a n d 

 which approach 

 I h e saturated 

 type of i)lumage. 

 rather than 

 migrants from 

 ncross the moun- 

 tains, as has been 

 assumed. These 

 are mere sub- 

 tleties. It is more 



im])ortant to note tliat l)irds of tiie uicxicamis type ilo not appear to differ 

 in song or in psychologA- from the familiar Colaplcs auralus of the East. I 

 therefore transcribe three paragraphs from "The Birds of Ohio" without 

 apology, only substituting flame (i. c. orange- red ) for "cloth of gold." 



It is perhaps as a musician tliat the Flicker is Ix-st known. Tiie word 

 musician is used in an accommodated sense, for llie bird is no |)rofessional 

 singer, or instruiuental maestro; but so long as the great orchestra of Nature 

 is rendering the oratorio of life, there will be place for the drummer, the 

 screamer, and the utterer of .-strange sounds, as well as for the human obligat^. 

 The Flicker is lirst. like all other \\oodi)eckers. a drummer. The long rolling 

 tattr>o of earlv springtime is elicited from some dry limb or board wiiere the 

 greatest resonance may be secured, and it is intended Ijotli as a musical per- 

 formance an<l as a call of inquiry. Once, as a student, the writer roomed 



Taken nfar Victo 



Photo by the Aullio 



THE 0.\K TREES OF CEDAR UII.I.. 



NHSTINC IIAl'NT or THE SOITHWESTEHN FLICKU. 



