WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD 



fact that he is known all over the continent east 

 of the Rocky Mountains. He extends his sum- 

 mer travels even to Alaska, and this is rather sur- 

 prising, because he is no great wing-master, but, 



in the fatherland, and often they involve a great mistake, 

 ornithologically ; others have originated here, so far as we 

 can see. They may be divided into four classes, as refer- 

 ring : I. To the voice; 2. To appearance; 3. To breeding 

 habits ; 4. To other characteristics. 



Under the first head comes the common name flicker, now 

 extended to the whole group Colaptinae, including several 

 other tropical American species of Colaptes, the ground- 

 flickers of South Africa (Geocolaptes) and those of the open 

 plains of South America {Soroplex). "Flicker," often and 

 rapidly vittered, is a fair rendering of the exuberant spring 

 call of the bird. Other attempts at imitating this cry are 

 yucker (New York, and mentioned in Jefferson's Notes on 

 Virginia), yarrup, wake-up, or wah-cup, pi-Ht or pee-ut, 

 caveduc or ometuc (Maine), yaffle and clape. The name 

 "yaffle," or " gaffle," still heard in Connecticut, is no doubt 

 borrowed from a provincial (Surrey) name of the common 

 green woodpecker of Europe, which is noted for its loud 

 cry believed to forebode rain. "Clape," formerly, if not 

 now, used in western New York, is of obscure origin ; DeKay 

 says of it only that it was introduced by the early immigrants 

 to that region. There is an obsolete English word, clepe, 

 meaning a loud call, or cry, which is connected with the old 

 verb clepe, whence the archaic participle yclept ; and, more- 

 over, I find in an English dictionary in my possession, pub- 

 lished in 173 1, the verb fliker, "to laugh wantonly or scorn- 

 fully," which would be a fair description of the American 

 flicker's yell, though hardly to be supposed connected with 



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