WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD 



The wing-quilLs are shining yellow, like tubes 

 of polished gold, and as they are alternately dis- 

 played and concealed in this undulatory progress 

 they shoot out flashes of light pretty to see. 



There need be no difficulty, however, in recog- 

 nizing the flicker. Other woodpeckers are purely 

 black and white with scarlet trimmings. This 

 one, which is of medium size, has a back of mot- 

 tled brown and black, glossed with olive-green, 

 and ornamented by a red crescent on the nape 

 of the neck and a white patch on the rump, con- 

 spicuous in flight and distinctive. The throat is 

 pale brown, with a black crescent hung across the 

 breast ; below this the body and thighs are spotted 

 with black, while the under parts of the wings and 

 tail are bright yellow. The flickers of Texas and 

 the great plains have red instead of yellow quills, 

 and much cinnamon in the plumage of the back; 

 and a series of specimens shows how, as you go 

 west from the Atlantic coast, you find more and 

 more red taking the place of the characteristic yel- 

 low parts, until the latter color is wholly replaced 

 by it. "' What is the cause of this change?'' That 

 is one of the unanswered questions in ornithology.* 



* Further consideration induces me to put into a foot-note 

 what ornithologists have to say on this point, because it is 



