322 General Notes. [july 



The Type Locality of Colaptes cafer. — According to the A. O. U. 



Check-List Colaptes cafer described by GmeHn in 1788 is an extrahmital 

 species, and the type locaUty, erroneously given as Cape of Good Hope, 

 is generally assumed to be Mexico. 



Gmelin's original description (Syst. Nat., 13th ed., I, p. 431), is as follows: 



P. supra fuscus, subtus vinaceus nigro-guttatus, alls subtus, scapisque 

 remigum et retricam miniatis. 



Habitat ad caput bonje spei, aurato multum similis, sed minor. ^ 



Rostrum fuscum, ad utrumque latus stria rubra notatum; cauda acuta, 

 rectricibus apice l^ifurcis. 



There is no citation here as there is under most of the other species 

 to indicate the original source of the description. It is well known however, 

 that Gmelin's descriptions were not made from specimens but were com- 

 piled from the works of previous authors and in the case of birds frpm the 

 west coast of North America his information was obtained almost entirely 

 from Latham's ' Synopsis.' 



Latham did not recognize the Red-shafted Flicker as a distinct species 

 nor did he give it a name, but in his General Synopsis of Birds (II, p. 599, 

 1782), after the account of the Gold-winged Woodpecker he adds the fol- 

 lowing note: 



49a. " I have lately seen, in the Museum above referred to [the Leverian 

 Museum of Sir Ashton Lever to which Latham had free access], a bird 

 which appears to be a mere variety, though brought from a far different 

 country. This was much like the last described in colour, but rather less 

 in size. The bill exactly made like that bird [the Gold-winged Woodpecker], 

 and brown: on each side of the jaw is a stripe of crimson, like a whisker: the 

 under parts of the wings of a pale red colour, not unlike what is called red 

 lead: and the shafts of the quills and tail, which in the other bird are yellow, 

 in this are red: the plumage on the upper parts of the body is brown: 

 beneath vinaceous, marked ivith round black spots: tail black, pointed, and 

 each feather bifurcated at the tip, exactly like the American one. 



" This was brought from the Cape of Good Hope. I have seen two speci- 

 mens of this bird." 



It will be seen by a comparison of Gmelin's description with the extract 

 from Latham which I have italicized that practically every word even to 

 the locality is found in Latham's account. Five years later, in 1787, in his 

 Supplement to the Synopsis of Birds (Vol. I, p. Ill) Latham makes this 

 significant statement : 



" Gold-winged Woodpecker. Gen. Syn., II, p. 597, No. 49." 



Captain Cook in his last voyage found this bird at Nootka Sound.^ 



Turning to the page cited, we find that Cook in speaking of the birds 

 found at Nootka Sound mentions two species of woodpeckers, one of which, 

 evidently the Red-shafted Flicker, is described as follows: 



" The other is a larger, and much more elegant bird, of a dusky brown 



I Voy., II., p. 297. 



