^°'-™"I] Cencral Notes. ' 323 



colour, on the upper part, richly waved with black, except about the head; 

 the belly of a reddish cast, with round black spots; a black spot on the 

 breast; and the under-side of the wings and tail a plain scarlet colour, 

 though blackish above; with a crimson streak running from the angle of 

 the mouth, a little down the neck on each side." 



A reexamination of these descriptions in chronological order shows: 

 (1) that the bird found by Cook at Nootka Sound in 1778 and that described 

 by Latham in 1782 are one and the same species, even without reference 

 to Latham's statement in the Supplement; (2) that the birds described by 

 Latham and Gmelin are identical and Gmelin's description is evidently 

 taken from Latham. Gmelin's description of cafer follows the descrip- 

 tion of auratus based on Latham's Gold-winged Woodpecker No. 49, and 

 precedes the description of olivaceus based on Latham's ' Crimson- breasted 

 Woodpecker ' ' No. 50, so that the sequence of these three species is the 

 same in both books. 



Latham's connection with Gmelin's description was evidently recognized 

 by contemporaneous authors as is shown by the citation of the reference to 

 the ' Synopsis ' in the synonymy of cafer by Donndorff in 1794 (Ornith. 

 Beytrage zur XIII Ausgabe Linn. Natursyst., p. 518) and Suckow in 1800 

 (Anfangsgr. Thiere, II, p. 547).^ Later Wagler, in 1827, proposed lathami 

 as a substitute for Gmelin's inappropriate name cafer (Syst. Avium, Picus, 

 sp. 85). The reason that Gmelin included no reference to Latham was 

 probably due either to inadvertence or to the fact that Latham gave no 

 distinctive name or numl)er to the Red-shafted Flicker. 



The locality ' Cape of Good Hope ' which has caused so much confusion 

 also shows the close connection between the two descriptions. It may be 

 regarded as a case of transposed labels on the specimens or a typographical 

 error, but it is interesting to note that on Cook's chart of his routes in the 

 Pacific Ocean the entrance to Nootka Sound is marked Bay of Good Hope 

 (' B. of G. Hope '). It is jnentioned in the text as Hope Bay, the name 

 being given by Cook upon first sighting this point on the coast and " hoping, 

 from the appearance of the land, to find in it a good harbor " (II, p. 264). 

 Possibly this troublesome ' Cape of Good Hope ' which has always been 

 associated with South Africa may have been only a misprint for the long 

 forgotten ' Bay of Good Hope ' on the west coast of Vancouver Island. 

 Latham's statement that Captain Cook found the Gold-winged Woodpecker 

 at Nootka Sound is not to be taken literally for ixi that time Latham 

 regarded the Red-shafted Fli ker as merely a variety of his Gold-winged 

 Woodpecker and both he and Cook described the red-shafted and not the 

 yellow-shafted bird. 



1 This specimen which was also in the Leverian Museum later passed into the possession 

 of the Bullock Museum and on the disposal of that collection was sold on May 18, 1819, to 

 Baron Laugier for 12 shillings (Hist. Coll. Nat. Hist., Depts. Nat. Mus., II, 223, 1906). 

 I have been unable to ascertain the history of the flickers. 



2 For the opportunity of consulting these rare works I am indebted to Dr. C. W. Bich- 

 mond of the U. S. National Museum. 



