o24 General Notes. [j„"y 



I therefore designate Nootka Sound as the type locality of Gmelin's 

 Picus cafer. 



Admitting that Gmelin's description really belongs to the bird found by 

 Cook at this locality, several changes in nomenclature are unavoidable. 

 Gmelin's name must be adopted for the Northwest coast Flicker which 

 thus becomes Colaptes cafer cafer and Colaptes c. saturatior is reduced to 

 synonymy. Colaptes mexicanus of Swainson should be restored as the 

 name of the Mexican bird in accordance with the usage of most English 

 ornithologists but in the form Colaptes cafer mexicanus. No change is 

 necessary in the name of the California bird which remains Colaptes c. 

 collaris (Vigors) or in that of the Guadalupe Flicker, Colaptes c. rufipileus 

 (Ridgway). Such a solution of the cafer difficulty seems reasonable and 

 has much in its favor. It is inconceivable that such a conspicuous bird as 

 the Red-shafted Flicker which was represented in England at the time of 

 the return of Cook's expedition by at least two specimens, two published 

 descriptions, and a colored plate ^ should have remained unnamed for 

 nearly half a century until Swainson in 1S27 described the bird brought 

 from Mexico by Bullock, and Vigors in 1829 named the flicker obtained on 

 the Pacific Coast during the Voyage of H. M. S. ' Blossom.' Moreover the 

 transfer of the name cafer to the Northwest Coast Flicker connects the 

 history of the bird with that of Capt. James Cook, the famous navigator 

 and explorer, to whom undoubtedly belongs the honor of collecting the 

 first specimens which were carried to Europe. — T. S. Palmer, Washington, 

 D. C. 



The Scissor-tailed Flycatcher in New Mexico. — The Scissor-tailed 

 Flycatcher has long been known as an inhabitant of western Texas almost 

 to the New Mexico line, but up to the present time has had no unquestion- 

 able published i-ecord for the latter State. A recent letter fi'om Mr. E. H. 

 Byers says that the species is nesting this summer at Hobbs, New Mexico, 

 close to the Texas line and about 45 miles north of the southeastern corner 

 of New Mexico. 



Mr. Byers was familiar with the bird in former years in eastern Texas, 

 and was pleased to welcome an old acquaintance when it first appeared at 

 Hobbs in June, 1912, and raised a family in a mesquite bush about a mile 

 from water and from the nearest human habitation. Since then the 

 numbers have increased until the summer of 1915 they were fairly common 

 and ranged at least ten miles into New Mexico from the Texas line. But 

 instead of nesting in isolated places, most of the species have built in the 

 trees near houses where there are reservoirs supplied by windmills. One 

 pair actually built their nest on a windmill at the middle of the vane, 



1 This plate was drawn by William W. Ellis, the artist, who accompanied Captain Cook 

 on his third voyage. The plate is No. 19 and is marked " King George's Sound ( = Nootka 

 Sound) W. Ellis, del. etc., 1778." According to Sharpe, this plate which represents Colaptes 

 auralus is now in the Museum of Natural History at South Kensington, England (Hist. 

 Coll. Brit. Mus., II, 173, 200). 



