THE GOLDEN-WINGED WOODPECKER. 105 



eggs are generally five or six in number, and of a beautiful 

 clear-white. Dr. Thompson says, in his *' Birds of Ver- 

 mont," that " they are marked with reddish spots at the 

 large end." This was a mistake; for the eggs of wood- 

 peckers are always immaculate. The shell is smoother 

 than that of any other woodpecker's egg of my acquaint- 

 ance. Length of specimens vary from 1.07 to 1.12 inch, 

 breadth from .77 to .84 inch. 



COLAPTES, SWAINSON. 



Colaptes, SWAINSON, Zool. Jour., III. (Dec. 1827) 353 (type C. auratus). 



Bill slender, depressed at the base, then compressed; culmen much curved; gonys 

 straight, both with acute ridges, and coming to quite a sharp point with the com- 

 missure at the end ; the bill consequently not truncate at the end ; no ridges on the 

 bill; nostrils basal, median, oval, and exposed; gonys very short, about half the 

 culmen; feet large, the anterior outer toe considerably longer than the posterior; tail 

 long, exceeding the secondaries, the feathers suddenly acuminate, with elongated 

 points. 



COLAPTES AURATUS. Swainson. 

 The Golden-winged Woodpecker; Flicker; Pigeon Woodpecker. 



Picus auratus, Linnaus. Syst. Nat. (1766) 174. Wilson, Am. Orn., I. (1810) 45. 

 Aud. Orn. Biog., I. (1832) 191. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Shafts and under surfaces of wing and tail feathers gamboge-yellow; a black 

 patch on each side of the cheek; a red crescent on the nape; throat and stripe 

 beneath the eye pale lilac-brown ; back glossed with olivaceous-green ; female with- 

 out the black cheek patch ; a crescentic patch on the breast, and rounded spots on 

 the belly, black ; back and wing coverts with interrupted transverse bands of black ; 

 neck above and sides ashy. 



Length, about twelve and a half inches ; wing, six. 



This is a very common summer inhabitant of New Eng- 

 land. It is probably the most abundant of all the wood- 

 peckers, and is very generally known. It is in the southern 

 districts of these States a resident throughout the year: 

 and in Massachusetts I have often met with it in midwinter, 

 when the season was not of the mildest either. They begin 

 to arrive from the south at about the second week in 

 March. 



