582 



NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



C. W. Plass, of Xapa City, writes me tliat this Woodpecker " makes liimself 

 too mucli at liome with us to be afrveeable. He drills large holes though the 

 weather-boards of the house, and shelters himself at night between them and 

 the inner wall. He does not nest there, but simply makes of such situations 

 his winter home. We have liad to shoot them, for we find it is of no use to 

 shut up one hole, as they will at once make anotlier by its side." 



Mr. J. A. Allen mentions finding this species, in the absence of suitable 

 trees on the Plains, making excavations in sand-banks. 



According to Mr. Ridgway, the Ked-shafted Flicker does not differ from 

 the Yellow-shafted species of the east in the slightest particular, as regards 

 habits, manners, and notes. It is, however, more shy than tlie eastern spe- 

 cies, probably from the fact that it is pursued by the Indians, who pi.. »^s 

 quill and tail-feathers as ornaments with which to adorn their dress. 



Their eggs are hardly distinguishable from those of the auratus, but range 

 of a very slightly superior size. They average 1.12 inches in length by .89 

 of an inch in breadth. Their greatest length is 1.15 inches, their least 1.10, 

 and their breadth ranges from .87 to .90. 



Colaptes hybridus. Baird. 



HTBBU) FIICKEE. 



Colaptes ayrcsiif AuD. Birds Am. VII, 1843, 348, pi. ccccxciv. Colaptes hybridus, 

 Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 122. Colaptes mexicamcs, Max. Cab. Jour. 1858, 422 

 (mixed with mexicanus). Picas hyhridits aurato-nuxicanus, Suxdevall, Consp. Pie. 

 18GC, 721. 



Sp. Char. Yellow shafts or feathers on winjr and tail combined with red, or red spotted 

 cheek-patches. Orange-red shafts combined with a well-defined nuchal red crescent, and 

 pinkish throat. Ash-colored throat combined with black cheek-patch or yellow shaft?. 

 Shafts and feathers intermediate between gamboire-yellow and dark orange-red. 



Had. Upper Missouri and Yellowstone ; Black Hills. 



The general distribution of Colaptes rncximmis, as already indicated, is 

 from the Pacific coast of the United States, eastward to the Black Hills and 

 the Upper Missouri and Yellowsc^ne : that of the C. auratus from the At- 

 lantic Coast to about the eastern limits of mexicanus. But little variation 

 is seen in the two species up to the region mentioned ; slight differences in 

 shade of color, size, and frequency of spots, etc., being all. Where they 

 come together, however, or overlap, a most remarkable race is seen, in which 

 no two specimens, nay, scarcely the two sides of the same bird, are alike, 

 the characters of the two species becoming mixed up in the most extraor- 

 dinary manner. Thus, the shafts show every shade from orange-red to pure 

 yellow ; yellow shafts combine with red cheek-patch (as in C. ayresii of Au- 

 dubon) ; a red nape, with orange-red shafts ; cheek-patches red with black 

 feathers intermixed, or vice versa ; perhaps the feathers red at base and black 





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