116 WOODPECKERS. 
black bars. The case is interesting, and shows how nearly 
alike in color distinct species may be. In size, however, 
the difference is more noticeable, the Hairy being nearly 
three inches the longer.. 
In life the Hairy is a somewhat shier bird, fonder of 
the forest than of the orchard. His peek note is louder 
and sharper than that of the Downy, and his rattling call 
suggests that of the Kingfisher. 
The gayly colored Red-headed Woodpecker is as 
erratic in his goings and comings as he is striking in — 
a ee dress. In the northeastern States he is 
Woodpecker, locally common in summer, and if well 
Melanerpes supplied with beechnuts, may remain 
weer during the winter. Some years the 
grayish headed young birds are excep- — 
tionally abundant in the fall, but their white wing-patch- 
es, which show so conspicuonsly when they fly, and their 
loud, rolling call of ker-r-ruck, ker-r-ruck, are unmistak- 
able marks of identity. 
The most interesting of our Woodpeckers is the 
Flicker, or High-hole, whose popularity is attested by 
Flicker, his list of no less than thirty odd com- 
Colaptes auratus. ton names. Surely here is an instance 
PlateXXVI —ijlustrating the necessity of one sci- 
entific term by which the “ Piquebois jaune” of Louisi- 
ana may be recognized as the “Clape” of New York. 
He is also a Yucker, a Flicker, and a Yellow-ham- 
mer; all these names being based on his notes or plu- 
mage. 
The Flicker is less of a carpenter than are others of 
his family, and generally selects decayed logs and stumps 
as his hunting grounds. Here he hunts for his favorite 
food of ants, which he also procures at their holes and 
mounds. This is the reason we so often flush the Flicker 
from the ground, and, if we mark the spot from which he 
