The Flicker 253 



should discover them ; for sparrows have a way of staying near 

 the ground, either directly upon it, or in low bushes, or about 

 fences, where a bright-colored back and breast would serve to 

 distinguish them instantly. Now most of our common spar- 

 rows, we find, are dull-colored little birds varied with stripes 

 about the back, breast, and head that seem to blend with the 

 colors of the earth and with the grass stems they live among." 

 In the illustration, notice how the colors of the young flickers 

 blend with the color of the old stump, and the same would be 

 true were they upon the bole of a tree. 



The white patch on the rump of the flicker which is seen 

 only when it is in flight, is a fine example to illustrate another 

 subject which is of much interest to bird students, and that is, 

 the subject of color calls among the birds. Recognition, sig- 

 naling, or other directive colors have, with more or less reason, 

 been made to include many different types of markings. As 

 Baskett has well said in The Story of the Birds, "Birds strik- 

 ingly exhibit these social or signal colors on various parts of 

 the body. They may be conspicuous head markings, as in 

 some plovers ; throat, patches, as in our bob-white and wild 

 (Canada) goose; rump spots as in the flicker or lapwing; vari- 

 ous tail spots, tips or blotches, or the entire whiteness of one 

 or more tail feathers ; wholly or partial white feathers among 

 the wing quills, or white blotches or bars upon the smaller 

 feathers of the wings more conspicuous usually when spread 

 in flight. There are many other forms the entire wing or 

 back or some other part being conspicuous." 



The tongue of this and of the other woodpeckers is a most 

 useful instrument. Its construction is most wonderful. That 

 of the flicker can be extended two and a half inches beyond 

 the tip of the bill. Wilson says "its tongue is round, worm- 

 shaped, flattened towards the tip, pointed, and furnished with 

 minute barbs ; it is long, missile, and can be instantly pro- 

 truded to an uncommon distance. The os hyoides, or internal 

 parts of the tongue, like those of its tribe, is a substance for 

 strength and elasticity resembling whalebone, divided into two 

 branches, each the thickness of a knitting-needle, that pass, 

 one on each side of the neck, (see illustration), to the hind- 

 head, where they unite and run along the skull in a groove, 



