590 The Roller-like Birds 



part of the head is adorned with a patch of red, and the rump is immaculate 

 white; the length is about twelve inches. It is distributed over eastern North 

 America, north to Hudson's Bay and west to the Great Plains. It is among 

 the best-known of our birds in New England, returning from its winter home in 

 March or April and soon making the woodland ring with its far-reaching but 

 pleasing call notes; it is, however, not migratory south of the parallel of 40. 

 It is, says Bendire, "one of the most sociable of our Woodpeckers, and is apparently 

 always on good terms with its neighbors. It is especially demonstrative during 

 the nesting season, and is an ardent wooer. It is an exceedingly interesting 

 and amusing sight to see a couple of males paying their addresses to a coy and 

 coquettish female; the apparent shyness of the suitors as they sidle up to her 

 and as quickly retreat again, the sly glances given as one peeps from behind 

 a limb watching the other, seem very human." For a nesting site it prefers 

 open woodland or orchards, and is not hard to please; any old stump or partly 

 decayed limb of a tree will serve the purpose. If suitable nesting places are 

 readily available, a new cavity is excavated each year, but if not, an old hole may 

 be used for many seasons. The entrance is often two and a half inches in diam- 

 eter and the depth of the hole from ten inches to two feet; it is usually con- 

 siderably enlarged at the bottom. In localities where suitable trees are not to 

 be found, they may dig a hole in a bank like a Kingfisher, in gate-posts, or in the 

 side of a building, and Major Bendire records one instance where a pair excavated 

 a hole in a haystack. The eggs usually number six or seven, but larger sets 

 are not uncommon, and if the eggs are removed, the female will usually deposit 

 a second clutch. There is a remarkable case on record where a Flicker was 

 induced, by taking the egg each day, to lay seventy-one eggs in seventy-five 

 days. The young birds are very voracious and often clamor loudly for their 

 food, which appears to be partially digested by the parents before it is given 

 them, the process of feeding them being a "pumping" action not unlike that 

 described in the Ruby-throated Hummingbird. 



As the food of the Flickers consists largely of ants and ground-haunting 

 insects, they are frequently seen in open country on the ground. They also 

 feed, to some extent, on berries and fruits, such as cherries, mulberries, raspberries, 

 wild grapes, dogwood, etc., and while they may do some damage in this respect, 

 the good accomplished in destroying noxious insects is much more than coun- 

 terbalanced. 



Closely allied to this species is the Cuban Flicker (C. chrysocaulosus\ which 

 has the white rump thickly spotted with black, and the Gilded Flicker (C. chrys- 

 oides) of Lower California, southern Arizona, and Sonora, which is distinguished 

 by the absence of red on the occiput, gray instead of vinaceous throat, and 

 red instead of black mustaches in the male. Throughout all the western 

 United States occurs the Red-shafted Flicker (C. cafer collaris}, a representative 

 of the group in which the shafts of quill- and tail-feathers are red. Along the 

 line of contact between this and the eastern Flicker it is common to find inter- 

 mediate forms, and along the northwest coast from northern California to Sitka 

 there is a darker form known as the Northwest Flicker (C. c. saturatior), while 



