THE GILA WOODPEOKER. 129 



a foot from tlie cactus, and climbing up this. Incubation was about one-fourth 

 advanced; the female was at hoine, but flew out as soon as the cactus was 

 struck with a stick. The inner cavity was only 4^- inches deep and quite roomy; 

 the juices of the cactus formed a hard incrustation, and the eggs laid on the bare, 

 hard floor. On May 30 I took another nest, also in a cactus, containing four 

 much-incubated eggs. This time I tried chopping, and had ropes thrown around 

 the top of the cactus to steady it and let it come down slowly, biit this plan 

 did not work well, and two of the eggs were broken. 



Fully three-fourths of these birds nest in cacti here, while the remainder, 

 nesting in trees, are about equally difficult to get at. Most of their nesting 

 sites are used for several years in succession; in fact, I doubt very much 

 if a freshly excavated hole in a giant cactus is fit to nest in the same season. 

 Both sexes assist in excavating the nesting site, and incubation lasts about 

 two weeks. 



The number of eggs to a set varies from three to five, sets of four being 

 most common. Like those of all Woodpeckers, they are pure white in color. 

 The shell is fine grained and not very glossy — not nearly as much so as the 

 eggs of the Red-headed Woodpecker; they resemble more tlie eggs of the other 

 species of this genus in this respect, and in shape they vary from ovate to 

 elliptical ovate. 



The average measurement of twelve eggs in the United States National 

 Museum collection is 24.38 by 18.09 millimetres, or about 0.96 by 0.71 inch. 

 The largest egg measures 27.43 by 18.80 millimetres, or 1.08 by 0.74 inches; 

 the smallest, 22.86 by 17.27 millimetres, or 0.90 by 0.68 inch. 



The type specimen. No. 19418 (not figured), Bendire collection, from a set 

 of four eggs, was taken by the writer on Rillito Creek, near Tucson, Arizona, 

 on May 23, 1872. 



46. Colaptes auratus (Linn.eus). 



FLICKER. 



Gticulus auratus Linn^tjs, Systema N'aturfe, ed. 10, I, 1758, 112. 

 Colaptes auratus ViaoES, Zoological Journal, III, 1827, 444. 



(B 97, 312, R 378, C 457, U 412.) 



Geogkai'Hical RANGE: Eastern l^Torth America; from Florida and the Gulf coast 

 north tbrough the maritime provinces of Canada to Newfoundland and southern Labrador, 

 and the shores of Hudson Bay, to about latitude 58°; thence in a northwesterly direction 

 to Alaslia, to about latitude 68*3; west through about the eastern half of Texas, the greater 

 part of the Indian Territory, Kansas, the eastern half of Kebraska, South and North 

 Dakota, and the provinces of Assiniboia and Saskatchewan, Dominion of Canada, to 

 northern British Columbia. Casual in California; accidental in Greenland and Europe. 



The breeding range of the Flicker, also commonly known as "Golden- 

 winged Woodpecker," "Yellow-shafted Flicker," "Yellow-hammer," and less 

 often as "High-hole" or "High-holder," "Clape," "Wake-up," besides a number 



16896— No. 3 9 



