THE RED SI1AFTED FLICKER. 135 



southwestern border of the Dominion of Canada, east of the Cascade Mountains. 

 It is a resident throughout the greater part of its range, excepting the more 

 northern portions, wintering regularly in the vicinity of Fort Walla Walla, Wash- 

 ington, in latitude 4(>°, and it is pretty generally distributed, being as much at, 

 home in the higher mountain ranges up to altitudes of about 10,000 feet, as in 

 the lower and much hotter valleys among- the timbered bottom lands. As 

 already stated, this species intergrades extensively with the preceding one along 

 the eastern borders of its range, and typical specimens are not uncommonly met 

 with in western Kansas, western Nebraska, and southwestern South Dakota; but 

 as transition forms, or so-called "hybrids," predominate largely here, I do not 

 include these sections in their range proper, considering them as neutral ground 

 on which typical specimens of both species are about equally common. 



Its breeding range is nearly coextensive with its geographical distribution. 

 It appears to be an equally common summer resident on the Mexican table-lands 

 as in the western United States. Here, however, it is not met with in summer 

 in the lower Rio Grande Valley, nor throughout the dry and arid portions 

 in the western parts of Texas and similar regions in southern New Mexico 

 and Arizona, where it rarely breeds below altitudes of 6,000 feet. Mr. AV. A. 

 Anthony met with it in the San Pedro Martir Mountains, in Lower California, in 

 summer, at altitudes of from 7,000 to 10,000 feet, evidently nesting; and near the 

 coast, in winter, as low as 3,000 feet. I found this handsome bird a common 

 summer resident nearly everywhere throughout the West, from eastern Montana, 

 west through Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and Nevada, to California, and an 

 abundant winter resident in the vicinity of Tucson, southern Arizona, where 

 it. unquestionably breeds in the pine belt in the higher mountains. 



In its general habits, food, call notes, etc., the Red-shafted Flicker resembles 

 the preceding species very closely, and I have been unable to detect any notable 

 differences. It is a trifle larger bird than the preceding, and in certain sections 

 appears to be rather more partial to extensive forests than its eastern relative. 

 Its nesting habits are also quite similar, and it adapts itself readily to the condi- 

 tions found in its surroundings. Its favorite nesting sites are old rotten stubs 

 or trees, such as cottonwoods, willows, sycamores, junipers, oaks, and pines. 

 It nests also in holes in banks, in the sides of houses, in gate posts, etc. In the 

 more northern portions of its range the migrants usually return to their breeding 

 grounds during the last week in March or the beginning of April. Nidification 

 begins about the 1st of May, and full sets of fresh eggs may be looked for about 

 the middle of that month. The earliest set found by me, one of eight eggs, was 

 on May 4, 1871, near Fort Lapwai, Idaho; the latest, one of seven eggs, on June 

 6, 1875, near Camp Harney, Oregon. In southern California they nest mostlv in 

 April, and here, Mr. F. Stephens writes me, "the Red-shafted Flicker is a common 

 resident; I find it from sea level to the upper limits of timber, anywhere where 

 trees occur. It often feeds on ants and insects picked from the ground." One 

 brood only is usually raised in a season; but I believe an occasional pair of early 

 nesting birds raises two. Among some peculiar nesting sites of this species the 

 following- deserve mention: 



