THE RED-SHAFTED FLICKER. 137 



metres, or 1.29 by 0.88 inches; the smallest, 25.15 by 20.57 millimetres, or 0.99 

 by 0.81 inch; and a runt, 20.57 by 15.75 millimetres, or 0.81 by 0.62 inch. 



The type specimen, No. 19391 (not figured), from a set of ten eggs, was 

 taken by the writer near Fort Walla Walla, Washington, on May 11, 1882. 



48. Colaptes cafer saturatior Ridgway. 



NORTHWESTERN FLICKER. 



Colaptes mexicanus saturatior Ridgway", Proceedings Biological Society of Washington, II, 



April 10, 1884, 90. 

 Colaptes cafer saturatior Ridgway, MS. 



(B — , C — , R — , C — , U 413a.) 



Geographical range : Northwestern coast regions, from northern California north 

 to southern Alaska (Sitka). 



The breeding range of the Northwestern Flicker, a somewhat darker-colored 

 race than Colaptes cafer, is confined to the coast districts of Washington, British 

 Columbia, and the southern parts of Alaska north to Sitka, where it occurs both 

 in the uplands and lowlands. In the corresponding- regions in western Oregon, 

 and probably also in northwestern California, it appears to be found only on 

 the summits of the different mountains between the Cascades and the coast 

 during the breeding season, where the same moist climate prevails as is found 

 in the immediate vicinity of the coast, while in the drier lowlands, such as the 

 Uinpqua, Rogue, and Willamette river valleys, it is replaced by Colaptes cafer 

 and by intermediates between the two forms. A specimen in the collection of 

 the United States Department of Agriculture, taken near Cllendale, in Douglas 

 County, Oregon, on June 13, 1894, although not quite typical, seems to bear out 

 this view; another from near Sodaville, Linn County, in the United States National 

 Museum collection, taken in September, however, is a perfectly typical Colaptes 

 cafer saturatior. As this subspecies is knowu to be a common winter resident in 

 British Columbia, it is questionable if the latter was a migrant. I first met with 

 this dark-colored race in the Puget Sound region, Washington, in the latter part 

 of May, 1894, and found it moderately common in the vicinity of Seattle, in 

 partly cleared tracts where there was a good deal of dead timber, and also in the 

 rich bottom lands of the Puyallup River. Here, as the majority of its nesting 

 sites are located in rotten trees, and frequently quite a distance from the ground, 

 its eggs are rather hard to obtain. 



Mr. John Fannin, curator of the Provincial Museum at Victoria, British 

 Columbia, in his "List of Birds" found in that Province, reports this subspecies 

 as follows: "Abundant west of the Cascades; a number winter in the neighbor 

 hood of Victoria." 



According to Mr. E. W. Nelson, it does not appear to go regularly as 

 far north as Sitka, Alaska. He says: "During Bisehoff's visit to Sitka, at the 

 time of the Russian- American telegraph expedition, numbers of these beautiful 

 birds were taken there, and some of the specimens are now in the collection 



