FLICKERS. 



17 



weeds, such as pokeweed and several species of the genera Lithosper- 

 mum, Oxalis, and Euphorbia. In certain parts of California the habit 

 of feeding on the seeds of turkey mullein (Eremocarpus setigerus) 

 is so well known that a botanist, on inquiring how he could collect 

 some seeds of this plant, was advised to shoot a few doves and open 

 their crops. Under some circumstances enormous quantities of weed 

 seed are devoured, as shown by the crop of a dove killed in a rye field 

 at Warner, Tenn., which contained no less than 7,500 seeds of Oxalis 

 stricta. As a weed destroyer, the dove more than compensates for the 

 grain which it occasionally consumes, and the value of .its services is 

 certainly greater than the few cents which its body brings in market. 



Fig. 3. — Flicker (Colaptes auratus). 



FLICKERS. 



Of the woodpeckers, the flickers or pigeon woodpeckers (fig. 3), 

 represented in the East by the yellow-shafted flicker (Colaptes 

 auratus) and in the West by the red-shafted flicker (0. cafer), are 

 the only ones which are killed to any extent for food. ' They are still 

 regarded as legitimate game in some sections, but apparently are so 

 treated by law only in Nevada, which fixes an open season from 

 September 15 to March 15. Like other woodpeckers, the flicker is 



4 In some parts of the South the pileated woodpecker ( Ceophlcms pileatus) is sold 

 as game, and a few specimens can be found occasionally in the markets of Washing- 

 ton, D. C. 



22186— No. 12 2 



