158 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



manent resident near her home. It must be regarded, however, as 

 uncommon and local in western New York and is likely to be extirpated 

 as a breeding species unless strictly protected in the few localities where 

 it is found. 



Habits. The Red-bellied woodpecker is a conspicuous bird both on 

 account of its color, its actions, and its vociferousness. It is almost 

 impossible for one of these birds to escape attention if it is in the same 

 woods with a bird observer. It is seldom still for any length of time, 

 but ascends one tree after another with a peculiar jerky motion uttering- 

 at every hitch its noisy chawh-chawh which immediately attracts attention 

 as an unsual sound. When he has reached the higher portions of one tree 

 he flies off to another and begins the same routine. If alarmed he gives 

 voice to a cha-cha-cha, and frequently, when perched on a lofty limb of 

 a tree or immediately after alighting, utters a call somewhat similar to 

 that of the Red-headed woodpecker's " tchurr-tchurr." The food of this, 

 species is much like that of the Redhead, but it does not seem to be so 

 fond of garden fruits. A large portion of its food in the fall consists of 

 nuts and wild fruit. The nest is excavated in some dead or partially 

 dead tree at a height of from 5 to 70 feet from the ground. The opening- 

 is about if inches in diameter and the excavation 12 inches in depth. The 

 eggs, which are from 4 to 6 in number, are pure white, slightly less glossy 

 than those of the Red-headed woodpecker, and average i inch in length 

 by .75 in diameter. 



Colaptes auratus luteus Bangs 

 Northern Flicker 



Plate 64 



Colaptes auratus luteus Bangs. Auk, April 1898. 15:177 

 Picus auratus DeKay. Zool. of N. Y. 1844. pt 2, p. 192, fig. 33 

 Colaptes auratus 1 u t e u s Bangs. A. 0. U. Check List. Ed 3. 1910. p. 194- 

 No. 412a 



colaptes, Gr., xoXaia-qq, chisel; auratus, Lat., golden, gilded 



Description. Somewhat larger than the Robin; upper parts brown, 

 barred with black; rump white; crown of head ashy gray: bright scarlet- 



