133 
River, and north to the Texas and Pacific Railway. Mr. Brown found 
it at Boerne. 
412. Colaptes auratus (Linn.). [378.] licker ; Yellow-shafted Flicker. 
A common summer resident in Manitoba and most of the Mississippi 
Valley east of the Plains; being replaced; in the west, by the following . 
species. Along the eastern edge of the Plains all sorts of interme. 
diate phases occur. 
Few birds are better known or possess more local names than the 
present species. Yellow-hammer and Flicker are the names by which 
it hus been most frequently reported, and the two in about equal pro- 
portion. Its winter home in 1883-84 was somewhat farther south 
than usual, At Manhattan, Kans., large flocks remained all winter, 
but they were not reported from the rest of the State. In Missouri none 
wintered at St. Louis, nor were they mentioned from any station in the 
State before March. In Illinois they were found in the extreme south’ 
ern part only. The species was a full degree, and in most places two 
degrees, south of its ordinary limit. Although mixing with C. cafer and 
the variety formerly known as Colaptes auratus hybridus in the western 
part on the Plains, yet true auratus is found throughout the Mississippi 
Valley, even to southwestern Texas, where it was noted from San An- 
gelo in the winter of 1883-84. Its spring migration begins early, 
being but little behind that of the Robin, and the bulk of these two 
species usually moves together. In 1884 a few individuals were influ- 
enced by the warm weather of the last of January and moved slightly, 
but no real movement took place until the second week in March. On 
March 10 and 11 they appeared at Saint Louis and Glasgow, Mo. (lat- 
itude 39° 14’). The Flicker, like the Red-headed Woodpecker, migrates 
faster on the east than on the west side of the Mississippi River. The 
record of its arrival on the east side is as follows: In Illinois it reached 
latitude 35° 43/ March 19; March 20 and 21 it reached latitude 41° 36’ 
and 41° 51’; March 24, latitude 41° 58’; March 26, latitude 43° in Wis. 
consin, and March 29, latitude 44° 26’. West of the Mississippi it had 
moved to latitude 41° 40’ in Iowa by March 26; to latitude 44° 26’ in 
Minnesota by March 28, and March 31 it was seen at latitude 45° and 
45° 25’ in- Minnesota, having thus overtaken those in Wisconsin. 
Farther west the dates were still later. The first was seen at Ellis, 
Kans., March 21; at Linwood, Nebr. (latitude 419 22’), April 2; at Ar- 
gusville, Dak. (latitude 47° 08’), April 16; and at Larimore (latitude 
47° 52‘) April 21. At Portage La Prairie, Manitoba, the first was seen 
also April 21, which makes the record irregular as compared with that 
from Dakota, but regular when compared with the notes from the region 
around the headwaters of the Mississippi. The bulk ordinarily appears 
from three to six days behind the first. 
The variety formerly known as the Hybrid Flicker (Colaptes auratus 
hybridus) [378 a], consisting of those svecimens which are intermediate 
