NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 223 



bird's ordinary notes are the familiar, oft-repeated chuck-up^ chuck-up^ 

 chuck-up^ the scythe-whetting note, quit-tu^ quit-tu^ quit-tu, and the 

 peculiar wake-up call, preluded by rapid monosyllables. The Gol- 

 den-winged Woodpecker is found everywhere in woodlands, nest- 

 ing in the same manner as others of the family, most frequently in 

 a dead trunk of a tree, at considerable height from the ground. The 

 excavations are generally made by the birds, though not unfrequently 

 the eggs are laid within a natural cavity. Curious breeding-places are 

 sometimes selected. It has been found nesting in an old wagon hub 

 far out on the treeless prairie ; in barrels and in the crevices of 

 deserted barns and out-houses. Ordinarily from six to eight or 

 ten crystalline white eggs are deposited, but in exceptional cases this 

 bird is known to lay a large number. Prof. Evermann took thirty-seven 

 eggs from a single nest between May 4 and June 22, 1885. In this 

 period of time the bird rested fourteen days. 



The most remarkable instance of the laying capacity of the Flicker 

 of which I am aware is that recorded by Charles L,. Phillips, of Taunton, 

 Mass. On May 6, 1883, he found a cavity in a large willow tree con- 

 taining two eggs; he took one, leaving the other as a "nest egg," and 

 continued to do so day after day until the female Flicker had laid 

 seventy-one eggs in seventy-three days.* The average size of the eggs 

 is 1.10X.90, and in a large series a great variation in size and shape are 

 noticeable. 



413. Colaptes cafer (Gmei.) [3781^.] 



Red-shafted Flicker. 



Hab. Western United States, from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific coast; north to Sitka; south 

 to Southern Mexico. 



This species replaces the Yellow-shafted Flicker from the Rocky 

 Mountains to the Pacific. In its habits, nesting and eggs the exact 

 counterpart of C. auratus. The eggs average a trifle larger; 1.14X.86 

 is the average of thirty specimens. 



413a. Colaptes cafer saturatior Ridgw. 



NorthTreatern Flicker. 



Hab. Northwest coast, from northern California north to Sitka. 



The general habits, nesting, etc., of this darker colored race are 

 the same as those of C. auratus or C. cafer. Mr. Norris has a set of 

 seven eggs of this bird in his cabinet taken near Salem, Oregon, June 5, 

 1888. The nest-cavity was in an old balm tree thirty feet from the 

 ground. The eggs measure, i.iix.87, i.iix.86, i.iix.87, 1.16X.85, 

 1-13 X. 8 5, 1.16X.85, I.IIX.85. 



* In the last edition of this work Mr. Phillips' record was credited to the Ornitholo£ist and Oologist 

 (Vol. XI, p. 16). Mention of it first appears in The Young Oologist (Vol. I, p. 26), and it has recently been 

 recorded in The Auk, Vol. IV, p. 346. 



