424 FLICKER. 



grated carrots, and ants' eggs, and now and then -with grated hard-boiled cgs^ meal- 

 worms, and small fruits. For the latter it showed no liking whatever in its cage-life, 

 but was very intent on meal-worms, grasshoppers, and crickets. It became so much 

 attached to me that it took its food from my hand. It did not eat in the manner of 

 other birds. The food was not picked up with the bill, but with the tongue, which 

 was thrust forward and in a sinuous or curving w^av made all kinds of motions. 

 With the slimy tongue it took meal-worms and other food from my hand, and in the 

 same way the ants' eggs were first singled out of the mixture of food, before the rest 

 was eaten. When I came near its cage, it at once perched on the bars and thrust its 

 long tongue forward in all directions. When it did not get its food at the usual time 

 in the morning, it was very impatient, hammering vigorously on the floor of the cage 

 and uttering very peculiar smacking sounds, somewhat like young Mockingbirds. It 

 spent most of its time on the floor of the rather roomy cage, but also alighted fre- 

 quently on the perches in the way other birds do. It always came confidingly and 

 with raised head and intelligent looks on the bars of the cage when I entered the 

 room. Usually it slept in a lying position in one comer of the cage, with its bill under 

 the wings, sometimes also in a hanging position on the bars of its cage. This one as 

 well as all the other Flickers, which I have kept in confinement, were very interesting 

 and amiable pets. 



NAMES: Fucker, Golden-winged Woodpecker, Yellow-shafted Woodpecker, Gar-«p, Yar-up, Wake-up, 

 Wick-up, Wicket, Yellow-hammer, Ant-eater, Ant-pecker, High-hole, High-holder, Pigeon Woodpecker, 

 Cuckoo Woodpecker, Eastern Flicker. 



SCIENTIFIC NAMES: Caculus auratas Linn. (1758). Picus auratus Linn. (1772). COLAPTES AURATUS 

 Swains. (1827). 



DESCRIPTION: "Shafts and under surfaces of wing and tail-feathers, gamboge-yellow. Male with a black 

 patch on each side of the cheek. A red crescent on the nape. Throat and stripe beneath the eye, pale 

 lilac-brown. Back, glossed with olivaceous-green. Female without the black cheek-patch. A crescentic 

 patch on the breast and rounded spots on the belly, black. Back and wing-coverts with interrupted 

 transverse bands of black. Neck above and on the sides, ashy. Beneath, pale pinkish-brown, tinged 

 with yellow on the abdomen, each feather with a heart-shaped spot of black near the end. Rump, 

 white." (B. B. & R., II, p. 575.). 



Length, 13.35 inches; wing, 6.66; tail, 4.86 inches. 



Red-shafted Flicker, Colaptes cafer Stejn. This beautiful species is found in the 

 Rocky Mountain region from British Columbia southward to southern Mexico, and 

 west to the Coast Ranges in Oregon and Washington, and to the Pacific coast from 

 northern California southward. It is the true counterpart of the Eastern Flicker in its 

 general habits, food, call-notes, etc., and it is therefore not necessary to go into details. 

 The shafts and under-surfaces of the wing and tail-feathers are of a beautiful and con- 

 spicuous red color. The sub-species, Colaptes cafer saturatior Ridgw. (North-western 

 Flicker), inhabits the north-western coast region, from Alaska south to northern Cali- 

 fornia. The Gilded Flicker, Colaptes chrysoides Reich., is an inhabitant of central 

 and southern Arizona, to southern Sonora, and Lower California. The Guadelupe 

 Flicker, Colaptes ruSpileus Ridgw., is confined to Guadelupe Island, Lower California. 



