176 Bird Studies. 



X 



The Flicker is a harlequin among birds, with black and red, white and gold, 



exhibited as he passes by. You ' will know the bird by the patch of white on 



the riimp and the^yellow showing beneath the wings and 



Flicker. ^^jj -^^ j^j^ flight. A closer look will reveal* a clear black 



Colaptes auratus (Linn.). o 



band across the breast, and an equally well defined black 

 patch starting at the angle of the jaw, and passing back on the face to the 

 region below the ear. There is a scarlet band on the back of the head. The 

 top of the head is ashy gray, as is the back of the neck. The back is grayish 

 brown barred with dark brown or black. The wings and tail are black or 

 dusky seen from above, with yellow shafts to the feathers. Seen from below 

 the wings and basal two thirds of the tail feathers are bright yellow or golden. 

 The tips of the tail feathers are black. The throat and the sides of the face 

 are a warm light brown, almost pinkish ; this color prevails to the black throat 

 band. Back of the throat band the lower parts are whitish with suggestions 

 of the color of the*throat, and thickly marked with round black spots. The 

 female is like the male, but lacks the black markings on the sides of the 

 face below the eye. The birds are about a foot in length. 



Like all woodpeckers, the Flicker breeds in holes in trees, generally, but 

 not always, of their own excavation. The eggs, four to nine or ten in num- 

 ber, are pure white, and are an inch and one tenth in length, and a little less 

 than nine teriths of an inch in width. ^.^ 



The birds are found in Eastern North America north to Hudsorfs Bay. 

 They breed throughout their range and winter south from Illinois and Mas- 

 sachusetts. 



Though true woodpeckers, they are often seen on the ground, where 

 worms and larvae of insects tempt them, and the smaller wild fruits of the 

 dogwood, gumberry, and cherry are eagerly sought after in their season. 



The Red-bellied Woodpecker is about nine inches and a half long. It 



impresses one, in a way, as a small Flicker, having a certain general resem- 



blance to that bird. In the adult male the entire top of 



Woodoecker ^^^ head, extending well back on the neck, is clear shining 



Meianerpes caroiinus scarlet. Thc back is barred black and white. The feathers 



'""'■ above the base of the tail are white, marked with black 



streaks. The wings are barred' black and white, except that the larger feathers 



are black at their ends. The tail is marked in the same way, except on the 



two middle feathers, which have less white than the others. The sides of 



