96 CONNECTICUT GEOL. AND NAT. HIST. SURVEY. [BuU. 



Winter records. Dec. 31, 1872, Dec. 3, 1881, Dec. 30, 1895, 

 Dec. 21, 1910, Portland (J. H. S.) ; Dec. 13, 1883, New Haven 

 (L. B. B.). 



Centurus carolinus (Linnaeus). Red-bellied Woodpecker. 



The following are the only Connecticut records : Linsley saw 

 one " ascending an apple tree on the i6th of October, 1842 ;" ^ Dr. 

 Crary informed Merriam' that he had killed it near Hartford, 

 and E. I. Shores that he. had taken a female, July 30, 1874, at 

 Suffield. In the Linsley collection of the Bpt. Sci. Soc. is a 

 mounted bird of this species collected" by Sidney Mather, but it 

 may not have been taken in Connecticut. 



Colaptes auratus luteus Bangs. Northern Flicker.' 



A common summer resident from April to October, the ma- 

 jority passing through the state as migrants; a few winter 

 regularly. 



Earliest record. New Haven, March 18, 1882;* Portland, 

 March 10, 1898. 



Latest record. New Haven, Nov. 10, 1903 ;* Portland, Nov. 

 3, 1908. 



Winter records. New Haven, Dec, 1882, 83, 96; Jan., 1882, 

 83, 86, 94, 95, 98, 1901, 02, 03, Feb., 1883, 1904, 1912 (L. B. B.) ; 

 Jan., 1884 (L. C. S.) ; Portland, Dec, 1885, 1908, Jan., 1898, 

 1909, II, 12, Feb., 1910 (J. H. S.). 



Fall flight. Large numbers of these birds fly westward along 

 the coast late in September in the fall migration, flying early in 

 the morning and alighting on the dead tops of trees. The morn- 

 ings on which these birds are most abundant are similar in tem- 

 perature conditions to those formerly known as " pigeon morn- 

 ings " — clear, cool mornings following a sudden drop in tem- 

 perature; and, until the law protecting these birds put a stop to 

 the practice, " Yellow-hammer shooting " filled the gap left by 

 the extermination of the Passenger Pigeon. Poles were fastened 

 on the tops of tall and isolated trees, and the hunter waited below, 

 hidden under a screen of boughs, and shot the Flickers as they 



^Am. Jour. Sci. and Arts, [i] xliv, p. 263; recorded also by Merriam. 

 'Merriam, Birds of Conn., p. 65. 



^Known also as the Yellow-hammer, Golden-winged Woodpecker, Highhole, and 

 Pigeon Woodpecker. Called " Woodquoi " in Portland. 

 ♦Migrants. 



