The Red-shafted Flickers 



Hence, we have a host 

 of black men, Kaffirs, 

 swarming over Califor- 

 nia, along with" Indians" 

 who are ten thousand 

 miles from India. But 

 in this case the stupidity 

 of "Science" is matched 

 by the perverse careless- 

 ness of the man on the 

 street (or, perchance, the 

 man with the hoe) who 

 calls the bird "Yellow- 

 hammer.'' Cafer' s 

 cousin, auratus, of the 

 East, is yellow, and it 

 hammers, although the 

 Yellowhammer (or, more 

 properly, the Yellow 

 Ammer) is an Old World 

 bird (Emberiza citrin- 

 ella), guiltless of knock- 

 ing. C. cafer, on the 

 other hand, does ham- 

 mer, but its trappings 

 are of flame-scarlet, in- 

 stead of cloth-of-gold. 

 Call it Redhammer, then, 

 if you will — and by so 

 doing, you will add only 

 one more to the six or 

 seven score of nicknames 

 by which the American 

 flickers are known. For 

 the flicker, under what- 

 ever local pseudonym he 



may flutter, is one of the best diffused and most familiar of American 

 birds. And because in respect to song and behavior the western bird, 

 cafer, does not differ materially from the eastern species, auratus, I venture 

 to quote again three paragraphs from "The Birds of Ohio." 



"It is perhaps as a musician that the Flicker is best known. The word 

 musician is used in an accommodated sense, for the bird is no professional 



Taken in Oregon 



Photo by Finley & Bohhnan 



YOUNG NORTHWEST FLICKERS 



IO./.I 



