The Red-shafted Flickers 



Blue Mountains of Oregon, of a Flicker's nest which contained at one 

 time three young birds just hatched, two pipped eggs, and five perfectly 

 fresh eggs, of which one was a runt. 



The female is a close sitter, and instances are on record in which 

 pebbles dropped in upon her have failed to dislodge her; or in which, once 

 being lifted off, she brushed past the disturber to re-enter the nest. 

 Although provided with a bill which might prove a formidable weapon, 

 the Flicker is of too gentle a nature to wield it in combat, and seldom 

 offers any resistance whatever to the intruder. 



After fourteen days young birds are hatched, blind, ugly, helpless. 

 In a few days more, however, they are able to cling to the sides of the 

 nesting hollow, and are ready to set up a clamor upon the appearance 

 of food. This noise has been compared to the hissing of a nest of snakes, 

 but as the nestlings grow, it becomes an uproar equal to the best efforts 

 of a telephone pole on a frosty morning. 



The young are fed entirely by regurgitation, not an attractive process, 

 but one admirably suited to the necessities of long foraging expeditions 

 and varying fare. When able to leave the nest, the fledglings usually 

 clamber about the parental roof-tree for a day or two before taking flight. 

 Their first efforts at obtaining food for themselves are usually made upon 

 the ground, where ants are abundant. These, with grasshoppers and 

 other ground-haunting insects, make up a large percentage of food, both 

 of the young and adults. It is worthy of remark what an effective instru- 

 ment the Flicker has in its tongue. This member can easily be extended 

 two and a half inches beyond the tip of the bill, or three, if forced by hand. 

 To accomplish this feat the supporting bones of the base, the hyoids, have 

 undergone an extraordinary elongation. Not content with merely 

 wrapping about the entire skull just beneath the skin, as do the hyoids of 

 other woodpeckers, these escape at the forehead and, re-entering the right 

 nostril from the outside, push their way clear to the tip of the bill through 

 a hollow of the upper mandible. The skull of the Flicker has become a 

 sort of pulley block, over which the mobile, cord-like hyoids play inces- 

 santly. When feeding upon ants, the Flicker protrudes its tongue, and 

 lets it lie along the ground for a moment until the little victims swarm 

 over its surface and are engaged by its viscid coating. A sudden with- 

 drawal assures a feast and the number of ants which the bird can bag in 

 this fashion is amazing. Five thousand of a small species (Cremato- 

 gaster sp.) were found by Beal in a single stomach — these and a portion of 

 sand incidentally acquired. 



1046 



