The Red-shafted Flickers 



Range of Colaptes cafer. — Western North America from southern Alaska to 

 southern Mexico. 



Range of C. c. collaris. — Western United States and southwestern British Prov- 

 inces (except Northwest coast strip), and northern Mexico. 



Distribution in California. — Common resident of Upper Sonoran and Tran- 

 sition zones practically throughout the State, except in the humid Transition of the 

 extreme Northwest. Breeds locally in Boreal zone, and ranges freely to timberline. 

 In winter, numbers greatly augmented by accessions from the North, at which season 

 also it may be found upon the deserts. 



Authorities. — Vigors {Colaptes collaris), Zool. Jour., vol. iv., 1829, p. 354 (orig. 

 desc; Monterey); Tyler, Pac. Coast Avifauna, no. 9, 1913, p. 55 (San Joaquin Valley, 

 habits, etc.); Wetnwre, Condor, vol. xviii., 1916, p. 112 (speed of flight) ; Stoner, Condor, 

 vol. xxiv., 1922, p. 54 (study of roosting holes). 



No. 204b Northwestern Flicker 



A. O. U. No. 413a. Colaptes cafer saturatior Ridgway. 



Description. — Like C. c. collaris, but larger and darker; ground-color of upper- 

 parts burnt umber with a purplish tinge; ground-color of underparts vinaceous buff 

 to color of back; sides of head and throat deep smoke-gray; pileum cinnamomeous. 

 Length up to 355.6 (14.00); wing 168.5 (6-635); ta i' II ^ (4-65) ; bill 39.4 (1.55); tarsus 

 30 (1. 18). 



Remarks. — Specimens in the Provincial Museum at Victoria, B. C, indicate 

 hybridization between this form and C. auratus borealis. Of 27 males from Vancouver 

 Island nine possess in whole or in part the scarlet nuchal patch characteristic of auratus. 

 Presumably, therefore, many of the winter visitant hybrids which reach our coasts are 

 between these two forms, C. c. saturatior and C. c. borealis. 



Recognition Marks. — As in preceding; darker. 



Nesting. — Nest: As in preceding species. Eggs: 6-9; av. of 33 specimens 

 from Eureka in M. C. O. coll.: 28.7 x 22.25 (i-ij x -876); index 76.6; range 26.4-32 by 

 20.8-23.4 (1.04-1.26 by .82-. 92). Season: May-June; one brood. 



Range of C. c. saturatior. — Humid Transition zone of the Northwest coast 

 district from Humboldt Bay, California, to Sitka, Alaska. 



Distribution in California. — Resident in the extreme northern coastal strip. 

 Intergrades widely with collaris upon east and south. 



Authorities. — Townsend, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. x., 1887, p. 206 (Red 

 Bluff); Anderson and Grinnell, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1903, p. 9 (Siskiyou Mts., 

 crit.); Staarth, Univ. Calif. Pub. Zool., vol. vii., 191 1, p. 70 (s. e. Alaska, distr., habits, 

 crit.); Palmer, Auk, vol. xxxiii., 1916, p. 322 (nomencl.). 



THE STUPIDITIES of nomenclature are nowhere more clearly- 

 illustrated than by the case of this species, the first example of which fell 

 into the hands of a "closet naturalist," Gmelin. This doughty bird- 

 namer, who was working over a miscellaneous collection, supposed that the 

 specimen he was handling hailed from Africa, and he, accordingly, named 

 it Cafer (i. e., Kaffir). The "law of priority" is inexorable. How else 

 could the diluted output of our subspeciologists be saddled upon posterity! 



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