The Yellow-shafted Flicker 



where marked with sharply defined and handsome round, or cordate, spots of black. 

 Bill and feet dark plumbeous. Adult female: Similar, but without black moustache. 

 Sexes about equal in size. Length 279.4-323.9 (1 1. 00-12. 75) ; wing 162.5 (6.40); tail 

 106.2 (4.18); bill 36 (1.42); tarsus 28.9 (1.14). 



Recognition Marks. — Robin size; pectoral black crescent, white rump, black- 

 spotted breast, bill slightly curved, etc. (in common with C. cafer); yellow flickerings in 

 flight, scarlet nuchal band, black malar stripe (of male), in contrast with C. cafer. 



Nesting. — Does not breed in California. Nest: An excavation in tree or stump, 

 usually made by the bird, at moderate heights; unlined, save by chips. Eggs: 4-10, 

 usually 7 or 8; glossy white. Av. size 27.7 x 21.6 (1.09 x .85). 



Range of Colaptes auratus. — Northern and eastern North America from the limit 

 of trees to the Gulf Coast. 



Range of C. a. borealis. — Breeds in northern North America from Labrador 

 along the limit of trees to the Kowak River and Bering Sea, south to northern Ontario, 

 Minnesota, and eastern Wyoming. Winter range not yet clearly distinguished, but 

 stragglers, at least, occur down the Pacific Coast to southern California. 



Occurrence in California. — Not common winter visitor chiefly west of the 

 Sierras. (Santa Barbara, Nov. 4, 1911; Jan. 23, 1915: Nov. 29, 1919, 4 birds). 



Authorities. — Ball (Colaptes auratus). Auk, vol. ii., 1885, p. 383 (San Ber- 

 nardino); Swarth, Condor, vol. iii., 1901, p. 66 (Los Angeles, one spec); Condor, vol. 

 xii., 1910, p. 107 (hybrid) ; Grinnell, Pac. Coast Avifauna, no. 11, 1915, p. 82 (status 

 in Calif.). 



WE ARE always chiding our undiscriminating friends for calling 

 the Flickers of California "Yellow Hammers," whereas the birds are red. 

 But once in a coon's age the guess is correct. Flickers with yellow shafts 

 do occur, now and then, but chiefly in winter, in very diverse sections of 

 the State. And when they are found, there are four possibilities to choose 

 from: Either (1) the bird is a simon-pure C. a. borealis from Alaska; 

 or else (2) it is a hybrid from northwestern British Columbia where 

 C. a. borealis and C. cafer saturatior interbreed; or (3) it is a hybrid from 

 central Alberta where C. a. luteus and C. c. collaris meet; or else (4) it 

 illustrates a rare dicroic phase of Colaptes cafer itself. Evidence upon the 

 last-named point has not yet been duly arrayed. It would manifestly 

 require to be supported by breeding birds, but that dichroism is a very 

 probable explanation of some of the occurrences recorded in the name of 

 C. auratus, is clearly suggested by the dichromatic situation known to 

 exist in the case of the Gilded Flicker, C. chrysoides mearnsi. Without 

 much doubt, also, some of the yellowed examples from California are true 

 hybrids. The re-amalgamation, in Alberta and Saskatchewan, of two 

 races of Colaptes, long separated, is one of the romances of American 

 ornithology. But most interesting of all, for our present consideration, 

 is the fact that a form now dominant in Alaska, and which reached that 

 station by the familiar northwest flight-line, occasionally sends stragglers 



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