133 



Eiver, and north to the Texas and Pacific Eailway. Mr. Brown found 

 it at Boerne. 



412. Colaptes auratus (Linn.). [378.] Flicker; Yellow-sliaficd Flicker. 



A common summer resident in Manitoba and most of tbe Mississippi 

 Valley east of the Plains; being replaced, in the west, by tbe following 

 species. Along the eastern edge of the Plains all sorts of interme- 

 diate phases occur. 



Few birds are better known or possess more local names than the 

 present species. Yellow-hammer and Flicker are the names by which 

 it has been most frequently reported, and the two in about equal pro- 

 portion. Its winter borne in 1883-84 was somewhat farther south 

 than usual. At Manhattan, Kans., large flocks remained all winter, 

 but they were not reported from the rest of the State. In Missouri none 

 wintered at St. Louis, nor were they mentioned from any station in the 

 State before March. In Illinois they were found in the extreme south- 

 ern part only. The species was a full degree, and in most places two 

 degrees, south of its ordinary limit. Although mixing with G. cafer and 

 the variety formerly known as Colaptes auratus hybridus in the western 

 part on the Plains, yet true auratus is found throughout the Mississippi 

 Valley, even to southwestern Texas, where it was noted from San An- 

 gelo in the winter of 1883-'84. Its spring migration begins early, 

 being but little behind that of the Eobin, and the bulk of these two 

 species usually moves together. In 1884 a few individuals were influ- 

 enced by the w T arm weather of the last of January and moved slightly, 

 but no real movement took place until the second week in March. On 

 March 10 and 11 they appeared at Saint Louis and Glasgow, Mo. (lat- 

 itude 39° 14'). The Flicker, like the Red-headed Woodpecker, migrates 

 faster on the east than on the west side of the Mississippi Eiver. The 

 record of its arrival on the east side is as follows: In Illinois it reached 

 latitude 30° 13' March 19; March 20 and 21 it reached latitude 41° 36' 

 and 41° 5L; March 24, latitude 41° 58'; March 20, latitude 43° in Wis- 

 consin, and March 29, latitude 44° 20'. West of tbe Mississippi it had 

 moved to latitude 41° 40' in Iowa by March 20; to latitude 44° 20' in 

 Minnesota by March 28, and March 31 it was seen at latitude 45° and 

 45° 25' in Minnesota, having thus overtaken those in Wisconsin- 

 Farther west the dates were still later. The first was seen at Ellis, 

 Kans., March 21; at Linwood, ls T ebr. (latitude 41° 22'), April 2; at Ar- 

 gusville, Dak. (latitude 47° OS'), April 1G; and at Larimore (latitude 

 47° 52') April 21. At Portage La Prairie, Manitoba, the first was seen 

 also April 21, which makes the record irregular as compared with that 

 from Dakota, but regular when compared with the notes from the region 

 around the headwaters of tbe Mississippi. The bulk ordinarily appears 

 from three to six days behind the first. 



The variety formerly known as the Hybrid Flicker (Colaptes auratus 

 hybridus) [378 a|, consisting of those soecimens which are intermediate 



