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U. S. P. R. R. EXP. AND SURVEYS — ZOOLOGY — GENERAL REPORT. 
COLAPTES MEXICANUS, Swain son. 
Red-shafted Flicker. 
Colaptes mexicanus, Sw . Syn. Mex. birds, in Philos. Mag. I, 1827, 440.— In. F. Bor. Am. II, 1631, 315.— 
Newberry, Zool. Cal. & Or. Route, 91 ; P. R. R. Rep. VI, 1857. 
Picas mexicanus, Aud. Orn. Biog. V, 1839, 174 ; pi. 416.— Ib. Birds America, IV, 1842, 295 ; pi. 274. 
Colaptes collaris, Vigors Zool. Jour. IV, Jan. 1829, 353.— Ib. Zool. Beechey's Voy. 1839, 24; pi. ix. 
Picus rubricatus, Wagler, Isis, 1829, v, May, 516. " (Lichtenstein Mus. Berol.)" 
Colaptes rubricates, Bon. Pr. Zool. Soc. V, 1837, 108.— Ib. List, 1838.— Ib. Conspectus, 1850, 114. 
?Picnscafer, Gmelin, Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 431.— Lath. Index Ornith. II, 1790, 242. 
? Picus lathami, Wagler, Syst. 1827, No. 85 (Cape of Good Hope?) 
Sp. Ch. — Shafts and under surfaces of wing and tail feathers orange red. A red patch on each side the cheek ; nape without 
red crescent ; sometimes very faint indications laterally. Throat and stripe beneath the eye bluish ash. Back glossed with 
purplish brown. Female without the red cheek patch. Length about 13 inches ; wing over 6| inches. 
Additional Characters. — Spots on the belly, a crescent on the breast, and inj|rrupted transverse bands on the back, black. 
Hah. — Western N. America from the Black Hills to Pacific. 
In describing this species I have taken as types a very fine pair collected on the Columbia 
river, by Mr. Townsend, in October, 1834. In size these skins considerably exceed specimens of 
C. auratus. The bill is moderately long, a little broader than high, and gently curved. The 
wings are long, but do not reach the middle of the tail. The first quill is very short ; the fifth 
longest ; the fourth but little shorter ; the third intermediate between the fifth and sixth. 
The prevailing color of the back, scapulars, and wings is brownish ash, each feather with 
one, two, or three bars of black. These are sub-crescentic, or nearly straight, short and wide, 
extending across the feather. The entire head and neck all round may be described as plumbe- 
ous ash, glossed with dull cinnamon brown above, darkest towards the base of the bill. There 
is a decided tinge of cinnamon in an obscure stripe passing from the base of the upper mandible 
above, and a little behind the eye, and involving the lower eyelid. There is a very distinct 
whisker-like stripe of bright crimson or carmine red passing from the base of the lower mandible, 
over and to the posterior extremity of the jaw bone, truncate and rounded behind. This is 
never mixed with black. There is a large, broad crescentic spot of velvet black on the upper 
part oi the breast. The under parts generally are of a dull brownish white, (palest along the 
median line,) each feather with a circular sharply defined spot .15 to .20 of an inch in diameter. 
On the flanks these spots become larger, more transverse, and sub-cordate, several on a feather ; 
on the tail coverts they are more like transverse bars. 
The rump is pure white, (in this one specimen with a few short streaks of black on the 
middle of some of the feathers ; in most specimens, however, the rump is immaculate.) The 
upper tail coverts are white and black in transverse bands, the adjacent black bands sometimes 
confluent along the midrib so as to interrupt the enclosed white band. 
The shafts and under surfaces of all the quills, both of wing and tail, are of a bright orange 
red, the shafts alone of this color on the upper surface in the wing ; in the tail the shafts are 
black above, except at the base. The wing quills are dark brown, (except in the outer primaries,) 
spotted with series of blotches like the color of the back, producing bauds. The inner webs are 
similarly spotted, except that here they are more confluent and have an orange tinge. The longer 
primaries are narrowly tipped with brownish white. The tail feathers are black on their upper 
surface and extremity, the first and second only with a few slight indentations of whitish. The 
exposed under surface of the outer feather is orange, tipped with black. 
