WOODPECKERS 
279 
on the Flicker for nest holes. The reproductive powers of the Flicker are 
phenomenal. When eggs were taken away as they were laid, it has been 
known to lay thirty or more eggs in a season. 
The relation of this species to the Red-shafted Flicker is most interest- 
ing. It intermixes and crosses freely with that species and near the line 
of contact between them it is unusual to find pure-blooded birds of either 
species. That the two are distinct species and not subspecies is indicated 
by the nature of the intergrading specimens. The characters are not 
gradual blendings but mosaic mixtures. Thus the moustache mark is 
very seldom brown, which would be the result of blending between the 
black of the Yellow-shafted and the red of the Red-shafted, but it is pure 
black, pure red, black flecked with red, or vice versa. The same phenomenon 
is shown in the throat plumage, in which the feathers may be alternately 
grey and vinaceous, or one colour at the base and another at the tip; or 
even a difference between one barbule and the next. The underwing and 
undertail surface may be orange, which is a blending between the yellow 
and red. This is not necessarily contrary to the rule of mosaic mixture in 
hybrids, because these two colour pigments in bird plumage are intimately 
related, chemically and physiologically, and may, perhaps, be regarded as 
one and the same substance in different concentration. The fact that 
in spite of the readiness with which these two species cross both species 
are not completely mongrelized, is suggestive that such hybrids have some 
handicap against indefinite persistence, and are continued only through 
constant fresh crosses of purer blood. 
Economic Status. Ants constitute nearly half the food of the Flicker. 
The remainder of its insect food consists of both beneficial and harmful 
species, but the latter noticeably predominate. It takes some fruit, grain, 
and mast; but on the whole must be considered beneficial rather than 
harmful. Perhaps the most serious charge that can be made against the 
species is its scattering of the seeds of the poison oak and ivy and so aiding 
in the spread of these harmful plants. 
413. Red-shafted Flicker, le pivart rosIs. Colaptes cafer. L, 12. Similar to 
the Yellow-shafted Flicker, but the face and throat slate grey, instead of fawn; red 
moustache mark, instead of black; normally with no red on nape, the lining of -wings and 
tail pinkish red instead of bright yellow. 
Distinctions. To be confused only with the Yellow-shafted Flicker, from which it 
differs as above. 
Field Marks. Size, general coloration, with red under the wings visible in flight, and 
the white rump. As a flicker, by its easily recognizable calls. 
Nesting. In holes in dead trees or stubs. 
Distribution. Western North America from southern Alaska to Mexico. In Canada, 
southern and central British Columbia, intermixing and hybridizing with the Yellow- 
shafted over much of its range, and well into adjacent Alberta. Specimens with strong 
Red-shafted tendencies have been taken as far east as Manitoba. 
SUBSPECIES. Owing to a late and interesting relocation of stations visited by 
Captain Cook, the navigator, it has lately been discovered that the specimen that first 
received the name of cafer came from Vancouver Island, and hence our British Columbia 
coast bird, the Northwestern Red-shafted Flicker (le Pivart ros6 du Nord-Ouest), hitherto 
known as Colaptes cafer saturation , is the type of the species and should be called Colaptes 
cafer cafer. It occupies the Pacific Coast region west of the Coast Range from Sitka to 
northern California. It is characterized by being generally darker coloured than the 
Common Red-shafted Flicker (le Pivart rosd commun) of the interior, Colaptes cafer 
collaris. 
Everything said of the Yellow-shafted Flicker applies to this species. 
