Birds observed in Naval Hospital 
Grounds. Brooklyn, a. H, Oouas 
8. Colaptes auratus. Golden-winged Woodpecker. — Common ; 
breeds. 
Ball* N. 0 , 0 , 4, Jan. , 1870, p. 31 
Notes on Soaae Winter Residents of 
Hudson Valley, B.A.Mearoa. 
. . 16 '„ Cola P tes auratus. Yellow-shafted Flicker. — The « Ili,,}, 
,S /° Ca f 0n f; bUt ° f S ° mCwhat rarc occurrence, in winter, in die 
Highlands and at Peckskill. Mr. Bicknell speaks of it as “rare in win- 
ter , only occasionally seen at that season.” 
Boll. N. 0.0. 4, Jan. , 1879, p. 37 
Xh A* 
Colaptes auratus. - On October 4, 1879, 1 took, at Fort Hamilton, a 
remarkable Golden-winged Woodpecker. It strongly evinces its affinity 
to C. mexicanus. Its black mustaches are sprinkled with red feathers. 
These are most plentiful along the upper edge, and at the lower end of 
the black cheek patch. The back is more strongly tinged with olive is of 
a darker shade, and the black bars are much narrower than in ordinary 
individuals of C. auratus. The bird was a male. — De L. Berier Fort 
Hamilton, Long Island, JV. K t, ,, 
J ’ Bua N.O.O. 5, Jan,, 1880, p, 
Birds of the Adirondack Region. 
C. H.Merriam. 
109. Colaptes auratus {Linn.') Szvainson. Golden- winged Wood- 
pecker. — Rare. 
Bull, N,0.0# a,Oct, 1881, p, 232 
Colaptes auratus -f- C. mexicanus. — Quite a number of instances 
of specimens of Colaptes auratus showing traces of C. mexicanus coming 
to my knowledge, I have thought it worth the while to record them. In 
this Bulletin, Vol. V, No. i, p. 46, I noted the capture of one of these 
abnormal individuals by myself at Fort Hamilton. Its black mustaches 
were sprinkled with red feathers, and its back was different from that of 
ordinary auratus , the black bars being very narrow, and the ground color 
more of a brownish-olive, nearly corresponding to Audubon’s Plate of C. 
ay rest (Birds of America, Vol. VII). Last autumn (1880) I shot two 
more “ Ilighholders” having a few red feathers intermixed with the black 
cheek patches. These are all the cases of this curious variation that have 
come under my personal observation, but Messrs. Bell and Wallace of 
New York furnish me with some valuable notes on the subject. Mr. Bell 
tells me he has had several such in his many years of experience as 
a taxidermist. He remembers one in particular which was remarkable 
for the deep salmon color of the parts which are golden-yellow in normal 
auratus. Nearly half of each of the maxillary patches of this specimen 
was red. It was shot in Orange Co., N. Y., or in some adjacent county. 
Mr. Wallace also says he has had a number of these varieties, and among 
them the strangest case of differentiation I have yet heard of. A few years 
ago a Colaptes was brought to him, one side of which was auratus and 
the other yiexica?ius. That is, one of the mustaches was black and the 
other red, and the quills and under surfaces of wings and tail on the cor- 
responding. sides were respectively yellow and red. 
Mr. Ridgway, in this Bulletin, Vol. VI, No. 2, p. 121, says that of two 
hundred aurati taken in the vicinity of Mount Carmel, 111 ., which he had 
examined, he detected only one aberrant specimen showing any trace of 
mexicanus. As out of thirty shot last fall at Fort Hamilton and examined 
by me two showed this variation, it may be that these mixed forms are more 
plentiful in the Atlantic States than in the interior. In view of the num- 
ber of known instances of these “half-breeds” occurring in the East we 
need not be surprised if some cis-Alleghany collector yet takes a pure 
mexicanus. — De L. Berier, Fort Hamilton , Long Island, N. T. 
Ball. N.O.O, Q, Oct, 1881, p, X 7 ■ 
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