\ 
Auk, XIV, July, 1897, - S . 
SOME ABNORMAL COLOR MARKINGS. 
BY GERRIT S. MILLER, JR. 
Many instances of albinism, melanism, and other abnormal 
color conditions in birds have been recorded, 1 but these records 
are for the most part concerned with cases in which large, con- 
spicuous, and indefinite areas of the plumage are affected. While 
such abnormalities are interesting they are greatly outweighed in 
importance by others, usually of a less noticeable character, in 
which the unusual markings are so arranged as to resemble normal 
color patterns. Suggestions of characters of related species are 
often to be found in these symmetrical markings, some of which 
might be regarded as the result of hybridism did not the well 
known hypothesis of atavism offer a more satisfactory explanation 
of their occurrence. I wish to call attention to a few of the more 
conspicuous among the many cases of this kind that have come to 
my notice. 
Colaptes auratus {Linn.). pp- Z7i~6- 
An adult Flicker (No. 5619, Miller collection, purchased many 
years ago in the New York markets by J. G. Bell), normal in 
every other way, has all the white feathers of the rump marked 
subterminally with round or subcordate spots of black. The 
larger feathers of the rump are in addition crossed or nearly 
crossed by from one to three black bars, each of which tends to 
narrow near the shaft so that occasionally the constriction divides 
the bar into two distinct spots. 
In the Cuban Colaptes chrysocaulosus the color is similar to that 
of C. auratus except that it is everywhere strongly suffused with 
tawny, the black markings are more extended, and the feathers 
of the white rump patch are closely and irregularly barred with 
black. Each rump feather in this species has a subterminal 
broadly cordate black spot extending nearly across both webs. 
Usually a broad black bar and sometimes a second (the latter 
always indistinct) crosses the feather below the terminal spot. 
The proximal bars tend to narrow near the shafts of the feathers, 
but they seldom if ever break up into pairs of spots as in the 
abnormal C. auratus. 
The peculiarities of its rump markings make No. 5619 an almost 
perfect intermediate between Colaptes auratus and C. chrysocaulosus. 
Did the breeding ranges of these two species overlap this speci- 
men would probably be considered by many a hybrid, since 
so-called hybrids often blend the characters of their supposed 
parents no more perfectly than this Flicker does the peculiarities 
of the Continental bird and its Cuban representative. 
'See, for instance, Deane, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, I, pp. 20-24, IV, pp. 
27-30; Brewster, Auk, XII, pp. 99-100; Toppan, Bull. Ridgway Orn. Club, 
No. 2, pp. 61-77. 
