The Red-shafted Flickers 
Range of Colaptes cafer. —Western North America from southern Alaska to 
southern Mexico. 
Range of C. c. collaris. —Western United States and southwestern British Prov¬ 
inces (except Northwest coast strip), and northern Mexico. 
Distribution in California. —Common resident of Upper Sonoran and Tran¬ 
sition zones practically throughout the State, except in the humid Transition of the 
extreme Northwest. Breeds locally in Boreal zone, and ranges freely to timberline. 
In winter, numbers greatly augmented by accessions from the North, at which season 
also it may be found upon the deserts. 
Authorities.—Vigors ( Colaptes collaris), Zool. Jour., vol. iv., 1829, p. 354 (orig. 
desc.; Monterey); Tyler, Pac. Coast Avifauna, no. 9, 1913, p. 55 (San Joaquin Valley, 
habits, etc.); Wetmore, Condor, vol. xviii., 1916, p. 112 (speed of flight); Stoner, Condor, 
vol. xxiv., 1922, p. 54 (study of roosting holes). 
No. 204b Northwestern Flicker 
A. O. U. No. 413a. Colaptes cafer saturatior Ridgway. 
Description. —Like C. c. collaris, but larger and darker; ground-color of upper- 
parts burnt umber with a purplish tinge; ground-color of underparts vinaceous buff 
to color of back; sides of head and throat deep smoke-gray; pileum cinnamomeous. 
Length up to 355.6 (14.00); wing 168.5 (6.635); tail 118 (4.65); bill 39.4 (1.55); tarsus 
30 (1.18). 
Remarks. —Specimens in the Provincial Museum at Victoria, B. C., indicate 
hybridization between this form and C. auratus borealis. Of 27 males from Vancouver 
Island nine possess in whole or in part the scarlet nuchal patch characteristic of auratus. 
Presumably, therefore, many of the winter visitant hybrids which reach our coasts are 
between these two forms, C. c. saturatior and C. c. borealis. 
Recognition Marks. —As in preceding; darker. 
Nesting. — Nest: As in preceding species. Eggs: 6-9; av. of 33 specimens 
from Eureka in M. C. O. coll.: 28.7 x 22.25 (ti3 x .876); index 76.6; range 26.4-32 by 
20.8-23.4 (1.04-1.26 by .82-.92). Season: May—June; one brood. 
Range of C. c. saturatior. —Humid Transition zone of the Northwest coast 
district from Plumboldt Bay, California, to Sitka, Alaska. 
Distribution in California. —Resident in the extreme northern coastal strip. 
Intergrades widely with collaris upon east and south. 
Authorities.—Townsend, Proc. LI. S. Nat. Mus., vol. x., 1887, p. 206 (Red 
Bluff); Anderson and Grinnell, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1903, p. 9 (Siskiyou Mts., 
crit.); Swarth, Univ. Calif. Pub. Zool., vol. vii., 1911, p. 70 (s. e. Alaska, distr., habits, 
crit.); Palmer, Auk, vol. xxxiii., 1916, p. 322 (nomencl.). 
THE STUPIDITIES of nomenclature are nowhere more clearly 
illustrated than by the case of this species, the first example of which fell 
into the hands of a “closet naturalist,” Gmelin. This doughty bird- 
namer, who was working over a miscellaneous collection, supposed that the 
specimen he was handling hailed from Africa, and he, accordingly, named 
it Cafer (i. e., Kaffir). The “law of priority” is inexorable. How else 
could the diluted output of our subspeciologists be saddled upon posterity! 
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