The Red-shafted Flickers 
Hence, we have a host 
of black men, Kaffirs, 
swarming over Califor¬ 
nia, along with“ Indians” 
who are ten thousand 
miles from India. But 
in this case the stupidity 
of “Science” is matched 
by the perverse careless¬ 
ness of the man on the 
street (or, perchance, the 
man with the hoe) who 
calls the bird “Yellow- 
hammer.’’ Cafer’s 
cousin, auratus, of the 
East, is yellow, and it 
hammers, although the 
Yellowhammer (or, more 
properly, the Yellow 
Ammer) is an Old World 
bird (Emberiza citrin- 
ella), guiltless of knock¬ 
ing. C. cafer, on the 
other hand, does ham¬ 
mer, but its trappings 
are of flame-scarlet, in¬ 
stead of cloth-of-gold. 
Call it Redhammer, then, 
if you will—and by so 
doing, you will add only 
one more to the six or 
seven score of nicknames 
by which the American 
flickers are known. For 
the flicker, under what¬ 
ever local pseudonym he 
may flutter, is one of the best diffused and most familiar of American 
birds. And because in respect to song and behavior the western bird, 
cafer, does not differ materially from the eastern species, auratus, I venture 
to quote again three paragraphs from “The Birds of Ohio.” 
“It is perhaps as a musician that the Flicker is best known. The word 
musician is used in an accommodated sense, for the bird is no professional 
Taken in Oregon Photo by Finley & Bohlman 
YOUNG NORTHWEST FLICKERS 
IO.fI 
