WOODPECKERS: RED-SHAFTED FLICKER 
379 
a mucilaginous secretion which glues the ants to the tongue. As ants 
make up over half the food of the flickers and are found largely in the 
open, the plumage of the birds instead of being black like that of the 
forest woodpeckers, has the brown tones of ground birds of the open. 
Again, while their ground colors make them inconspicuous when at rest, 
their large w'hite rump patches serve as an admirable directive mark in 
flight. 
A touch of great beauty is given the Red-shafted Flicker in the 
exquisite salmon that flashes from the underside of its wings and tail 
as it flies overhead, a beauty quick to be appreciated by some of the 
California Indians, whose spectacular flicker head-dresses are among 
their most cherished possessions. 
As the Flicker is a widely distributed, familiar bird, its varied calls 
and tattoos, its ardent courtship, its methods of nest excavation, and 
feeding and care of the young can be studied with satisfaction at first 
hand. 
The family of nearly grown vociferous young Red-shafts, which 
we found in their nest at the foot of Pecos Baldy, as well as the parent 
that came to the outside of their knot hole and fed them nature's pre¬ 
pared food by regurgitation, showed none of the cautious silence of birds 
bred in the presence of man. Both the soft wick-up , wick-up ) wick-up of 
the parent and his resounding if-if-if-if-if-if-tf-if-if-if were given with 
delightful freedom in the close neighborhood of the nest. 
The Mockingbird, Professor Merrill says, “tries hard to imitate the 
Flicker's call but he fails to get into the'scape' the genuine stirring qual¬ 
ities of the original" (MS). 
The Flickers are hardy birds. On the first of February, 1922, when 
the temperature was only two degrees above zero, one was seen by Mr. 
Jensen hanging to a wire screen on a sleeping porch at the feanta Fe 
Indian School, eating the berries of the Boston ivy (1923b, p. 4o8). 
Although they are so hardy and apparently able to enjoy real 
winter temperatures, the question of the comparative hardihood of 
individuals may be raised. Among the eastern, Yellow-shafted Flickers 
banded under the direction of the Biological Survey, the returns give 
some interesting winter records; as birds from Indiana being taken in 
Mississippi; from Pennsylvania, in Georgia; and actually one from Sas¬ 
katchewan being found in Texas, in late October (Lincoln, 1927b, p. 39). 
At Mesilla Park, Professor Merrill reported, "the Flicker comes from 
the south the latter part of February and stays till late the following 
December. An occasional one may be seen among the big trees in the 
valley all winter. In summer it is plentiful in the valley, nesting in cot¬ 
tonwoods and willows. Ants form the bulk of the summer food. Ihe 
gizzard of one examined was literally stuffed with agricultural ants and 
remains of a few grubs of some kind" (MS). 
