ZOOLOGY. 
163 
they betake themselves to the tops of the highest trees in. the vicinity. They at that season 
subsist principally upon the larvae of insects found in the cracks and fissures of the “red pine” 
of the Country. I dissected a specimen killed at Fort Dalles, January 9, 1855, finding the coats 
of the stomach (gizzard) very thick and muscular, its cavil y filled with the white larvae of 
insects, together with fine gravel. The thick nature of the coats of the stomach renders it well 
adapted to the digestion of berries and seeds, which probably form a large portion of the bird’s 
sustenance during the warmer months.—-S. 
COLAPTES MEXICANUS, Swain son. 
Red-shafted Flicker. 
Colaptes mexicanus, Sw. Syn. Mex. Birds, in Philos. Mag. 1,1827, 440.— Ib. F. Bor. Am. II, 1831,315.— Newberry, 
Zool. Cal. & Or. Route, 91 ; P. R. R. Rep. VI, 1857.— Baird, Gen. Rep. Birds, p/120. 
Picus mexicanus, Aon. Orn. Biog. V, 1839, 174 ; pi. 416.— Ib. Birds America, IV, 1842, 295 ; pi. 274. 
Colaptes collaris, Vigors, Zool. Jour. IV, Jan. 1829, 353 .—Ib. Zool. Beechey’s Voy. 1839, 24 ; pi. ix. 
Picus rubricatus, Wagler, Isis, 10.29, v, May, 516. “(Lichtenstein Mus. Berol.)” 
Sp. Ch.— Shafts and under surfaces of wing and tail feathers orange red. A red patch on each side the cheek ; nape without 
red crescent ; sometimes very faint indications laterally. Throat and stripe beneath the eye bluish ash. Back glossed with 
purplish brown. Female without the red cheek patch. Length about 12.50 to 14 inches; extent 21 inches ; wing over 6| 
inches. Female smaller. Iris dark brown, bill black, feet greyish: 
Additional Characters. —Spots on the belly, a crescent on the breast, and interrupted transverse bands on the back, black. 
Hab. —Western North America from the Black Hills to Pacific. 
This bird, called “highholder,” “flicker,” or “clape,” by emigrants from various parts of 
tbe States, and even “yellow hammer” by some, though it has not a particle of yellow in its 
plumage, is as abundant along the western coast as its closely allied cousin, known by the 
same names, is on the eastern side of the Mississippi. It also resembles that bird so exactly in 
habits and notes that, as Nuttall observed, the description of one will apply with exactness to 
the other. It is a constant resident in Washington Territory, at least west of the Cascade 
mountains. I observed them already burrowing out the holes for their nests in April at the 
Straits of De Fuca. About June 1st, I found a nest containing seven young, nearly fledged 
which already showed in the male the red moustache, distinguishing it from the female. Their 
food consists at all times more of insects and fruits than of the larvae found by other wood¬ 
peckers in trees, and they spend much of their time on the ground.—C. 
Extremely common in the timbered districts of Washington Territory. Habits, voice, calls, 
&c., precisely similar to those of the yellow hammer of the eastern States. 
Woodpeckers, as a group, are abundantly represented in both of our northwest Territories. 
The most abundant species, I think, is the C. Mexicanus; next the P. Gairdneri; Harris’s and 
Lewis’s stand next and about equal; P. Ruber and Melanerpes albolarvatus about equal, but 
scarce. I have never seen the Californian woodpecker “ Melane-rpes formidvorup ’ so far north 
as Oregon, although there are many acorn-bearing oaks, especially at Fort Dalles, to afford it 
winter subsistence. Still I am by no means prepared to say that the species does not extend 
into Oregon; on the contrary, I am inclined to think that it will yet be found as far north as 
the Columbia river.—S. 
