2. Colaptes auratus. ♀.
3. Colaptes mexicanus. ♂.
4. Colaptes mexicanus. ♀.
The general distribution of Colaptes mexicanus, as already indicated, is from the Pacific coast of the United States, eastward to the Black Hills and the Upper Missouri and Yellowstone; that of the C. auratus from the Atlantic Coast to about the eastern limits of mexicanus. But little variation is seen in the two species up to the region mentioned; slight differences in shade of color, size, and frequency of spots, etc., being all. Where they come together, however, or overlap, a most remarkable race is seen, in which no two specimens, nay, scarcely the two sides of the same bird, are alike, the characters of the two species becoming mixed up in the most extraordinary manner. Thus, the shafts show every shade from orange-red to pure yellow; yellow shafts combine with red cheek-patch (as in C. ayresii of Audubon); a red nape, with orange-red shafts; cheek-patches red with black feathers intermixed, or vice versa; perhaps the feathers red at base and black
at tip, or black at base and red at tip, etc. As the subject has been presented in sufficient detail in the Birds of North America, as quoted above, it need not be repeated here, except to say that collections received since 1858 only substantiate what has there been stated.