To the race thus noted, the name hybridus was given, not as of a variety, since it is not entitled to this rank, but as of a heterogeneous mixture, caused by the breeding together of two different species, and requiring some appellation. Whether the presumed hybrids are fertile, and breed with each other or with full-blooded parents, has not yet been ascertained; perhaps not, since the area in which they occur is limited, and it is only occasionally that individuals of the kind referred to have been found beyond the bounds mentioned. It is very rarely, however, that pure breeds occur in the district of hybridus, a taint being generally appreciable in all.
The conditions in the present instance appear different from those adverted to under the head of Picus villosus, where the question is not one of hybridism between two strongly marked and distinct species, but of the gradual change, between the Atlantic and the Pacific, from one pattern of coloration to another.
Colaptes chrysoides, Malh.
THE CAPE FLICKER.
Geopicus chrysoides, Malh. Rev. et Mag. Zoöl. IV, 1852, 553.—Ib. Mon. Pic. II, 261, tab. 109. Colaptes chrysoides, Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 125.—Elliot, Ill. Birds N. Am. VI, plate.—Cooper, Pr. Cal. Ac. 1861, 122 (Fort Mohave).—Coues, Pr. A. N. Sc. 1866, 56 (Arizona).—Scl. Cat. 1862, 344.—Elliot, Illust. Am. B. I, pl. xxvi.—Cooper, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 410. Picus chrysoides, Sundevall, Consp. 72.
Sp. Char. Markings generally as in other species. Top of head rufous-brown; chin, throat, and sides of head ash-gray. Shafts of quills and tail-feathers, with their under surfaces in great part, gamboge-yellow; no nuchal red. Malar patch of male red; wanting in the female. Length, 11.50; wing, 5.75; tail, 4.50.
Hab. Colorado and Gila River, north to Fort Mohave, south to Cape St. Lucas. Localities: Fort Mohave (Cooper, Pr. Cal. Ac. 1861, 122); W. Arizona (Coues, P. A. N. S. 1866, 56).
This interesting species is intermediate between auratus and mexicanus in having the yellow shafts and quills of the former; a red malar patch, an ashy throat, and no nuchal crescent, as in the latter. To mexicanoides the relationship is still closer, since both have the rufous-brown head above. A hybrid between this last species and auratus would in some varieties come very near chrysoides, but as it does not belong to the region of chrysoides, and there is no transition from one species to the other in any specimens, as in hybridus, there is no occasion to take this view of the species.
Cape St. Lucas specimens, where the species is exceedingly abundant, are considerably smaller than those from Arizona, and appear to be more strongly
marked with black above and below; otherwise there seems to be no difference of special importance.