Hi Tweeters,

I agree with Mike that the Yellow-shafted Northern Flicker does not sit well
with me either. But the historical reference for the Yellow-hammer definitely
link Yellow-hammer to the Y.S. Northern Flicker. When I was home for dinner
(my computer is in the office) I went through my library and where I could
find a reference to Yellow-hammer, the authors all link the name to Y.S. N.
Flicker. Those books are all from the first part of this century or the last
part of the 1800's. They are:

Bailey, Florence M ---Birds Through the Opera Glass
Coues, --Key To North American Birds Vol. 1 & 2
Dawson, William L --The Birds of California
Grosvenor, Gilbert -- The Books of Birds Vol. 1 & 2 (The predecessor of our
current NGS Bird Guide, also published by NGS.)
Hatch, P. T. -- Notes on the Birds of Minn. 1892
Pough, Richard -- Audubon Western Bird Guide
Roberts, Thomas S. -- The Birds of Minnesota 2 Vols.

In Hatch's "Notes on the Birds of Minn." he also lists the following names for
the Y.S. N. Flicker: Pigeon Woodpecker, Yucker, and High-holder.

I cannot add to Russell's comment about the town of Yellowhammer being named
for Yellow-headed Blackbirds, except neither of my Minneosta books made
reference to the Yellow-headed Blackbird, only to the Y.S. N. Flicker.
Although, when I am home tomorrow, I will double check to make sure that I did
not miss something.

As to the issue what the Yellow-hammer might be, I assuming until someone else
can find a reference to another bird, that the writer took "creative license."
He, either, knew what a Yellow-hammer was, liked the name, but wanted a more
attractive bird for his story and created a bird or borrowed another bird's
description, maybe one of those described by Mike. Or the author did not
know, but wanted to use the name and fitted a description to the bird for an
image he wanted in his story.

O'well, back to making a living and doing tax returns.


Great birding and find that next lifer,

John (One of Birders2)

John + Irma = 2, we are birders, too.

John C. LeVine
Birders2 at aol.com
Los Angeles, CA

Please put <To Birders2> in subject line when e-mailing us. I do not open all
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A CONUNDRUM: If the Amazon holds the cures for the diseases affecting
humankind; Then will not the increased multitudes of humans doom the Amazon?
Then humans?
___________________________________________________________
A thought on leaving a showing of IMAX's "Amazon" 11/03/97