THE SAGE-COCK. 93 



on the right and left banks of the Columbia, 

 to the Spokan river on the one side, and the 

 Yakima on the other. 



These grouse live entirely on the open sandy 

 plains, their principal food being the wild-sage 

 (Artemisia), which imparts such a rank un- 

 pleasant flavour to the flesh, that one might 

 almost as well chew the bitter bush as eat 

 any part of a sage-cock. It is almost impossible 

 to obtain the cocks in full nuptial costume, 

 when their necks are fringed with the most deli- 

 cate pinnated feathers. The meeting of two 

 cocks is sure to result in a fight, during which 

 the greater part of these ornamental feathers are 

 usually torn out. Unless the birds are killed prior 

 to a hostile encounter their plumage is never 

 perfect, as they only have these fine neck and 

 back-plumes at mating-time. 



It is impossible for anyone to avoid being at 

 once impressed with the extraordinary adapta- 

 tion of the sage-cock's colour to the localities 

 in which it lives ; the mottlings of brown, 

 black, yellow, and white, are so exactly like the 

 lichens covering the rocks, the stalks of the 

 wild-sage, and the dried leaves, bunch-grass, 

 and dead twigs scattered over the sandy wastes, 

 that it is impossible to make them out to be 



