SAGE HEN 307 



And from Mr. Holden, Coues quotes : 



They roost in circles on the ground. I have seen a patch of ground fifteen 

 feet in diameter completely covered with their excrement. I think they resort 

 to the same place many nights in succession, unless disturbed. 



Voice. — The vocal efforts of the sage grouse seem to be limited 

 to a deep guttural clucking note, kuk, kuk, kuk, slowly repeated as 

 the bird flushes, a rapidly repeated scolding note, tuk-a-tuk, and a 

 cackling note of the female, like the cackle of a domestic hen. The 

 chicks call to one another with faint peeping notes. 



Enemies. — Sage grouse have been found to be infested with tape- 

 worms and probably they are also infected with some of the other 

 parasites and diseases to which other grouse are subject. The eggs 

 and young are preyed upon by various predatory animals and birds, 

 mainly crows and magpies, but their worst enemy is man. Natural 

 enemies of all wild creatures have merely checked their increase, but 

 when man comes on the scene it means extermination. So it is with 

 this fine large grouse, an easy mark for the gun. It has been extir- 

 pated from much of its former range and is disappearing very 

 steadily in many other places. 



Sandys (1904) relates the following incident: 



One day I was watching an old male which had taken up a position upon an 

 almost bare knoll. It was before the open season, a very idle period on the 

 plains ; so, partly to pass away time, and partly in the hope of discovering 

 something, the field-glass was brought into play. Before the bird had been 

 thoroughly scrutinized, some falcon, which looked like a male peregrine, shot 

 into the field of vision, and made a vicious stoop at the huge quarry. Whether 

 or no the grouse had been watching the hawk is impossible to say, but in any 

 event he was ready. As the hawk was almost upon him, up went the long tail, 

 down went the head, and the wings were a trifle raised. Most readers, probably, 

 have seen a man hump his back and get his shoulders about his ears when he 

 expected to be struck from behind by a snow-ball. The action and attitude of 

 the grouse were comically suggestive of that very thing. The hawk appeared 

 to be only fooling, for certainly it made no determined strike, but presently 

 rose and curved away. An instant later the grouse took wing. 



Game. — Sandys says of the game qualities of this grouse : 



As an object of the sportsman's pursuit, the sage-grouse is greatly inferior to 

 most of its relatives. The young, the only ones worth shooting, are great run- 

 ners, and only take wing when compelled to, and once in the air their size is 

 against them, although they fly fairly fast. Another objectionable feature is 

 their ability to carry off shot, which sometimes borders on the marvelous. A 

 light gun, deadly on other grouse, will hardly serve for these big fellows, the 

 use of it surely meaning a lot of wounded birds. The coveys usually are small, 

 as the young have many enemies, among which the chief are fierce storms, wet, 

 wolves, foxes, and rapacious birds, while man plays no unimportant part in tne 

 work of destruction. 



Dwight W. Huntington (1903), however, speaks very highly of it 

 as a game bird, and says of its value as a table bird "that these 



