30 



BIRDS OF AMERICA 



of the great Black Grouse or Capercallie of 

 Europe, and its peculiar nuptial performances 

 go far to establish it as one of the wonders of 

 animated nature which should be carefully pre- 

 served for all time. Ordinarily it does little in- 

 jury to man's crops or chattels. Why then 

 should it be exterminated? 



Thus far the systematists have not been able 

 to find a subspecies of the Sage Hen. Every- 

 where it has the same habits, frequenting the 

 high, dry alkali plains, sometimes at an altitude 

 of more than seven thousand feet, among the 

 sagebrush (Artemcsia). It stands or falls with 

 the sagebrush and in these days it commonly 

 falls. We are told now that it is disappearing 

 in Oregon and Washington, gone from the Black 







Photo by W. L. Finley and H. T. Bohlman 

 PORTRAIT OF SAGE HEN 



Hills, and thinning rapidly in numbers elsewhere. 

 Like all the game birds of the open it can hide 

 or fly from its natural enemies, but cannot with- 

 stand the combination of man, dog, and gun, with 

 shooting at all seasons of the year. The young 

 are preferred for the table as they have less sage 

 flavor than their parents, and when the callow 

 young are destroyed the species cannot last, as 

 the adults are not immortal. The old birds are 

 " tougher than tripe," in more ways than one. 

 Nevertheless, they may be eaten if properly pre- 

 pared. Edwin Sandys says that he is willing to 

 admit that " an aged sage hen doth possess that 

 sageness that one might expect with advancing 

 years," but carved with bowie knife or hatchet 

 it will sustain human life. Its flavor is improved 

 by drawing the bird as soon as it is dead. 



The Sage Cock has a sharp cackle, kek, kck, 

 kek, which voices its alarm when flushed, but its 

 mating notes are not what one would expect from 



a bird of its size. It begins its " drumming " or 

 croaking very early in the season, sometimes 

 even in fine winter weather. The mating grounds 

 are in conspicuous places, such as a barren flat 

 or moraine, and the birds may be readily watched 

 from a distance with a powerful glass. From 

 twenty-five to one hundred or more males congre- 

 gate in these places. They are polygamous and 

 the females come to them from all quarters at 

 sunset or early in the morning. The males being 

 in full dress and vigor late in February or in 

 March in the United States, or later in higher 

 latitudes, assemble at their chosen spots on fine 

 mornings and, standing erect, hold their droop- 

 ing wings well away from their sides, raise and 

 spread the tail, which often works from side to 

 side, while the loose skin of the neck is drawn 

 in and out and the great pale sacs on the sides 

 of the neck are distended until the white feathers 

 surrounding them bristle out in all directions. 

 The air sacs when inflated are not semi-globu- 

 lar in shape, as in the Prairie Chicken, but irreg- 

 ular, bulbous, and enormous, sometimes pro- 

 truding an inch above the head and well out in 

 front. The skin between the sacs is next drawn 

 in with a sucking motion, bringing them nearly 

 together and the air is expelled from the throat, 

 producing peculiar guttural grunting or croaking 

 sounds, some of which have been described by 

 Bendire as resembling the purr of a cat, but 

 louder. Bond says that it produces an " in- 

 consequential chuckling noise," while Burnett 

 describes it as resembling the sound of an old 

 pump, thus, punk de punk, punk — the first 

 note low and the last two higher in pitch. The 

 cocks strut with tail widely spread and erect, the 

 acuminate tail-feathers standing out separately 

 like so many spikes, sometimes dragging the 

 wings on the ground, and dance with the pomp 

 of a Pouter Pigeon. Rival, jealous males fre- 

 quently fight viciously, but the battling consists 

 mostly in seizing one another by the head or 

 neck and beating witli the wings and is not san- 

 guinary or long continued. One of their habits 

 at this time is to lower the breast to the ground 

 and push it along. In some localities this is 

 done so frequently that the feathers on the lower 

 neck become worn down to mere shafts, appear- 

 ing like so many bristles. Sometimes in their 

 enthusiasm they even roll in the dust. Bond 

 says that the cock inflates its neck until the whole 

 neck and breast present a balloon-like appearance 

 and then, bending forward, throws the entire 

 weight of its body on the distended portions, 

 sliding along on the bare ground for some dis- 



