THE SAGE GROUSE. 67 



Centrocerais urophasianus, Jard. Nat, Libr. Orn. iv. p. 140, 

 pi. xvii. (1834) ; Elliot, Monogr. Tetraon. pi. xiii. (1865) 

 Bendire, Life Hist. N. Am. B. p. 106, pi. iii. figs, ii-i^* 

 (1892); Ogilvie-Grant, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxii. p. 8j 



(1893). 



{Plate VI.) 



Adult Male. — General colour above blackish, marked and mot 



tied with buff; breast and belly mostly black ; the chin and 



throat white, spotted with black ; otherwise very similar to the 



female, though much larger, attaining a weight of eight pounds. 



Total length, 28 inches; wing, i2'5; tail, 12 ; tarsus, 2-2. 



Adult Female. — Has the chin and throat white, and is much 

 smaller, rarely weighing more than five pounds. Total length, 

 22 inches; wing, io*8 ; tail, 6*5; tarsus, 1-9. 



Range. — The sage-brush plains of the Rocky Mountain 

 plateau, extending northwards to British America and south 

 to New Mexico, South California, Utah, and Nevada. 



The Sage Grouse is the largest species of its kind found 

 m the New World, and is generally resident in those States 

 where it occurs, but, like the Prairie Hen, it is also partially 

 migratory in some parts of its range. As its name implies, 

 this bird is seldom found far from the tracts of sage-brush 

 {Ai'temisia), the leaves of which form its principal food, at 

 least during the winter. As Captain Bendire explains, though 

 the Grouse breed abundantly on the higher altitudes of about 

 6, coo feet, the bushes at that elevation become covered with 

 snow in winter, and the birds are then driven down to the 

 valleys in search of food, and thus a partial migration takes 

 place in the beginning of winter and spring. In summer the 

 food is varied with wild peas, seeds, grain, and insects, and the 

 flesh is then excellent, provided that the birds are drawn as soon 

 as they are shot, though in winter, when sage-leaves form the 

 principal or only diet, they are unfit for the table. In the 

 beginning of March the males pay their court to the females, 



F 3 



