SAGE -HEN 567 



balmy June days, thoy liavo lost most of their frills, and the breast is dirty and 

 worn from rolling in the dust and stretching on the ground in birding. They are 

 credited with soiling the breast while drumming, but I have never observed 

 this to be one of the causes during my entire fifteen years with them. When 

 drumming they stand very erect, holding the wings away from the sides and 

 nearly perpendicularly, while the large loose skin of the neck is worked up, 

 and the head drawn in and out until the white feathers are brought to the chin. 

 At the same time the galls [air-sacs] are filled with air until the birds look as If 

 they were carrying snowballs on their shoulders. Then the skin which lies between 

 the galls is drawn in with a sucking movement, thus bringing the galls together 

 or uearl}- so. With this action the air is expelled from the throat, producing the 

 noise, which is hard to mimic and which resembles that of an old pump just 

 within hearing distance. The first sound is that of a low "punk," the next "de," 

 followed by the highest, "punk punk," and is made Avithout movement of the 

 A\-ings. After the bird has accomplished this feat he walks away a few paces 

 either in a straight line or a circle, with wings down, hanging loosely, but not 

 grating on the ground. At times they do drag the Avings as they strut along with 

 tail spread and erect, though not so perpendicular as that of a turkey. Again 

 they Avill dance about with all the pomp of a male pigeon. 



Their courts are generally in very conspicuous places, being either on some 

 barren flat or moraine where they may be seen from a distance. The males, year- 

 lings, and old are social and congregate at these places in bunches comprising 

 from twenty-five to a hundred or more. These birds do not mate, so far as I have 

 been able to learn, but the females come to these courts from all quarters at 

 about sundowTi or early in the morning. ... At the drumming period the males 

 are very jealous and many fights, some of which are quite serious, take place. 

 The fight consists in one bird seizing another by the head, neck, or jacket and 

 pulling and beating with the wings. Its duration is very brief, one or the other 

 giving in (Burnett, 1905, p. 103). 



Cameron (1907, p. 258) speaking of the Sage-hen in Montana, 

 thus describes the courtship : 



During the first half of April the males repair to a regular "playground," but 

 it is a difficult matter to observe their love antics on account of the encompassing 

 sage. . . . They never fought nor threatened each other but strutted or paraded 

 before some hens concealed in the sage bushes, and were entirely occupied with a 

 most grotesque rivalry. By ruffling up all their feathers, spreading their tails, and 

 dragging their Avings along the ground they looked much larger than they really 

 Avere, Avhile they produced a rattling sound Avith their quills after the manner of 

 turkey-cocks and peafowl. At the same time they continuously uttered a kind 

 of whistling challenge, and distending their necks by means of their air sacs 

 erected an enormous white ruff. As the playground was small the eight or nine 

 cocks upon it Avere in imminent danger of a collision, but for the ten minutes that 

 Ave Avatched them, this did not take place, nor Avere there any moments of ecstatic 

 oblivion for which some game birds are famous. As Avill be seen from the above 

 their courtship is rather a display than a ' ' play, ' ' thus differing from the per- 

 formance of the Sharp-tailed Grouse. . . . 



According to Bond (1900, p. 326) the strutting does not involve 

 dragging the wings on the ground. Instead, the air-sacs of the neck 

 are inflated until the whole neck and breast has a balloon-like appear- 



