600 OHNITnOLOGY. 



Centrocercus urophasianus. 



{See-yuW of the Washoes.) 



Tctrao urophaniatius, BONAP., Zool. Journ., Ill, 1828, 214. 



Tetrao [Centrocercus) urophasianus, Swaiks., Fauna Bor.-Am., II, 1831, 358, pi. 58. 



Centrocercus urophasianus, Jardine, Nat. Lib. Birds, — , 1840, pi. xvii. Baird, 



B. N. Am., 1858, G24; Cat. N. Am. B., 1859, No. 462.— Cooper, Orn. Cal., I^ 

 1870, 530.— CouES, Key, 1872, 233; Cheek List, 1873, No. 382 ; Birds N.W., 

 1874, 400.— B. B. & R., Hist. N. Am. Birds, III, 1874, 429, pi. lx, figs. 2, 4. 



Although this large and well-known Grouse was met with througliout 

 the sage-lirush country between the Sierra Nevada and the Wahsatch, we 

 saw it so seldom that little was learned of its habits, particularly during the 

 breeding-season. It came under our notice only late in summer and during 

 the autunm, when it was found to be abundant in certain localities, but Iiy 

 no means uniformly distributed. When startled, the Sage-Hen rises with a 

 noisy and apparently laborious fluttering, and then flies oQ, with a heavy 

 but well-sustained flight, a few yards above the ground, and usually goes 

 a long way before alighting; indeed, if allowed to escape after being once 

 flushed there is generally little hope of getting a second opportunity for a 

 shot. As an article of food the Sage-Hen cannot be recommended, unless 

 the precaution is taken to flay it immediately, for its flesh soon becomes 

 permeated with the disagreeable odor of the sage-brush, the leaves of which 

 form its principal food. In fact, it is often found necessary to soak the car- 

 case in salt-water over night before the flesh becomes palatable. The leaves 

 of the Artemisia do not form the exclusive food of this species, however, but 

 during the season when grasshoppers abound it feeds largely on these insects, 

 several specimens killed in Parley's Park during a flight of these pests in 

 August having nothing else in their crops. It is a well-known fact among 

 western hunters that the Sage-Hen " has no gizzard," and the truth of this 

 statement, which was often told us, we confirmed by the dissection of numer- 

 ous specimens ; the stomach being merely membraneous, or at most but 

 slightly muscular, like that of a bird of prey, and nothing Ijke the thick 

 and powerful gi-inding machine of other Gallinoe} 



'See American Naturalist, April, 1874, p. 240, where this remarkable peculiarity 

 of the Sage-Hen is referred to, by the wrifer. 



