SAGE GROUSE 275 
in the crops of adults and young during the season of 
greatest food supply. The leaves, blossoms and the 
pods of other plants, together with many seeds and 
grasshoppers and crickets, are said by Captain W. L. 
Carpenter to constitute a large part of this food. Mr. 
Robert W. Williams is quoted by Captain Bendire as 
having taken a bird, the crop of which was filled with 
the blossoms of a species of goldenrod (Solidago). 
In past years controversies as to the edibility of the 
flesh of the sage cock have often taken place, some 
writers holding that the flesh is so strongly flavored 
by the sage that it is unpleasant to the taste, while 
others maintained with equal earnestness that the flesh 
was delicate and without unpleasant flavor. Obviously, 
the flavor of the flesh of any bird depends in great 
measure on the food which it eats, and birds which 
stuff themselves with a particular sort of vegetation, 
whether it be buds of the birch, of the laurel, of the 
spruce or of the wormwood, if left undrawn for a time 
may taste of the plant on which they have been feeding. 
It is a safe plan to dress the sage grouse as soon as 
may be after it has been killed, but even if this is not 
done, young birds are not likely to have a strong taste, 
though old ones may. 
Like other prairie grouse, the sage cock goes through 
a courtship which is noteworthy. This is well de- 
scribed by Captain Bendire in his ‘‘Life Histories of 
North American Birds,” in which he says: 
“Early one morning, in the first week of March, 
1877, I had the long-wished-for opportunity to observe 
