SAGE GROUSE 277, 
wearing away of the stiff feathers on the lower neck 
and upper breast so often noticed in this species. 
The nest of the sage grouse is usually placed at the 
foot of some sage bush, or sometimes at the foot of a 
bunch of rye grass, whose outer leaves, bending over, 
may conceal the nest. Commonly it contains from 
eight to eleven eggs, nearly as large as a hen’s egg, 
greenish white or brownish in color, more or less 
heavily spotted with round, but not large, dots of 
brown and blackish. The period of incubation js given 
as twenty-two days. 
There is little or no nest, and the eggs lie in a mere 
hollow scratched out in the bare ground. The sitting 
bird harmonizes so wonderfully with the ground on 
which she rests that one may pass within a foot or two 
without seeing her. 
Major Bendire quotes Captain William L. Car- 
penter, U. S. A., who says: “I found a nest at Fort 
Bridger, Wyoming—where this species is numerous— 
June 1, with nine fresh eggs. I was standing alongside 
a sage bush watching butterflies, several times looking 
down carelessly without seeing anything unusual, 
when, happening again to glance at the foot of the 
bush in the very place before observed, I saw the wink- 
ing of an eye. Looking more intently, a grayish mass 
was discerned, blending perfectly with the color of the 
bush, which outlined itself into the form of a sage hen 
not 2 feet from my foot. She certainly would have 
been overlooked had not the movement of her eyelids 
attracted my attention. I stood there fully five minutes 
