The Sage- Grouse 213 



Perhaps no other game-bird has had more non- 

 sense told and written about it. Even a large 

 number of western men, who should know better, 

 speak of it with the same contempt they apply- 

 to that much maligned animal, the jack-rabbit. 

 Many are the yarns spun about the eating of the 

 sage-hen by " tenderfoots," and of the subsequent 

 disgust of the latter. As a rule these accounts 

 are greatly overdrawn, most of them being the 

 creations of brainy young pencil-pushers of the 

 East, who personally know nothing of the bird, 

 its food, or its flavor. I am quite willing to 

 admit that the flesh of an aged sage-hen doth 

 possess that sageness one might expect with 

 advancing years — nay ! I will even go farther 

 and acknowledge the flavor of it to suggest a rare 

 blend of ancient duck dressing, old moccasins, and 

 pulverized Bath brick ; but what of it .? Carved 

 with a bowie, or a hatchet, it is capable of sustain- 

 ing human life for at least several seconds, and 

 seconds are sometimes exceeding precious. 



In point of fact, while the flesh of the old bird 

 is rank and almost uneatable, that of a young one 

 is by no means bad, especially if the bird be drawn 

 immediately after death. So treated, it is tender 

 and no poor substitute for pinnated grouse. In- 

 stances are readily recalled when it proved not 

 only unobjectionable, but very good, and this when 

 other supplies were close at hand. 



