THE SAGE GROUSE. 599 
‘floor, taking the shortest of steps, but stamping its feet so hard and rapidly 
that the sound is like that of a kettle drum; at the same time it utters a sort of 
bubbling crow, which seems to come from the air sacs, beats the air with its 
wings, and vibrates its tail so that it produces a low, rustling noise, and thus 
contrives at once to make as extraordinary a spectacle of itself and as much 
noise as possible. 
“As soon as one commences all join in, rattling, stamping, drumming, 
crowing, and dancing together furiously; louder and louder the noise, faster 
and faster the dance becomes, until at last, as they madly whirl about, the 
birds are leaping over each other in their excitement. After a brief spell the 
energy of the dancers begins to abate, and shortly afterward they cease or 
stand and move about very quietly, until they are again started by one of 
their number ‘leading off.’ 
“The space occupied by the dancers is from 50 to 100 feet across, and as 
it is returned to year after year, the grass is usually worn off and the ground 
trampled down hard and smooth. The whole performance reminds one so 
strongly of a Cree dance as to suggest the possibility of its being the prototype 
of the Indian exercises.” 
No. 237. 
SAGE GROUSE. 
A. O. U. No. 309. Centrocercus urophasianus (Bonap.). 
Synonyms.—Sacer Cock. Sack Hen. Cock oF THE PLAINS. 
Description.—Adult male: Above mingled buffy and grayish, varied ir- 
regularly with black; many of the wing-feathers with central white streaks, the 
tertials bordered terminally with white; wing-quills grayish brown, sometimes 
mottled on outer webs with paler; chin and throat broadly mingled black and 
white, defined laterally by crescentic area of white; lower throat black, the 
feathers bordered more or less with grayish white; chest gray; belly black sur- 
rounded by white; lower tail-coverts black, broadly tipped with white; lining of 
wings white. “To describe the peculiar neck-feathering of the old cock more 
particularly: On each side is a patch of feathers, meeting in front, with extremely 
stiff bases, prolonged into hair-like filaments about 3.00 in length; with the 
wearing away of these feathers in the peculiar actions of the bird in pairing-time, 
their hard horny bases are left, forming ‘fish-scales.’ In front of these peculiar 
feathers is the naked tympanum, capable of enormous inflation under amatory 
excitement. Above them is a tuft of down-feathers, covered with a set of long 
soft filamentous plumes corresponding to the ruff of Bonasa. Many breast- 
feathers resemble the scaly ones of the neck, and are commonly found worn to 
a bristly ‘thread-bare’ state. Scaly bases of these feathers soiled white; thready 
