UPLAND GAME BIRDS 129 
comical to a disinterested observer, but very pleasing to 
madam, who, feigning indifference, is not too easily won. 
Finally, when his much salaaming has scoured his breast 
nearly bare, you may, if you are sharp enough, discover 
a nest with oreenish-buff eggs in it, hidden snugly under 
asagebush. When the mother is brooding, — and during 
the twenty-two days required for incubation she is rarely 
away from the nest, — you will find the search difficult if 
not futile. So protective is her coloring, and so perfectly 
does she blend with the alkali dust and the shadows of 
the sage, that it is impossible to distinguish her so long as 
she remains motionless. She will sit in unwinking still- 
ness until you are about to step on her, and then, with a 
blinding “ whirr” she scoots through the brush, cackling 
angrily, to return before you are fifty yards away. 
When sitting begins, the erstwhile ardent wooer de- 
serts his mate, and the entire care of the little ones 
falls upon her. Like all grouse nestlings, they run about 
as soon as the down is dry, which is about fifteen minutes 
after the shell breaks. They pick up food at her scratch- 
ing all day, and at night they nestle on the ground under 
her wings, only a row of little heads being visible. As 
soon as their own feathers are developed, they sleep every 
night in a circle about her, each one with head pointed 
to the outside as before, and always on the ground ; fer 
the Sage-Grouse never trees. It is not difficult to come 
upon a brood sleeping this way on a moonlight night; 
but the only satisfaction will be to hear the sharp alarm 
of the mother, a whirr as she runs by you, and a knowl- 
edge that though the young are hiding on the dust at 
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