258 Cameron, Birds of Custer & Davenport Counties, Mont. [ju1v 



me. On the 30th, the grouse were put to flight three times, once accident- 

 ally by me and twice by a Marsh Hawk, but all flew back again to the same 

 spot within a few minutes. When suspicious, warning clucks from the 

 onlookers stopped the play, and the grouse drew themselves to their full 

 height, resuming their natural trim appearance. Under these circum- 

 stances there is no difference between the sexes, the pink sac characterising 

 the males being invisible, which increases the difficulty of distinguishing 

 them and making accurate observation. After days of watching it was 

 evident that the birds, though running at each other like game cocks, 

 never fought, while several males (presumably young) remained passive 

 spectators. The hens to some extent participated in the dance. Subse- 

 quent to the above observations I watched the grouse closely to discover 

 if they really paired, and concluded that they do so in an irregular manner. 

 The cocks forsake the hens as soon as incubation commences, and, lending 

 no assistance in rearing the young, may be met with in small parties of 

 about half a dozen. 



58. Centrocercus urophasianus. Sage Grouse. — Abundant on the 

 sage plains of both counties. Formerly nested upon my ranch in Custer 

 County, and in 1902 I tried to rear some by setting two clutches of eggs 

 under hens. Out of fourteen birds hatched, only two reached maturity. 

 To the best of my knowledge Sage Grouse have never been reared in cap- 

 tivity before. The strip of country in Dawson' County enclosed by the 

 Musselshell, Yellowstone, and Missouri Rivers, and extending westward 

 from the junction of the two latter, is a chief haunt of Sage Grouse, several 

 localities, such as 'Sage Hen Springs' and 'Sage Hen Creek,' being thus 

 named on account of the abundance of these birds. During the first half 

 of April the males repair to a regular ' playground,' but it is a difficult matter 

 to observe their love antics on account of the encompassing sage. How- 

 ever, on April 7, 1896, my wife and I happened to ride close upon a number 

 of old cocks, near our ranch, which were engaged with their play in a small 

 open space. They never fought nor threatened each other but strutted 

 or paraded before some hens concealed in the sage bushes, and were entirely 

 occupied with a most grotesque rivalry. By ruffling up all their feathers, 

 spreading their tails, and dragging their wings along the ground they 

 looked much larger than they really were, while they produced a rattling 

 sound with their quills after the manner of turkey-cocks and peafowl. 

 At the same time they continuously uttered a kind of whistling challenge, 

 and distending their necks by means of their air sacks erected an enormous 

 white ruff. As the play ground was small the eight or nine cocks upon it 

 were in imminent danger of a collision, but for the ten minutes that we 

 watched them, this did not take place, nor were there any moments of 

 ecstatic oblivion for which some game birds are famous. As will be seen 

 from the above their courtship is rather a display than a 'play,' thus 

 differing from the performance of the Sharp-tailed Grouse, which is de- 

 scribed under that bird. 



