SAGE GROUSE. 137 



leaves and the tender portions of plants. It is a hardy 

 bird, bearing the extremes of heat and cold apparently 

 without inconvenience, and I have seen it walking 

 leisurely about under the rays of a torrid sun, or exposed 

 to the fierce, keen blasts of a December storm that 

 would make most creatures seek the nearest shelter. 



During the blizzards and other heavy storms that so 

 frequently sweep over the country it inhabits, the Sage 

 Cock takes refuge amid the dense clumps of the sage 

 bushes, or in the '' coulees " or small valleys that inter- 

 sect the plains at intervals, where it obtains sufficient 

 protection from the blasts. Although this species is so 

 large, its plumage harmonizes so well with the bird's 

 surroundings that it is at times exceedingly diffi- 

 cult to see it, and it is not an unusual occurrence to pass 

 wMthin a few feet of one or more Sage Grouse, without 

 noticing them at all, if they remain motionless, as they 

 generally do. Early in March the pairing season begins, 

 and the male commences to court the females. His 

 actions at this time are not unlike those of the Pinnated 

 and Sharp-tailed Grouse already described, but the air 

 sacs on each side of the neck, when inflated, are so 

 enormous that the bird appears much more grotesque 

 than the males oT the other species. These air bladders 

 extend both forward and upward, and his head prac- 

 tically disappears between them, making his neck seem 

 altogether too top-heavy for him to preserve his balance. 

 The long pointed feathers of the tail are spread out to 

 the fullest extent, the wings trail along the ground, and 

 the spiny feathers along the air sacs stand straight out. 

 In this ludicrous attitude, which no doubt the bird con- 

 siders as the very acme of perfect beauty and attractive- 

 ness, he struts before the admiring gaze of the assembled 

 hens, uttering subdued guttural sounds. This exhibition 



