GROUSE AND PTARMIGAN 



2171 



go through strange antics to captivate the females. Inflating their orange air sacs 

 and erecting their long neck tufts, they utter their strange, booming love note, 

 which may be heard at a great distance in the still morning air. The females are 

 remarkably prolific, laying eleven to fourteen eggs on an average, while as many as 

 twenty or more are not unfrequently found. The females alone undertake the in- 

 cubation and care of their young, the males separating from them as soon as all the 

 eggs are laid. 



PRAIRIE HENS. 



The largest American representative of the family is the sage grouse 

 {Centrocercus urophasianus} , inhabiting the dry sage-brush plains of 

 the Western United States. Distinguished from the allied forms by its long 

 pheasant-like tail of twenty feathers, with the middle pair elongate and pointed, the 

 male has an inflatable air sac on each side of the neck, and attains a weight of eight 

 pounds, the female being smaller. The chief food of this bird, especially during 

 the winter months, is the sage brush, though during summer it is varied with 

 grasses, berries, insects, and sometimes grain. The stomach of this species is soft, 

 and unlike that of other game birds, which are all provided with a muscular gizzard. 

 Captain Bendire gives the following account of the sage cock's courtship: " Early 

 one morning, in the first week of March 1877, I had the long-wished-for opportunity 

 to observe the actions of a single cock, while paying court to several females near 



