GROUSE, PARTRIDGES, QUAILS, ETC. 



133 



Food. Grasshoppers and other insects, fruit, berries, grain, buds, and 

 leaves. 



GENUS CENTROCERCUS. 



General Characters. Tail longer than wings, graduated, feathers 

 pointed ; neck with distensible air sacs surmounted by hair-like filaments 

 and erect feathers ; tarsus feathered to toes. 



309. Centrocercus urophasianus (Bonap.). SAGE GROUSE. 



Adult male. Upper parts mottled gray or buffy, irregularly spotted or 

 barred with black or brownish ; in breeding season tufts of white downy 

 feathers, mixed with black egret- 

 iike wiry plumes on shoulders ; 

 yellow air sacs on side of throat ; 

 chest blackish before the breed- 

 ing season, with black wiry 

 feathers depending from the 

 chest band ; chest white after 

 the breeding season, during 

 which time the blackish tips 

 are worn off by rubbing on the 

 ground. Adult female: similar 

 to male but smaller and without 

 ruffs, air sacs, or nuptial plumes ; 

 throat white, chest band spec- 

 kled grayish. Young : some- 

 what like adult female but 

 brownish above, markings on 

 under parts, including black of 

 belly, less distinct. Male: length 

 26-30, wing 12-13, tail 11-13, 

 weight 4-J-S pounds. Female : 

 length 21.50-23.00, wing about 

 10.50-11.00, tail 8-9. 



Distribution. Breeds in sage- 

 brush plains of the interior in 

 Upper Sonoran and Transition From Bond ' The AuK - 



zones from Assiniboia and Brit- 

 ish Columbia to Utah, Nevada, and California, from the Sierra Nevada and 

 Cascades east to the Black Hills, Nebraska, and Colorado. 



Nest. A slight hollow, with or without lining, usually under the shelter 

 of a sage bush, but sometimes near a creek sheltered by a bunch of high 

 grass. Eggs : usually 7 to 9, olive buff to greenish brown, marked with 

 round spots of dark brown. 



Food. Grasshoppers, ants, and other insects, with tender plants, leaves, 

 buds, and flowers. 



Throughout the Great Basin and arid plains country, where the 

 most abundant and characteristic plant is the silvery -leaved aromatic 

 sagebrush, we find this largest, stateliest of North American Tetra- 

 onidae, the sage grouse. It is a bird of the open country, seeking no 

 heavier cover than the low sagebrush and often wandering over bar- 

 ren slopes or short grass meadows, or in large flocks late in summer 

 mounting above the timber belt of the mountains, to find new pas- 

 tures in the stunted growth of sage close to perpetual snow. 



