Grouse of the Northern Cattle Plains 99 



This call is uttered in a hollow, bass tone, and can 

 be heard a long distance in still weather; it is diffi- 

 cult to follow up, for it has a very ventriloquial 

 effect. 



Unlike the sharp-tail the habits and haunts of the 

 sage fowl are throughout the year the same, except 

 that it grows shyer as the season advances, and oc- 

 casionally wanders a little further than formerly 

 from its birthplace. - It is only found where the 

 tough, scraggly wild sage abounds, and it feeds for 

 most of the year solely on sage leaves, varying this 

 diet in August and September by quantities of grass- 

 hoppers. Curiously enough it does not possess any 

 gizzard, such as most gallinaceous birds have, but 

 has in its place a membranous stomach, suited to 

 the digestion of its peculiar food. 



The little chicks follow their mother as soon as 

 hatched, and she generally keeps them in the midst 

 of some patch of sage brush so dense as jto be almost 

 impenetrable to man or beast. The little fellows 

 skulk and dodge through the crooked stems so clev- 

 erly that it is almost impossible to catch them. Early 

 in August, when the brood is well grown, the moth- 

 er leads them out, and during the next two months 

 they are more often found out on the grassy prai- 

 ries than is the case at any other season. They 

 do not form into packs like the prairie fowl as 

 winter comes on, two broods at the outside oc- 

 casionally coming together; and they then again 

 retire to the more waste parts of the plains, living 

 purely on sage leaves, and keeping closely to the 



