Fig. 17. Male and femalejof thejsage hen (Cenirocercus urophasianus). Male with tail erect. Reproduction of Audubon's 

 plate from a photograph of it by the author. 



In Figure 17 I herewith reproduce, by 

 means of photography, Audubon's plate of 

 a pair of sage cocks, which fairly well repre- 

 sents them. He says of the latter, however, 

 that "In some individuals, as I am informed 

 by Mr. Townsend, the hair-like shafts of 

 the feathers on the sides of the neck are 

 considerably longer than in my figure of the 

 male," which, I may add, is very true. 



Personally, I am of the opinion that these 

 birds do not gain their full size until about 

 the third summer, as this and the weight of 

 the sexes vary so. Males run from four to 

 upwards of eight pounds, and females 

 which are about a third smaller than the 

 cocks never over five pounds. 



Males, having attained their full size, are 

 about two and a half feet long; wing extent 

 about a yard, and the tail averages a foot 

 or more. The under parts are mostly white, 

 with an area of deep black on the abdomen; 

 above, the prevailing colors are buff, gray, 

 black and brown, exhibiting considerable 

 variation. 



The feathers on either side of the neck are 

 stiff and wiry, especially at their bases. 

 These lateral cervical patches meet each 

 other in front, and the feathers composing 

 them have their ends produced as filament- 

 ous extensions, three or four inches long, of 

 a peculiar kind. During the breeding season, 

 these all wear down, leaving but stiff, scale- 



like remnants to represent them. It is 

 anterior to these curious feather tracts that 

 we find the nude tympana which are capable 

 of such enormous inflation with air during 

 the amatory display and strutting of the cock 

 before the hens when courting. Either air-sac 

 has above it a tuft of much softer feathers, 

 over which are to be found still others of a 

 plumbaceous sort, which seem to represent 

 the firmer and far better developed ones in 

 the pinnated and ruffed grouse. On the 

 breast, most of the feathers are coarse and 

 bristly, having, as in the case of those of the 

 lower neck in front, been worn down to 

 mere scales and threads in his antics before 

 the females of his harem, to prove to them 

 that the breeding season is at hand, and how 

 much he thinks of them. 



The scaly kind have dirty, white bases 

 with their filamentous ends dusky, the softer, 

 downy ones all being pure white, while over 

 all there are the deep black and glossy plumes 

 of this part of the bird's plumage. Entire 

 throat black, with the ends of the feathers 

 speckled with white, these massing to form 

 below a white semi-color. (Fig. 17). Inside 

 of wings white. Lower tail-coverts black, 

 broadly tipped with white. 



The pattern of the tail and upper tail- 

 coverts are well shown in Figure 17. 



In the female the throat is not black, but 

 on the contrary with the chin is pure white, 



