GROUSE. 117 



sand feet above the level of the ocean, where the soil is composed 

 of dry sand, alkaline clay, granite rocks, etc., with little other vege- 

 tation but stunted shrubs, cactus, and an occasional clump of wild 

 grass ; where rains rarely occur and there is little moisture in the 

 air or upon the ground. It is a tough, sprawling, crooked ever- 

 green, or rather evergrey shrub, from six inches to six feet high, 

 partly deciduous, in appearance much like the garden sage, and 

 when thick very difficult for man, horse or dog to get through. Still 

 where the plants are low and thick, and advantage can be taken 

 of the wind, one may have capital sport over pointers and setters. 

 For this work, however, the setter is preferable, as he suffers less 

 from the cold and from sore feet and scratched skin. 



The Sage Cock is a good skulker and runner, and not easily 

 flushed if it can hide. It gets up heavily hke the Wild Turkey, 

 laboring hard with the wings until a proper height is reached and 

 speed is obtained, when it sails rapidly away, and if alarmed often 

 goes from half a mile to a mile before dropping. As it rises it ut- 

 ters a curious cackling note. In sections where it has not been 

 much persecuted, the Sage Grouse is painfully tame and unsuspi- 

 cious. The writer has seen a brood of a dozen well-grown birds 

 walk innocently along before two men who were trj'ing to shoot their 

 heads off with rifle balls, until half their number had been killed. 

 At each report, the poor birds would stretch up their necks and 

 gaze about as if to find out whence the noise proceeded and would 

 then move on toward the hills. When, however, a ball touched one 

 of them without killing it, and it rose from the ground or fluttered, 

 the whole flock became alarmed and took to flight at once. 



The broods pass the night on the uplands, coming down to the 

 water morning and evening, and retiring to the higher ground again 

 without much delay. The Sage Grouse are said to spend the night 

 upon the ground, roosting together much after the manner of the 

 common quail. 



Pedieecetes j>hasianeUus var. columbianus. — Coues. Sharp-tailed Grouse, Sprig 

 Tail, Pin Tail, White Belly. 



The range of the Sharp-tailed Grouse is quite extended, for it is 

 found from Alaska on the north to Kansas on the south, and from 

 Michigan to the Sierra Nevadas and the Cascade Range. The 



