BIRDS. 



491 



home is the treeless desert region of the western territories, where 

 the prominent feature of the landscape is the ever-present wild sage, or 

 Artemisia. It is, excepting the turkey, our largest member of the group 

 of Rasores; but it differs from all its relatives in one point of its structure. 

 All the rest have a strong muscular gizzard familiar to all in the common 

 fowl ; but in the sage-cock, as was first pointed out by Mr. Ridgway, it " is 

 soft and membraneous like that of the birds of prey. This was first told 

 me by hunters in Nevada ; and I afterwards satisfied myself of the truth 

 of their statement, that the sage-hen ' has no gizzard,' by dissecting a suffi- 

 cient number of individuals. This bird is never known to eat grain ; 

 but it subsists almost entirely upon green leaves of Artemisia and on 

 grasshoppers." 



The wild sage, as is well known, is bitter, and the diet of its leaves 

 sometimes gives the flesh of the sage-cock a very unpleasant taste. It is 

 said that if one draws the bird as soon as it is killed, this taste will be 

 avoided. The flesh is dark, and rather dry. The vocal sacs, or l drums,' 

 of this species are perfectly enormous ; they are yellow, and when fully 

 inflated have not the smooth half-orange appearance of those of the prairie- 

 chicken, but are large and bulging, with irregular surface, and almost seem 

 to meet beneath the neck. 



The ruffed grouse is the ' partridge ' of the north, the ■ pheasant ' of 

 the south, a peculiarity of nomenclature already referred to. It is a rather 

 large bird of brownish 

 plumage, familiar to all. 

 One of the most notice- 

 able features connected 

 with this bird is its 

 habit of i drumming,' 

 not only at the breeding 

 season, but at other 

 times of the year. Every 

 one has heard the loud 

 sound produced by the 

 bird, and almost every 

 one has seen him in the 

 act. The cock mounts 

 on some log, struts 

 about, and then begins 

 to beat the air with his 

 wings ; slowly at first, but soon the motion becomes more rapid, until the 

 position of the wings is represented by a mere haze, like' that produced by 



Fig. 414. — Ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus). 



