74 THE BIOLOGY OF HARD T NG COUNTY 



Harding and Butte Counties. Now (1913) after three more years 

 of homesteading Sage Grouse are restricted in this state to the 

 Little Missouri Valley in Hiarding County and to the headwaters 

 of Indian Creek in Butte. In a very few years they will occur 

 in South Dakota only as a rare winter straggler from Montana. 



This wide spread extermination of the Sage Grouse is in 

 spite of the fact that the flesh of all but the youngest Sage Hens 

 tastes so strongly of ! sage that they are not usually considered 

 edible. Sage hens are somewhat destructive to gardens and are 

 sometimes killed as pests. The young, which are easily shot with 

 a 22 rifle, are used extensively as food. 



Polygmany among wild birds is very rare and the Sage Grouse 

 is one of our few examples. The mating dance takes place in 

 April and May and lasts from dawn till well along in the fore- 

 noon. Upon an open grassy slope as many as fifty of these 

 stately birds will gather. The cocks walk about with tail wide 

 spread and the neck much distended by the enflatment of the 

 air sacs. Upon approaching a female the male drags one wing 

 on the ground. From time to time the cock utters a dull ringing- 

 note which can be heard but a very few rods. The females seem 

 to pay but Httle attention to the dance nor do they select mates 

 in any obvious manner since several are looked upon with favor 

 during a single morning. 



The nest is made in slight depression and contains from 

 seven to nine spotted eggs. The young remain with the mother 

 until winter. They spend the night, not on the lower flats along 

 streams where most of the day is spent, but on the edge of upland 

 frequently near the border of a patch of sand grass. The flock 

 sleep within a few feet of each other. The mother clucks to her 

 very young chicks after the same manner as does the domestic 

 hen. 



During the summer the cocks congregate together while un- 

 fortunate females are solitary. Sage Hens require drinking water 

 and are hence found near water-holes. Since a few small trees 

 are usually found near our permanent pools, the most frequent 

 place to find Sage Hens in the heat of the day is sprawled out 

 in the shade of the single tree, or under a rearby "cut bank." 



