658 North American Grouse. 



not pursued, it squats upon the ground or under some bush until the 

 danger is past, its predominating color corresponding so much with 

 the ground that it often escapes notice. When walking, it has a slow 

 and hesitating march. Its location is over the whole of the great 

 plains lying east of the Rocky Mountains, wherever the sage-bush 

 or artemisia grows. This is its frequent food, and it gives a pun- 

 gency to its white flesh which renders it distasteful even to the 

 hungry trapper. It has the saffron-colored side-pouches on the neck, 

 similar to the ruffed grouse, and its habits of swelling these glands 

 and strutting and thrumming with its wings are similar to those 

 of the prairie-hen. It builds its nest on the ground of the desert, 

 giving but little care to its preparation, and lays from twelve to six- 

 teen eggs, dark brown in color, and spotted with irregular chocolate 

 spots, more abundant at the larger than the smaller end. How 

 its nest ever escapes the ravages of the coyote, that jackal of 

 the plains, is a wonder. If it were not for the coyote, the number 

 of this grouse would be ten times what it is now. Its flight is 

 that of all its family, — a succession of quick short beats, which at 

 rising makes the rushing sound that so bothers the nervous sports- 

 man, and then a long sail with extended wings, to be followed again 

 by the five or six short beats of the wing. As it rises, it gives forth 

 its note of "Cluck-cluck-cluck !" repeated very rapidly, like the com- 

 mon hen. No disappointment is greater to the inexperienced and 

 hungry hunter than to bring down one of these noble birds and, 

 after spending an hour in its cooking, to find that it tastes like tansy 

 bitters, with the bitters left out. We once had a "poetical cuss," as 

 the teamsters called him, in a hunting party in Wyoming Territory. 

 He quoted with great emphasis, on first meeting this bird, Hogg's 

 lines : 



" Bird of the wilderness, 

 Blithesome and cumberless, 

 Gay be thy matin o'er moorland and lea ! 

 Emblem of happiness, 

 Blest be thy dwelling-place, — 

 Oh, to abide in the desert with thee ! " 



We had sage-hen for supper that night. The next morning, when 

 one rose before his horse while on the march, he was heard to call 

 out: 



