278 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING 



admiring the beautiful bird, which could have been 

 caught in my butterfly net, then walked back and forth 

 and finally passed around the bush to observe it from 

 behind. Not until then did it become frightened and fly 

 away with a loud cackling. The nest was a depression 

 at the foot of a sage bush, lined with dead grass and 

 sage leaves. The spot was marked and visited several 

 times, always passing within a few feet without 

 alarming the bird." 



While the mother bird is sitting, the males are scat- 

 tered over the prairie, two or three often being found 

 together, and when alarmed starting off with heavy, 

 lumbering flight to fly half a mile or a mile. 



When hatched, the young leave the nest and follow 

 the mother. When quite young they are as expert at 

 hiding as are most of the grouse at this age. 



They are active and hardy, and for the first few 

 weeks of their life bear a certain resemblance to the 

 young turkey, less perhaps in color than in length of 

 neck and the active way in which they move about on 

 their long legs. The mother is devoted, and Captain 

 Bendire quotes Mr. Wm. G. Smith, who caught six 

 young sage chickens one June in Carbon County, 

 Wyoming, as saying : 



"The female flew at my legs and followed me 200 

 yards to where my wagon was standing, constantly 

 making hostile demonstrations, while the young kept 

 calling." 



The young families roost on the ground, on the 

 sides of shallow ravines or on the prairie above, and 



