128 LAND BIRDS 



Nest : A slight depression in the ground ; usually unlined, and under a 



sagebush. 

 Eggs: 8tol2; olive-yellow, spotted with dark brown. Size 2.16 X 1.50. 



As its name implies, the Sage Grouse loves the barren 

 alkali plains, " sun-parched in summer and swept by icy 

 blasts and wolf-voiced blizzards during the wjnter," where 

 no green thing can grow save the sagebrush and the cacti. 

 Here, of necessity, his chief diet is sage leaves, insects, 

 and the pulp of the cactus fruit ; his drink tiie strong 

 alkali water of the desert. The storms of winter drive 

 him through the timber belt to the stunted vegetation 

 under the snow, and he lives for weeks at a time in the 

 warm shelter of a deep drift, eating the young green 

 shoots that he scratches from their wintry cover, five or 

 six feet below the level. With the spring comes a revival 

 . of life to the big Grouse. A restless hunting for some- 

 thing takes possession of him, and he wanders through 

 the brush, fighting every male grouse that he meets. In 

 March he encounters his fate in the form of a tiny gray 

 hen, before whom he struts and salaams, sliding along 

 on his breast until he wears a bare place among his fine 

 feathers. What greater proof of his infatuation could 

 he give than this ? " Then the big air sacs are filled to 

 their fullest capacity, the spiny feathers about them 

 bristle out like thorns, the long tail is spread and the 

 wings trailed. One familiar with the noise of other 

 grouse naturally would expect from this great fellow a 

 thunderous booming, but the fact is the sounds produced 

 amount to nothing more than a broken, indistinct croak- 

 ing." It is all done with an air of desperate earnestness, 



