404 CENTEOCERCUS UEOPHASIAXUS, SAGE COCK. 



than that of the Pinnated Grouse. But the peculiarities of its habitat 

 do not give the dog a fair chance to work, or do himself or the game 

 justice. The artemisia grows only upon barren prairies, from 4,000 to 

 10,000 feet above the level of the ocean, where the soil is composed of 

 dry sand, alkaline clay, granite rocks, «&c., with little other vegetation 

 but stunted shrubs, cactus, and an occasional clump of wild grass, where 

 rains rarely occur, and there is little moisture in the air or upoQ the 

 ground. It is a tough, si)rawling, crooked evergreen, or rather ever- 

 gray shrub, from six inches to six feet high, partly deciduous in appear- 

 ance, much like the garden sage, and when thick, very difficult, for man, 

 horse or dog, to get through. 



"The Sage Cock is a good skulker and runner, and not easily flushed 

 if it can hide. It gets up heavily, like the Wild Turkey, laboring hard 

 with the wings until a proper height is reached and speed is obtained, 

 when it sails rapidly away, and, if alarmed, often goes from half a mile 

 to a mile before dropping. 



" The packs are smaller than any other variety of Grouse, rarely ex- 

 ceeding ten. They never alight upon trees, and, indeed, I have never 

 seen them among timber. They are rarely found east of Fort Laramie 

 or of the range of Black Hills, which constitutes the first step or shelf 

 of the Eocky jMountains going west. The mountain deserts constitute 

 their home. I have met them in the Laramie plains, on the upper 

 waters of the North Platte, on Sweetwater Eiver, on the headwaters of 

 Green Eiver (the Colorado of the West), oa Lewis' Fork of the Colum- 

 bia, and ou Wind Eiver, but nowhere so numerous as on the latter stream 

 and its tributaries, where scores would be often seen in a mile's ride. 



"The Sage Cock is also said to be common nortli nearly or quite to 

 the British line, and west to California, but in these observations I have 

 confined myself to the sections I have personally visited. It would be 

 safe to presume that they would be found wherever there was a barren 

 prairie stocked with artemisia. 



"I have heard it said that the Sage Cock migrates, but this is not so, 

 as I have seen them at all seasons of the year on the same ground. In 

 this respect their habits are the same as other varieties of Grouse, never 

 moving far from the spot where hatched, unless compelled to do so. 

 The idea no doubt arises from the fact that they are rarely seen moving 

 in the severe weather and terrible storms of this region, their habit 

 being to lie close in ravines and hollows, and dense thickets of artemisia, 

 where they can have food and shelter." 



Dr. isewberry's account, which I extract almost entire as no less 

 interesting to the sportsman than to the naturalist, will bring this great 

 ■'Bustard" vividly to mind: 



"Coming into camp at evening, I had been attracted by a white 

 chalk-like bluif, some two miles to the right of our trail, which I visited 

 and examined. Near it was a warm. spring, which came out of the hill- 

 side, and, spreading over the prairie, kept a few acres green and fresh, 

 strongly contrasting with the universal brown of the landscape. In 

 this little oasis I found some, to me, new flowers, many reptiles, and a 

 considerable number of Sharp-tailed Grouse, of which I killed several, 

 the whole presenting attractions sufficiently strong — as we were to re- 

 main iu camj) one day — to take me over there next morning. I had 

 filled my plant-case with flowers, had obtained frogs, and snakes, and 

 chalky infusorial earth enough to load down the boy who accompanied 

 me, and had enjoyed a fine morning's sport, dropping as many Grouse 

 on the prairies as we could conveniently carry. Following up the little 

 sU-eam toward the spring on the hill-side, a dry, treeless surface, with 



