406 CENTEOCEECUS UEOPHASIANUS, SAGE COCK 



Some of those babits of the Sage Cock -which are peculiar to the pair- 

 ing season were described by oue of the earlier writers, doubtless with 

 substantial accuracy, and are quoted in the Fauna Boreali- Americana. 

 '•Tbey pair in March and April. Small emiuences on the banks of 

 streams are the places usually selected for celebrating the weddings, 

 the time generally about sunrise. The wings of the male are lowered, 

 buzzing on tlie ground; the tail, spread like a fan, somewhat erect; the 

 bare, yellow cesophagus inflated to a prodigious size — fully half as large 

 as his body, and, from its soft, membranous substance, being well con- 

 trasted with the scale-like feathers below it on the breast, and the flexi- 

 ble, silky feathers on the neck, which ou these occasions stand erect. 

 In this grotesque form he displays, in the presence of his intended mate, 

 a variety of attitudes. His love-song is a confused, prating, but not 

 offensively disagreeable, tone — something that we can imitate, but have 

 difficulty in expressing — hurr-huyr-hurr-r-ry-hoo, ending in a deep, 

 hollow tone, not unlike the sound produced by blowing into a large 

 reed." 



Even those who are familiar with the appearance of the "drums" of 

 the common Pinnated Grouse when fully inflated, may fail, without 

 actual inspection, to form a fair idea of the enormous yellow air-sacs of 

 the Sage Cock in their condition of greatest distension. Instead of 

 being regularly hemispherical, like half a small orange, they are im- 

 mense, bulging masses of irregular contour, seeming to meet in front, 

 and i.ingularly distorting the figure of the bird — surmounted with a 

 Iringe of filaments depending from the mass of erect white feathers, and 

 ending below in a solid set of white scaly plumes. Perhaps no bird of 

 our country presents a more remarkable aspect than the Sage Cock 

 under the cir(;amstanccs just noted ; while at all times his presence and 

 bearing are sufficiently striking. The mode of flight is most like that 

 of the Sharp-tailed Grouse — indeed, what resemblances the Sage Cock 

 bears to any other of our birds, are closest, in all respects, with this 

 species. There is the same complete spread of the wing, when the ends 

 of the outer quills show spaces between them — the same heavy yet 

 swift and steady course, accomplished with an alternation of a few en- 

 ergetic strokes, and a period of sailing with stiffly motionless wings, 

 until the impulse is spent. A point in which the Sage Grouse differs 

 from the Sharp-tailed, if not also from every other one of our Grouse, is 

 that it never takes to the trees, its exclusively terrestrial habits being, 

 indeed, a necessity arising in the nature of the country it inhabits. 



The egg of the Sage Fowl may be recognized at a glance by its size 

 and elongated shape ; it is comparatively narrower and more pointed 

 than that of any other Grouse of this country, and our specimens, 

 selected from a great number in the Smithsonian collection, measure, 

 respectively, 2.25 by 1.50 ; 2.10 by 1.60; 2.10 by 1.50; 2.05 by 1.50. The 

 shell first forms pale grayish-white, with a faint greenish shade, and 

 subsequently becomes a grayish or greenish-drab by acquiring more or 

 less, of a brown tint ; this is spotted with chocolate-brown, mostly in 

 specks and minute dots, pretty evenly and rather thickly distributed, 

 sometimes very sparsely so marked, and occasionally with larger spots 

 (size of a split pea) tending to a circular shape, with sharp edges. The 

 same circularity may be observed in the case of the smaller markings. 



An interesting law affecting egg-coloration may be deduced from 

 e::amiuation of eggs which, like those of all our Grouse and many other 

 birds, are colorless, or of uniform color at first, yet variously marked 

 when laid. In such cases, probably without exception, the markings 



