UPLAND GAME BIRDS 127 



Nest : On ground in the woods, usually under fallen trees. 

 Sggs : 6 to 12 ; buffy, sometimes slightly stained or speckled with brown. 

 Size 1.56 X 1-16. 



This is a fairly common resident, in the coast district 

 of Northern California. Its habits of " drumming," etc. 

 are like those of the Eastern grouse. The cocks leave 

 their mates as soon as sitting begins, and do not usually 

 return until fall, when the broods get together for the 

 winter. The young are to be found with the mother in 

 the vicinity of the nesting place for ten days or two 

 weeks, and then are taken to a thicket- bordered stream. 

 Their food consists of grasshoppers, insects, young leaves 

 of plants, berries, and a few varieties of seed, such as the 

 wild sunflower. 



309. SAGE GROUSE. — Centrocercus urophasianus. 

 Family : The Grouse, Partridges, Quails, etc. 



Length: Male 26.00-30.00 ; female 21.00-23.00. 



Adult Male: Upper parts mottled and barred gray, buff, and black; 

 cheeks, chin, and throat spotted black and white ; a white crescent 

 on each side of throat reaching to eye ; fore-neck black, merging to 

 dull gray on the chest ; the feathers with very stiff black shafts ; 

 bellj' uniform black ; chest white after breeding season. In breeding 

 season, tufts of wiry black feathers mixed with white down on the 

 shoulders ; air sacs on sides of throat yellow. 



Adult FeTnale : Chin and throat white ; fore-neck speckled gray in ruffs ; 

 air sacs or shoulder plumes. 



Young : Similar to female, but browner ; nfarkings of lower parts 

 indistinct. 



Dovmy Young : Upper parts brownish gray mottled with blackish. 



Geographical Distribution : Sagebrush plains of the Kocky Mountain 

 plateau, southwest to California, north to British Columbia. 



Breeding Range : In California the arid Great Basin region, east of the 

 Sierra Nevada. 



Breeding Season : April and May. 



