UPLAND GAME BIRDS 129 



comical to a disinterested observer, but very pleasing to 

 madam, who, feigning indifference, is not too easily won. 

 Finally, when his much salaaming has scoured his breast 

 nearly bare, you may, if you are sharp enough, discover 

 a nest with greenish-buff eggs in it, hidden snugly under 

 a sagebush. When the mother is brooding, — and during 

 the twenty-two days required for incubation she is rarely 

 away from the nest, — you will find the search difficult if 

 not futile. So protective is her coloring, and so perfectly 

 does she blend with the alkali dust and the shadows of 

 the sage, that it is impossible to distinguish her so long as 

 she remains motionless. She will sit in unwinking still- 

 ness until you are about to step on her, and then, with a 

 blinding " whirr " she scoots through the brush, cackling 

 angrily, to return before you are fifty yards away. 



When sitting begins, the erstwhile ardent wooer de- 

 serts his mate, and the entire care of the little ones 

 falls upon her. Like all grouse nestlings, they run about 

 as soon as the down is dry, which is about fifteen minutes 

 after the shell breaks. They pick up food at her scratch- 

 ing all day, and at night they nestle on the ground under 

 her wings, only a row of little heads being visible. As 

 soon as their own feathers are developed, they sleep every 

 night in a circle about her, each one with head pointed 

 to the outside as before, and always on the ground; for 

 the Sage-Grouse never trees. It is not difficult to come 

 upon a brood sleeping this way on a moonlight night; 

 but the only satisfaction will be to hear the sharp alarm 

 of the mother, a whirr as she runs by you, and a knowl- 

 edge that though the young are hiding on the dust at 



9 



