UPLAND GAME BIRDS 127 



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

 Eijgs : 6 to 12 ; butty, 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 lilic 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 taaves 

 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 ; 



belly 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 Female: Chin and throat white ; fore-neck speckled gray in ruffs ; 



air sacs or shoulder plumes. 

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



indistinct. 

 Downy Young : Upper parts brownish gray mottled with blackish. 

 Geographical Distribution: Sagebrush plains of the Rocky 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. 



