BIRDS OF THE SAGE-BRUSH PLAINS 117 



The Prairie Sharp-Tailed Grouse i inhabits the Great 

 Plains, from the states bordering the Mississippi to the Rocky 

 Mountains. It is the plains counterpart of the pinnated 

 grouse, and like it, is rapidly disappearing before the settle- 

 ments that are fast filling up its home. The neck of the 

 male lacks the side tuft of long, pointed feathers and the naked 

 air-sac so conspicuous on the male pinnated grouse. 



To-day this bird is seldom seen in the open sage-brush 

 plains and bad lands of Montana and Wyoming, but is oc- 

 casionally found in or near the foot-hills of the Rocky and Big- 

 Horn Mountains. When flushed, it makes the mistake of 

 its life in alighting in the low, isolated cottonwood trees that 

 straggle along the creeks, for when thus perched it takes a 

 strong man to resist the temptation to cut off its head with a 

 rifle-ball — or try to do so. This bird will fly out of the most 

 impregnable cover, and perch aloft to be shot at in a manner 

 indicating a total absence of the most ordinary instinct of 

 self-preservation . 



The Sage Grouse, or "Cock-of-the-Plains,"^ is a su- 

 perb bird — big, handsome and showy. It is one of the very 

 few creatures which can with pleasure and benefit eat the 

 leaves of the common sage-brush, and subsist upon that food 

 indefinitely. Naturally, however, this diet often imparts to 

 the flesh of the bird an excess of sage flavor which renders it 

 quite unpalatable. Unfortunately, on this fact alone the Sage 

 Grouse cannot base a hope of a better fate than that of its 

 more edible relatives in the Grouse Family. 



^ Ped-i-oe-ce'tes phas-i-an-el'lus cam-pes'tris. Average length, about 17 inches. 

 ^ Cen-tro-cer'cus u-ro-phas-i-an'iis. Length of male, 27 inches ; female, 22 inches. 



