THE SAGE-COCK 85 



brute " to " delicious," but the truth of the matter is 

 that these birds, like others, often receive a flavor from 

 their food, and when the wild sage is their exclusive 

 diet they have a more or less bitter taste. When, how- 

 ever, the birds are young and have been feeding on 

 grasshoppers, their flesh is as good as that of the sharp- 

 tails or prairie-grouse. 



Before we made our second camp I shot a number 

 of these grouse, and selecting a young and tender bird, 

 plucked him and broiled him on a stick, and I found 

 the flesh, as Lieutenant-Colonel Dodge describes it — 

 " juicy, tender, and delicate as a spring-chicken, besides 

 having the richest game flavor." I am surprised that 

 the ornithologists are almost to a man arrayed against 

 this bird as an edible dish. 



The sage-cock was made known to the world by 

 Lewis and Clark in their report of their expedition, 

 and they named it the cock of the plains. It inhabits 

 the sage plains from Western Dakota, Colorado, Ne- 

 braska, and Kansas to the Pacific States, and south to 

 about thirty-five degrees. It never wanders away from 

 the sage. The birds do not fly to the trees, but I have 

 found them in the shade of the cottonwoods along the 

 banks of streams, only, however, where the wild sage 

 extended up close to the trees. They are often found 

 far out on the sage-plains many miles from water, and 

 the presence of ponds or streams does not seem neces- 

 sary to their existence. Their flight is the same as 

 that of the other grouse, alternately flapping and sail- 

 ing, but the noise produced by the wings is multiplied 

 and has been compared to a burst of thunder. The 

 cocks measure two and one-half feet or more, and the 



