The Sage-Hen 



companies of from six to twenty on some selected hillock or knoll and 

 indulge in what is called 'the dance.' This performance I have often 

 watched. At first, the birds may be seen standing about in ordinary 

 attitudes, when suddenly one of them lowers its head, spreads out its 

 wings nearly horizontally and its tail perpendicularly, distends its air 

 sacs and erects its feathers, then rushes across the 'floor,' taking the 

 shortest of steps, but stamping its feet so hard and rapidly that the 

 sound is like that of a kettle drum ; at the same time it utters a sort of 

 bubbling crow, which seems to come from the air sacs, beats the air with 

 its wings, and vibrates its tail so that it produces a low, rustling noise, 

 and thus contrives at once to make as extraordinary a spectacle of itself 

 and as much noise as possible. 



"As soon as one commences all join in, rattling, stamping, drumming, 

 crowing, and dancing together furiously; louder and louder the noise, 

 faster and faster the dance becomes, until at last, as they madly whirl 

 about, the birds are leaping over each other in their excitement. After 

 a brief spell the energy of the dancers begins to abate, and shortly after- 

 ward they cease or stand and move about very quietly, until they are 

 again started by one of their number 'leading off.' 



"The space occupied by the dancers is from 50 to 100 feet across, and 

 as it is returned to year after year, the grass is usually worn off and the 

 ground trampled down hard and smooth. The whole performance re- 

 minds one so strongly of a Cree dance as to suggest the possibility of its 

 being the prototype of the Indian exercises." 



No. 318 



Sage Grouse 



A. O. U. No. 309. Centrocercus urophasianus (Bonaparte). 



Synonyms. — Sage Cock. Sage Hen. Cock-of-the-Plains. 



Description. — Adult male: Above mingled buffy and grayish, varied irregularly 

 with black; many of the wing-feathers with central white streaks, the tertials bordered 

 terminally with white; wing-quills grayish brown, sometimes mottled on outer webs 

 with paler, chin and throat broadly mingled black and white, defined laterally by 

 crescentic area of white; lower throat black, the feathers bordered more or less with 

 grayish white; chest gray; belly black surrounded by white; lower tail-coverts black, 

 broadly tipped with white; lining of wings white; tail-feathers, narrowly tapering, 

 dusky as to ground, but finely mottled above and below. Bill black; feet blackish. 

 "To describe the peculiar neck-feathering of the old cock more particularly: On each 

 side is a patch of feathers, meeting in front, with extremely stiff bases, prolonged into 

 hair-like filaments about 3.00 in length; with the wearing away of these feathers in the 

 peculiar actions of the bird in pairing-time, their hard horny bases are left, forming 

 'fish-scales.' In front of these peculiar feathers is the naked tympanum, capable of 



1602 



