July, 1905 | 
THE SAGE GROUSE 
103 
galls (see accompanying illustration) render him one of our handsomest game 
birds. By the first of December one can find the starting frills and the young pin 
feathers of white that border the galls and front of throat. The frills start from 
the sides of the neck and vary in number and length. They are pencil like, the 
point being armed by a little brush which is slightly curved at the tip. When the 
bird is traveling or at ease the plumes are flattened against the shoulder, but if 
frightened, he usually runs with these partly erected with the other feathers of 
the head and neck. The young males (sometimes called bulls) are not so dark or 
well frilled as the old, but rather frosted. The throats of the old males are also 
darker. 
I have heard them drum as early as December. This performance is most 
often observed where hundreds of males and females have congregated together, a 
custom which they have in the fall of the year. By February the males are all 
drumming, but this is not continued during bad weather which closes the session 
until fair weather returns. By the latter part of the month the males are in full 
dress. Their protracted meetings last until the first days of May. After the 
violets and buttercups have come and the song of the sage thrush begins, their 
drumming is heard but occasionally. Their costume is becoming shabby and 
soiled, not so presentable. By the balmy June days, they have lost most of their 
frills, and the breast is dirty and worn from rolling in the dust and stretching on 
the ground in birding. They are credited with soiling the breast while drumming, 
but I have never observed this to be one of the causes during my entire fifteen 
years with them. When drumming they stand very erect, holding the wings 
away from the sides and nearly perpendicularly, while the large loose skin of the 
neck is worked up, and the head drawn in and out until the white feathers are 
brought to the chin. At the same time the galls are filled with air until the birds 
look as if they were carrying snowballs on their shoulders. Then the skin which 
lies between the galls is drawn in with a sucking movement, thus bringing the 
galls together or nearly so. With this action the air is expelled from the throat 
producing the noise, which is hard to mimic and which resembles that of an old 
pump just within hearing distance. The first sound is that of a low “punk” the 
next “de,” followed by the highest, “punk punk,” and is made without movement 
of the wings. After the bird has accomplished this feat he walks away a few 
paces either in a straight line or a circle, with wings down, hanging loosely, but 
not grating on the ground. At times they do drag the wings as they strut along 
with tail spread and erect, though not so perpendicular as that of a turkey. Again 
they will dance about with all the pomp of a male pigeon. 
Their courts are generally in very conspicuous places, being either on some 
barren flat or moraine where they may be seen from a distance. The males, 
yearlings, and old are social and congregate at these places in bunches comprising 
from twenty-five to a hundred or more. These birds do not mate, so far as I have 
been able to learn, but the females come to these courts from all quarters at about 
sundown or early in the morning. At such times by patient watching one may 
see a hen coming in in very rapid flight. The wing motion is composed of from 
three to five strokes with soaring between. At the first rising from the ground 
the flight of the males is rather laborious, but after a start is made it is rapid and 
graceful. At the drumming period the males are very jealous and many fights, 
some of which are quite serious, take place. The fight consists in one bird seizing 
another by the head, neck, or jacket and pulling and beating with the wings. Its 
duration is very brief, one or the other giving in. After the session on the bird- 
