GROUSE, PARTRIDGES, QUAILS, ETC. 133 
Food. — Grasshoppers and other insects, fruit, berries, grain, buds, and 
leaves. 
GENUS CENTEOCERCUS. 
General Characters. — Tail longer than wings, graduated, feathers 
pointed; neck with distensible air sacs surmounted by hair-like filaments 
and erect feathers; tarsus feathered to toes. 
309. Centrocercus urophasianus ( Bonap.). Sage Grouse. 
Adult male. — Upper parts mottled gray or buffy, irregularly spotted or 
barred with black or brownish; in breeding season tufts of white downy 
feathers, mixed with black egret¬ 
like wiry plumes on shoulders; 
yellow air sacs on side of throat; 
chest blackish before the breed¬ 
ing season, with black wiry 
feathers depending’ from the 
chest band; chest white after 
the breeding season, during 
which time the blackish tips 
are worn off by rubbing on the 
ground. Adult female: similar 
to male but smaller and without 
ruffs, air sacs, or nuptial plumes; 
throat white, chest band spec¬ 
kled grayish. Young: some¬ 
what like adult female but 
brownish above, markings on 
under parts, including black of 
belly, less distinct. Male: length 
2G-30, wing 12-13, tail 11-13, 
weight 4-J-8 pounds. Female: 
length 21.50-23.00, wing about 
10.50-11.00, tail 8-9. 
Distribution .—Breeds in sage¬ 
brush plains of the interior in 
Upper Sonoran and Transition 
zones from Assiniboia and Brit¬ 
ish Columbia to Utah, Nevada, and California, from the Sierra Nevada and 
Cascades east to the Black Hills, Nebraska, and Colorado. 
Nest. — A slight hollow, with or without lining, usually under the shelter 
of a sage bush, but sometimes near a creek sheltered by a bunch of high 
grass. Eggs: usually 7 to 9, olive buff to greenish brown, marked with 
round spots of dark brown. 
Food. — Grasshoppers, ants, and other insects, with tender plants, leaves, 
buds, and flowers. 
From Bond, in The Auk. 
Fig. 206. 
Throughout the Great Basin and arid plains country, where the 
most abundant and characteristic plant is the silvery-leaved aromatic 
sagebrush, we find this largest, stateliest of North American Tetra- 
onidse, the sage grouse. It is a bird of the open country, seeking no 
heavier cover than the low sagebrush and often wandering over bar¬ 
ren slopes or short grass meadows, or in large flocks late in summer 
mounting above the timber belt of the mountains, to find new pas¬ 
tures in the stunted growth of sage close to perpetual snow. 
