BULLETIN NUMBER FIVE 
193 
tomisia). Often its flesh tastes so strongly of sage that it 
is inedible, but unfortunately for the bird, this is not al¬ 
ways nor everywhere the case. Of course this bird nests 
on the ground, in the shelter of the sage-brush and grease- 
wood; and its eggs vary in number from 13 to 17. 
This bird has one striking anatomical peculiarity. It has 
no gizzard. Its soft, membranous stomach is not qualified 
for the digesting of hard foods, and it is not a grain eater; 
but it does eat the leaves of green alfalfa. Of insect food 
it consumes grasshoppers, and no doubt many other species. 
DISTRIBUTION OF THE SAGE GROUSE. 
The following states still contain remnants of sage 
grouse, and to them this call is specially addressed: 
Nevada 
Oregon 
Washington 
California 
North Dakota 
Colorado 
Wyoming 
Montana 
Idaho 
Utah 
South Dakota 
The accompanying map shows only the present area in¬ 
habited by the sage grouse. It must not be supposed, how¬ 
ever, even for a moment, that all the area marked as in¬ 
habited possesses this bird. In most places throughout the 
states credited, the sage grouse exists only in small and 
widely-separated shreds and patches, as minute fragments 
of a once great stock. In all probability only one-fiftieth 
of the original area of the sage grouse still contains it in 
any form, and it is a safe guess that now there is not more 
than one bird to every twenty-five that existed no more 
than forty years ago. I have no doubt that many old resi¬ 
dents of the sage grouse country will place their local esti¬ 
mates for today at not more than 1 to 100. 
In many localities still containing what chemists call “a 
trace” of grouse, it is fearfully certain that the existing 
