SAGE-HEN. Centrocercus urophasianus (Bonaparte)

Field characters.—Largest ground-inhabiting bird in the Yosemite region; fowl-like in general appearance. Tail long with slender, pointed feathers; belly black; rest of plumage a variegated mixture of black, white and varying shades of brown. Takes flight with loudly whirring wings, and when descending sails on set wings. Voice: A slowly repeated hoarse guttural kuk, kuk, kuk, uttered when flushed.

Occurrence.—Resident in small numbers locally on the open sage-covered levels east of the Sierra Nevada. Reported west to vicinity of Walker Lake and lower Parker Creek.

The Sage-hen is restricted in range within the Yosemite region and will not come under the observation of any save those who cross the Sierran divide and traverse the Mono Basin. The name Sage-hen Meadow given on the topographic map to a spring-fed patch of grass on a sagebrush flat about six miles east of Mono Mills well marks the present metropolis of this bird in the region. Residents say Sage-hens were seen in the winter of 1915-16 between Walker Lake and Parker Creek and that they were common there ten years previously; but we observed none there ourselves.

Near Gaspipe Spring, east of Mono Mills, on April 26, 1916, a single large male of this species was flushed by Mr. Dixon at the edge of a snow bank. The bird whirred rapidly over the snowcapped ridge, then set his wings and sailed off down the valley. His flight was heavy but rapid as he went with the wind. As he left the ground, rather slowly, he uttered a deep hoarse cackle. On other occasions tracks of six or more birds were seen near the same place, and tracks were much in evidence about a small spring in the vicinity where the birds had come down to water.