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Breeding Range. Although definite records of nests or dependent young are lacking, there is little doubt that breeding populations formerly occurred along wooded stream valleys in the northern and central portions of the Agassiz Lake Plain. Apparently, these populations were eliminated when the greater part of the forested tracts that were occupied were destroyed and replaced by cropland. Heavy grazing in remnant forested tracts undoubtedly had a detrimental effect on this ground-nesting species also.

Former summer records are listed in chronological order as follows:

1823--Observed at Pembina, in Pembina County during August 5-9 by a Mr. Say (Keating 1824).
1873--"At Pembina, every night in June, we were serenaded by a chorus of these strange voices, penetrating the darkness it seemed, from all points at once along the line of heavy timber that skirted the river." (Coues 1874).
1879--Recorded at Pembina during July (Abbott 1880).
1912--Alfred Eastgate reports that it was "tolerably common and breeding" at Larimore in Grand Forks County during June.
1917--Two adults recorded at Walhalla in Pembina County on July 9 (H. C. Oberholser).
1919--Considered as a rare summer resident in the vicinity of Fargo (Freeman 1919).
1923--A male was collected at Grafton in Walsh County on June 30 (H. V. Williams).