Respecting the resident range of this species, as compared with its summer dispersions, it has not been observed to winter on the Atlantic seaboard beyond New Jersey, and is even more abundant here in summer than in the cold season. In Washington, where the bird is said to be quite common, no important diminution of its numbers has been noticed during several successive winters. In both the Carolinas the same condition of affairs is found to exist. Its winter range in the interior seems to be higher up, perhaps as far north as Minnesota, for it has been observed here late in October, and again in December, but the latter may have been an accidental occurrence. According to Dr. Coues, the isothermal line corresponding, on the Atlantic coast, with the fortieth parallel of latitude, may approximately indicate its farthest northern limit in the winter.
Plate XLIX.--LOPHODYTES CUCULLATUS, (Linn.) Reich.--Hooded Sheldrake.
|The habitat of this species is nearly co-extensive with the whole of North America. Throughout considerable portions of the United States it is chiefly migratory, being seen only in the spring and fall. In the Missouri region it is the most common of the three species that inhabit this country, and is said by writers to breed in Northern Dakota, and also on the Upper Missouri and Milk rivers. It was found along the banks of the Yellowstone by the party under Lieutenant Warren, and by later expeditions, on the Green River. In New England, according to Samuels, it is less plentiful than any of the other Sheldrakes during the autumn, winter and early spring, but more recent writers--Messrs. Rich and Deane--have found it a not uncommon breeder in hollow stumps on Lake Umbagog. In Central New York, Eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey it is quite often seen _in transitu_, and in some localities a few are known to winter. But the majority, after spending the summer in the northern parts of the United States and the British possessions to their utmost limits, only quit these haunts when the streams have become frozen, for the creeks and rivers of our Southern States, and the still warmer climes of Mexico and Cuba. E. W. Nelson says they are common winter residents upon Lake Michigan, and breed sparingly throughout the State of Illinois.