Object Status:
Extant
Accession Date:
By 1799
Primary Source Reference:
Charles Willson Peale, Lecture on Natural History 21. (ca. 1799). Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University Archives, coll. 40. / https://ansp.org/research/library/archives/0000-0099/coll0040/
Additional Source Text:
Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827) wrote, in his 21st Lecture (ca. 1799): "491. Golden Eye. Length 19 Inches. Bill not quite 2 Inches long, and black; irides gold colour; the head and the half of the neck are black, with a gloss of green and violet; at the angle of the month, between the Bill and the Eye, a large white spot; the lower part of the neck, the breast, and under parts, are white; some of the feathers on the sides tiped with black; the back and upper tail coverts, black; scapulars black and white; the wing coverts are black, marked with two patches of white, the first on the lesser, the second on the great ones; the quills are black, except 7 of the middle ones which are white; leggs orange. This bird is furnished with a labyrinth [i.e., a convoluted trachea]. Anas clangula Linn. Le Garrot Buff. pl. enl. 802. Golden Eye Duck. Latham & Pennant." (Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University Archives, coll. 40)
Peale continued: "Latham says, This species is not unfrequent on the sea coasts (of England) in winter, and appears in small flocks; but passes to the north in the spring to breed. It inhabits Sweden and Norway during the summer, is an excellent diver, and feeds on small shells; mostly seen in the water, as it is aukward in walking; has been attempted to be domesticated, but seems out of its element on land; with difficulty can be brought to eat anything but bread; and the feet soon grow injured, insomuch as at last to hinder its walking at any rate." (ANSP Archives, coll. 40)
Peale continued: "The flesh is much esteemed. He says it is found in America in winter as low as New York. I know that numbers of them are in the Chesepeak and its rivers, and the gunners of Maryland call it the Whipeller from a noise it makes in flying. They Breed at Hudson's-bay in summer, at the fresh water lakes, and make a round nest of grass, lined with feathers from its breast; lays from 7 to 10 white eggs. It [is] also an inhabitant of Greenland, but not there a common bird. 492. Female. the head of a deep reddish brown extending half [way] down the neck, remainder of the neck white. The upper part of the body also white. Back, wings and tail brown; wings barred with white; smaller than the male." (ANSP Archives, coll. 40)
Peale wrote, in "A Walk Through the Philad[elphi]a Museum" (1805–1806): "The Muscovy, the Golden Eye, and the Channel Duck fills this Case" (Historical Society of Pennsylvania, coll. 0481).
On 15 August 1806, a shipment from Thomas Hall that included a "Golden Eye" was entered into the Peale Museum Accessions Book (HSP, coll. 0481)
Alexander Wilson (1766-1813) described this species under the name "Golden Eye / Anas clangula" in American Ornithology vol. 8 (Wilson 1814, Pl. 67), where "Peale's Museum, No. 2921" was cited (Wilson 1814: 62). / https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/175758#page/76/mode/1up (text) / https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/175758#page/62/mode/1up (plate)
Notes:
Thomas Hall (ca.1746-1813) was a natural history dealer and showman in London who, like Peale, assembled a collection of exotic taxidermy and natural oddities in his home, which he displayed to paying customers. Hall’s museum was known by the names “Curiosity House” and “Finsbury Museum”, and he distributed tokens advertising himself as “The first artist in Europe for preserving Birds, Beasts &c.” Today, many of these tokens are preserved in the British Museum. / https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG145361
Peale proposed a specimen exchange with Hall, in a letter dated 28 April 1792: “I therefore make you the proposal of sending you all the Variety of this Country, for an Equal number of European [species] … which shall be preserved in the best manner (of which I now feel myself fully equal to) and sent and that I may be prepared for such an exchange I am now using every means in my power to Collect and preserve the Birds of the present season … I have not time to give you any description of such as I suppose are peculiar to this part of America, and I find that every year I discover some kinds that I had not known before, and from what I have read, I find that those who have attempted the Natural History of this Country [were] generally deficent of inteligence [sic].” (Miller 1988: 31–32, Selected Papers, Vol. 2, part 1, Yale University Press).
Peale announced in June 1792 that he was “busily employed in preserving the Birds of our Country [the United States] in order to furnish [himself] with such a number of duplicates as [would enable him] to make an extensive exchange” with Hall, and with institutions in Sweden and Holland (Miller 1988: 37). During his travels in London, Rubens Peale (1784-1865) wrote to his father on 1 June 1803: “I wish you to inform me in the next [letter] how you stand with Hall, recolleckting that I have had from him a considerable number of subjects in return from what I let him have.” (Miller 1988: 529)
The final specimen deposit from Hall was recorded in the Peale Museum Accessions Book on 17 August 1806 (Historical Society of Pennsylvania, coll. 0481).
Specimen Type:
Dead/preserved
Current Common Name:
Common Goldeneye
Current Scientific Name
Anatidae | Bucephala clangula
