Great Blue Heron (mounted taxidermy)

Object Status:

Unlocated

Primary Source Reference:

Charles Willson Peale, Lecture on Natural History 25. (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 25th Lecture (ca. 1799): "No. 726. Black breasted Heron. The hinder part of the head with a black crest, the front white; the neck of a russet white, with long cetaceous feathers hanging over the breast; the breast and sides black; the back and wing coverts of a dusky colour; The wing quills blue black; the ridge of the wings and thighs legs russet; the tail dusky above and white underneath; feet of a red cast, with the middle toes cerated, or having combs. Ardea torquata Linn. This is found in Pennsylvania. It is not described in Buffon; Pennant or Latham." (Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University Archives, coll. 40)

Peale then described a juvenile, which he presumed was a different species: "No. 733. Brown shouldered Heron. Bill 5 ½ Inches long, the upper mandible black, the under orange; the crown of the head black and crested; between the bill and the eye marked of a greenish yellow; throat white; neck covered with long slender feathers marked with dusky bars on the hind part, and before with broad white dashes down the middle of each feather; the back and wing coverts cenerious brown; inner edge of the wings reddish, shoulders russet striped with white; breast white, marked with long spots of black; legs reddish brown; under part of the body & vent white; middle claw pectinated. Ardea Hudsonius Linn. Le Hèron de la baye de Hudson, Buffon. Ash coloured Heron Edwards pl. 135. found at Cape Henlopen [Delaware]. Migrates to Hudsons Bay." (ANSP Archives, coll. 40)

Peale wrote, in "A Walk Through the Philad[elphi]a Museum" (1805–1806): "The second size of our Crains are the Black shouldered and the brown shouldered Herons the first of these not described and the other (ardia Hudsonias) is found in these middle States" (Historical Society of Pennsylvania, coll. 0481). These common names evidently referred to A. herodias in different stages of plumage maturation.

Alexander Wilson (1766–1813) included this species under the name "Great Heron / Ardea herodias" in American Ornithology vol. 8, published posthumously (Pl. 65), where "Peale's Museum, No. 3629" was cited (Wilson 1814: 28). / https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/175758#page/38/mode/1up (text) / https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/175758#page/35/mode/1up (plate)

An unmounted specimen of "Ardea herodias (Great Heron)" from Florida was listed in "A Catalogue of Duplicate Specimens...", May 1822. [unpublished] American Philosophical Society Library (Mss.B.P31).

Notes:

Peale's collecting efforts at Cape Henlopen were overlooked by compilers of Delaware bird records, prior to this study (Gene K. Hess, in litt. 10 February 2024).

After Peale's Museum closed, a portion of Peale's bird collection was purchased in 1850 by Moses Kimball (1809–95), who displayed it at his "Boston Museum". An advertisement in the Boston Transcript, printed 1 October 1850, stated that Kimball had acquired "One Half of the celebrated Peale's Philadelphia Museum". The other half of Peale's birds had been sold to the circus promoter P. T. Barnum (1810–91) and would be subsequently destroyed in a fire at his "American Museum" in New York City in July 1865. When the Boston Museum closed, Kimball's Peale remnants passed temporarily to the Boston Society of Natural History, who disposed of them to Charles J. Maynard (1845-1929), a local taxidermist. The specimens were stored in a barn in Massachusetts for several years, then eventually were deposited at the Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ), Harvard University. By the time the collection was catalogued by Walter Faxon (1848-1920) at MCZ, in 1914, in virtually every case the original mounts and labels had been disassociated from the specimens, and an untold number were lost.

Walter Faxon, "Relics of Peale's Museum," Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, 59, no. 3 (July 1915): 130, speculated that MCZ 67827, a data-deficient specimen from the Boston Museum collection, "appears to be the bird represented on Wilson's plate." However, this species was already mounted in Peale's collection by 1799, and Peale had little room (or interest) to display duplicates. Wilson (1814: 32-34, American Ornithology, vol. 8) stated that he made his description from "five specimens of the Great Heron, all in complete plumage, killed in a cedar swamp near the head of Tuckahoe river, in Cape May county, New Jersey." Previously, he (1810: viii, vol. 2) had stated that "no drawings have been, or will be made for this work, from any stuffed subjects, where living specimens of the same can be procured; yet the former serve a very important purpose; they enable the author to ascertain the real existence and residence of such subjects" / https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/175511#page/14/mode/1up

Wilson deposited many specimens at Peale's Museum, after completing his drawings, but the combined evidence from American Ornithology and the Peale Museum Accessions Book (Historical Society of Pennsylvania, coll. 0481) suggests that he deposited probably fewer than 100 skins total (and possibly as few as 40-50), whereas many authors have assumed that all the "Peale numbers" cited in Wilson's work were those of his own specimens (e.g., "he contributed 279 specimens to the collection", Edward H. Burtt, Jr., and William E. Davis, Jr., 2013, Alexander Wilson: The Scot Who Founded American Ornithology, Belknap Press, p. 310). This assumption appears to be based on a misunderstanding — Wilson was citing the numbers to give credit to Peale, to acknowledge his contributions, not to stake a claim to his own specimen deposits. If Burtt & Davis (2013) were correct, the "Catalogue of Duplicate Specimens" (APS Library, Mss.B.P31) would be full of Wilson's specimen deposits—but this is not the case. No duplicates of Great Blue Heron are listed. To the editor's (MRH) knowledge, there is no evidence that Wilson deposited a Great Blue Heron at Peale's Museum.

Specimen Type:

Dead/preserved

Current Common Name:

Great Blue Heron

Current Scientific Name

Ardeidae | Ardea herodias

Repository:

Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University (MCZ 67827)