Object Status:
Extant
Accession Date:
By 12 October 1792
Primary Source Reference:
Charles Willson Peale, letter to Thomas Hall of Moorfields, London, dated 12 October 1792; Selected Papers, 2, part 1: 42.
Additional Source Text:
Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827) wrote sent a "Cardinal Red bird" to Thomas Hall in London, on 12 October 1792, in exchange for European specimens (Miller 1988: 42, Selected Papers, Vol. 2, part 1, Yale University Press).
Peale wrote, in his 32nd Lecture (ca. 1799): "No. 1400. Cardinal, commonly called the red-bird; it has only a black throat, and the black extends in a line round the base of the bill; all the rest of plumage and even the bill is red; its elevated and pointed crest has drawn on it the name of Cardinal. Loxia cardinalis Linn. Gross beak de Virginia, ou Cardinal Huppé Buff. pl. enl. 37. No. 1401. Female, the plumage partakes more of the brown. Ray and several other authors have called it the Virginia Nightingale on account of its song. They are known frequently to sing in the night. In a state of confinement the female and male are of such enmity, that they will kill one another. No. 1402 was preserved because it had lived with the person who gave it to me 21 years and how long it had been caged before was not certainly known, but supposed 2 or 3 years. They are hardy birds, and this is a proof of their longivity." (Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University Archives, coll. 40)
Alexander Wilson (1766-1813) described this species under the name "Cardinal Grosbeak / Loxia cardinalis" in American Ornithology vol. 2 (Pl. 11), where "Peale's Museum No. 5668" was cited (Wilson 1810: 38). / https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/175511#page/44/mode/1up (text) / https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/175511#page/45/mode/1up (plate)
Wilson (1810: 39) corroborated Peale's story about the long-lived bird: "There is at present in Mr. Peale's museum, the stuffed skin of one of these birds, which is there said to have lived in a cage upward of twenty-one years." / https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/175511#page/47/mode/1up
On 1 August 1822, a donation of "Cardinals, male and female" by Raechel Thomas was recorded in the Peale Museum Accessions Book. (Historical Society of Pennsylvania, coll. 0481)
An unmounted female specimen of "Loxia cardinalis (Cardinal Grosbeak)" was listed in "A Catalogue of Duplicate Specimens...", May 1822. [unpublished] American Philosophical Society Library (Mss.B.P31).
Notes:
The captive bird that was more than 21 years old, mentioned by Peale and Wilson in their accounts, smashes the modern longevity record for the species. The USGS Bird Banding Laboratory's Longevity Records Of North American Birds (Version 2023.1) lists a banded bird from Pennsylvania, last encountered in March 1971, which was a minimum age of 15 years, 9 months. / https://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/BBL/Bander_Portal/login/Longevity_main.php
Specimen Type:
Live (later taxidermied)
Current Common Name:
Northern Cardinal
Current Scientific Name
Cardinalidae | Cardinalis cardinalis
