Black Vulture (mounted taxidermy)

Object Status:

Unlocated

Primary Source Reference:

Charles Willson Peale, letter to Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (1772-1844) dated 30 April 1797; Selected Papers, 2, part 1: 198.

Additional Source Text:

Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827) shipped a "Carion Crow (sent by Mr. Beauvois)" to Étienne Geoffrey Saint-Hilaire (1772-1844), at the Paris Museum, on 30 April 1797 (Miller 1988: 198, Selected Papers, Vol. 2, part 1, Yale University Press).

Peale wrote, in his 13th Lecture (ca. 1799): "No. 3. This is a Lesser Vulture, found in South Carolina. They are called the Carrion-Crow and may be considered a variety of the others, as their manners are very similar. However, there is a considerable difference in the character of the bill. It is straighter, longer, and turns up more than those of [Turkey Vulture, Cathartes aura]. Authors have confounded them, yet a slight view of those placed together, will demonstrate that they are distinct species. It is said that they do not go more than 50 or 60 miles from the sea shore of Carolina & Georgia, whereas the Turkey Buzzard is found to the west & northward to a great extent. These are often seen sitting on the tops of the chimneys in the City of Charleston, and to straingers at first sight appear to be strange ornaments; for like the buzzard they often remain a considerable time with very little motion and have the appearance of great gravity." (Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University Archives, coll. 40)

Peale continued: "I am not so fortunate as to possess the Papa of Linnaeus [i.e., King Vulture, Sarcoramphus papa], a Bird called the King of the Vultures; it is a native of South America, is about the size of these Buzzards; the head is red & yellow colour, without feathers and warted like the Turkey, a large ruff of long feathers of a grey colour round its neck. The whole plumage is brown-black with a purple & green gloss in different reflections, of such gay appearance as most probably to have induced naturalists to give it that name." (ANSP Archives, coll. 40)

Alexander Wilson (1766-1813) described this species under the name "Black Vulture, or Carrion-Crow / Vultur atratus" in American Ornithology vol. 9, published posthumously (Pl. 75), where "Peale Museum, No. 13" was cited (Wilson 1814: 104). / https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/175518#page/114/mode/1up (text) / https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/175518#page/105/mode/1up (plate)

Notes:

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): 134, speculated about the provenance of MCZ 67844, a data-deficient specimen from the Boston Museum collection (shown here): "Wilson's figure was very likely drawn from this specimen, with some adaptation to the life attitude of feeding of carcass of a sheep." Faxon's claim may be true, but the pose is not identical, and Peale had this species in his collection by 1797, with little room (or interest) to display duplicates. / https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/6339801#page/184/mode/1up Wilson (1810: viii, American Ornithology, vol. 2) 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 it was probably fewer than 50 skins, 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 duplicate of Black Vulture is listed. To the editor's (MRH) knowledge, there is no evidence that Wilson deposited a Black Vulture at Peale's Museum.

Specimen Type:

Dead/preserved

Current Common Name:

Black Vulture

Current Scientific Name

Cathartidae | Coragyps atratus

Repository:

Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University (MCZ 67844)