Object Status:
Unlocated
Accession Date:
By 1793
Primary Source Reference:
Charles Willson Peale, letter to Thomas Hall of Moorfields, London, dated 1793; Selected Papers, 2, part 1: 46.
Additional Source Text:
Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827) sent a "Killdeer" to Thomas Hall in London, in early 1793, in exchange for European specimens (Miller 1988: 46, Selected Papers, Vol. 2, part 1, Yale University Press).
Peale wrote, in his 26th Lecture (ca. 1799): "No. 911. Chattering Plover, or kill-deer. Bill ¾ Inch long; a dark line from the bill below the eye to the back part of the head; white front extending through the eyes; a black line extending round the fore-head to the eyes; top of the head and back brown; a white ring round the neck; a black ring below it; the white & and a black line below crossing from shoulder to shoulder; under parts of the body white; wings dark brown barred with white; tail russet shaded into black tipped with white; half the leg naked of feathers. Charadrius vociferous Linn. It is commonly seen in open fields and often along the shores. Inhabits from New York to Georgia. No. 912. Female. I don't know any difference of plumage between the male & female." (Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University Archives, coll. 40)
Alexander Wilson (1766-1813) described this species under the name "Killdeer Plover / Charadrius vociferus" in American Ornithology vol. 7 (Pl. 59), where "Peale's Museum, No. 4174" was cited (Wilson 1813: 73). / https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/175507#page/87/mode/1up (text) / https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/175507#page/73/mode/1up (plate)
An unmounted specimen of "Scolopax vociferus (Killdeer)" from Florida was listed (then crossed out), and a mounted specimen of "Charadrius vociferous (Kildeer)" was listed, in "A Catalogue of Duplicate Specimens...", May 1822. [unpublished] American Philosophical Society Library (Mss.B.P31).
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): 133, speculated that MCZ 67836 (shown here), a data-deficient specimen from the Boston Museum collection, was "perhaps the original of Wilson's figure." This may be true, but Peale had specimens of this species by 1793, and MCZ 67836 is not in the same pose. / https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/6339801#page/183/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. One mounted Killdeer duplicate is listed, but there is evidence that Peale was sending duplicates of this species to Europe, in exchange for foreign specimens. Whereas, to the editor's (MRH) knowledge, there is no evidence that Wilson deposited a Killdeer at Peale's Museum.
Specimen Type:
Dead/preserved
Current Common Name:
Killdeer
Current Scientific Name
Charadriidae | Charadrius vociferus
Repository:
Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University (MCZ 67836)
