Object Status:
Extant
Accession Date:
By 1799
Primary Source Reference:
Charles Willson Peale, Lecture on Natural History 30. (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 30th Lecture (ca. 1799): "No. 1185. Ground Dove. Perhaps it is the smallest dove known; length 6 ¼ inches; beak & claws black; irides yellow; head, neck & body cenerious above, and a little redish below; wing coverts spotted with deep purple; neck & breast spotted with brown; wings, quills & tail dark brown. Columba passerina Linn. Le Petite Tourterelle de St. Domingue pl. enl. 243, f. 1. Female something lighter on the breast. These inhabit the warmer parts of America, and the Islands contiguous thereto; chiefly between the tropics, though sometimes found in Carolina. No. 1186. Female." (Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University Archives, coll. 40)
Peale wrote, in "A Walk Through the Philad[elphi]a Museum" (1805–1806): "Perhaps the smallest of this genus is the Ground Dove (C. passerina) they inhabit the warmer parts of America & the Islands contiguous thereto; chiefly between the tropic, though sometimes found in Carolina." (Historical Society of Pennsylvania, coll. 0481)
On 13 May 1806, "3 Ground Doves, living" donated by Jacob Howell was entered in the Peale Museum Accessions Book, p. 16 (HSP, coll. 0481).
An unmounted specimen of "Columba passerina (Ground Dove)" from Florida was listed in "A Catalogue of Duplicate Specimens...", May 1822. [unpublished] American Philosophical Society Library (Mss.B.P31).
Notes:
This species also appeared under the name “Ground Dove / Columba passerina” in American Ornithology vol. 6 (1812: 15, Pl. 46), but Wilson did not cite a Peale Museum specimen in that account.
Specimen Type:
Dead/preserved
Current Common Name:
Common Ground Dove
Current Scientific Name
Columbidae | Columbina passerina
