Object Status:
Extant
Accession Date:
By 1799
Primary Source Reference:
Charles Willson Peale, Lecture on Natural History 17. (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 17th Lecture (ca. 1799): "180. Jay. The wing coverts blue, cut by transverse black lines, with some white feathers above. The remainder [of the] plumage on the back & belly body Russet mixed with grey; from the angles of the mouth a broad streak of black passes under the Eye; wings dark, edged with grey on the outer feather of the quills; the tail black with dusky edges; legs brown. Corvus glandarius Linn. Jay. Buff. pl. enl. 481. This bird is common in Europe; it is well known to be a very restless, noisy bird, frequently depriving the anxious gunner of his mark, by alarming too soon his destined victim; for the moment it spies any person, it sets up a harsh chattering cream whereby its associates, and all others, know that an enemy is near. They are often kept in cages, and will talk pretty well; but with this, loose that beauty so consipicuous in the wild state, so as scarcely to be known for the same bird." (Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University Archives, coll. 40)
In "A Walk Through the Philad[elphi]a Museum" (1805–1806), Peale drew his audience's attention to the differences between the American and Eurasian jays: "Our Jay (Corvus cristatus) is distinguished from the European Jay (Corvus Glandarius) not only by the blue colour, but also by its high Crest." (Historical Society of Pennsylvania, coll. 0481)
On 15 August 1806, a shipment from Thomas Hall that included "Jay. Hen." was entered into the Peale Museum Accessions Book, p. 17 (Historical Society of Pennsylvania, coll. 0481).
A mounted specimen of "Corvus glandarius (European Jay)" from France was listed in "A Catalogue of Duplicate Specimens...", May 1822. [unpublished] American Philosophical Society Library (Mss.B.P31).
Notes:
Thomas Hall (ca.1746-1813) was a natural history dealer and showman in London who, like Peale, assembled a collection of exotic taxidermy and natural oddities in his home, which he displayed to paying customers. Hall’s museum was known by the names “Curiosity House” and “Finsbury Museum”, and he distributed tokens advertising himself as “The first artist in Europe for preserving Birds, Beasts &c.” Today, many of these tokens are preserved in the British Museum. / https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG145361 Peale proposed a specimen exchange with Hall, in a letter dated 28 April 1792: “I therefore make you the proposal of sending you all the Variety of this Country, for an Equal number of European [species] … which shall be preserved in the best manner (of which I now feel myself fully equal to) and sent and that I may be prepared for such an exchange I am now using every means in my power to Collect and preserve the Birds of the present season … I have not time to give you any description of such as I suppose are peculiar to this part of America, and I find that every year I discover some kinds that I had not known before, and from what I have read, I find that those who have attempted the Natural History of this Country [were] generally deficent of inteligence [sic].” (Miller 1988: 31–32, Selected Papers, Vol. 2, part 1, Yale University Press). Peale announced in June 1792 that he was “busily employed in preserving the Birds of our Country [the United States] in order to furnish [himself] with such a number of duplicates as [would enable him] to make an extensive exchange” with Hall, and with institutions in Sweden and Holland (Miller 1988: 37). During his travels in London, Rubens Peale (1784-1865) wrote to his father on 1 June 1803: “I wish you to inform me in the next [letter] how you stand with Hall, recolleckting that I have had from him a considerable number of subjects in return from what I let him have.” (Miller 1988: 529) The final specimen deposit from Hall was recorded in the Peale Museum Accessions Book on 17 August 1806 (Historical Society of Pennsylvania, coll. 0481).
Specimen Type:
Dead/preserved
Current Common Name:
Eurasian Jay
Current Scientific Name
Corvidae | Garrulus glandarius
