Object Status:
Extant
Accession Date:
By 1799
Primary Source Reference:
Charles Willson Peale, Lecture on Natural History 20. (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 20th Lecture (ca. 1799): "398. Hook-billed red Creeper. All the Plumage of a beautiful Red, except the quills of the wings and tail, which are of a brown black; the bill, feet & nails whitish. Certhia Coccinea Linn. Hook-billed red Creeper Latham. 399. Female of the preceeding, the plumage irregularly mixed with red, and of an obscure green, almost the colour of dead leaves. These birds are from the Sandwich Islands. The natives pluck the feathers of the males, and have the art of sewing them on nets to form these elegant cloaks. [A footnote reads: "Show them"]. The yellow borders are got from some other bird." (Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University Archives, coll. 40)
Peale wrote, in "A Walk Through the Philad[elphi]a Museum" (1805–1806): "The Hook billed red Creeper (C. coccinea) inhabits the Sandwich Islands. The [inhabitants] plush the feathers of the males, and have the art of sewing them on nets to form cloaks, some of them are in the Museum and very elegant; esteemed very valuable." (Historical Society of Pennsylvania, coll. 0481)
Notes:
The provenance of Peale's specimens from Hawaii is unclear because, prior to 1800, extremely few voyages to the "Sandwich Islands" returned to Europe with specimens (see Storrs L. Olson & Helen F. James, 1994, "A chronology of ornithological exploration in the Hawaiian Islands, from Cook to Perkins", Studies in Avian Biology 15: 91-102). / https://repository.si.edu/bitstream/handle/10088/6531/VZ_255_Hawaiian_o…
Specimen Type:
Dead/preserved
Current Common Name:
I'iwi
Current Scientific Name
Fringillidae | Drepanis coccinea
