Object Status:
Extant
Accession Date:
23 March 1821
Primary Source Reference:
Peale Museum Accessions Book, 23 March 1821. Historical Society of Pennsylvania, coll. 0481.
Additional Source Text:
Titian Ramsay Peale (1799-1885) deposited a collection of "Sundry small Birds, [and] Anatomical preparations" on 23 March 1821, after returning from the Long Expedition, which presumably included a single specimen of this species (Accessions Book, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, coll. 0481).
Thomas Say (1787-1834), in Edwin James, 1823, Account of an Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains..., vol. 2, pp. 40-41 (Philadelphia), wrote: "We apply provisionally to it the name of F[ringilla] frontalis - A prepared specimen of this bird is in the Philadelphia Museum." / https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/124315#page/53/mode/1up
Charles Lucien Bonaparte's (1803–1857) described this species under the name "Crimson-necked Bullfinch / Pyrrhula frontalis" in his continuation of American Ornithology vol. 1 (1825, Pl. 6). Bonaparte (1825: 49) cited "Peale's Museum, No. 6276, Male; [and] No. 6277, Female" and wrote: "The Crimson-necked Bullfinch was procured by Long's party, near the Rocky Mountains, and Say described it in the journal of that expedition, under the name Fringilla frontalis." / https://search.library.wisc.edu/digital/AFKPEJIASN54OC8L/pages/AFOZCVAW…
Notes:
Here, for simplicity, we state that Titian R. Peale (1799-1885) deposited the Long Expedition specimens at Peale's Museum. However, it should be noted that the specimens did not belong to Titian, and were not his to give away. Officially, they were the property of the United States government, and as such were formally deposited by Major Stephen Harriman Long (1784-1864), who led the government-sponsored expedition. The Peale Museum Accessions Book, pp. 112-113 (Historical Society of Pennsylvania, coll. 0481) contains an "Invoice of Zoological Specimens and Drawings prepared by Titian Peale, Assistant Naturalist for the Exploring Expedition, and deposited in the Philadelphia Museum by Majr. S. H. Long, Maj. U.S. Engr. pursuant to instructions of the Secretary of War." At the conclusion of the invoice, "Rubens Peale [1784-1865], manager" signed the following statement: "Received, Philadelphia Museum, March 23d. 1821. of Majr. S. H. Long, the several articles, specified in the above Invoice, as a deposit for safe keeping, preservation and Exhibition; and I hereby promise, as agent for the Institution to hold the said articles subject to the orders of the War Department, thru the said Maj. Long." (HSP, coll. 0481)
Specimen Type:
Dead/preserved
Current Common Name:
House Finch
Current Scientific Name
Fringillidae | Haemorhous mexicanus
