Object Status:
Extant
Accession Date:
By 1799
Primary Source Reference:
Charles Willson Peale, Lecture on Natural History 24. (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 24th Lecture (ca. 1799): "662. Tarrock Gull. about 15 Inches long; bill one Inch in length; nostrils pervius; top of the head, back and wing coverts a mix of brown & grey; wing grey; the wing quills, black on the outside & white in the center; from 2d minor quill tipped with white; Tail white with a broad border of black near the end; feet pale red; a black round spot just below the ears; throat, neck & breast & belly white; a small hind toes with […]. Larus trydactylus? Linn. ? Tarrock Gull Pennant p. 539. D? Latham No. 18 var. A. (Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University Archives, coll. 40)
Peale continued: "Pennant says it inhabits Europe, quite to Iceland and Spitzbergen; the Baltic and White Sea; and again in Kamtschatka. This is found in Pennsylvania, and varies from Pennant, who says, it has a protuberance instead of the back toe, and the bill is not thick & strong as he calls for. The coloured plate of Buff. No. 389 Mouette centrée tachetée is considerably like it except that the black spots below the Ears are wanting" (ANSP Archives, coll. 40).
Two unmounted specimens of "Sterna (Banded tail Tern)" from Florida were listed in "A Catalogue of Duplicate Specimens...", May 1822. [unpublished] American Philosophical Society Library (Mss.B.P31).
Notes:
George Ord (1815) was the first to publish a description of this species, which he called "Banded-tail Tern," in an article called "North American Zoology" in W. Guthrie’s A new geographical, historical, and commercial grammar (1815, Philadelphia: Johnson and Warner). Ord (1815) stated that it was “discovered on the Delaware [River] below Philadelphia," but he did not cite Peale's Museum.
Specimen Type:
Dead/preserved
Current Common Name:
Bonaparte's Gull
Current Scientific Name
Laridae | Chroicocephalus philadelphia
