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): "No. 655. Cenereous Gull. length about 20 Inches; Bill yellowish; irides ash colour; all the upper is cinereous, the crown of the head and forehead palest. tail and all the under parts white. great quills at the ends black spoted with white; Legs yellow. Larus cinerarias Linn. Petite Monette cendrée Buff. pl. enl. 969. Red legged Gull Latham No. 10. Found in the Delaware [River], but I believe common in other parts of the United States. I have seen them on the Chessapeak." (Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University Archives, coll. 40)
Peale also described a specimen that was likely an immature individual of this species: "656. Gull. brown cinereous on the back & wings; quills black spotted at the ends with white; tail white; behind the head varigated with brown & white. bill brown […] towards the end and reddish; feet light. this I doubt not is a young bird, for when I see those indetermined or irregular marks, they commonly indicate that the bird has not yet its full dress; it may belong to that we have just left. difference of plumage has caused authors to multiply the species, when a more accurate observation, will confirm to us, that nature has stamped on each species so distinct a character that knowing them we shall not be so much at a loss afterwards to find out each family even while their plumage is imperfect." (ANSP Archives, coll. 40)
Notes:
George Ord (1815) was the first to publish a description of this species, 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:
Ring-billed Gull
Current Scientific Name
Laridae | Larus delawarensis
