Object Status:
Extant
Accession Date:
8 August 1787
Primary Source Reference:
Pennsylvania Herald and General Advertiser (Philadelphia), 8 Aug 1787.
Additional Source Text:
An announcement in the Pennsylvania Herald and General Advertiser, published in Philadelphia on 8 Aug 1787, described a bird "Which was driven by the storm, a few days since, to this city, and picked up in one of the streets, almost dead with fatigue. It is of a whitish colour, and in form resembles the pigeon, except that its feet are webbed, like those of a duck; and the size of the bird, though evidently of full growth, is no larger than that of a swallow."
Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827) wrote, in his 24th Lecture (ca. 1799): "No. 691. Minute Tern. black bill one Inch long; all the upper parts of the body light cenerious colour; beneath white; a dark line passes through the Eyes and turns downward ½ an Inch; tail but little forked; wing quills dark, extending beyond the tail one Inch & a half. I do not find it described. In Mr. Carlsons Museum at Stockholm in Sweden is a Tern intirely white, except the bill & legs which are black. An Inhabitant of the East Indias and the Cape of good hope. This [specimen] in a very remarkable storm of Northeast Wind and Rain about 10 years past, fell in a street of this City [i.e., Philadelphia]. It was taken up, being put in a bucket of water, it swam about and appeared to be delighted in its situation. The family did not know what food to give it & it lived but a short time. It must have been blown from the Sea Shore, yet is a rare bird, as in my excursions I have not been able to obtain any of them." (Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University Archives, coll. 40)
Peale wrote, in "A Walk Through the Philad[elphi]a Museum" (1805–1806): "The others in these cases belong to America, one of them deserves to be particularly noticed as it is a rare bird. — It was flown from the Sea coast across the Jerseys in a heavy storm and droped down in the Street. we name it Minute Tern." (Historical Society of Pennsylvania, coll. 0481)
Alexander Wilson (1766-1813) described this species under the name "Lesser Tern / Sterna minuta" in American Ornithology vol. 7 (Pl. 60), where "Peale's Museum, No. 3505" was cited (Wilson 1813: 80).
Titian Ramsay Peale (1779-1885) made a colored drawing (shown here) of this species at "Shawanee Town" on 28 May 1819, now preserved at the American Philosophical Society Library (Mss.B.P31.15d, 37). This was probably the "1 [drawing of] Minute tern unfinished" deposited on 23 March 1821, as recorded in the Peale Museum Accessions Book (Historical Society of Pennsylvania, coll. 0481).
Specimen Type:
Dead/preserved
Current Common Name:
Least Tern
Current Scientific Name
Laridae | Sternula antillarum
