Object Status:
Extant
Accession Date:
By 1799
Primary Source Reference:
Charles Willson Peale, Lecture on Natural History 15. (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 15th Lecture (ca. 1799): "I shall conclude the Rapacious kind with presenting to you a beautiful bird, which I have not yet been able to find in the works of the many authors, from which I have sought information. / No. 104. The Bill is not so strong as many of the Laniers, yet stronger than common flycatcher bills. It has a moderate curve, hook and notch at the point of the upper mandible. The throat is scarlet; a band of black crosses the breast of a lunar shape, the points reaching to the corners of the bill. Below this band is scarlet … on the upper part of the body, the back, wings & sides are all of a bright green; from the base of the upper bill a line of bright yellow extending over the eyes; tail black & the under coverts of the tail [are] a crimson red. I purchased it from a French gentleman who had made collections in South America and Africa, of which country it is I was not informed." (Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University Archives, coll. 40)
Specimen Type:
Dead/preserved
Current Common Name:
Gorgeous Bushshrike
Current Scientific Name
Malaconotidae | Telophorus viridis
