Object Status:
Extant
Accession Date:
By 1799
Primary Source Reference:
Charles Willson Peale, Lecture on Natural History 31. (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 31st Lecture (ca. 1799): "No. 1308. This Bird I received from the Isle of Batavia. Turdus mindanaensis Linn. Mindano Thrush Lath. Merle de Mindanio Buff. pl. enl. 627. f. 1." (Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University Archives, coll. 40)
In "A Walk Through the Philad[elphi]a Museum" (1805–1806), Peale wrote: "No. [blank] Mindano Thrush." (Historical Society of Pennsylvania, coll. 0481)
Notes:
Peale’s specimen came from Java, Indonesia (“Batavia”). It seems that when Peale tried to identify it, by looking at published descriptions, the closest match he found was the similarly colored “Mindanao Thrush” of John Latham, 1783, A general synopsis of birds, vol. 2., pt. 1, p. 69 (London), which was based on a specimen from Mindanao, Philippines. / https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/105231#page/85/mode/1up The editor (MRH) has been unable to confirm the source of Peale’s specimens from Java, Indonesia, but there is ample reason to suspect that he received them from Thomas Horsfield (1773-1859), the physician and naturalist. In 1799, Horsfield, who was born and raised in southeast Pennsylvania, and educated at the University of Pennsylvania, took a medical post on the merchant ship China, which sailed to Java. He remained there until 1819, during which time he collected specimens on behalf of Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles (1781-1826), governor of the Dutch East Indies. In January 1799, before he left for Java, Horsfield visited Peale’s Museum and purchased a ticket “for the year 1799 which intitles [sic] the Purchaser to the use of the Museum every day while the Sun is above the Horizon. Each Ticket [cost] two Dollars.” His signature (“Thos. Horsfield”) appears in a Peale Museum Subscription Book (Historical Society of Pennsylvania, coll. 0481). / https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Horsfield
Specimen Type:
Dead/preserved
Current Common Name:
Oriental Magpie-Robin
Current Scientific Name
Muscicapidae | Copsychus saularis
