Object Status:
Extant
Accession Date:
23 March 1821
Primary Source Reference:
Peale Museum Accessions Book, 23 March 1821. Historical Society of Pennsylvania, coll. 0481.
Additional Source Text:
Titian Ramsay Peale (1799-1885) deposited a collection of "Sundry small Birds, [and] Anatomical preparations" on 23 March 1821, after returning from the Long Expedition, which presumably included a single specimen of this species (Accessions Book, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, coll. 0481). He also deposited a field sketch (shown here), executed on laid paper (no watermark) and dated 15 July 1820, which is extant in the American Philosophical Society Library (Mss.B.P.31.15d).
Thomas Say (1787-1834), in Edwin James, 1823, Account of an Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains..., vol. 2, p. 40 (Philadelphia), described "Fringilla psaltria" from a specimen deposited at the Philadelphia Museum. / https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/124315#page/52/mode/1up
Charles Lucien Bonaparte (1803–57) described this species under the name "Arkansaw Siskin / Fringilla psaltria" in his continuation of American Ornithology vol. 1 (1825, Pl. 6). Bonaparte (1825: 54) cited "Peale's Museum, No. 6278" and wrote: "The only specimen brought by the party, was shot on the sixteenth of July, near Boiling Spring creek." / https://search.library.wisc.edu/digital/AFKPEJIASN54OC8L/pages/ACM7ZLVH… (text) / https://search.library.wisc.edu/digital/AFKPEJIASN54OC8L/pages/AFOZCVAW… (plate)
Notes:
Bonaparte (1825) evidently erred when he stated the specimen was collected on the "sixteenth of July, near Boiling Spring creek", because Peale’s original pencil and ink sketch (shown here) is inscribed “No. 70 / Castle Rock Creek / July 15th, 1820” (APS Library Mss.B.P.31.15d). The drawing also bears an inked annotation with original data: "Eyeris [sic] burnt Umber / bill yellowish at base, black at tip / sings like F. tristis [i.e., American Goldfinch, Spinus tristis]." Here, for simplicity, we state that Titian R. Peale (1799-1885) deposited the Long Expedition specimens at Peale's Museum. However, it should be noted that the specimens did not belong to Titian, and were not his to give away. Officially, they were the property of the United States government, and as such were formally deposited by Major Stephen Harriman Long (1784-1864), who led the government-sponsored expedition. The Peale Museum Accessions Book, pp. 112-113 (Historical Society of Pennsylvania, coll. 0481) contains an "Invoice of Zoological Specimens and Drawings prepared by Titian Peale, Assistant Naturalist for the Exploring Expedition, and deposited in the Philadelphia Museum by Majr. S. H. Long, Maj. U.S. Engr. pursuant to instructions of the Secretary of War." At the conclusion of the invoice, "Rubens Peale [1784-1865], manager" signed the following statement: "Received, Philadelphia Museum, March 23d. 1821. of Majr. S. H. Long, the several articles, specified in the above Invoice, as a deposit for safe keeping, preservation and Exhibition; and I hereby promise, as agent for the Institution to hold the said articles subject to the orders of the War Department, thru the said Maj. Long." (HSP, coll. 0481)
Specimen Type:
Dead/preserved
Current Common Name:
Lesser Goldfinch
Current Scientific Name
Passerellidae | Spinus psaltria
