Object Status:
Extant
Accession Date:
23 March 1821
Primary Source Reference:
Edwin James, Account of an Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains, Performed in the Years 1819 and '20: By Order of the Hon. J.C. Calhoun, Sec'y of War: Under the Command of Major Stephen H. Long, vol. 2 (Philadelphia, 1823), 15 / https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/124315#page/27/mode/1up
Additional Source Text:
Thomas Say (1787-1834), in Edwin James, 1823, Account of an Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains..., vol. 2, p. 15 (Philadelphia), wrote: "amongst other interesting animals, [Lewis and Clark] brought to Philadelphia a specimen of the spotted grouse (T. canadensis), which, together with the above described bird [Dusky Grouse Dendragapus obscurus (Say, 1823)], are now preserved in the Philadelphia Museum."
Charles Lucien Bonaparte (1803–1857) described this species under the name "Spotted Grous / Tetrao canadensis" in his continuation of American Ornithology vol. 3 (1828, plates 21 & 22, Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Carey). Bonaparte (1828: 47) cited "Philadelphia Museum, Male" and wrote: "The bird represented in the plate [21] comes from the Rocky Mountains: it is a male, and remarkably distinguished from the common ones of the species by having the tail-feathers entirely black to the end." Plate 21 was based on a drawing by Alexander Rider, engraved by Alexander Lawson (ca.1772-1846). / https://search.library.wisc.edu/digital/AFKPEJIASN54OC8L/pages/ACHQ3POW… (male) / Bonaparte (1828) also described a female that was in his private collection, which he included on a plate with the Greater Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus). / https://search.library.wisc.edu/digital/AFKPEJIASN54OC8L/pages/APQTDT7B… (female)
An undated list of 21 bird specimens in Charles Willson Peale's (1741-1827) handwriting includes an unidentified "Grouse" (American Philosophical Society Library, Mss.B.P31).
Specimen Type:
Dead/preserved
Current Common Name:
Spruce Grouse
Current Scientific Name
Phasianidae | Falcipennis canadensis
