Object Status:
Extant
Accession Date:
11 December 1788
Primary Source Reference:
Pennsylvania Packet, 11 December 1788.
Additional Source Text:
On 11 December 1788, a notice in the Pennsylvania Packet (Philadelphia) announced Mrs. Mary (White) Morris's donation of a specimen of this species.
Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827) wrote, in his 29th Lecture (ca. 1799): "No. 1074. Black & white Chinease Pheasant, often called the Silver Pheasant, tho' very improperly, since it does [not] exhibit any plumage like that metal. It is larger than the Golden Pheasant, tho much like it in shape. The eyes are yellow encompassed with a broad space of fine scarlet, bare of feathers, but thinly sprinkled with hairs. The crest is black with purple gloss; the sides fo the neck, back, wings and tail are white, each feather having 3 or 4 fine black lines round their ends, except the great quils and the outer feathers of the tail, which are barred; from the front of the neck extending to all the under part of the body is black with a purple gloss; the feet are red, with spurs of a light colour." (Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University Archives, coll. 40)
Peale continued: "No. 1075. Female is something less than the male; eyes and bill of a yellowish brown; the red space round the eyes is not so large as in the other; the crest is dark and short; the plumage generally brown, darker under the body; feet of a lighter red than the male & without spurs. Phasianus nyctheomerus Linn. Le faisan blanc de la Chine. Buff. pl. enl. 123. 124. Black & white Chinease Pheasant. Edw. pl. 66. Male & female. These birds will breed in a Menageries, & that Sir Hans Sloane had several of them." (ANSP Archives, coll. 40)
Peale wrote, in "A Walk Through the Philad[elphi]a Museum" (1805–1806): "This Pencilled Pheasant is improperly called the Silver Pheasant (P. Nychemorus) is also of China, they will breed in the domesticated State. [Sir] Hans Sloane had several of them. The female of a brown colour." (Historical Society of Pennsylvania, coll. 0481)
Specimen Type:
Dead/preserved
Current Common Name:
Silver Pheasant
Current Scientific Name
Phasianidae | Lophura nycthemera
