Object Status:
Extant
Accession Date:
By 1793
Primary Source Reference:
Charles Willson Peale, letter to Thomas Hall of Moorfields, London, dated 1793; Selected Papers, 2, part 1: 46.
Additional Source Text:
Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827) sent a "large wood-Pecker (commonly called wood cock)" to Thomas Hall of London, in eary 1793, in exchange for European specimens (Miller 1988: 46, Selected Papers, Vol. 2, part 1, Yale University Press).
On 30 April 1797, Peale sent a "large redhead woodpecker (Catesby)" to Étienne Geoffrey Saint-Hilaire (1772-1844), a correspondent at the Paris Museum (Miller 1988: 198).
Peale wrote, in his 19th Lecture (ca. 1799): "No. 297. Larger Red-crested Woodpecker. Plumage black; large red crest; a narrow white stripe over each Eye, another from the bill extending under the Eye & down the neck; white bars on the wings; white throat; a line of Red from the lower mandible one Inch long. This is black in the female No. 298. These birds are often called Woodcocks." (Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University Archives, coll. 40)
Peale wrote, in "A Walk Through the Philad[elphi]a Museum" (1805–1806): "Our next largest is the Peliated Woodpecker (P. Piliatus) or Red crested Woodpecker of Catesby? — It is found in Pennsylvania but more numerous to the [southward] and vulgarly called the Woodcock." (Historical Society of Pennsylvania, coll. 0481)
Alexander Wilson (1766-1813) described this species under the name "Pileated Woodpecker / Picus pileatus" in American Ornithology vol. 4 (Pl. 29), where "Peale's Museum, No. 1886" was cited (Wilson 1811: 27). / https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/175531#page/35/mode/1up (text) / https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/175531#page/27/mode/1up (plate)
An unmounted specimen of "Picus pileatus (Pileated Woodpecker)" from Florida was listed in "A Catalogue of Duplicate Specimens...", May 1822. [unpublished] American Philosophical Society Library (Mss.B.P31).
Specimen Type:
Dead/preserved
Current Common Name:
Pileated Woodpecker
Current Scientific Name
Picidae | Dryocopus pileatus
