Object Status:
Extant
Accession Date:
By 13 September 1793
Primary Source Reference:
Charles Willson Peale, diary entry dated 13 September 1793; Selected Papers, 2, part 1: 61.
Additional Source Text:
Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827) wrote in his diary in late summer 1793, while on a collecting trip to Cape Henlopen, Delaware: "This morning I went down the creek with Titian in a boat, we shot some will-willets snipe & 2 crains [Great Egret, Egretta alba], both of which are valuable, as being in some measure new, I have none such in the Museum." (Miller 1988: 61, Selected Papers, Vol. 2, part 1, Yale University Press)
Peale wrote, in his 26th Lecture (ca. 1799): "838. Wil-willet. It is commonly known by this name from its continually repeating such a cry, when alarmed. By the description of Pennant of the Semi-palmated Snipe found at New York, I take it to be the same bird, as the toes in this specimen are partly webbed. The plumage of the upper parts are Brown with dark bars, head and neck striped with the same; wings dusky with a broad bar of white; the breast barred with brown & under part of the body white. They are very common along our sea coast … 847. Perhaps a female of the Wil Willet No. 838." (Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University Archives, coll. 40)
Alexander Wilson (1766-1813) described this species under the name "Semi-palmated Snipe / Scolopax semi-palmata" in American Ornithology vol. 7 (Pl. 56), where "Peale's Museum, No. 3942" was cited (Wilson 1813: 27). / https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/175507#page/35/mode/1up (text) / https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/175507#page/29/mode/1up (plate)
An unmounted specimen of "Scolopax semipalmata (Willet)" from Missouri was listed in "A Catalogue of Duplicate Specimens...", May 1822. [unpublished] American Philosophical Society Library (Mss.B.P31).
An extant illustration (shown here) of a specimen collected by Titian Ramsay Peale (1779-1885) in "Matanza" on 27 November 1824, may have been deposited in the Philadelphia Museum (APS Library Mss.B.P.31.15d).
Notes:
Peale's collecting efforts at Cape Henlopen were overlooked by compilers of Delaware bird records, prior to this study (Gene K. Hess, in litt. 10 February 2024).
Specimen Type:
Dead/preserved
Current Common Name:
Willet
Current Scientific Name
Scolopacidae | Tringa semipalmata
