Object Status:
Extant
Accession Date:
By 1825
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 "3 species of Flycatchers" and "3 [unfinished drawings of] flycatchers" on 23 March 1821, after returning from the Long Expedition, which presumably included specimens of this species (Accessions Book, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, coll. 0481). Two of Titian's drawings are extant, one a pencil sketch dated 24 August, and the other finished in color (American Philosophical Society Library, Mss.B.P.31.15d).
Charles Lucien Bonaparte (1803–1857) described this species under the name"Swallow-tailed Flycatcher / Muscicapa forficata" in his continuation of American Ornithology vol. 1 (1825, Pl. 2). Bonaparte (1825: 15) cited "Peale's Museum, No. 6623" and wrote: "The specimen before us, which is a fine adult male, was shot by Mr. Titian Peale, on the twenty-fourth of August, on the Canadian fork of the Arkansaw river." Titian's drawing (shown here) was engraved by Alexander Lawson (ca. 1772-1846) for Plate 3 of Bonaparte's work. / https://search.library.wisc.edu/digital/AFKPEJIASN54OC8L/pages/AKE7FDKV…
Notes:
Both of Titian's drawings (shown here) are extant and now preserved at the APS Library (Mss.B.P.31.15d). The older drawing is a pencil sketch on laid paper (no watermark), evidently created in the field. The bird is in the same pose as the final plate, but its tail is more closed (i.e., less forked) and the branch on which it is supposed to be sitting is omitted. A penciled annotation in the bottom left of the paper reads "August 26th / No. 86 male". An inked annotation in the upper left reads: "Whole length 11 1/2 inches / extent 14 inches. Tail 6 inches." The second (colored) drawing, which was engraved by Lawson for Bonaparte (1825), was also executed on laid paper, albeit of higher quality. Titian initiated and dated the finished drawing with pencil, in the bottom left ("TRP. 1820"). 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:
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
Current Scientific Name
Tyrannidae | Tyrannus forficatus
