Object Status:
Extant
Accession Date:
23 March 1821
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).
Thomas Say (1787-1834) in Edwin James, 1823, Account of an Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains..., vol. 2, p. 60 (Philadelphia, 1823), wrote: "A bird was taken, closely resembling in point of colouring, a species preserved in the Philadelphia museum under the name of ruby-crowned fly-catcher, said to be from the East Indies, but the bill differs in being much less dilated. We can hardly think it a new species, yet in the more common books we do not find any distinct description of it. It is certainly allied to the Tyrannus griseus, and sulphuratus of Vieillot, but in addition to other essential characters, it is distinguished from the former, by its yellow belly, and from the latter, by the simplicity of the wing and tail feathers, and the absence of bands on the side of the head; the bill is also differently formed from either of those species, if we may judge from Vieillot's figures." / https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/124315#page/72/mode/1up
Charles Lucien Bonaparte (1803–1857) described this species under the name "Arkansaw Flycatcher / Muscicapa verticalis" in his continuation of American Ornithology vol. 1 (1825, Pl. 2). Bonaparte (1825: 18–19) cited "Peale's Museum, No. 6624" and wrote: "The specimen we have been describing is a male, killed in the beginning of July, on the river Platte, a few days march from the mountains." A drawing made by Titian (unlocated) was engraved by Alexander Lawson (ca. 1772-1846) for Plate 1 of Bonaparte's work. / https://search.library.wisc.edu/digital/AFKPEJIASN54OC8L/pages/AKE7FDKV…
Notes:
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:
Western Kingbird
Current Scientific Name
Tyrannidae | Tyrannus verticalis
