Object Status:
Unlocated
Accession Date:
August 31, 1795
Primary Source Reference:
New-York Gazette, 31 Aug 1795
Additional Source Text:
"Since the late easterly storm, a Sea-bird was found in the Jerseys, a few miles from Philadelphia. It was quite exhausted with fatigue and hunger when taken, and died soon after. It is the first of the kind which I have seen, and is described in the new French Encyclopædia, under the name Procelaria Melanopus, and also by Latham, Syn. III, 2. P. 408, No. 12. It is a bird which I believe seldom comes near the shores, except to breed."
Notes:
This bird was probably either Wilson's storm petrel (Oceanites oceanicus), pictured here, or Leach's storm petrel (Oceanodroma leucorhoa), which had not yet been distinguished. John Latham (1740-1837), in his General Synopsis of Birds, vol. 3, part 2 (London, 1785), p. 408, identifies this bird as the black-toed petrel based on a specimen he examined in the Leverian Museum, London. It is now thought to be the mottled petrel (Pterodroma inexpectala).
Specimen Type:
Dead/preserved
Current Common Name:
Wilson's storm petrel
Current Scientific Name
Oceanites oceanicus
