Object Status:
Extant
Accession Date:
By 1799
Primary Source Reference:
Charles Willson Peale, Lecture on Natural History 19. (ca. 1799). Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University Archives, coll. 40. / https://ansp.org/research/library/archives/0000-0099/coll0040/
Additional Source Text:
Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827) wrote, in his 19th Lecture (ca. 1799): "No. 306. Varigated Woodpecker, with crimson crown, surrounded with black; cheek white, with 2 lines of black; throat crimson; black on its breast in form of gorget; white rump on the lower part of the back & white bars on the wings. back & wings speckled with black and white; belly with a light tinge of yellow on the lower part of the body. Picus varius Linn. Pic varie de la Caroline Buff. pl. enl. 785. Catesby gives a plate No. 21 of the Yellow bellyed Wood-pecker which differs from this, having no black gorget; and other authors also mistake in calling it the smallest woodpecker. It is black & white generally which is the dress of our small woodpecker [i.e., Downy Woodpecker, Picoides pubescens], hence the mistake. 307. Female, nearly of the same fress of the male except it has no red under on the throat. Linnaeus says it has no red, [but] our specimen shews the red crown. This is a rare bird in the middle states. What it may be further south, I have not yet learned." (Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University Archives, coll. 40)
Alexander Wilson (1766-1813) described this species under the name "Yellow-bellied Woodpecker / Picus varius" in American Ornithology vol. 1 (Pl. 9), where "Peale's Museum No. 2004" was cited (Wilson 1808: 147). / https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/175530#page/177/mode/1up (text) / https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/175530#page/171/mode/1up (plate)
Charles Lucien Bonaparte (1803–1857) described the species under the same name ("Yellow-bellied Woodpecker / Picus varius") in his continuation of American Ornithology vol. 1 (1825, Pl. 8). Bonaparte (1825: 75) cited cited "Peale's Museum, No. 2004, adult Male; [and] No. 2005, adult Female." His plate was based on a drawing by Titian Ramsay Peale (1799-1885), which was engraved by Alexander Lawson (ca. 1772-1846) / https://search.library.wisc.edu/digital/AFKPEJIASN54OC8L/pages/AIGVN2XX…
Specimen Type:
Dead/preserved
Current Common Name:
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Current Scientific Name
Picidae | Sphyrapicus varius
