Object Status:
Extant
Accession Date:
By 1799
Primary Source Reference:
Charles Willson Peale, Lecture on Natural History 24. (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 an early draft of his 24th Lecture (ca. 1799): "No. 635. Dobcheek. Engd." In a subsequent draft, he completed a whole page describing the species: "635. Little Grebe, or Dobcheek; length 10 Inch; breadth 16. The general colour of the upper parts are a reddish brown, the under a gray white; the sides of the head throat & lower part of the neck a yellowish grey; feet dirty green. Male & female are said to be much alike. Colymbus minor Linn. le Grebe de la riviere, ou le Castagneux Buff. pl. enl. 905? Little Grebe Latham vol. IIId. pt.1. p. 289. No. 10. Pennt. Brit. Zool. No. [226]." (Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University Archives, coll. 40)
Peale continued: "Latham says, In England called by the various names of Didapper, Dipper, Loon, and Dobchick. that it is there more common [than] other Grebes, and makes a large nest, a foot or more in thickness, in the water, composed of grass and other water plants, and lays 5 or 6 dirty yellowish white Eggs; the nest is so placed in the water that it is considerable kept wet, which seems essential to the hatching of the young, both of this and other species of this genus. The food is fish, water Insects, and plants. It is an admirable diver, and if the possibility of flying under water be allowed, no bird claims the […] more than the little grebe. It is also said to be found at Hudson's bay." (ANSP Archives, coll. 40)
Peale wrote, in "A Walk Through the Philad[elphi]a Museum" (1805–1806): "Among the Grebes, we find the little Grebe or Dobcheck (C. Minor) they are very common in England, and differ from any we have; being smaller as well as a difference of Colour." (Historical Society of Pennsylvania, coll. 0481)
On 15 August 1806, the acquisition of "13. Dobcheek. M. F. [male, female]" from Thomas Hall (of London) was recorded in the Peale Museum Accessions Book (HSP, coll. 0481).
Notes:
Thomas Hall (ca.1746-1813) was a natural history dealer and showman in London who, like Peale, assembled a collection of exotic taxidermy and natural oddities in his home, which he displayed to paying customers. Hall’s museum was known by the names “Curiosity House” and “Finsbury Museum”, and he distributed tokens advertising himself as “The first artist in Europe for preserving Birds, Beasts &c.” Today, many of these tokens are preserved in the British Museum. / https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG145361 Peale proposed a specimen exchange with Hall, in a letter dated 28 April 1792: “I therefore make you the proposal of sending you all the Variety of this Country, for an Equal number of European [species] … which shall be preserved in the best manner (of which I now feel myself fully equal to) and sent and that I may be prepared for such an exchange I am now using every means in my power to Collect and preserve the Birds of the present season … I have not time to give you any description of such as I suppose are peculiar to this part of America, and I find that every year I discover some kinds that I had not known before, and from what I have read, I find that those who have attempted the Natural History of this Country [were] generally deficent of inteligence [sic].” (Miller 1988: 31–32, Selected Papers, Vol. 2, part 1, Yale University Press). Peale announced in June 1792 that he was “busily employed in preserving the Birds of our Country [the United States] in order to furnish [himself] with such a number of duplicates as [would enable him] to make an extensive exchange” with Hall, and with institutions in Sweden and Holland (Miller 1988: 37). During his travels in London, Rubens Peale (1784-1865) wrote to his father on 1 June 1803: “I wish you to inform me in the next [letter] how you stand with Hall, recolleckting that I have had from him a considerable number of subjects in return from what I let him have.” (Miller 1988: 529) The final specimen deposit from Hall was recorded in the Peale Museum Accessions Book on 17 August 1806 (Historical Society of Pennsylvania, coll. 0481).
Specimen Type:
Dead/preserved
Current Common Name:
Little Grebe
Current Scientific Name
Podicipedidae | Tachybaptus ruficollis
