 | III. ZOÖLOGY1
1At the time of Lewis and Clark' s expedition, practically nothing was known of
the zoölogy of the United States west of the Mississippi river, consequently the opportunities
for valuable discoveries in this field by members of the party were exceptional.
Unfortunately there seems to have been no systematic zoölogist among those who made
up the expedition, and consequently no new species of animals were named in the
report.
The authors did, however, include in their narrative good descriptions of such of
the mammals and birds as especially attracted their attention, and subsequent naturalists
have established proper technical names upon these descriptions. The eccentric
Rafinesque evidently had their description in mind when he named the mule deer
(Odocoileus hemionus, Raf.); and George Ord, in his zoölogical appendix to Guthrie's
Geography, named the whistling swan (Olor columbianus, Ord) entirely from the description
of the bird given by Lewis and Clark.
Of more interest than their descriptions, however, are the actual specimens brought
back by the explorers. These were by no means numerous, and were all deposited
in the then famous repository for natural history curiosities, Peale's Museum, in Philadelphia.
They were mounted by Peale, and submitted to the famous ornithologist,
Alexander Wilson—who was then publishing his great work on North American
birds—in order that plates and descriptions of the novelties might appear therein.
Wilson found that three species (possibly all that they secured) were new to science,
and named them "Louisiana tanager," "Clark's crow" i. e., nutcracker], and
"Lewis's woodpecker"—or, as they stand today in our technical lists, Piranga
ludoviciana (Wilson); Nucifraga columbians (Wilson), and Melanerpes torquatus
(Wilson). The three will be found together on plate 20, vol. iii, of the American
Ornithology. With the decline and disintegration of Peale's Museum, the ornithological
specimens were scattered; but recently some of them appeared in Boston, and
found their way into the possession of Charles J. Maynard. Among them, Mr.
Maynard informs me, is a specimen of Lewis's woodpecker, without much doubt
the original specimen, and probably the only one of this historic collection that is
still extant.—Witmer Stone, conservator of the Ornithological Section of the
Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.
Original journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 1804-1806
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[Note by Clark, in Codex R.—Ed.]
Fort Clatsop. December 18th. 1805.
This day one of the men shot a bird of the Corvus genus, which was
feeding on some fragments of meat near the camp. this bird is about
the size of the king bird or bee martin, and not unlike that bird in form.
the beak is 3/4 of an inch long, wide at the base, of a convex, and cultrated
figure. beset with some small black hairs near it's base. the
chaps are of nearly equal lengths tho' the upper exceeds the under one
a little, and has a small nich in the upper chap near the extremity perceptable
only by close examineation. the colour of the beak is black.
the eye is large and prominent, the puple black, and iris of a dark yellowish
brown. the legs and feet are black and imbricated, has four toes on
each foot armed with long sharp tallons, the hinder toe is nearly as long
as the middle toe in front, and longer than the two remaining toes. the
tale is composed of twelve feathers the longest of which are five inches,
being six in number placed in the center. the remaining six are placed
3 on either side and graduly deminish to four inches which is the
shortest and outer feathers. the tail is half the length of the bird, the
wh[ol]e length from the extremity of the beak to the extremity of
the tale being 10 Inches. the head from it's joining the neck forward as
far as the eyes nearly to the base of the beak and on each side as low as
the center of the eye is black. arround the base of the beak the throat
jaws, neck, brest and belley are of a pale bluish white. the wings back
and tale are of a bluish black with a small shade of brown. this bird is
common to this piny country are also found in the rockey mountains on
the waters of the columbia river or woody side of those mountains,
appear to frequent the highest summits of those mountains as far as they
are covered with timber. their note is
que, quit-it, quit-it, que-hoo; and
tâh, tâh, &[c]. there is another bird of reather larger size which I saw
on the woddy parts of the rockey mountains on the waters of the Missouri,
this bird I could never kill tho' I made several attempts, the predominate
colour is a dark blue the tale is long and they are not crested,
I believe them to be of the corvus genus also. their note is
châr, châr,
char-ar, char; the large blue crested corvus bird of the Columbia river
is also [See description by Lewis, pp. 134, 135, above.—
Ed.]
| III. ZOÖLOGY1
1At the time of Lewis and Clark' s expedition, practically nothing was known of
the zoölogy of the United States west of the Mississippi river, consequently the opportunities
for valuable discoveries in this field by members of the party were exceptional.
Unfortunately there seems to have been no systematic zoölogist among those who made
up the expedition, and consequently no new species of animals were named in the
report.
The authors did, however, include in their narrative good descriptions of such of
the mammals and birds as especially attracted their attention, and subsequent naturalists
have established proper technical names upon these descriptions. The eccentric
Rafinesque evidently had their description in mind when he named the mule deer
(Odocoileus hemionus, Raf.); and George Ord, in his zoölogical appendix to Guthrie's
Geography, named the whistling swan (Olor columbianus, Ord) entirely from the description
of the bird given by Lewis and Clark.
Of more interest than their descriptions, however, are the actual specimens brought
back by the explorers. These were by no means numerous, and were all deposited
in the then famous repository for natural history curiosities, Peale's Museum, in Philadelphia.
They were mounted by Peale, and submitted to the famous ornithologist,
Alexander Wilson—who was then publishing his great work on North American
birds—in order that plates and descriptions of the novelties might appear therein.
Wilson found that three species (possibly all that they secured) were new to science,
and named them "Louisiana tanager," "Clark's crow" i. e., nutcracker], and
"Lewis's woodpecker"—or, as they stand today in our technical lists, Piranga
ludoviciana (Wilson); Nucifraga columbians (Wilson), and Melanerpes torquatus
(Wilson). The three will be found together on plate 20, vol. iii, of the American
Ornithology. With the decline and disintegration of Peale's Museum, the ornithological
specimens were scattered; but recently some of them appeared in Boston, and
found their way into the possession of Charles J. Maynard. Among them, Mr.
Maynard informs me, is a specimen of Lewis's woodpecker, without much doubt
the original specimen, and probably the only one of this historic collection that is
still extant.—Witmer Stone, conservator of the Ornithological Section of the
Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.
Original journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 1804-1806
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