Maidstone's woodpecker – an unexpected bird specimen in the herbarium of Sir Hans Sloane

Abstract

It had long been believed that none of the bird, egg or nest specimens that had been in the collection of Sir Hans Sloane at his death in 1753 had survived. However, a specimen of a rhinoceros hornbill, originally in Sloane's hands, was discovered in the Natural History Museum's collections in London in 2003, and three more Sloane hornbill specimens have subsequently come to light. In addition, we report here a most unexpected discovery, that of the head of a woodpecker among the pages of one of Sloane's bound volumes of pressed plants. The context suggests that the head, like its associated plant specimens, was probably collected in south-east Asia about 1698–1699 by Nathanael Maidstone, an East India Company trader, the material reaching Sloane via William Courten after the latter's death in 1702. A detailed description of the head is provided, along with observations on its identity and possible provenance.