Patagona gigas (Giant Hummingbird).

From A Monograph of the Trochilidae, or Family of Humming-Birds, 6 vols., large folio. Published in London, 1849–1887. Printed by Hullmandel and Walter from drawings by J. Gould, H. C. Richter, and William Hart, lithographed by the artists.

The Giant Hummingbird is the largest member of the hummingbird family, native to the high Andes from Ecuador to central Chile. Measuring up to eight inches in length, it is nearly twice the size of most of its relatives. Gould’s hand-colored lithograph captures the bird’s powerful yet elegant form, its muted bronze and gray plumage rendered with careful shading and subtle touches of metallic pigment. Depicted hovering beside tubular blossoms, the bird’s slower, more deliberate wingbeats are suggested through the calm balance of the composition—reflecting both strength and poise within its rarefied mountain environment.

John Gould’s Monograph of the Trochilidae remains one of the most ambitious and beautiful achievements in nineteenth-century natural history publishing. Produced over nearly forty years, it united Gould’s scientific study of the world’s hummingbirds with the artistry of Henry Constantine Richter and William Hart. The Giant Hummingbird plate exemplifies the monumental scope of the series, portraying not only the smallest birds known to science but also their commanding extremes with equal care and reverence.