Adelomyia inornata
鳞斑蜂鸟属
Adelomyia inornata
Purple-throated Adelomyia
About this plate
Bolivia
I first became acquainted with this species in the year 1845, when Mr. Bridges returned from his expedition into the interior of Bolivia, and published a description of it, with its admeasurements, in the “Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London” for the year following.
Since then I have received specimens from Peru, where they were procured by M. Warszewicz.
In its affinities the Adelomyia inornata is intimately allied to the A. melanogenys, but differs from that bird in the blue colouring of its throat and the darker tints of its general plumage, particularly of the under surface; there is also a more marked difference in the colouring of the sexes than occurs in that species, the female wanting the brilliant colouring of the throat.
Mr. Bridges collected his specimens at Sandillani, near the Yungas of La Paz; Bolivia and Peru may therefore be considered the native country of the species, which there represents the A. melanogenys of the more northern regions. There would seem to be no richer district in the whole of South America than these Yungas, yielding, as they have done, so many rarities both in birds and other branches of natural history, and where many others doubtless remain yet to be discovered.
The male has the whole of the upper surface bronzy green; lores rufous; stripe over the eye buff; patch under the eye black; under surface brown, with bronzy reflexions on the flanks; feathers of the throat tipped with purplish blue; wings and tail bronzy, all the feathers of the latter tipped with buff; bill black.
The female differs in having all the upper surface of a more golden hue, and the under surface buff, with speckles of brown on the throat.
The figures are the size of life. The plant is the Passifflora Tucamansis.
References
- Trochilus (———?) inornata, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., part xiv. p. 89.
- Mellisuga inornata, Gray and Mitch. Gen. of Birds, vol. i. p. 112, Mellisuga, sp. 34.
- Ramphomicron inornatus, Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av., p. 79, Ramphomicron, sp. 6.
- Adelomyia inornata, Bonap. Rev. et Mag. de Zool. 1854, p. 253.
- Metallura inornata, Reichenb. Aufz. der Colibris, p. 8.—Ib. Troch. enumer., p. 5.
Twelve ways of seeing
- upright 1.44 : 1
- published 1852
- Pl. 197, Vol. III
Not a catalogue entry but a way of looking: how to stand, what to notice, how the line was cut, when it flowers, where it came from, who made it — and then the poems and the classics that taught China to see the same flower. Read the twelve in order and the plate opens.
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First Look
江馆清秋，晨起看竹，烟光日影露气，皆浮动于疏枝密叶之间。
—— 清·郑板桥《题画竹》
On an autumn morning at the river lodge I looked at the bamboo: mist, sunlight, dew, all drifting among the sparse and dense leaves.
The sheet is vertical: the eye climbs and settles on the bird. Take the posture before the plumage. Then step in close: watch where colour meets line, and whether the line ever breaks. Third, find the darkest small patch: the whole tonal order is measured from there.
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Name and Thing
The binomial is Adelomyia inornata: the first word is the genus it belongs among, the second the epithet that sets it apart. Two words carry a whole provenance. The Chinese name 鳞斑蜂鸟属 is a modern rendering of the Latin, not an old garden name.
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Form and Colour
The smallest of birds: a needle-fine bill, a forked tubular tongue, wings beating so fast the bird hovers and even flies backwards. Its colour is not pigment but structure — light bent by feather barbules, changing with the angle.No colour group is recorded. Read the outline, then the colour layers, then the brush.
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Composition
Tall and narrow, the bird perched mid-branch with generous margins above and below. (about 1.44 : 1) No details are appended: a plate for looking, not for keying out. Blank paper is not unfinished work: it is where the eye rests.
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Line and Colour
In the later nineteenth century chromolithography took over: colour printed rather than painted, line demoted. There is evidence on the back too: the plate mark pressed into the paper, the slight relief of the pigment, lines worn shallow in a later printing.
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Season
In tropical America they are present all year, their season set by flowers; temperate hummingbirds follow the bloom north and back, thousands of kilometres a year. The year 1852 on the plate is that of publication, not of flowering — the gathering came a year or two earlier. The plate records ten days of peak; the other three hundred are leaf, fruit and rest.
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Provenance
Americas only, from southern Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, richest in the Andes. China has no hummingbirds and no classical record of them; the name arrives with late-Qing travel writing. The volume was made in 1849-1887, when most of this knowledge came from living plants under glass.
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The Book and the Hand
“Gould's Hummingbirds” was drawn by John Gould and published 1849-1887. This plate is Pl. 197, Vol. III, book page 197. The image is public domain; the hand-colouring is still one person's hand.
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Poetic Resonance
穿花蛱蝶深深见，点水蜻蜓款款飞。
—— 唐·杜甫《曲江二首》
Butterflies thread the flowers, seen deep within; dragonflies touch the water and fly on, slow and deliberate.
The poem gives the mood first and the picture supplies the form; set the line beside the plate and the bird itself becomes its resting point.
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The Written Tradition
竖划三寸，当千仞之高；横墨数尺，体百里之迥。
—— 南朝宋·宗炳《画山水序》
A vertical stroke of three inches stands for a cliff of a thousand fathoms; a few feet of ink holds a hundred li. Smallness of scale was never the obstacle.
Gould's Hummingbirds (1849–1887) used hand-coloured lithography over gold leaf so the iridescence survived on paper — a monument to Victorian printing and collecting alike. Keep the line; it will surface the next time you meet the same plant.
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Symbolism
For the Aztecs the hummingbird was warrior and sun; for Victorian Europe it was the ultimate ornament, millions killed for breast jewellery. China has no tradition here — and that blank is itself a history of exchange. Flower language was added later; the flower knows nothing of it, and that innocence is part of its power.
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What to Take Away
If you keep one line, keep Guo Xi's: from afar its momentum, up close its texture. A flora exists to be consulted; look long enough and you forget to consult — someone in 1852 gave a whole day to a single flower.
