Campylopterus Delattrei
燕尾刀翅蜂鸟·Campylopterus Delattrei
Campylopterus Delattrei
De Lattre’s Sabre-wing
About this plate
Mexico and Guatemala
Of all the members of the genus Campylopterus, the present is by far the largest and the most beautifully coloured. It is said to be the boldest species of its race, and to be so extremely pugnacious, that every bird venturing into the neighbourhood of its territory is furiously attacked and driven away; this peculiar feature in the habits of the bird explains the uses of the broad and powerful shafts of the primaries, which form so conspicuous a character in the males of all the Campylopteri.
The present bird is strictly a Mexican and Central American species. I have lately received from Mr. Skinner some very beautiful specimens which were procured in Guatemala by M. Riviera Paz, whom I have had occasion to mention in my account of other species. M. De Lattre, to whom we are indebted for its discovery, and after whom it has been named, states that it is found in the forests of Jalapa during two months of the year only; that it is known by the name of the ‘Suce fleurs-royal,’ and that it feeds during the entire day, and not during any particular hours. He adds that it selects a flowering shrub, which it never quits, and from which it chases with anger all the other species of the family that may seem desirous of approaching it: on taking flight it utters a cry.
Considerable difference exists, not only in the size, but in the colouring of the sexes of this species; the female being very much less and very plainly coloured when compared with the male, and destitute of the dilatations of the shafts of the primaries.
The male has the lores, forehead and crown dull bluish black; behind the eye a small spot of white; all the upper and under surface rich deep violet-blue; wing-coverts, rump and upper tail-coverts green, into which the blue of the upper surface blends; wings dark purplish brown; tail steel-black, the three outer feathers on each side largely tipped with white, slightly margined in some specimens with black; vent greyish white; under tail-coverts steel-black, glossed with green; bill black; feet dark brown.
The female has the head dark bronzy brown; all the upper surface, wing- and tail-coverts and flanks brilliant green, glossed with golden on the back of the neck and wing-coverts; two centre tail-feathers glossed with green for two-thirds of their length from the base; down the centre of the throat a mark of shining greenish blue; remainder of the under surface grey, glossed with green.
The figures represent an adult male, a young male and a female of the size of life. The beautiful flower, which is also indigenous to Guatemala, is the Lælia majalis.
References
- Ornysmia (Campylopterus) DeLattre, Less. Rev. Zool. 1839, p. 14.
- Mellisuga De Lattrei, Gray and Mitch. Gen. of Birds, vol. i. p. 113, Mellisuga, sp. 85.
- Campylopterus delattre, Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av., p. 71, Campylopterus, sp. 7.
- Campylopterus delattrii, Ib. Rev. et Mag. de Zool. 1854, p. 250.
- Campylopterus Delattrei, Reichenb. Aufz. der Colibris, p. 11.
Twelve ways of seeing
- upright 1.93 : 1
- published 1850
- Pl. 45, Vol. II
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 Campylopterus delattrei: the first word is the genus it belongs among, the second the epithet that sets it apart. Two words carry a whole provenance. No established Chinese name exists, so it is cited by its binomial alone.
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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. Three things fix the habit: leaf arrangement, tepal count, and how the flower is borne.
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Composition
Tall and narrow, the bird perched mid-branch with generous margins above and below. (about 1.93 : 1) No details are appended: a plate for looking, not for keying out. Old plates set the plant slightly off centre, with unequal margins — that small imbalance is what keeps it alive.
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Line and Colour
In the later nineteenth century chromolithography took over: colour printed rather than painted, line demoted. Craft leaves franker evidence than inscriptions.
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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 1850 on the plate is that of publication, not of flowering — the gathering came a year or two earlier. Note the season. Phenology is the most practical tool of appreciation.
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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. In the same volume the kin are shelved together; set several plates side by side.
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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. 45, Vol. II, book page 45. The image is public domain; the hand-colouring is still one person's hand.
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Poetic Resonance
夫列子御风而行，泠然善也，旬有五日而后反。
—— 《庄子·逍遥游》
Liezi rode the wind and came back after fifteen days, so light was his going.
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
人无癖不可与交，以其无深情也。
—— 明·张岱《陶庵梦忆》
Never make a friend of a man without an obsession: he has no deep feeling.
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. The difference is not of quality but of question: Europe asks what it is, China asks whom it resembles.
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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. In a flora it is a species first and a symbol second; the order is worth keeping.
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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 1850 gave a whole day to a single flower.
