Selasporus Heloisa (Heloisa's Flame-bearer)

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 Heloisa’s Flame-bearer is a brilliantly colored species, admired for the fiery copper and rose iridescence of its throat and breast, which gleam vividly against its bronze-green upper plumage. In Gould’s hand-colored lithograph, the bird is shown hovering beside flowering stems, its delicate form alive with movement and light. Metallic pigments enhance the shimmer of its feathers, faithfully reproducing the dazzling luminosity for which the species is named. The composition combines precision and elegance, capturing both the vitality and refinement of one of the most radiant members of the hummingbird family.

John Gould’s Monograph of the Trochilidae remains one of the most ambitious and beautifully executed works of nineteenth-century natural history illustration. Created over nearly four decades, it brought together Gould’s detailed study of global hummingbird species with the artistry of Henry Constantine Richter and William Hart. The Heloisa’s Flame-bearer plate exemplifies their collaboration—melding scientific observation and artistic brilliance to immortalize the luminous splendor of this extraordinary bird.