Descriptions

This male Princess Helena’s hummer was collected at Guantanamo in Cuba by the Swedish naturalist Oscar Tollin on 10 April 1914. It measures just 65mm in length and weighs just 1.8g.

Norwich Castle museum transferred the specimen to RAMM in 1956. A letter from Thea Brooks of Mayfair to a Mrs Garnham in Cuba reads,

‘Yesterday I sent you a little box containing three little humming birds. There are two males (with the beautiful crimson gorgelet which you will admire if you hold them facing a bright light and move them from side to side), and one female. [...] It is the smallest bird in the world according to Prof. Ridgway, of the Smithsonian National Museum Washington. [...] The female is much larger than the male, & is not so brilliantly coloured, but is very much rarer, being found only in inaccessible cliffs, where it nests. The male comes down to the coast in spring & summer, and is found sometimes in large numbers sucking the honey from the flowers of the Century Plant or Agave Americana. [...] Kindly present these specimens to the Museum in the name of Gertrude & Barrie.”

This object is on display at RAMM in the In Fine Feather gallery.