A Monograph of the Trochilidae or Family of Hummingbirds

Throughout his professional life Gould had a strong interest in hummingbirds. He accumulated a collection of 320 species, which he exhibited at the Great Exhibition of 1851. Despite his interest Gould had never seen a live hummingbird. In May 1857 he travelled to the United States with his second son Charles. He arrived in New York too early in the season to see hummingbirds in that city, but on 21 May 1857 in Bartram's Gardens in Philadelphia he finally saw his first live bird, a Ruby-throated Hummingbird. He then continued to Washington D.C. where he saw large numbers in the gardens of the Capitol. Gould attempted to return to England with live specimens, but not being aware of the conditions necessary to keep them they only lived for two months at most.

Considered to be Gould's masterpiece in both breadth and beauty, four hundred eighteen species are depicted by the artists John Gould, H.C. Richter and William Hart. Each plate exquisitely portrays these delicate, evocatively colored birds with the flowers indigenous to their area. Strong botanical elements add a dimension not found in other bird folios. A Family of Humming-birds also displays a tour de force of the hand-colored lithograph as a medium.

'There is no one appreciative of the beauties of nature who will not recall... with delight the time when a live humming-bird first met his gaze. The suddenness of the apparition, even when expected, and its brief duration, are alone enough to fix the fluttering vision on the mind's eye.... The beautiful nests of humming-birds... will be found on examination to be very solidly and tenaciously built, though the materials are generally of the slightest - cotton-wool or some vegetable down and spider's webs' (Alfred Newton in 'The Encyclopedia Britannica 1911, vol. 13, p.887). The Hummingbird family includes members that are the smallest birds in the world. The largest measures no more than 8 1/2 inches and the smallest 2 3/8 inches in length. They are confined to the American continent and its islands, but are wide ranging within this limitation, with over 400 different species covering an area from the fuchias of Tierra del Fuego in the south to the althaea bushes of Toronto gardens in the north.