In 1882, John James Audubon met Anna Mass茅na, also known as the Princess d鈥橢ssling and Duchess of Rivoli, in Paris.
as 鈥溾�渁 beautiful young woman, not more than twenty, extremely graceful and polite.鈥�
Five years earlier, young Anna had married Francois Victor Mass茅na who, along with his collection of grand titles, was an amateur ornithologist who accumulated 12,500 bird specimens.
One of them was an unidentified hummingbird.
Audubon wasn鈥檛 the only one smitten by Anna鈥檚 beauty. She also caught the eye of Ren茅-Primevere Lesson, a surgeon and naturalist who in 1882 left France for a four-year journey that would take him to South America and up the Pacific coast. The hard work began when he returned home and had to catalogue all the specimens he鈥檇 gathered.
Among them was the same hummingbird that was in the prince鈥檚 collection.
Lesson decided to name the bird in honour of Anna, who served as the Grand-Maitresse (Mistress of the Robes) to the Empress Eug茅nie, wife of Napoleon III.
Because hummingbirds are only native to the New World, it鈥檚 unlikely she ever saw one of her namesake鈥檚 in flight.
And now Anna鈥檚 hummingbird has a title of its own. Residents of 麻豆传媒映画recently chose it to be the city鈥檚 official bird. Long may she reign.
