huilotl (Mdz15v)
This element of a mourning dove (huilotl) (Zenaida Macroura) has been carved from the compound sign for the place name, Huilotepec. The element is a fairly realistic drawing of a light-colored bird. Its breast is white and its back is a light purple. The small amount of green on its feet and legs are remnants from the green hill (tepetl) that was cut away to create a separate entry for this logogram.
Stephanie Wood
Found in both rural and urban settings, this bird is said to be common in the woods of Milpa Alta, according to Gerardo del Olmo Linares and Emilio Roldán V., Aves comunes de la ciudad de México (2007), 61. It apparently has a cry that sounds something like its name would be pronounced. This bird is mentioned in the Florentine Codex, so it was in the Nahua consciousness in the sixteenth century. Birds were greatly prized, in general. Aztec leaders had aviaries where they kept birds, birds and feathers were paid as tributes in kind.
Stephanie Wood
c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest
Stephanie Wood
birds, doves, pigeons
huilo(tl), mourning dove, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/huilotl
mourning dove
huilota común o paloma huilota
Stephanie Wood
Codex Mendoza, folio 15 verso, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 41 of 188.
The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, hold the original manuscript, the MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1. This image is published here under the UK Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0).
