Mamo

Rußmamo ( Drepanis funerea )

The Mamo ( Drepanis ) are a genus of songbirds from the subfamily of clothes Birds ( Drepanidinae ). The genus includes two latter day extinct species.

Features

Both Mamo - species had long, sickle-shaped curved beaks. The king dresses bird or Mamo ( Drepanis pacifica ) was about 23 cm tall. The plumage was mostly glossy black. The back of the back, the rump, the upper tail-coverts, the upper flanks and the Oberschenkelbefiederung were brilliant golden yellow. The beak and legs were dark brownish- black. The Rußmamo ( Drepanis funerea ) reached a length of 20 cm. The plumage was almost plain dull black, only the primaries had gray outer webs.

Dissemination

The king dresses bird came before on the island of Hawaii, especially on Hualālai, above Waimea Kohala and between the Kīlauea and Hilo. The Rußmamo was spread on Molokai, Maui, Lanai and Kahoolawe. Subfossiles material is known only from Rußmamo of the island of Maui.

System

Based on John Latham's Great Hook -billed Creeper the king dresses bird in 1788 by Johann Friedrich Gmelin as Xuanmu pacifica was described. Coenraad Jacob Temminck in 1820 created the genus Drepanis. Robert Cyril Layton Perkins in 1903 summed up the genera Drepanis, Vestiaria, Ciridops, Himatione and Palmeria as a group together. 1979 synonymisierte Harold Douglas Pratt monotypic genus Vestiaria ( Iiwi ) with the genus Drepanis, which is not accepted by most authors.

Status

1892 was the last time caught and photographed a king dresses bird alive. Henry Wetherbee Henshaw 1898 watched the last known pair.

The Rußmamo was one of the last dresses bird species that have been discovered by science. Robert Cyril Layton Perkins began in 1893 on Molokai, the first known specimen of this kind, 1907, the last three copies of William Alanson Bryan was collected.

Cultural Significance

The king dresses bird was one of the first dresses bird species that have been discovered by European settlers and is a namesake for the entire subfamily of dresses birds. Although the Mamo were rare even in the colonization of Hawaii by the European settlers, they had an important place in Hawaiian culture. They were the source of the black and yellow feathers, from which the precious robes, hawaiian called ahu - ula were prepared for the Hawaiian princes. The term mamo was used as a synonym for ahu - ula. According to the anthropologist Peter Henry Buck ahu - ula means " red robe ", the yellow feathers of the bird king dresses were compared with the feathers of Kraus tails ( Moho ) and other dresses birds preferred. This was partly due to the saturated colors and the other to the difficulty to obtain it. The feathers of the flanks and rump were called koo mamo and the feathers of the legs as ae mamo. According to Scott Barchard Wilson and Arthur Humble Evans, there are among the larger spring cloaks in the British Museum of Natural History specimens with diamond- shaped patterns of dark yellow feathers, which are interspersed with the more common bright yellow feathers. A cape is made ​​entirely of feathers of the bird king clothes (including black ). Most famous, however, is the so-called " million-dollar cloak " of the Hawaiian King Kamehameha I, who today is in the Bernice P. Bishop Museum and 450,000 Mamo feathers involves. Mamo - springs can be considered " crown jewels " of Hawaii are considered.