DESCRIPTION OF ADULTS, EGGSHELLS, NESTLING, FLEDGLING, AND NEST OF THE POO-ULI

The Poo-uli (Melamprosops phaeosoma), a Hawaiian honeycreeper discover ed on the island of Maul in 1973 and now near extinction, is represent ed in museums by only two specimens. Based on the first observations o f a nesting pair and re-examination of the two specimens, we describe the adult male and female, eggshells, nestling, and fledgling Poo-uli. Poo-uli are sexually monochromatic but males are brighter. The male i s brown above, whitish below, and has an extensive black mask bordered with gray on the crown and a distinct white auricular patch. The fema le differs in having a similar facial pattern not as sharply demarked and in having a grayish wash below. The observed fledgling resembled t he adults but was paler brown above and whitish below and had a much s maller black mask and pale mandible. We tentatively assigned both muse um specimens to first basic plumage because they resembled the adult f emale but retained some pale juvenal coloration in the mandible. We al so determined from dissection that the holotype was an immature male; we could not determine sex of the paratype. The nest was an open cup o f twigs and bryophytes with a thin lining of fern rootlets. The nest c ontained eggshell fragments with blown-gray speckling against a whitis h background. The nests, eggshells, and nestlings resemble those of ot her Hawaiian honeycreepers.