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The primitive koa-finch is believed to have gone to extinct some time after Polynesians first arrived in Hawaii, however very little else is known about this species. Due to its early extinction it is only known from fossil remains.

Death
On September 17, 1836 Nāhienaena gave birth to a child. Kamehameha III announced that the child would be the heir to the throne because he believed it to be his, but the child lived for only a few hours. Nāhienaena never recovered physically or emotionally from the birth of her child. British physician Thomas Charles Byde Rooke, the husband of High Chiefess Grace Kamaikui, examined her but was unable to determine the cause of the illness. He called upon Dr. Ruschenberger, a visiting surgeon, to assist him. Nāhienaena died three and half months after giving birth, near Hale Uluhe, the home of her brother, Kamehameha III.

Although tradition holds that Nāhienaena died on December 30, 1836, the actual date of her death is described in the notes of the visiting American naturalist John Kirk Townsend as having been January 5, 1837. Townsend wrote on January 3, 1837 that he met with the King and found him "suffering great distress of mind on account of the extreme illness of his favorite and only sister, the princess Harieta Nahienaena" and "While we were yet conversing with the king, a messenger came to say that she was worse, and desired to see him." A few days later, on January 6, 1837, he wrote "Yesterday the Princess Harieta died. Scarcely was the circumstance known in the town, when it was announced to all by the most terrific and distressing crying and wailing amongst all ranks and classes of people." Later that month, on January 27, 1837, Townsend paid his respects at the princess's casket and described the plaque upon it as saying "Harieta Nahienaena, aged 22 years, died on the 30th of December, in the year of our Lord, 1836" and then goes on to say "This appears like a contradiction. It is stated on the coffin plate, that the princess died on the 30th of December, when it did not actually occur until the 5th of January.  This is accounted for, by the peculiar, and in some measure, reasonable doctrine of the Sandwich Islanders, that a person experiences two deaths; one of the mind, and another of the body. Now the mind of the princess died, i.e., became deranged, on the 30th of December, although her body did not die until the 5th of January."

After nearly five weeks of intense grieving, the princess's body was brought in procession to Kawaiahao Church for funeral services. The procession was led by traditional warriors and kāhuna laau lapaau (healers). On April 12, 1837 her body was brought aboard the ship Don Qixote (purchased and renamed Kai Keōpūolani by her brother), to the sacred resting place called Mokuula in Lāhainā, Maui to be buried next to her mother Keōpūolani.

Her death had a sobering effect on her brother, King Kamehameha III.

Temporal Range
Due to recent (mid-2018) and repeated disruptive editing of the temporal range for the species described in this article, I am inserting on this Talk Page the following quotes from one of the main references upon which this article is based ("Descriptions of thirty-two new species of birds from the Hawaiian Islands: Part I. Non-Passeriformes" by Storrs L. Olson and Helen F. James, 1991).


 * Regarding the type locality for this species: "The only date for this area as yet is from land snail shells . . . which indicated an age of about 25,000 yr (Stearns 1973). Because of difficulties with exogenous carbon in land snail shells, this must be regarded as a maximum age." Regarding Barbers Point where the remains of this species were also found: "Radiocarbon dates on material from sinkholes near Barbers Point fall in the latter half of the Holocene".


 * In reference to all species described in the paper: "These remains are mostly of late Holocene age."

Given the above, and additional comments by the authors such as "Prehistoric avian extinctions in the Hawaiian Islands are attributed mainly to predation and environmental degradation by Polynesians and introduced predators" and, most tellingly, "Had not Homo sapiens arrived in these islands some 16 centuries ago, these birds would still be alive today", I feel it is accurate to describe this species (as well as the others described in the paper) as being all but contemporaneous with modern birds -- that is, with a temporal range of "Late Holocene". Kiwikiu (talk) 02:50, 26 June 2018 (UTC)