Cacomantis
Genus of birds
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cacomantis is a genus of cuckoos in the family Cuculidae. The name is from the Ancient Greek κακομαντις (kakomantis) meaning "prophet of evil". Most species have a round nostril and are mainly in brown and gray colours. The tails are graduated and barred. The bars are transverse in sonneratii and oblique in all others.[2]
| Cacomantis | |
|---|---|
| |
| Fan-tailed cuckoo (Cacomantis flabelliformis) | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Cuculiformes |
| Family: | Cuculidae |
| Genus: | Cacomantis S. Müller, 1843 |
| Type species | |
| Cuculus flavus[1] = Cuculus merulinus Gmelin, 1788 | |
Taxonomy
The genus Cacomantis was introduced in 1843 by the German naturalist Salomon Müller.[3] He did not specify a type species; this was subsequently designated as Cuculus flavus Gmelin, a junior synonym of Cuculus merulinus Scopoli (the plaintive cuckoo).[4][5] The genus name is from the Ancient Greek kakomantis meaning "prophet of doom".[6] Müller explained that local people on the Maluku Islands thought of these species as "birds of misfortune" due to their mournful calls and their frequent presence in cemeteries.[3]
Species
The genus contains 11 species:[7]
| Image | Scientific name | Common name | Distribution |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Cacomantis castaneiventris | Chestnut-breasted cuckoo | New Guinea and Cape York peninsula |
 | Cacomantis flabelliformis | Fan-tailed cuckoo | Australia and Melanesia |
 | Cacomantis sonneratii | Banded bay cuckoo | Indomalaya |
 | Cacomantis merulinus | Plaintive cuckoo | Southeast Asia |
 | Cacomantis passerinus | Grey-bellied cuckoo | South Asia |
| - | Cacomantis sepulcralis | Sunda brush cuckoo | Malesia |
| - | Cacomantis virescens | Sulawesi brush cuckoo | Sulawesi |
 | Cacomantis variolosus | Sahul brush cuckoo | Southeast Asia to Victoria and Solomon Islands |
| - | Cacomantis blandus | Manus brush cuckoo | Ninigo and Admiralty Islands |
| - | Cacomantis addendus | Solomons brush cuckoo | Solomon Islands archipelago |
 | Cacomantis aeruginosus | Moluccan brush cuckoo | Moluccas |
The pallid cuckoo (Heteroscenes pallidus) and the white-crowned cuckoo (Caliechthrus leucolophus) were formerly placed in this genus. They are now each placed in their own monotypic genus.[7]
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