Cacomantis blandus Rothschild & Hartert, 1914b

Wu, Meng Yue, Schodde, Richard & Rheindt, Frank E., 2022, Integrating voice and phenotype in a revision of the brush cuckoo Cacomantis variolosus (Aves: Cuculidae) complex, Zootaxa 5091 (1), pp. 69-106 : 99

4.5 Cacomantis blandus Rothschild & Hartert, 1914b

Range: Admiralty Islands (Manus) .

Diagnosis: main song of one type, elements long and flattened and rather slow-paced (n = 2, Fig. 2 ); basic morph of Admiralties morphotype (see 3.2.2.(4) above); body small and tail proportionally mid-length: wing c. 106–115 mm, tail/wing ratio 0.96–1.02 ( Table 2 ); barred females with dorsa dully barred dusky on greyish cinnamon, and ventral white distinct, barred discretely black without cinnamon wash; juveniles intermediate in depth of tones and density of markings, but whiter ventrally than in other differentiates (n = 1). Element shape of song notes is unique except for those in the Solomon differentiate C. addendus ( Fig. 2 ; see below). The bill is also distinctively broad, and this, together with tail proportions, are shared with Bismarck populations and arguably indicative of its derivation ( Table 2 ; also Mayr & Diamond 2001: 235).

The greyer dorsum and sharply demarcated grey-and-rufous ventral surface in C. blandus are also unique in the complex, resembling east Asian C. merulinus and leading Rothschild & Hartert (1914b) to query affinities. White barring in outer rectrices, however, is altogether different—fine teeth in blandus and complete diagonal bars in merulinus . So is the main song, which in merulinus is sepulcralis -like except for falling away in a bubbled jumble of notes at the end. C. blandus has been treated as a subspecies of variolosus by all reviewers since Hartert (1925), based on morphology alone; and its respective phenotypic and vocal similarities to merulinus and Solomon addendus could be either convergent or retained ancestral traits.

Figures

FIGURE 2. The seven element shapes found in the Cacomantis variolosus complex. Taxon names given represent the following geographic song types (see Results): sepulcralis—Sundaland and Philippines, virescens—Sulawesi and Sula, aeruginosus—resident Moluccas, variolosus—Australasia, blandus—Admiralty Islands, addendus—Solomon Islands.