Cacomantis

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]

• Chestnut-breasted cuckoo, Cacomantis castaneiventris
• Fan-tailed cuckoo, Cacomantis flabelliformis
• Banded bay cuckoo, Cacomantis sonneratii
• Plaintive cuckoo, Cacomantis merulinus
• Grey-bellied cuckoo, Cacomantis passerinus
• Sunda brush cuckoo or rusty-breasted cuckoo, Cacomantis sepulcralis
• Sulawesi brush cuckoo, Cacomantis virescens (split from C. sepulcralis)
• Sahul brush cuckoo or brush cuckoo, Cacomantis variolosus
• Manus brush cuckoo, Cacomantis blandus (split from C. variolosus)
• Solomons brush cuckoo, Cacomantis addendus (split form C. variolosus)
• Moluccan brush cuckoo or Moluccan cuckoo, Cacomantis aeruginosus

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]