Birds of Celebes: Cuculidae. 
199 
The first notice of the occurence of a Cacomantis in Celebes was made by 
Walden, in reference to three specimens obtained by Meyer in 1871, though 
in the British Museum there is a specimen of earlier date killed by Wallace 
at Manado. The cry of the bird, according to Meyer, is tii, tii, tiitutii, like 
a flute. It has recently been sent from various parts of Celebes and from 
Banggai by other collectors. Feeds on insects. 
The nest referred to by Meyer as that of this species must doubtless be 
that of some other bird, very possibly that of one into whose care its eggs are 
usually given. The parasitical habits of the genus Cacomantis have been established 
in the case of at least three species — C. passerinus (Vahl), C. flahelliformis 
(Lath.) and C. pallidus (Lath.) and, apparently, C. merulinus cop.), cf. Oates, 
Hume’s Nests and Eggs Ind. B. II, 385; North, Nests and Eggs B. Austr. 
1889, 243, 244; Baldamus, Leben europ. Kuckucke, 1892, 134 — 138. 
66. CACOMANTIS MERULINUS (Scop.). 
Buff-bellied Cuckoo. 
a. Cuculus meruliniis (1) Scop., Del. Elor. & Eaun. Lisubr. 1786, 89. 
Cacomantis merulinus (Ij Cab. & Hein., Mus. Hein. I, 1863, 21; (2j Salrad., Oat. 
Ucc. Borneo 1874, 64; (3J Shelley, Oat. B. XIX, 1891, 268 pt.; (4) Blittik., 
Zool. Erg. Weber’s Reise in Ostr-Incl. 1893, IH, 276; (3) Hose, B)is 1893, 414; (6) 
Styan, ib. 433; (7) Sharpe, Bhs 1894, 247, 258; (8) Grant, ib. 520; (9) id.. 
Ibis 1895, 262, 466; (10) Blank, Eaun. Br. Ind. B. IH, 1895, 218; (11) M. & Wg., 
Abh. Mils. Dresden 1896, Nr. 1, p. 8; (12) Grant, Bsis 1896, 474, 560; (13) 
Hartert, Nov. Zool. 1896, 551, 586; (14) Kuschel, Orn. IVIb. 1895, 156; (15) 
Hartert, Nov. Zool. 1897, 164. 
b. Cacomantis lanceolatns (S. Miill.), (1) Wald., Tr. Z. S. 1872, VHI, 53; (2) Meyer, 
This 1879, 146. 
Descriptions. Shelley 5; Blanford 10\ etc. 
Adult. Take the foregoing species, C. rirescens (Briigg.), but paler above, the grey of the 
throat spi-eading over the breast; remaining under parts buff, not cinnamon-rufous; 
tail-feathers regularly barred with white on the inner webs, whereas in C. virescens 
the bars ai'e reduced to inconsjucuous notches , Macassar, 10. July 95: P. & 
E. Sarasin). 
“Iris orange-red; bill red-brown; feet yellow”; wing 104 mm; tail 105 (Platen 
in Mus. Nehrkorn — Nr. 1759 — Palawan). 
Young. Above cinnamon, with broad stripes of dusky on head and neck, talcing the form 
of bars on back and innermost remiges; on the other remiges and the tail-feathers 
the cinnamon develops into deep notches, extending as bars across the outer 
tail-feathers; under parts paler cinnamon, striped with dusky on throat and breast, 
taking the form of sagittate bars lower down and on under wing-coverts ; remiges 
below notched on the inner webs (slightly so on the outer ones) with cinnamon, 
becoming uniform cinnamon-buff on the basal part of the feathers (Q, Macassar, 
19. July 95: P. & E. Sarasin). 
Immature (assunung adult dress). Head, neck, and throat chiefly clothed with the grey 
plumage of the adult, but with cinnamon feathers with dark centre -stripes of the 
young intermixed; wings and tail barred with cinnamon and dusky as in the young, 
