Bioacoustics of Cacomantis blandus

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.