Subspecies Ninox (Ninox) boobook boobook Latham, 1801

Museums

Regional Maps

• Strix boobook Latham, J. 1801. Supplementum Indicis Ornithologici, sive Systematis Ornithologiae. London : G. Leigh, J. & S. Sotheby 74 pp. [15] [as Str. Boobook; based on the Boobook Owl, from a local Aboriginal name, in Latham, J. 1802. Supplement II. to the General Synopsis of Birds. London : Leigh, Sotheby & Son 376 pp. pls CXX–CXL [publication dated as 1801] (6), in turn based on Thomas Watling drawing no. 24 in BMNH, see Sharpe, R.B. 1906. Birds. pp. 79–515 in, The History of the Collections contained in the Natural History Departments of the British Museum. London : British Museum Vol. 2. (112–113)].

  Type data:

   Holotype whereabouts unknown (lost, figured on Thomas Watling drawing no. 24 in BMNH), region of Port Jackson, NSW (as Nova Hollandia).

  Type locality references:

  Schodde, R. & Mason, I.J. 1981. Nocturnal Birds of Australia. Illustrated by Jeremy Boot. Melbourne : Lansdowne Edns 136 pp. 22 pls. [publication dated as 1980] [11-12, 57] (cf. Hindwood, K.A. 1970. The "Watling" drawings, with incidental notes on the "Lambert" and the "Latham" drawings. Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales 1968–69: 16–32 pls IV–VII).
• Athene marmorata Gould, J. 1846. Descriptions of eleven new species of Australian birds. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1846: 18-21 [Date published July 1911: published May] [18] [Gould specifed no type material in the original description other than by the annotation 'South Australia', but did mention specimens in his own collection and BMNH from that region in Gould, J. 1865. Handbook to the Birds of Australia. London : J. Gould Vol. 1 viii + 636 pp. [For publication date Mathews, G.M. 1925. The Birds of Australia. Supplements 4 & 5. Bibliography of the Birds of Australia Pts 1 & 2. London : H.F. & G. Witherby viii 149 pp.]; because marmoratus was published almost seven years after Gould's visit to South Australia and some months after Sir George Grey relinquished his governorship there, it may be assumed that the lectotypification effected by Stone, W. in Stone, W. & Mathews, G.M. 1913. A list of the species of Australian birds described by John Gould, with the location of the type-specimens. Austral Avian Records 1: 129–180 under ICZN Art. 74(a) is from the type series, and that the three Grey specimens in BMNH listed by Sharpe, R.B. 1875. Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum. Catalogue of the Striges, or Nocturnal Birds of Prey. London : British Museum Vol. 2 xi 325 pp. XIV pls [170] are thus paralectotypes—none of these specimens are cited as types by Meyer de Schauensee, R. 1957. On some avian types, principally Gould's, in the collection of the Academy. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 109: 123–246 or Warren, R.L.M. 1966. Type-specimens of Birds in the British Museum (Natural History). Vol. 1 Non-Passerines. London : British Museum ix 320 pp.].

  Type data:

   Lectotype ANSP 2532 ♂ (Verreaux cat. no. 71), Adelaide, SA (as South Australia).
  Paralectotype(s) BMNH 3 unsexed adults (ex Sir George Grey); BMNH unsexed adult (ex Sir George Grey); BMNH unsexed adult (ex Sir George Grey).

  Subsequent designation references:

  Stone, W. in Stone, W. & Mathews, G.M. 1913. A list of the species of Australian birds described by John Gould, with the location of the type-specimens. Austral Avian Records 1: 129-180 [Date published 28 Feb 1913].

  Type locality references:

  Mees, G.F. 1961. An annotated catalogue of a collection of bird-skins from West Pilbara, Western Australia. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 44: 97-143 [105].
• Ieraglaux (Spiloglaux) bubuk Kaup, J.J. 1852. Monograph of the Owls—Strigidae, Pt 2. pp. 103-122 in Jardine, W. (ed.). Contributions to Ornithology for 1852. Edinburgh : W.H. Lizars 162 pp. [publication dated as 1853 Mathews, G.M. 1925. The Birds of Australia. Supplements 4 & 5. Bibliography of the Birds of Australia Pts 1 & 2. London : H.F. & G. Witherby viii 149 pp.] [108] [unjustified emendation of Strix boobook Latham, 1802; author's initials misquoted 'T.T.' in original description].
• Strix novaehollandiae Strickland, H.E. in Strickland, H.E. & Jardine, W. (eds) 1855. Ornithological Synonyms Vol. 1. Accipitres. London : John van Voorst xlvi 222 pp. [Mathews, G.M. 1925. The Birds of Australia. Supplements 4 & 5. Bibliography of the Birds of Australia Pts 1 & 2. London : H.F. & G. Witherby viii 149 pp.] [165] [junior homonym of Strix novaehollandiae Stephens, 1826 (=Tyto novaehollandiae (Stephens, 1826)); ex J. Latham, ms., published as synonym of Strix boobook Latham, 1802, and also unavailable under ICZN Art. 11(e)].
• Spiloglaux boobook tregellasi Mathews, G.M. 1913. New species and subspecies of Australian birds. Austral Avian Records 2: 73-79 [published Dec.] [74].

  Type data:

   Holotype AMNH 630433 ♀ (G.M. Mathews' coll. no. 8062), Frankston, VIC (as Victoria)
  Comment: for identification of holotype, see Greenway, J.C. 1978. Type specimens of birds in the American Museum of Natural History. Pt 2. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 161: 1–306.

  Type locality references:

  Mathews, G.M. 1916. The Birds of Australia. London : Witherby & Co. Vol. 5 pt 3 pp. 249-352 pls 255-266. [Date published 23 May 1916: Mathews, G.M. 1925. The Birds of Australia. Supplements 4 & 5. Bibliography of the Birds of Australia Pts 1 & 2. London : H.F. & G. Witherby viii 149 pp.] [311, 326].
• Ninox yorki Cayley, N.W. 1929. The status of certain species of the genus Ninox, and a description of two new species of that genus. The Emu 28: 161-164 [publication date Mathews, G.M. 1920. Dates of ornithological works. Austral Avian Records 4: 1–27 Mathews, G.M. 1925. The Birds of Australia. Supplements 4 & 5. Bibliography of the Birds of Australia Pts 1 & 2. London : H.F. & G. Witherby viii 149 pp.] [162] [described from a specimen in a case of bird skins acquired from Thursday Island and said to have come from Cape York; the holotype, a male with wing 240+ mm, is of the large and dark nominotypical form which occurs through east Australia south of Cape York Peninsula—that it came from the Peninsula, in the range of small, paler N. b. ocellata (Bonaparte, 1850), is doubtful—the foot of the Peninsula is only a guess, see Schodde, R. & Mason, I.J. 1981. Nocturnal Birds of Australia. Illustrated by Jeremy Boot. Melbourne : Lansdowne Edns 136 pp. 22 pls [publication dated as 1980] (57); for alternative interpretation of identity of holotype, see Mees, G.F. 1964. A revision of the Australian owls (Strigidae and Tytonidae). Zoologische Verhandelingen 65: 1–62; holotype figured on pl. 34 (top) in original description—for its deposition, see Hindwood, K.A. 1946. A list of the types and paratypes of birds from Australian localities in the Australian Museum, Sydney, New South Wales. Records of the Australian Museum 21: 386–393; Longmore, N.W. 1991. Type specimens of birds in the Australian Museum. Technichal Report of the Australian Museum n 4: 1–42].

  Type data:

   Holotype AM 0.27647 unsexed adult, east foot of Cape York Peninsula or south in coastal east Australia (as Cape York Peninsula).

  Type locality references:

  Schodde, R. & Mason, I.J. 1981. Nocturnal Birds of Australia. Illustrated by Jeremy Boot. Melbourne : Lansdowne Edns 136 pp. 22 pls. [publication dated as 1980] [57]; Schodde, R. in Schodde, R. & Mason, I.J. 1997. Aves (Columbidae to Coraciidae). In, Houston, W.W.K. & Wells, A. (eds). Zoological Catalogue of Australia. Melbourne : CSIRO Publishing, Australia Vol. 37.2 xiii 440 pp. [271] (cf. Longmore, N.W. 1991. Type specimens of birds in the Australian Museum. Technichal Report of the Australian Museum n 4: 1–42).

Taxonomic Decision for Synonymy

• Mees, G.F. 1964. A revision of the Australian owls (Strigidae and Tytonidae). Zoologische Verhandelingen (Leiden) 65: 1-62 [23]
• Schodde, R. & Mason, I.J. 1981. Nocturnal Birds of Australia. Illustrated by Jeremy Boot. Melbourne : Lansdowne Edns 136 pp. 22 pls. [publication dated as 1980] (for comparison)

Generic Combinations

• Ninox boobook (Latham, 1801). —
  Schodde, R. & Mason, I.J. 1981. Nocturnal Birds of Australia. Illustrated by Jeremy Boot. Melbourne : Lansdowne Edns 136 pp. 22 pls. [publication dated as 1980]
• Ninox boobook boobook (Latham, 1801). —
  Higgins, P.J. (ed.) 1999. Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds. Parrots to Dollarbird. Melbourne : Oxford University Press Vol. 4.

Distribution

States

Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria

Extra Distribution Information

Coastal to near inland E Australia, north to headwaters of Burdekin and Lynd Rivers and adjacent coast, QLD—west to outer west foot-slopes of Great Dividing Range, QLD (Hughenden-Barcaldine-Charleville) through E Murray-Darling basin, NSW, VIC (Brewarrina, Condobolin, Narrandera, Mildura) to Murray Mallee, Mt Lofty-Flinders Ranges and Yorke Peninsula, SA—and south to southern VIC, also occasionally Kangaroo Is., SA, on winter dispersal. Introduced unsuccessfully on Lord Howe Is. between 1918–1930. Intergrades with N. b. ocellata (Bonaparte, 1850) from between the Burdekin and upper Mitchell, Gilbert, Flinders and Thomson Rivers, QLD south-west along eastern fringes of the Lake Eyre and Bulloo River basins through W Murray-Darling basin to the Flinders Range and head of Spencer Gulf, SA.

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IBRA

ACT, NSW, Qld, SA, Vic: Australian Alps (AA), Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Broken Hill Complex (BHC), Central Mackay Coast (CMC), Cobar Peneplain (CP), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Desert Uplands (DEU), Darling Riverine Plains (DRP), Einasleigh Uplands (EIU), Eyre Yorke Block (EYB), Flinders Lofty Block (FLB), Flinders (FLI), Gawler (GAW), Kanmantoo (KAN), Murray Darling Depression (MDD), Mulga Lands (ML), Nandewar (NAN), Naracoorte Coastal Plain (NCP), New England Tablelands (NET), NSW North Coast (NNC), NSW South Western Slopes (NSS), Riverina (RIV), Sydney Basin (SB), South East Coastal Plain (SCP), South East Corner (SEC), South Eastern Highlands (SEH), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Victorian Midlands (VM), Victorian Volcanic Plain (VVP), Wet Tropics (WT)

General References

Clancy, G.P. 1977. Boobook Owls in the Sydney District. Australian Birds 12: 12-13 [Mathews, G.M. 1925. The Birds of Australia. Supplements 4 & 5. Bibliography of the Birds of Australia Pts 1 & 2. London : H.F. & G. Witherby viii 149 pp. Waterhouse, F.H. 1885. The Dates of Publication of some of the Zoological Works of the late John Gould, F.R.S. London : R.H. Porter xi 59 pp. [Mathews, G.M. 1925. The Birds of Australia. Supplements 4 & 5. Bibliography of the Birds of Australia Pts 1 & 2. London : H.F. & G. Witherby viii 149 pp. Mathews, G.M. 1919. The Birds of Australia. London : Witherby & Co. Vol. 7 pt 5 pp. 385–499 + xii pls 363–370 Appendixes A & B (Appendix B)]] (movements, behaviour)

Fleay, D. 1926. Habits of the Boobook Owl. The Emu 26: 97-104 [Duncan, F.M. 1937. On the dates of publication of the Society's 'Proceedings', 1859–1926. With an appendix containing the dates of publication of 'Proceedings', 1830–1858, compiled by the late F.H. Waterhouse, and of the 'Transactions', 1833–1869, by the late Henry Peavot, originally published in P.Z.S. 1893, 1913. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 107: 71–84] (behaviour, voice, breeding)

Lea, A.M. & Gray, J.T. 1935. The food of Australian birds. An analysis of the stomach contents. The Emu 34: 275-292 (diet)

Norman, J.A., Christidis, L., Westerman, M. & Hill, F.A.R. 1998a. Molecular data confirms the species status of the Christmas Island Hawk-Owl Ninox natalis. The Emu 98: 197-208 (as N. novaeseelandiae boobook)

Norman, J.A., Olsen, P.D. & Christidis, L. 1998b. Molecular genetics confirms taxonomic affinities of the endangered Norfolk Island Boobook Ninox novaeseelandiae undulata. Biological Conservation 86: 33-36 (as N. novaeseelandiae boobook)

van Aperen, W. 1969. Notes on breeding Boobook Owls Ninox novaeseelandiae at Melbourne Zoo. International Zoo Yearbook 9: 130 (nidification)

History of changes