G'day Carl & Birding Aus Contributors
The name Ninox novaehollandiae goes back a long way, to Gmelin in
fact in 1788 when he named the Boobook. It was used by Buller in
1888 in his Birds of New Zealand where he states
"... ranges to New Guinea, Australia and Norfolk and Lord Howe
Islands. There are various subspecies in
Australia where it is known as the Boobook Owl and occasionally
also as 'Mopoke', although the latter
name is often applied through confusion of the birds' calls to
another nocturnal species, the Tawny
Frogmouth."
That name has continued to be used for the NZ birds. (fide Readers
Digest Complete Book of New Zealand Birds1985, and Falla Sibson &
Turbott (1979) The New Guide to the Birds of New Zealand).
The rest of the world has tended to call the bird Ninox
novaeseelandiae (fide Howard & Moore 1980) for a long time. Even my
old Caley 1959 edition uses novae-zeelandiae.
Scientific names are not as stable or as consistent as some would
have you believe. The Gulls in NZ and Aus is another confused case
and if you want to see more look at the file called Alternative bird
names at birdsofmelanesia.net
List are just lists and names are just names reflecting individuals
knowledge and biases, none are the ultimate truth.
Have fun
Mike
Michael Tarburton
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On 27/01/2008, at 4:30 PM, Carl Clifford wrote:
Dear all,
I am reading the latest issue of the Oriental Bird Club's journal
BirdingASIA at the moment. In a letter to the editor by the authors
of an article from a previous edition there is a mention of a
species of Ninox, "New Zealand Morepork Ninox novaehollandiae".
Is this a taxonomic change that missed Christidis & Boles 2007? I
have done a search on the net and trawled through my own references
and can find no mention. Can any Birding-Ausers shed any light?
Cheers,
Carl Clifford
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