At 18:28 25/10/1999 +0100, Ken Tucker wrote:
>I was today looking through a friend's Handbook of the Birds of the World
>and was intrigued at their classification of Southern Boobook on Tassie.
Yes, Ken, some interesting thoughts offered to us from among our global
taxonomists when it comes to the humble Boobook.
>basically the small, common Ninox on the
>Australian mainland is referred to as Southern Boobook and that in New
>Zealand as Morepork both with different scientific names.
Ninox boobook and N. novaeseelandiae respectively.
HANZAB lists only N. novaeseelandiae but with 14 races. HBW lists ten races
under N. boobook and three under N. novaeseelandiae, including N.n.
leucopsis (the Tasmanian race) and N.n. undulata (Norfolk Island). Nominate
N.n. novaeseelandiae is noted as the New Zealand race. This gives a total
of 13 races, one less than HANZAB. They correspond in all except N.n.
albaria (the Lord Howe Island race). This last race is of course listed as
extinct which would account for its exclusion from HBW. Not that N.n.
undulata has any great claims to inclusion - the last endemic female expired
circa 1996 and now only hybrids (novaeseelandia/undulata) survive.
The exact taxonomic relationship between the Ninox remains unclear. While
HANZAB recognises only the one species for both Australia and New Zealand
(following Condon, 1975) others (eg Sibley & Monroe, 1990) split N.boobook
from N. novaeseelandiae. Yet other have opined that each of the populations
should be considered as a separate species. As many as 16 races have been
proposed (Peters) or as few as four (eg Schodde & Mason).
I suppose you pays your money and takes your pick.
Julian
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