Papuan Boobook

SCI Name:  Ninox theomacha
Protonym:  Spiloglaux theomacha Compt.Rend. 41 p.654
Taxonomy:  Strigiformes / Strigidae / Ninox
Taxonomy Code:  junhao1
Type Locality:  Triton Bay, New Guinea.
Author:  Bonaparte
Publish Year:  1855
IUCN Status:  Least Concern

DEFINITIONS

NINOX
(Strigidae; Ϯ Brown Hawk Owl N. scutulata lugubris) Portmanteau of genera Nisus Cuvier, 1800, hawk, and Noctua de Savigny, 1809, owl; “Genus NINOX, nobis (a Niso et Noctua).   Type NINOX Nipalensis, nobis.   Character.—Bill, disc, conch, and feet as in Noctua.—General contour, with the character of the plumage, strictly falconidine.  Wings long and firm, 3d quill longest, 1st and 2d moderately gradated; the primes, pretty strongly emarginated high up from the tips; their edges, entirely or nearly so.  Tail long, straight and even.  Type, Ninox Nipalensis, nobis.  Habitat, central region of Nepal.  Habits, insectivorous and crepuscular.  The experienced Shikaree who brought me, recently, a fine male specimen of this bird, asked me, when he put it in my hand, whether it was a Baaz (hawk) or an Ulu (owl)? And the more I examined its graceful form, its unrelaxed plumage, its strong and ample wings and tail, and even its peculiar colouring, the greater reason did I perceive to admire the man’s acuteness of observation. It is an owl, undoubtedly, but the most accipitrine of owls; and, much as the peculiar attributes of Noctua had prepared me to expect, in or near this group of the Strigidæ, the type and symbol of the Accipitrinæ, I did not hope that the forests of Nepal would so soon yield that type to my own hands.*   SPECIES new, Nipalensis nobis.   ...   *I regret I have no species of Surnia wherewith to compare our bird. Surnia may possibly dispute with it the honour of typifying the nobler races of the Falconidæ: but the thickly plumed toes and wedged tail of Surnia, sufficiently indicate that our bird is not of that genus.” (Hodgson 1837); "Ninox Hodgson, Madras Journ. Lit. Sci., 5, 1837, p. 23. Type, by monotypy, Ninox nipalensis Hodgson = Strix lugubris Tickell." (Peters 1940, IV, 136).
Synon. Berneyornis, Cephaloglaux, Cephaloptynx, Ctenoglaux, Hieracoglaux, Rhabdoglaux, Rhodoglaux, Spiloglaux.

theomacha
Med. L. theomacha  witch  < Gr. θεομαχος theomakhos  fighting against the gods  < θεος theos  god; μαχομαι makhomai  to fight.

SUBSPECIES

Papuan Boobook (hoedtii)
SCI Name: Ninox theomacha hoedtii
hoedti / hoedtii
Dirk Samuel Hoedt (1815-1893) Dutch civil servant, collector, plantation owner in the East Indies 1853-1893 (Alopecoenas, subsp. Ninox theomacha, Rhipidura).

Papuan Boobook (theomacha)
SCI Name: Ninox theomacha theomacha
theomacha
Med. L. theomacha  witch  < Gr. θεομαχος theomakhos  fighting against the gods  < θεος theos  god; μαχομαι makhomai  to fight.

Papuan Boobook (goldii)
SCI Name: Ninox theomacha goldii
goldiei / goldii
Andrew Goldie (1840-1891) Scottish botanist, soldier of fortune, explorer, collector in New Guinea (subsp. Cinclosoma ajax, subsp. Macropygia amboinensis, syn. Melidora macrorrhina, subsp. Ninox theomacha, Psitteuteles).

Papuan Boobook (rosseliana)
SCI Name: Ninox theomacha rosseliana
rosseli / rosseliana / rosselianus
Rossel I. (= Yela), Louisiade Archipelago, New Guinea.