Solomons Boobook

SCI Name:  Ninox jacquinoti
Protonym:  Athene jacquinoti Consp.Gen.Av. 1 p.42
Taxonomy:  Strigiformes / Strigidae / Ninox
Taxonomy Code:  solhao1
Type Locality:  Oceania = St. George, Solomon Islands, ex Hombron and Jacquinot, Voy. Pole Sud., Zool., 3, 1853, p. 51.
Author:  Bonaparte
Publish Year:  1850
IUCN Status:  

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.

jacquinoti
Honoré Jacquinot (1815-1887) French surgeon-naturalist in the Pacific 1837-1840 (cf. his half-brother Vice-Adm. Charles-Hector Jacquinot (1796-1879) French explorer in the Pacific 1837-1840) (Ninox, Pachycephala (ex “Pie-grièche à masque noir” of Hombron & Jacquinot 1843)).

SUBSPECIES

Solomons Boobook (West Solomons)
SCI Name: Ninox jacquinoti [jacquinoti Group]
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.

Solomons Boobook (Guadalcanal)
SCI Name: Ninox jacquinoti granti
granti
● William Robert Ogilvie-Grant (1863-1924) English ornithologist at BMNH 1882-1918 (subsp. Acanthisitta chloris, subsp. Accipiter nisus, subsp. Aerodramus vanikorensis, syn. Alopecoenas beccarii solomonensis, subsp. Camaroptera chloronota, Horizocerus, syn. Lophura nycthemera, syn. Melaenornis pallida parvus, subsp. Microptilotis mimikae, subsp. Napothera epilepidota, syn. Neocossyphus poensis praepectoralis, Ninox, syn. Oriolus szalayi, syn. Pellorneum ruficeps olivaceum, Penelope, subsp. Ptiloprora plumbea, Ptilopsis, subsp. Rhipidura rufifrons (ex Rhipidura harterti Ogilvie-Grant), subsp. Sericornis spilodera, subsp. Sturnus vulgaris, Sula).
● Capt. Claude Henry Baxter Grant (1878-1958) British ornithologist at BMNH 1898-1903, 1932-1958, in East Africa 1916-1932 (subsp. Bradypterus lopezi, subsp. Crithagra mozambica, subsp. Cyanomitra olivacea, syn. Malimbus malimbicus, subsp. Phoeniculus damarensis, syn. Pyrenestes ostrinus minor, subsp. Sheppardia poensis, subsp. Smutsornis africanus, subsp. Terpsiphone viridis, subsp. Treron delalandii).
● Lt.-Col. James Augustus Grant (1827-1892) British Army, explorer with Speke in East Africa 1860-1863 (syn. Guttera pucherani).
● Robert Grant (1854-1923) Scottish miner and immigrant to Australia 1879, taxidermist at Australian Mus. 1887-1917, collector, explorer (subsp. Paradisaea raggiana).

Solomons Boobook (Malaita)
SCI Name: Ninox jacquinoti malaitae
malaitae
Malaita I., Solomon Is.

Solomons Boobook (Makira)
SCI Name: Ninox jacquinoti roseoaxillaris
roseoaxillaris
L. roseus  rosy  < rosa  rose; axillaris  of the armpit  < axilla  armpit, shoulder.