BOOBOOK OWL. 
In the Second Supplement to the Synopsis, Latham (p. 64, 1801) described 
the “ Boobook 0(wl). Size of the Brown Owl, and at first sight somewhat 
resembles it, especially on the upper parts, but marked with yellow streaks on 
the head, and with spots of the same on the back ; the chin and throat are 
yellow, streaked and spotted with rufous ; belly ferruginous, with pale 
irregular spots and markings ; thighs and legs covered with yellow downy 
feathers marked with black ; toes of a brownish red ; the bill is small and 
dusky. 
“ This inhabits New Holland, where it is known by the name of Boohook.^^ 
This Latham himself Latinised in the Index Orn. Suppl. II., p. xv., 1801, 
under the name “ Str{ix) boobook ” thus : “ S. capite Isevi, corpore supra 
fusco subtus ferrugineo longitudinaliter maculate. 
“ Boobook Owl, Gen. Syn. Sup. II., p. 64, No. 14. 
“ Habitat in Nova Hollandia, magnitudine Stridiilce : corpus supra 
fusco-ferrugineum maculis flavescentibus : gula flava rufo maculata.” 
This description is not good, though the name has been accepted without 
question for a small Owl certainly not the size “ of the Brown Owl.” As 
quoted above, Latham gives no clue to the origin of his species and it seems 
doubtful whence he described it. The description appears among the large 
number prepared from the Lambert or Watling Drawings, and consequently 
Sharpe {Hist. Coll. Brit. Mus. (Nat. Hist.), Vol. II., p. 112, 1906), dealing 
with the Watling Drawings, has written : “ No. 24. Watling’s note is : ‘ This 
bird is about the size of the common English owl. Native name Boo-book.^ 
The figure is the type of the species {Strix boobook), Latham’s name having 
been founded upon it.” This is probably correct, and the figure may 
represent the Owl commonly so known, but still it is not a good picture of 
this species. 
When Vigors and Horsfield worked through the Linnean Society’s 
collection of Australian Birds {Trans. Linn. Soc. (Lond.), Vol. XV., 1827) 
they admitted, p. 188, Noctua boobook ex Latham, giving this note: “The 
native name of this bird, as Mr. Caley informs us, is BucFbuck. It may be 
heard nearly every night during winter uttering a cry corresponding with 
that word. Although this cry is known to everyone, yet the bird itself is 
known but to few, and it cost me considerable time and trouble before I 
could satisfy myself respecting its identity. The note of the bird is somewhat 
similar to that of the European cuckoo, and the colonists have hence given 
it that name. The lower order of the settlers in New South Wales are led away 
by the idea that everything is the reverse in that country to what it is in 
England : and the cuckoo, as they call this bird, singing by night, is one of 
the instances which they point out. The irides are yellow. In his references 
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