Ninox Spilonotus Bird

English Name:  Romblon Boobook
Latin Name:  Ninox spilonotus
Protonym:  Ninox spilonotus Occ.Pap.MinnesotaAcad.Nat.Sci. 1 no.1 p.8
Taxonomy:  Strigiformes / Strigidae / Ninox
Taxonomy Code:  romboo1
Type Locality:  Cebu, Sibuyan, Tablas and Mindoro.
Author:  Bourns & Worcester
Publish Year:  1894
IUCN Status:  Endangered

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.

spilonota / spilonotum / spilonotus
Gr. σπιλος spilos  spot; -νωτος -nōtos  -backed  < νωτον nōton  back.

SUBSPECIES

Romblon Boobook (spilonotus)
Latin Name: Ninox spilonotus spilonotus
spilonota / spilonotum / spilonotus
Gr. σπιλος spilos  spot; -νωτος -nōtos  -backed  < νωτον nōton  back.

Romblon Boobook (fisheri)
Latin Name: Ninox spilonotus fisheri
fisheri
● Dr Albert Kenrick Fisher (1856-1948) US ornithologist, collector, a founder of the AOU (subsp. Ammospiza maritima, syn. Glaucidium gnoma).
● Timothy H. Fisher (1947-2010) British ornithologist, pioneer birdwatcher resident in the Philippines 1974-2010 (subsp. Ninox spilonotus).
● William James Fisher (1830-1903) US/German trader in Alaska 1879-1894, naturalist, ethnographer, collector (syn. Pterodroma cookii).
● Prof. Harvey Irvin Fisher (1916-1994) US ornithologist (Sarcoramphus).