Historical bird plates

Gould, The Birds of Australia · Volume I, plate 33

Tasmanian Boobook

Printed “Spotted Owl”

Volume I, plate 33 of Gould's The Birds of Australia: Tasmanian Boobook (Ninox leucopsis)
Full resolutionSmithsonian Libraries and Archives, via the Biodiversity Heritage Library.

Printed on the plate

“Spotted Owl”

Athene maculata

Engraved caption: Athene maculata

The printed name is now eBird's name for another bird: Spotted Owl.

Modern identification

Tasmanian Boobook

Ninox leucopsis

  • Certain
  • Checked against the engraved caption
  • Owls · Strigidae

Why

Gould drew the plate from a live pair kept at Hobart: small, dark, heavily white-spotted boobooks with yellow eyes, the Tasmanian Boobook. eBird has split it since 2022. BirdNET still keeps it inside Morepork.

Sources

List of Plates (vol. I); engraved caption on the leaf; Gould's text and synonymy; the plate

Who made the plate

J. Gould and H. C. Richter del et lithHullmandel & Walton Imp

As the credit line gives it. More on who made these plates.