Morepork though he followed Mees in treating them as a single species. Janette Norman and colleagues tested the cytochrome "b" DNA of three subspecies (as well as the powerful and rufous owls) to ascertain whether the closest relative was used in breeding with the last surviving female of the Norfolk boobook. They discovered that although the Norfolk boobook was similar in plumage to the Tasmanian boobook, it was genetically much closer to the New Zealand subspecies. In fact, the two were so close genetically that they considered whether the Norfolk boobook should be recognised as a separate taxon at all, although
Southern boobook Australia", Gould recognised three species, all of which he placed in the genus "Spiloglaux": "S. marmoratus" from South Australia, "S. boobook", which is widespread across the Australian mainland and Tasmania, and "S. maculatus" from southeastern Australia and Tasmania. Meanwhile, in India, English naturalist Brian Houghton Hodgson had established the genus "Ninox" in 1837, and his countryman Edward Blyth placed the southern boobook in the new genus in 1849. "Southern boobook" has been designated the official name by the International Ornithological Committee. The common name comes from the two-tone call of the bird, and has also been transcribed as "mopoke". William