Morepork Synopsis of Birds", but did not give it a binomial name. German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin described the morepork in 1788. "Morepork" has been designated the official name by the International Ornithological Committee. Both Gerlof Fokko Mees and Ernst Mayr regarded the taxonomy of the boobook owl as extremely challenging, the latter remarking in 1943 that it was "one of the most difficult problems I have ever encountered". In his 1968 book "Nightwatchmen of the Bush and Plain", Australian naturalist David Fleay observed that the boobooks from Tasmania more closely resembled those of New Zealand than those from mainland Australia,
Failure to refer Failure to refer Failure to refer, also reference failure or failure of reference, is the concept that names can fail to name a real object. According to Bertrand Russell's theory of truth, there is only one actual world, and a statement's truth value depends on whether the statement obtains in the actual world. Continuing the tradition of Gottlob Frege, Bertrand Russell posited that a name picks out, or refers to, a real object in the world (Russell's correspondence theory of truth). The name "Genghis Khan" thus picks out the 12th and 13th century Mongol leader we know by that name.