AustLit

'There are just three birds whose scientific (Linnæan) name draws on a word of an Australian language. The first and last described are Ninox boobook (Latham 1801) Southern Boobook owl, and Petroica (Muscicapa) boodang (Lesson 1837) Scarlet Robin. Although neither the type descriptions nor Fraser & Gray (2013: 151, 256) specify the source language, from earlier records we can be confident that both species’ names are from the Sydney Language (also known as Eora or Dharug, not spoken as a first language since the 19th century). Boobook, as can be seen from the common name, has survived in Australian English, presumably assisted by its onomatopœia; it was first recorded as Bōkbōk ‘An owl’ in the vocabulary noted by Lieutenant William Dawes in 1790-91, the early English colony at Sydney (Dawes & Anonymous 2009: Notebook b, 3). The word behind the species of P. boodang was first recorded in the caption ‘Crimson-breasted Warbler, native name Bood-dang’ (Port Jackson Painter [between 1788 and 1797]).  (Introduction)