| \BOO-book, -book\ | noun
1. a small, reddish-brown spotted owl, Ninox boobook, native to Australia and New Zealand. | | Quotes | It has large, staring eyes that are brilliant yellow, not greenish-toned as in Southern Boobook, which usually displays obvious dark markings (rather like black-eye bruises) around the eyes that are absent in the larger Barking Owl.
-- Iain Campbell, Sam Woods, Nick Leseberg, Birds of Australia, 2014 | | Origin | | Boobook comes from Dharuk, a now-extinct Australian aboriginal language. The word is said to be imitative of the sound the bird makes. | |
