Scotocercidae
ウグイス科
uguisu ka

General

Information is from dictionaries and other sources. Species list may not be current. Korean glosses are tentative. Comments and corrections welcome. Hover over Green Lettering Green lettering at this site hides a tool tip with glosses, further explanations, etc. Hover cursor to reveal. to see additional information.

The Scotocercidae result from the break-up of the Sylviidae (Old World warblers) assemblage. (Other families arising from this break-up include the Locustellidae, Phylloscipidae, and Acrocephalidae, as well as part of the Sylviidae.)

1. The most famous member of the family is Horornis diphone or ウグイス uguisu, a bird celebrated in Japanese poetry for its beautiful song heralding the coming of spring. ウグイス uguisu is written with the Chinese character 鴬. By contrast, in Chinese 鶯 yīng was historically used for the oriole (more specifically, the Black-naped Oriole). It was applied to the ウグイス uguisu due to an identification as the Japanese poetic equivalent of the oriole. Japanese influence appears to be behind the modern use of 鶯 to refer to the warblers in Chinese.

The name ウグイス uguisu is also used for other members of the genius Horornis.

2. The other member of this family in Japan is ヤブサメ yabu-same, written 薮雨 or 薮鮫. The first written form means 'thicket rain'; the second 'thicket shark'. The second character in each combination appears to represent the pronunciation rather than any real meaning. 雨 ame 'rain' is normally read ame, but may be read -same in combination. The name has no accepted etymology, although one somewhat plausible explanation is that it derives from 薮 yabu 'thicket' plus さめく sameku, a verb meaning 'to be noisy'.

Family name

This family is often known as the Cettiidae, but the Howard and Moore 4th edition adopt Scotocercidae, from the genus Scotocerca, represented by one species (the Streaked Scrub Warbler) in the Middle East. This species is known in Japanese as スナチムシクイ suna-chi mushi-kui (literally 'sandy-ground insect eater'), but current preferred practice appears to be to use ウグイス uguisu for the family name. The old Sylviidae, traditionally known as the ウグイス科 uguisu-ka, are renamed the ダルマエナガ科 daruma-enaga ka.

Cultural:

Horornis diphone, the Bush Warbler or 鴬 uguisu, is often regarded as the Japanese nightingale. With its amazingly strong, clear song, it is a welcome harbinger of spring, for which it is a season word in haiku. The Japanese appropriation of the character 鶯 (historically meaning 'oriole' in Chinese) to write ウグイス uguisu appears to reflect a conscious identification of the uguisu as the Japanese cultural equivalent of the Chinese bird. The poetic function of the Bush Warbler can be seen in the large number of alternative names, such as 春告げ鳥 haru-tsuge-dori 'spring-announcing bird' and 匂鳥 nioi-dori 'fragrant bird'.

The Bush Warbler does not stop singing in spring, but its song is not so prized in the summer months, when it is unflatteringly referred to as an 'old warbler' (老鴬 oi-uguisu) or 'summer warbler' (夏鴬 natsu-uguisu), singing in its old age. These are haiku season words for summer.

The name ウグイス uguisu (鴬) is used in the word 鶯張り uguisu-bari ('uguisu floor'), a kind of floor found in traditional Japanese architecture that 'chirps' when you walk on it. The singing sound is produced as the clamps that fix the floorboards rub against holes in the floorboards when a person walks above. This kind of flooring was installed in castles and other structures (the most famous example perhaps being in Nijojo in Kyoto) to give warning of intruders.

The colour uguisu in Japanese refers to particular subdued shade of green that is actually rather different from the actual colour of the bird.

Species names

CETTIINAE
SCIENTIFIC & WESTERN		JAPANESE		CHINESE			KOREAN
Urosphena
Latin	Eng, Fr, Ger, Ru	Japanese	Other J	Chinese	Chinese (Taiwan)	Other Ch	Korean
Urosphena squameiceps Cettia squameiceps	Asian stubtail Scaly-headed stubtail Scaly-headed bush warbler Short-tailed bush warbler Bouscarle de Swinhoe Kurzschwanz-Buschsänger Короткохвостка	ヤブサメ (薮雨 ~ 薮鮫) yabu-same 'yabusame'	シオサザイ (塩鷦鷯) shio-sazai 'salt wren' (seems more plausible than 'tidal wren', using the character 潮 shio 'tide') カワリウグイス (変り鴬) kawari-uguisu 'variable warbler'	鳞头树莺 (鱗頭樹鶯) lín-tóu shù-yīng 'scale-headed tree-warbler'	(短尾莺) 短尾鶯 duǎn-wěi yīng 'short-tailed warbler'	白眉树莺 (白眉樹鶯) bái-méi shù-yīng 'white-eyebrowed tree-warbler' (31)	숲새 sup-sae 'forest bird'
Horornis
Latin	Eng, Fr, Ger, Ru	Japanese	Other J	Chinese	Chinese (Taiwan)	Other Ch	Korean
Horornis diphone Cettia diphone	Japanese bush warbler Japanese bush-warbler Singing bush warbler Bouscarle chanteuse Japan Buschsänger Короткокрылая камышевка	ウグイス (鴬) uguisu 'warbler'	ハルドリ (春鳥) haru-dori 'spring bird' ハルツゲドリ (春告げ鳥) haru-tsuge-dori 'spring-announcing bird' ハナミドリ (花見鳥) hana-mi-dori 'flower-viewing bird' ウタヨミドリ (歌詠み鳥) uta-yomi-dori 'poem-writing bird' キョウヨミドリ (経詠み鳥) kyō-yomi-dori 'sutra-reading bird' ニオイドリ (匂鳥) nioi-dori 'fragrant bird' ヒトクドリ (人来鳥) hitoku-dori 'person coming bird' モモチドリ (百千鳥) momochi-dori 'hundred-thousand bird' (means 'many birds') アタゴドリ (愛宕鳥) atago-dori 'Atago (place name) bird'	日本树莺 (日本樹鶯) rìběn shù-yīng 'Japanese tree-warbler'	(日本树莺) 日本樹鶯 rìběn shù-yīng 'Japanese tree-warbler'	Former Taiwan: 短翅树莺 (短翅樹鶯) duǎn-chì shù-yīng 'short-winged tree-warbler' (6) 树莺 (樹鶯) shù-yīng 'tree-warbler' 告春鸟 (告春鳥) gào chūn niǎo 'announce spring bird'	섬휘파람새 seom-hwiparam-sae 'island whistling bird'

The name セッカ sekka is used in Japanese for several small warbling birds in the Cisticolidae and Sylviidae (Megalurus and Phylloscopus). The etymology of the name is unknown. It is written with the characters 雪加 (literally 'snow-add') or 雪下 (literally 'snow-below'), which have been assigned on the basis of sound only and do not have any relation to meaning.

The characters used to write ヤブサメ yabu-same, 藪雨 or 藪鮫, mean 'thicket rain' or 'thicket shark' respectively. The second character in each appears to be used purely for its sound. The character 雨 is normally read ame ('rain'), but may be read -same in combination. The etymology of the name is unknown, although one conjecture is that it means 'be noisy in the thicket', using the verb さめく sameku 'to be noisy'.

The subspecies Cettia canturians borealis is given in the Korean birds list as:
휘파람새
hwiparam-sae
'whistling bird'

中国鸟类种和亚种分类名录大全（修订版） 郑作新 著 科学出版社 北京 2000年
A Complete Checklist of Species and Subspecies of the Chinese Birds (Revised Edition) by Cheng Tso-Hsin, Science Press, Beijing 2000

中国鸟类分类与分布名录 主编：郑光美 科学出版社 北京 2005年
A Checklist on the Classification and Distribution of the Birds of China Chief editor: Zheng Guangmei, Science Press, Beijing 2005

中国鸟类野外手册（中文版）约翰・马敬能、卡伦・菲利普斯，合作者：荷芬奇，翻译：卢和芬 湖南教育出版社 长沙 2000年
A Field Guide to the Birds of China (Chinese translation) by John MacKinnon, Karen Phillipps, in collaboration with He Fen-qi, translated by Lu Hefen, Hunan Jiaoyu Chubanshe (Hunan Educational Press) Changsha 2000

世界鸟类分类与分布名录 主编：郑光美 科学出版社 北京 2002年
A Checklist on the Classification and Distribution of the Birds of the World Chief editor: Zheng Guangmei, Science Press, Beijing 2002

世界鸟类名称（拉丁文、汉文、英文对照）第二版 郑作新等 科学出版社 北京 2002年
Birds of the World (Latin, Chinese and English Names) 2nd ed. by Cheng Tso-Hsin et al, Science Press, Beijing 2002

中国鸟类分布名录 第二版 郑作新 科学出版社 北京 1976年
(Checklist of the Classification of Birds of China 2nd edition by Cheng Tso-Hsin, Science Press, Beijing 1976)

香港及華南鳥類（第六版）（翻譯成中文及重新修訂） 尹璉、費嘉倫、林超英 香港性徵特區政府新聞處政府印務局 1994年
Birds of Hong Kong and South China (6th edition, translated into Chinese and newly revised) by Clive Viney, Karen Phillipps, Lin Chaoying, Hong Kong Govt. Press 1994

汉蒙名词术语分类词典（自然科学部分） Mongolian (Cyrillic): Хятад Монгол нэр томъёоны зүйл хуваасан толь (байгалийн шинжлэх ухааны бүлэг) (Chinese-Mongolian classified terminological dictionary, natural sciences part) by 《汉蒙名词术语分类词典》编纂委员会 Mongolian (Cyrillic): "Хятад Монгол нэр томъёоны зүйл хуваасан толь" найруулах комисс (Chinese-Mongolian classified terminological dictionary editorial committee), Inner Mongolian People's Press, Hohhot 1990