General names
Information is based on dictionaries and other sources. Species list may not be current. Comments and corrections welcome.
The most famous member of the family is the ウグイス uguisu (Cettia diphone), written with the Chinese character 鴬. ウグイス uguisu is also used in the names of other members of the Cettia.
Other names are:
| ヤブサメ yabu-same |
薮雨 or 薮鮫 'thicket rain' or 'thicket shark' ('thicket' looks plausible, but the second character in each is an ateji) |
Stubtail (Urosphena squameiceps) |
| センニュウ sennyū |
仙入 or 潜入 'fairy enter' or 'infiltrate enter' (both ateji). |
Grasshopper warblers |
| オオセッカ ō-sekka |
大雪加 or 大雪下 'large snow add' or 'large snow under' (the characters for sekka are ateji). |
Locustella pryeri. The sekka itself is the Zisting cisticola - Cisticola juncidis. |
| ヨシキリ yoshi-kiri |
葦切り 'reed cutter' |
Reed warblers |
| ムシクイ mushi-kui |
虫喰 'insect eater' |
Leaf warblers, flycatcher warblers, Sylvia |
Cettia diphone, the Bush Warbler or 鴬 uguisu, is often regarded as the Japanese equivalent of the nightingale. With its amazingly strong, clear song, it is a welcome harbinger of spring, for which it is season word in haiku. 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. Its song is less highly prized in the summer months, however, 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 season words for summer.
In Japanese haiku, the Reed Warblers or 葦切りyoshi-kiri, belonging to the genus Acrocephalus, are a season word for summer. The name is also written 葭切. Another name for the reed warblers found in haiku is ぎょうぎょうし gyōgyōshi (written 仰々し or 行行し).
The name ウグイス uguisu (鴬) is used in the word 鶯張り uguisu-bari ('nightingale 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.
Phylloscopus ijimae was named in 1892 by the U.S. ornithologist Stejneger. Although the scientific name suggests it was named after a Mr Ijima (井島 in Japanese), the Japanese common name indicates that this should be Iijima (飯島), with a long vowel. The species was named after the prominent nineteenth century Japanese biologist, Isao Iijima (1861-1921).
Species names
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子Floating Menu by Milonic |
Tool tips by Walter Zorn |
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