Corvinae 4

The distribution of the Corvinae in East Asia can be found at Tzung-Su Ding's Distribution of Corvinae in East Asia.

1. Howard and Moore 2003 change the scientific name of Corvus torquata to C. pectoralis as the former is preoccupied by C. monedula torquata.

2. Pseudopodoces humilis (Hume's groundpecker) now appears to have been placed with the Paridae.

3. The Eurasian jay (Garrulus glandarius) is also known as the 橿鸟 jiāng-niǎo or 㭴鸟 jiān-niǎo in Chinese. Both are from the Japanese word kashi-dori 'oak bird'. Kashi or 'oak' may be written either 橿 or 樫 in Japanese, the only difference being that 樫 is a home-grown Japanese character not originally found in Chinese. By borrowing the word in two different forms, Chinese gets two different pronunciations -- in effect two different words! This usage is now mainly confined to Taiwan, although it can be found in Mainland English-Chinese dictionaries, whence it finds its way into Chinese translations of English literature.

4. Taiwan also uses the term 山娘 shān-niáng for Urocissa caerulea, the Formosan blue magpie. This is probably another borrowing from Japanese. In Chinese, however, instead of meaning 'mountain daughter' or 'mountain girl' as it does in Japanese, it means 'mountain mother'.

5. The splitting of the jackdaws into two species, C. monedula and C. dauuricus, has had conflicting results.

• Japanese uses コクマルガラス koku-maru garasu for the locally occurring C. dauuricus and assigns a new name, ニシコクマルガラス nishi koku-maru garasu or 'western jackdaw', to C. monedula.
• In Taiwan, the original Chinese word for 'jackdaw', 寒鴉 hán-yā, is used for the local C. dauuricus. Since C. monedula does not occur in Taiwan, the question of what to call it does not arise.
• Mainland ornithologists have taken the opposite tack. The age-old name 寒鸦 hán-yā has been transferred to C. monedula, a bird that occurs only in the far west of China. The species C. dauuricus has been given the new name 达乌里寒鸦 Dáwūlǐ hán-yā. It is hard to see the wisdom of this decision, whether on grounds of historical usage (寒鸦 hán-yā is mentioned in the 1596 'Compendium of Chinese Materia Medica' and could only have referred to C. dauurica, a bird found in the populous eastern part of China) or popular usage, which is unlikely ever to accept 达乌里寒鸦 Dáwūlǐ hán-yā as the name for the common local jackdaw. This decision seems to have been made on grounds of international rather than local usage.

6. The 'Far Eastern English-Chinese Dictionary', published in Taiwan, gives 金鶯 jīn-yīng ('golden warbler') as the equivalent of English 'oriole'.

7. The Mainland Chinese names separate the minivets and cuckoo shrikes strictly according to species (Coracina, Pericrocotus, and Hemipus). The name used in Chinese and Japanese for the minivets, 'prickly-ash eater', was probably borrowed from one language to the other (direction not clear, possibly from Japanese to Chinese).

Vietnamese has come up with a very economical system of names for the minivets which recycles a small number of descriptors indicating colour, size, etc.

2. The Magpie, known as the 'auspicious magpie' or 喜鹊 xǐ-què is regarded as an auspicious bird in China. In Chinese legend, magpies formed a bridge for the two lovers in heaven (the stars Altair and Vega) to meet once a year.

3. The Chinese expression 天下乌鸦一般黑 tiānxià wūyā yìbān hēi, meaning 'Crows under heaven (in the world) are all black', refers to the fact that evil people are evil wherever you find them.

4. In Japanese haiku, the Jackdaw is known as the かんがらす kan-garasu (寒鴉) or 'cold crow', also ふゆがらす fuyu-garasu (冬鴉) 'winter crow'. It is a season word for winter. As winter became colder the Jackdaw ventured near human habitation and made a pest of itself in its search for food.