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| Who's ass is this? |
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| Mine! Humans named me as White-throated Laughingthrush |
Family Leiotrichidae
(In many articels, it is written as Leiothrichidae but I followed HBW editor Andy Elliot's comment.)
Spotted in Thimphu, Bhutan in April, 2018
Foraging on the grass with a flock size of 10.
A female rufous-throated thrush [Turdus ruficollis] and a pair of white-collared blackbird [Turdus albocinctus] were also hanging out with them.
I was very much charmed by the whole package: the color, the body composition, the way of walking/leaping, and the stare!
While thinking about its name (laughingthrush), I just realized that no bird in Korea has a common name describing "laughing" voice or face.
There are several common bird names in English containing "laughing", which mostly describes its loud or capricious voice, which is perceived as laughter by humans.
For example, Laughing Kookaburra, Laughing falcon, Laughing dove, Laughing owl, or Laughing gull.
Of course, the exact same species do not occurr in Korea.
But I wonder why I cannot remember any birds having cheerful name in Korean.
Another interesting fact is that birds "sing" not "cry or weep" in English speaking countries but in Korea, we say birds "cry" (울다).
According to the dictionary, 울다 has several meanings including 'to shed tears', 'to make a sound or call' or 'to mourn.'
Even though the term 울다 was originally given for a sound or calling made by birds without any emotional background, the term was later used for bird's vocalization under the context of mournful or melancholy singing in many Korean literatures.
And I can cite several strange Korean bird names of which origins are based on sad stories.
For example, Oriental Scops Owl [Otus sunia] is called as 소쩍새 (sozzoek bird) in Korean and it has a very abusive, grotesque background story, which I will introduce below.
In German, it is called as Orient-Zwergohreule, meaning a Oriental dwarf-horned Owl.
In Chinese, it is called as 红角鸮, meaning a Red-horned Owl.
In Polish, it is called syczek indyjski, meaning an Indian Scops Owl. In Polish, syczeć means to hiss.
I see the names of Oriental Scops Owl in other languages are mostly based on the bird's appearance or its voice.
The Korean name 소쩍새 is also based on its sound but it is not just a simple mimicry of the bird vocalization.
According to an old story passed down from many generations, Scops Owl is a reincarnation of a lady who died of starvation.
Here is the short story.
Long long ago, a lady who was hated by her mother-in-law died of starvation because her vicious mother-in-law gave her a small pot to cook rice.
Here is the short story.
Long long ago, a lady who was hated by her mother-in-law died of starvation because her vicious mother-in-law gave her a small pot to cook rice.
In old days, Korean ladies followed a certain rule that the rice bowls for male or old households should be prepared first.
If still the rice was left in the pot after alloting it to men's or the elderly's bowls, ladies could put the remainig portion to their bowls.
So sad and discriminating culture!
Anyway, the mother-in-law in the story maliciously used this custom to make her daughter-in-law starved to death.
The dead lady's poor soul turned into an owl and started shouting "sochi zoegda", which meant "the pot is small!"
Later the sound was abbreviated as sozzoeg 소쩍 and it became the name of 소쩍bird (소쩍새).
Both in Korea and China, Scops Owl and Lesser Cuckoo [Cuculus poliocephalus] were roughly regarded as a same bird although scientifically they belong to different Families.
There is a similar story rleated with Lesser Cuckoo as well.
Lesser Cuckoo is generally called 두견새 but it has another name 쪽박새.
According to an old story, 쪽박새 (ZZogbag Bird) got its name based on its singing pattern consisting of 6 notes, which sounded like six-character phrase "쪽쪽 쪽바꿔줘", meaing "Please change 쪽박.
쪽박 (sounds like ZZogbag) is a kind of spoon generally made of hard-shelled fruit of guard and it is used to scoop something.
A mother-in-law who hated her daughter-in-law gave her a small 쪽박 for scooping rice from the jar.
Following mother-in-law's instruction, the daughter-in-law prepared the cooked rice.
However, mother-in-law scolded her for the small volume of rice (probably the number of scoops the poor lady could make from the rice jar might have been defined by her mother-in-law).
Reaching her limit of tolerance to her mother-in-law's harrassment, the daughter-in-law died and turned into a cuckoo shouting 쪽쪽 쪽바꿔줘 (please change 쪽박).
Reference:
Korean ancestors, hearing owl or cuckoo sound in the forest late at night, they concocted such disheartening stories.
If I could travel back in time, I would never choose to be a woman!
Those simple stories by ordinary people show indirectly how arduous and difficult the lives of simple people were in old days.
And the women's miserable social status!
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