Hai Collection, Middle Volume Radical: Bird (niǎo) Kangxi stroke count: 23 Page 1500, Entry 01 Tang Rhyme (Tangyun): Pronounced jiao. Collected Rhymes (Jiyun) and Rhyme Compilation (Yunhui): Pronounced jiao. Explaining Graphs and Analyzing Characters (Shuowen): The wren, a peach-colored insect-eating bird. Also known as the wren (jiaoliao). Commonly referred to as the yellow-necked sparrow, with a beak as sharp as an awl. Approaching Elegance (Erya), Explaining Birds: The peach-colored insect-eating bird is the wren; the female is named ai. Commentary: This wren is a tiny bird, yet it is believed to be able to give birth to large raptors such as the eagle or osprey. Book of Odes (Shijing), Odes of Zhou: One begins to trust that peach-colored bird; it exerts its strength to take flight. Lu Ji Commentary: It is the bird known today as the wren. It is smaller than a yellow sparrow, and its chicks are thought to transform into eagles; thus, the common saying goes that the wren gives birth to the eagle. Yangzi, Regional Speech (Fangyan): East of Hangu Pass, it is called the clever sparrow or the female artisan. West of Hangu Pass, it is called the stocking sparrow or the clever woman. In the region east of the Yangtze River, it is called the peach-colored insect-eating bird. Garden of Stories (Shuoyuan): The wren builds its nest on the flower spikes of reeds, tying them with strands of hair; it gathers the flower spikes of thatch grass to form the nest and sews them together with hemp threads, much like mending a sock. Note that jiaoliao is merely a variation of the same sound. It is the most skilled among small birds at nest building. Broad Rhymes (Guangyun): The jiaoming is a divine bird of the south. Diagrams of Musical Leaf Omens (Leye Tu Zheng): The jiaoming resembles a phoenix. Sometimes also written in a variant form (jiao). Yangzi, Model Sayings (Fayan): The jiaoming fly down in flocks to perch.