一切經音義 65.202

65.202

翡翠 [fěicuì, kingfisher] (fanqie: [夗-夕+月] [yuàn] / 畏 [wèi]; 且 [qiě] / 醉 [zuì]. The male, which is red, is called fěi; the female, which is blue-green, is called cuì. It comes from Yulin. The Nanfang yiwu zhi says: 'The fěi is larger than a swallow and smaller than a crow; its waist and body are entirely black, with red feathers only on the breast, back, and behind the wings. The cuì is greenish-yellow throughout its entire body, with feathers over an inch long only on its primary wing feathers; when they fly, their wings cry fěi-fěi and cuì-cuì, and hence they are named after this.' The Zizhi says: 'In the south, people catch them by waiting until they hatch chicks and their nests gradually sag down, then catching them; they catch them all for their plumage').