title: "Pont du Gard" content: expensive) in the amount of materials it requires. Later aqueducts had a more sophisticated design, making greater use of concrete to reduce their volume and cost of construction. The Aqueduct bridge of Segovia and the Pont de les Ferreres are of roughly similar length but use far fewer arches. Roman architects were eventually able to do away with "stacking" altogether. The Acueducto de los Milagros in Mérida, Spain and the Chabet Ilelouine aqueduct bridge, near Cherchell, Algeria utilise tall, slender piers, constructed from top to bottom with concrete-faced masonry and brick. The construction of the aqueduct has long been credited


title: "Pont du Gard" content: to the Roman emperor Augustus' son-in-law and aide, Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, around the year 19 BC. At the time, he was serving as aedile, the senior magistrate responsible for managing the water supply of Rome and its colonies. Espérandieu, writing in 1926, linked the construction of the aqueduct with Agrippa's visit to Narbonensis in that year. Newer excavations suggest the construction may have taken place between 40 and 60 AD. Tunnels dating from the time of Augustus had to be bypassed by the builders of the Nîmes aqueduct, and coins discovered in the outflow in Nîmes are no older than


title: "Pont du Gard" content: the reign of the emperor Claudius (41–54 AD). On this basis, a team led by Guilhem Fabre has argued that the aqueduct must have been completed around the middle of the 1st century AD. It is believed to have taken about fifteen years to build, employing between 800 and 1,000 workers. From the 4th century onwards, the aqueduct's maintenance was neglected as successive waves of invaders disrupted the region. It became clogged with debris, encrustations and plant roots, greatly reducing the flow of the water. The resulting deposits in the conduit, consisting of layers of dirt and organic material, are


title: "Pont du Gard" content: up to thick on each wall. An analysis of the deposits originally suggested that it had continued to supply water to Nîmes until as late as the 9th century, but more recent investigations suggest that it had gone out of use by about the sixth century, though parts of it may have continued to be used for significantly longer. Although some of its stones were plundered for use elsewhere, the Pont du Gard remained largely intact. Its survival was due to its use as a toll bridge across the valley. In the 13th century the French king granted the seigneurs


title: "Pont du Gard" content: of Uzès the right to levy tolls on those using the bridge. The right later passed to the Bishops of Uzès. In return, they were responsible for maintaining the bridge in good repair. However, it suffered serious damage during the 1620s when Henri, Duke of Rohan made use of the bridge to transport his artillery during the wars between the French royalists and the Huguenots, whom he led. To make space for his artillery to cross the bridge, the duke had one side of the second row of arches cut away to a depth of about one-third of their original


title: "Pont du Gard" content: thickness. This left a gap on the lowest deck wide enough to accommodate carts and cannons, but severely weakened the bridge in the process. In 1703 the local authorities renovated the Pont du Gard to repair cracks, fill in ruts and replace the stones lost in the previous century. A new bridge was built by the engineer Henri Pitot in 1743–47 next to the arches of the lower level, so that the road traffic could cross on a purpose-built bridge. The novelist Alexandre Dumas was strongly critical of the construction of the new bridge, commenting that "it was reserved for


title: "Pont du Gard" content: the eighteenth century to dishonour a monument which the barbarians of the fifth had not dared to destroy." The Pont du Gard continued to deteriorate and by the time Prosper Mérimée saw it in 1835 it was at serious risk of collapse from erosion and the loss of stonework. Napoleon III, who had a great admiration for all things Roman, visited the Pont du Gard in 1850 and took a close interest in it. He approved plans by the architect Charles Laisné to repair the bridge in a project which was carried out between 1855–58, with funding provided by the


title: "Pont du Gard" content: Ministry of State. The work involved substantial renovations that included replacing the eroded stone, infilling some of the piers with concrete to aid stability and improving drainage by separating the bridge from the aqueduct. Stairs were installed at one end and the conduit walls were repaired, allowing visitors to walk along the conduit itself in reasonable safety. There have been a number of subsequent projects to consolidate the piers and arches of the Pont du Gard. It has survived three serious floods over the last century; in 1958 the whole of the lower tier was submerged by a giant flood


title: "Pont du Gard" content: that washed away other bridges, and in 1998 another major flood affected the area. A further flood struck in 2002, badly damaging nearby installations. The Pont du Gard was added to UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites in 1985 on the criteria of "Human creative genius; testimony to cultural tradition; significance to human history". The description on the list states: "The hydraulic engineers and ... architects who conceived this bridge created a technical as well as artistic masterpiece." The Pont du Gard has been a tourist attraction for centuries. The outstanding quality of the bridge's masonry led to it becoming


title: "Pont du Gard" content: an obligatory stop for French journeymen masons on their traditional tour around the country (see Compagnons du Tour de France), many of whom have left their names on the stonework. From the 18th century onwards, particularly after the construction of the new road bridge, it became a famous staging-post for travellers on the Grand Tour and became increasingly renowned as an object of historical importance and French national pride. The bridge has had a long association with French monarchs seeking to associate themselves with a symbol of Roman imperial power. King Charles IX of France visited in 1564 during his


title: "Pont du Gard" content: Grand Tour of France and was greeted with a grand entertainment laid on by the Duc d'Uzès. Twelve young girls dressed as nymphs came out of a cave by the riverside near the aqueduct and presented the king with pastry and preserved fruits. A century later, Louis XIV and his court visited the Pont du Gard during a visit to Nîmes in January 1660 shortly after the signature of the Treaty of the Pyrenees. In 1786 his great-great-great-grandson Louis XVI commissioned the artist Hubert Robert to produce a set of paintings of Roman ruins of southern France to hang in


title: "Pont du Gard" content: the king's new dining room at the Palace of Fontainebleau, including a picture depicting the Pont du Gard in an idealised landscape. The commission was meant to reassert the ties between the French monarchy and the imperial past. Napoleon III, in the mid-19th century, consciously identified with Augustus and accorded great respect to Roman antiquities; his patronage of the bridge's restoration in the 1850s was essential to its survival. By the 1990s the Pont du Gard had become a hugely popular tourist attraction but was congested with traffic – vehicles were still allowed to drive over the 1743 road bridge


title: "Pont du Gard" content: – and was cluttered with illegally built structures and tourist shops lining the river banks. As the architect Jean-Paul Viguier put it, the "appetite for gain" had transformed the Pont du Gard into "a fairground attraction". In 1996 the General Council of the Gard "département" began a major four-year project to improve the area, sponsored by the French government, in conjunction with local sources, UNESCO and the EU. The entire area around the bridge was pedestrianised and a new visitor centre was built on the north bank to a design by Jean-Paul Viguier. The redevelopment has ensured that the area


title: "Pont du Gard" content: around the Pont du Gard is now much quieter due to the removal of vehicle traffic, and the new museum provides a much improved historical context for visitors. The Pont du Gard is today one of France's top five tourist attractions, with 1.4 million visitors reported in 2001. Since it became a tourist destination, many novelists and writers have visited the Pont du Gard and written of the experience. Jean-Jacques Rousseau was overwhelmed when he first visited it in 1738: The novelist Henry James, visiting in 1884, was similarly impressed; he described the Pont du Gard as "unspeakably imposing, and


title: "Pont du Gard" content: nothing could well be more Roman." He commented: The mid-19th-century writer Joseph Méry wrote in his 1853 book "Les Nuits italiennes, contes nocturnes" that on seeing the Pont du Gard: Hilaire Belloc wrote in 1928 that: Pont du Gard The Pont du Gard is an ancient Roman aqueduct that crosses the Gardon River near the town of Vers-Pont-du-Gard in southern France. The Pont du Gard, built as three tiers of archways to bring water to the city of Nîmes, is the highest of all elevated Roman aqueducts, and one of the best preserved. It was added to UNESCO's list of


title: "Common crane" content: Common crane The common crane ("Grus grus"), also known as the Eurasian crane, is a bird of the family Gruidae, the cranes. A medium-sized species, it is the only crane commonly found in Europe besides the demoiselle crane ("Anthropoides virgo"). Along with the sandhill ("Grus canadensis") and demoiselle cranes and the brolga ("Grus rubicunda"), it is one of only four crane species not currently classified as threatened with extinction or conservation dependent on the species level. The first formal description of the common crane was by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his "Systema


title: "Common crane" content: Naturae" under the binomial name "Ardea grus". The current genus "Grus" was erected by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760. "Grus" is the Latin word for a "crane". The common crane is a large, stately bird and a medium-sized crane. It is long with a wingspan. The body weight can range from , with the nominate subspecies averaging around and the eastern subspecies ("G. g. lilfordi") averaging . Among standard measurements, the wing chord is long, the tarsus is and the exposed culmen is . This species is slate-grey overall. The forehead and lores are blackish with a


title: "Common crane" content: bare red crown and a white streak extending from behind the eyes to the upper back. The overall colour is darkest on the back and rump and palest on the breast and wings. The primaries, the tips of secondaries, the alula, the tip of the tail, and the edges of upper tail coverts are all black and the greater coverts droop into explosive plumes. This combination of colouration ultimately distinguishes it from similar species in Asia, like the hooded ("G. monacha") and black-necked cranes ("G. nigricollis"). The juvenile has yellowish-brown tips to its body feathers and lacks the drooping wing


title: "Common crane" content: feathers and the bright neck pattern of the adult, and has a fully feathered crown. Every two years, before migration, the adult common crane undergoes a complete moult, remaining flightless for six weeks, until the new feathers grow. It has a loud trumpeting call, given in flight and display. The call is piercing and can be heard from a considerable distance. It has a dancing display, leaping with wings uplifted, described in detail below. This species is found in the northern parts of Europe and Asia. Formerly the species was spread as far west as Ireland, but about 200 years


title: "Common crane" content: ago, it became extinct there. However, it has since started to return to Ireland naturally and there are now plans to help it return to Ireland on a greater scale. The common crane is an uncommon breeder in southern Europe, smaller numbers breeding in Greece, former-Yugoslavia, Romania, Denmark and Germany. Larger breeding populations can be found in Scandinavia, especially Finland and Sweden. The heart of the breeding population for the species is in Russia, however, where possibly up to 100,000 cranes of this species can be found seasonally. In Russia, it is distributed as a breeder from the Ukraine region


title: "Common crane" content: to the Chukchi Peninsula. The breeding population extends as far south as Manchuria but almost the entire Asian breeding population is restricted to Russia. Approximately 48-50 breeding pairs exist in the UK, with population centres in Somerset and Norfolk. The species is a long distance migrant predominantly wintering in northern Africa. Autumn migration is from August to October and spring migration is in March through May. Important staging areas occur anywhere from Sweden and Germany to China (with a large one around the Caspian Sea) and many thousand cranes can be seen in one day in the Autumn. Some birds


title: "Common crane" content: winter in southern Europe, including Portugal, Spain and France. Most eastern common cranes winter in the river valleys of Sudan, Ethiopia, Tunisia and Eritrea with smaller numbers in Turkey, northern Israel, Iraq and parts of Iran. The third major wintering region is in the northern half of Indian subcontinent, including Pakistan. Minimal wintering also occurs in Burma, Vietnam and Thailand. Lastly, they winter in eastern China, where they are often the most common crane (outnumbering black-necked cranes ten-to-one). Migrating flocks fly in a "V" formation. It is a rare visitor to Japan and Korea, mostly blown over from the Chinese


title: "Common crane" content: wintering population, and is a rare vagrant to western North America, where birds are occasionally seen with flocks of migrating sandhill cranes. In Europe, the common crane predominantly breeds in boreal and taiga forest and mixed forests, from an elevation of sea-level to . In northern climes, it breeds in treeless moors, on bogs, or on dwarf heather habitats, usually where small lakes or pools are also found. In Sweden, breeders are usually found in small, swampy openings amongst pine forests, while in Germany, marshy wetlands are used. Breeding habitat used in Russia are similar, though they can be found


title: "Common crane" content: nesting in less likely habitat such as steppe and even semi-desert, so long as water is near. Primarily, the largest number of common cranes are found breeding in wooded swamps, bogs and wetlands and seem to require quiet, peaceful environs with minimal human interference. They occur at low density as breeders even where common, typically ranging from 1 to 5 pairs per . In winter, this species moves to flooded areas, shallow sheltered bays, and swampy meadows. During the flightless moulting period there is a need for shallow waters or high reed cover for concealment. Later, after the migration period,


title: "Common crane" content: the birds winter regularly in open country, often on cultivated lands and sometimes also in savanna-like areas, for example on the Iberian Peninsula. The common crane is omnivorous, as are all cranes. It largely eats plant matter, including roots, rhizomes, tubers, stems, leaves, fruits and seeds. They also commonly eat, when available, pond-weeds, heath berries, peas, potatoes, olives, acorns, cedarnuts and pods of peanuts. Notably amongst the berries consumed, the cranberry, is possibly named after the species. Animal foods become more important during the summer breeding season and may be the primary food source at that time of year, especially


title: "Common crane" content: while regurgitating to young. Their animal foods are insects, especially dragonflies, and also snails, earthworms, crabs, spiders, millipedes, woodlice, amphibians, rodents, and small birds. Common cranes may either forage on land or in shallow water, probing around with their bills for any edible organism. Although crops may locally be damaged by the species, they mostly consume waste grain in winter from previously harvested fields and so actually benefit farmers by cleaning fields for use in the following year. As with other cranes, all foraging (as well as drinking and roosting) is done in small groups, which may variously consist of


title: "Common crane" content: pairs, family groups or winter flocks. This species usually lays eggs in May, though seldom will do so earlier or later. Like most cranes, this species displays indefinite monogamous pair bonds. If one mate dies, a crane may attempt to court a new mate the following year. Although a pair may be together for several years, the courtship rituals of the species are enacted by every pair each spring. The dancing of common cranes has complex, social meanings and may occur at almost any time of year. Dancing may include bobs, bows, pirouettes, and stops, as in various crane species.


title: "Common crane" content: Aggressive displays may include ruffled wing feathers, throwing vegetation in the air and pointing the bare red patch on their heads at each other. Courtship displays begin with a male following the female in a stately, march-like walk. The unison call, consists of the female holding her head up and gradually lowering down as she calls out. The female calls out a high note and then the male follows with a longer scream in a similar posture. Copulation consists of a similar, dramatic display. The nesting territory of common cranes is variable and is based on the local habitat. It


title: "Common crane" content: can range in size from variously . In common with sandhill cranes (and no other crane species), common cranes "paint" their bodies with mud or decaying vegetation, apparently in order to blend into their nesting environment. The nest is either in or very near shallow water, often with dense shore vegetation nearby, and may be used over several years. The size and placement of the nest varies considerably over the range, with Arctic birds building relatively small nests. In Sweden, an average nest is around across. The clutch of the common crane usually contains two eggs, with seldom one laid


title: "Common crane" content: and, even more rarely, 3 or 4. If a clutch is lost early in incubation, the cranes may be able to lay another one within a couple of weeks. The incubation period is around 30 days and is done primarily by the female but occasionally by both sexes. If humans approach the nest both parents may engage in a distraction display but known ground predators (including domestic dogs ("Canis lupus familiaris")) are physically attacked almost immediately. New hatchlings are generally quite helpless but are able to crawl away from danger within a few hours, can swim soon after hatching and


title: "Common crane" content: can run with their parents at 24 hours old. Chicks respond to danger by freezing, using their camouflaged brownish down to defend them beyond their fierce parents. Young chicks use their wings to stabilise them while running, while by 9 weeks of age they can fly short distances. The adult birds go through their postbreeding moult while caring for their young, rendering them flightless for about 5 to 6 weeks around the time the young also can't fly yet. According to figures of cranes wintering in Spain, around 48% birds have surviving young by the time they winter and around


title: "Common crane" content: 18% are leading two young by winter. By the next breeding season, the previous years young often flock together. The age of sexual maturity in wild birds has been estimated at variously from 3 to 6 years of age. It is thought that it is common for this species to live up to 30 or 40 years of age. The common crane is a fairly social bird while not breeding. Flocks of up to 400 birds may be seen flying together during migration. Staging sites, where migrating birds gather to rest and feed in the middle of their migration, may


title: "Common crane" content: witness thousands of cranes gathering at once. However, the flocks of the species are not stable social units but rather groups that ensure greater safety in numbers and collectively draw each other's attention to ideal foraging and roosting sites. Possibly due to a longer molt, younger and non-breeding cranes are usually the earliest fall migrants and may band together at that time of year. During these migratory flights, common cranes have been known to fly at altitudes of up to , one of the highest of any species of bird, second only to the Ruppell's Griffin Vulture. Cranes use a


title: "Common crane" content: kleptoparasitic strategy to recover from temporary reductions in feeding rate, particularly when the rate is below the threshold of intake necessary for survival. Accumulated intake of common cranes during daytime at a site of stopover and wintering shows a typical anti-sigmoid shape, with greatest increases of intake after dawn and before dusk. There are few natural predators of adult cranes, although white-tailed eagle ("Haliaeetus albicilla"), Bonelli's eagles ("Aquila fasciata") and golden eagles ("Aquila chrysaetos") are a potential predatory threat to common cranes of all ages. The crane has been known to counterattack eagles both on the land and in mid-flight,


title: "Common crane" content: using their bill as a weapon and kicking with their feet. Common cranes were additionally recorded as prey for Eurasian eagle-owls ("Bubo bubo") in the Ukok Plateau of Russia. Mammals such as wild boar ("Sus scrofa"), wolverine ("Gulo gulo") and red foxes ("Vulpes vulpes") are attacked at the nest, as they are potential predators. When facing off against mammals, cranes jab with their bill, hit with their wings and kick with their feet. The cranes nimbly avoid strikes against themselves by jumping into the air. It is probable that are threatened by a wider range of large mammalian predators as


title: "Common crane" content: is the black-necked crane but these have not yet been recorded. Herbivorous mammals such as red deer ("Cervus elaphus") may also be attacked at the nest, indicating the high aggressiveness of the birds while nesting. The determined attack of a parent crane often assures safety from predators, but occasional losses to predation are inevitable. The carrion crow ("Corvus corone") is locally a successful predator of common cranes' eggs, trickily using distraction displays to steal them. Other species of "Corvus" may also cause some loss of eggs, with common ravens ("Corvus corax") also taking some small chicks. Common cranes may loosely


title: "Common crane" content: associate with any other crane in the genus "Grus" in migration or winter as well as greater white-fronted geese and bean geese. The global population is 600,000 (2014 estimate) with the vast majority nesting in Russia and Scandinavia. In some areas the breeding population appears to be increasing, such as in Sweden, whereas on the fringes of its range, it is often becoming rare to non-existent. In Great Britain, the common crane became extirpated in the 17th century, but a tiny population now breeds again in the Norfolk Broads and is slowly increasing and a reintroduction has been underway since


title: "Common crane" content: 2010 for the Somerset levels. In Ireland, it died out as a breeding species in the 18th century, but a flock of about 30 appeared in County Cork in November 2011, and a smaller flock a year later. It was additionally extirpated as a breeder from Austria around 1900, from Hungary by 1952 and from Spain by 1954. The recovering German breeding population of 8,000 pairs is still also a fraction of the size of the large numbers that once bred in the country. Poland has 15,000 breeding pairs, 50 pairs breed in the Czech Republic and 2009 was the


title: "Common crane" content: first confirmed breeding in Slovakia. The main threat to the species, and the primary reason for its decline in the Western Palearctic, comes from habitat loss and degradation, as a result of dam construction, urbanisation, agricultural expansion, and drainage of wetlands. Although it has adapted to human settlement in many areas, nest disturbance, continuing changes in land use, and collision with utility lines are still potential problems. Further threats may include persecution due to crop damage, pesticide poisoning, egg collection, and hunting. The common crane is one of the species to which the "Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory


title: "Common crane" content: Waterbirds" (AEWA) applies. In Ireland, despite being extinct for over 200 years, the common crane plays a very important part in Irish culture and folklore and so thus recent efforts to encourage it back to Ireland are received with much enthusiasm. The Kranich Museum in Hessenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany, is dedicated to art and folklore related to the common crane. The common crane is the sacred bird of the god Hephaestus, and it features heavily in the god's iconography. Common crane The common crane ("Grus grus"), also known as the Eurasian crane, is a bird of the family Gruidae, the cranes.


title: "Great grey shrike" content: Great grey shrike The great grey shrike ("Lanius excubitor") is a large songbird species in the shrike family (Laniidae). It forms a superspecies with its parapatric southern relatives, the Iberian grey shrike ("L. meridionalis"), the steppe grey shrike ("L. pallidirostris"), the Chinese grey shrike ("L. sphenocerus") and the loggerhead shrike ("L. ludovicianus"). Males and females are similar in plumage, pearly grey above with a black eye-mask and white underparts. Breeding takes place generally north of 50° northern latitude in northern Europe and Asia. Most populations migrate south in winter to temperate regions. The great grey shrike is carnivorous, with rodents


title: "Great grey shrike" content: making up over half its diet. The species was first scientifically described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 edition of "Systema Naturae" under the current binomial name. His description is "L[anius] cauda cuneiformi lateribus alba, dorso cano, alis nigris macula alba" – "a shrike with a wedge-shaped white-bordered tail, back grey, wings black with white spot". At that time, none of the other grey shrikes – including the lesser grey shrike ("L. minor"), for which the description of the tail pattern is incorrect and which some authors already recognized as distinct – were considered separate species by Linnaeus, but that


title: "Great grey shrike" content: was to change soon. Linnaeus' binomial name replaced the cumbersome and confusing descriptive names of the earlier naturalist books he gives as his sources: in his own "Fauna Svecica" he named it "ampelis caerulescens, alis caudaque nigricantibus" ("light-blue waxwing, wings and tail blackish"), while it is called "pica cinerea sive lanius major" ("ash-grey magpie or greater shrike") by Johann Leonhard Frisch, who in his splendid colour plate confused male and female. But most authors cited by Linnaeus – Eleazar Albin, Ulisse Aldrovandi, John Ray and Francis Willughby – called it "lanius cinereus major" or similar, which is a near-literal equivalent


title: "Great grey shrike" content: of the common name "great grey shrike". The type locality of Linnaeus is simply given as "Europa" ("Europe"). The scientific name of the great grey shrike literally means "sentinel butcher": "Lanius" is the Latin term for a butcher, while "excubitor" is Latin for a watchman or sentinel. This refers to the birds' two most conspicuous behaviours – storing food animals by impaling them on thorns, and using exposed tree-tops or poles to watch the surrounding area for possible prey. Use of the former by Conrad Gessner established the quasi-scientific term "lanius" for the shrikes. Linnaeus chose his specific name because


title: "Great grey shrike" content: the species "observes approaching hawks and announces [the presence] of songbirds" as he put it. This habit was also put to use in falconry, as fancifully recorded by William Yarrell later. The common English name "shrike" is from Old English "scríc", "shriek", referring to the shrill call. Ulisse Aldrovandi, Conrad Gessner, John Ray and Francis Willughby also reported old folk names, mainly from Germanic languages: "Wereangel" or "Wierangel" from the Pennines of England (where the bird was noted as a vagrant) as well as "Warkangel, Werkengel" or "Wurchangel" in various German dialects (e.g. around Frankfurt/Main and Strasbourg) probably mean "choking


title: "Great grey shrike" content: angel" (cf. Standard German "Würgeengel"). These names are unlikely to significantly pre-date the times of Saint Boniface (c. 700 AD) because of their Christian connotation; the related "Werkenvogel" ("choking bird") might, however, do so. The English version, having become "wariangle" or "weirangle", was eventually transferred to the native red-backed shrike ("L. collurio") and lingered on into modern times in Yorkshire. Along the Upper Rhine, between Strasbourg and Heidelberg for example, "Linkenom" is attested; its origin is unclear. Low German "Neghen-doer" and Middle German "Nünmörder" were also used; this has today evolved into "Neuntöter" and specifically means the red-backed shrike, but


title: "Great grey shrike" content: could in earlier times refer to any native "Lanius". It literally means "killer of nine [prey animals]" and refers to the food caches. A falconer's name for the great grey shrike was "mattages(s)(e)", which is related to "mat'agasse" from the western Alps. These terms may mean "magpie killer", due to their use for luring carnivorous birds to hunters – but perhaps more likely "killer magpie", considering that the bird was believed to be a peculiar sort of magpie by Johann Leonhard Frisch and others, and that another vernacular English name was "murdering pie". "Shrike", meanwhile, is of Germanic origin also


title: "Great grey shrike" content: and dates back at least to Middle or Early Modern English "schricum". This is related to such words as Norwegian and Swedish "skrika" ("shriek, skrike"), German "Schrei" ("scream") or Icelandic "shrikja" ("shrieker"). But it seems to have become the dominant term only in rather recent times, for as late as the 18th century, the species was still widely known as "greater butcher-bird" in English, just like it was known as the "boucher" ("butcher") in the French Jura. In Norway a vernacular name for the bird is "varsler." A whimsical name – presumably from Scotland or nearby England – was "white


title: "Great grey shrike" content: wisky John" in reference to its wavy and somewhat unelegant flight, during which its large areas of light plumage are conspicuous. The shrike family (Laniidae) is a member of the Corvoidea, the most ancient of the four large songbird superfamilies. Among its superfamily, the closest relatives of the Laniidae are probably the Corvidae (crows and allies). Little reliable data exists on its evolution; certainly (even though the supposed ancestral shrike ""Lanius" miocaenus" might not belong in the Laniidae, and probably does not belong in the same genus as "L. excubitor") the genus dates back to Miocene times. A "Lanius" fossil


title: "Great grey shrike" content: from the Late Miocene Turolian age, c. 6 million years ago, has been found at Polgárdi, Hungary. Its relationship to the modern species is unclear. However, all things considered, the grey shrike lineage probably represents the Holarctic sister to the African radiation of fiscal shrikes. These two seem to have originated in a west- or southwestward expansion from the genus' origin, which (considering the biogeography of living "Lanius" lineages) was probably somewhere between Asia Minor and Central Asia. At the time of the Polgárdi fossil, it is rather likely that the grey shrikes were a distinct lineage already; given that


title: "Great grey shrike" content: they and the fiscals generally follow Bergmann's Rule, the smallish fossil makes an unlikely ancestor to the large grey shrikes even when taking into account the somewhat warmer Miocene climate. The grey shrike superspecies consists of "L. excubitor" and its parapatric southern relatives. As mentioned above, the other members of this group are the Iberian grey shrike ("L. meridionalis"), the steppe grey shrike ("L. pallidirostris"), the Chinese grey shrike ("L. sphenocerus") and the loggerhead shrike ("L. ludovicianus"). The centre of this group's radiation is probably in the eastern Mediterranean region, and the southern grey shrike represents the basalmost form. The


title: "Great grey shrike" content: other three only diverged during the expansion into temperate regions. This must have happened fairly recently, because lineage sorting is not complete in the grey shrikes, and most of the present-day habitat of "L. excubitor" was uninhabitable during much of the Quaternary glaciation. Because of the phylogenetic uncertainties surrounding this close-knit group in the absence of a good fossil record, some refrain from splitting them up into distinct species; most modern authors do so however. There are a number of subspecies: An adult great grey shrike is a medium-sized passerine about as large as a big thrush, measuring from long.


title: "Great grey shrike" content: It typically weighs around , although some subspecies are noticeably smaller or larger, and even in the nominate subspecies adult weights between are recorded. The wings are around and the tail around long in the nominate subspecies, its bill measures about from tip to skull, and the tarsometatarsus part of its "legs" (actually feet) is around long. Wingspan can range from . The general colour of the upperparts is pearl grey, tinged brownish towards the east of its Eurasian range. The cheeks and chin as well as a thin and often hard-to-see stripe above the eye are white, and a


title: "Great grey shrike" content: deep black mask extends from the beak through the eye to the ear coverts; the area immediately above the beak is grey. The scapulars (shoulder feathers) are white, and the wings are black with a white bar made up by the bases of the primary remiges, continuing slightly offset onto the bases of the secondary remiges in some regions. The tail is black, long, and pointed at the tip; the outer rectrices have white outer vanes. The underparts are white, slightly tinged with grey in most subspecies. In particular the breast is usually darker and sometimes browner than the rest


title: "Great grey shrike" content: of the light underside, and may appear as an indistinct band between the lighter belly and white throat. In the subspecies around the North Pacific in particular and in females elsewhere too, there may be faint brownish bars on the breast. The bill is large and hooked at the tip and coloured nearly black, but pale at the base of the under mandible (though the extent varies seasonally). The legs and feet are blackish. Males and females are about the same size, and do not differ conspicuously in appearance except by direct comparison. In the female the underparts are greyer


title: "Great grey shrike" content: and are usually visibly barred greyish-brown, and the white wing and tail markings are characteristically less in extent (though this is rarely clearly visible except in flight). Fledged young birds are heavily tinged greyish-brown all over, with barring on the upperside and indistinct buffy-white markings. The tips of the tertiary remiges and the wing coverts are also buffy, with a black band in the latter. In the North American subspecies "borealis", the fledglings are tinged quite brown indeed on upperside and wings, and have sharp and dark underside bars. In Eurasia, fledglings moult into a female-like plumage with the tertiary


title: "Great grey shrike" content: bars usually remaining in autumn. Across its range, the young acquire the adult plumage in their first spring. The male's song consists of short pleasant warbling strophes, interspersed with fluid whistles. The individual phrases may go like "tu-tu-krr-pree-pree" or "trr-turit trr-turit...". To announce that it has become aware of someone straying into its territory – be it a female or male of its species or a large mammal – it gives long shrill raspy whistles like "trrii(u)" or "(t')kwiiet". To announce to females, it often mixes these whistles with a strophe of song. A softer whistle goes like "trüü(t)". These


title: "Great grey shrike" content: whistles are also used in duets between mates in winter and neighbours in the breeding season. Various contact calls have been described as "chlie(p)", "gihrrr", "kwä" or "wuut". These are frequently heard during courtship, interspersed with song phrases as the harsh whistles are in pre-courtship. The song becomes softer and more warbling as the male shows the female around his territory, and at potential nest sites the male gives a lively chatter containing fluting "tli-tli", "prrr" trills and "kwiw...püh" calls. When disturbed, its alarm note is a harsh jay-like "k(w)eee", "greee" or "jaaa", often repeated twice. The more excited the


title: "Great grey shrike" content: birds become, the higher and faster the calls get, via "chek-chek-chek" to a rattle "trr-trr-trr" or an explosive "aak-aak-aak". A bird of prey alert is given with a whistle "breezeek". "Knuk" calls are given by adults confronted with a potential threat to their young. To beg for food – young to adults or mates to each other –, rows of "waik" calls are given. This species sometimes tries to attract small songbirds by mimicking their calls, so it may attempt to catch them for food. The Iberian grey shrike ("L. meridionalis") was formerly included in the great grey shrike as


title: "Great grey shrike" content: subspecies. It occurs in south western Europe (Iberian Peninsula and France). It prefers different habitat – lightly wooded grassland in the great, more arid shrubland in the southern grey shrike – and where the species' ranges overlap, they do not hybridize at present (though they may have done so in past millennia). The steppe grey shrike occurs from southern Russia and southern Kazakhstan to Mongolia and northern China, south to Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Elsewhere, the parapatric relatives of the "L. excubitor" are the Chinese grey shrike ("L. sphenocerus") from East Asia and the northern shrike ("L. borealis") and loggerhead


title: "Great grey shrike" content: shrike ("L. ludovicianus") from North America. The northern grey shrike is sympatric in winter quarters with each of its three close relatives at the north of their range. Their overall colouration is – apparently plesiomorphically – shared in sub-Saharan Africa by the somewhat more distantly related grey-backed fiscal ("L. excubitoroides") which is found from the Sahel eastwards, and Mackinnon's fiscal ("L. mackinnoni") of the Congo Basin region. The lesser grey shrike ("L. minor", Balkans to Central Asia) seems to be quite distinct indeed and is sympatric with the grey shrike superspecies between Eastern Europe and Central Asia; it may be


title: "Great grey shrike" content: more closely related to the small brown shrikes and resemble the bold, aggressive and hard-to-catch grey shrikes because of Batesian mimicry. The Iberian grey shrike is clearer and usually darker grey above, and not tinged grey but often decidedly pinkish on the belly and particular breast; the white "eyebrow" extends to over the beak, which has typically a larger pale base. The barring pattern is less developed at all ages, hardly ever present even in females, and slighter in the otherwise very similar fledglings. East Asian "L. excubitor" are barely sympatric with the Chinese grey shrike. The latter is larger


title: "Great grey shrike" content: and generally differs from the northern species as the southern does, and in addition has much larger white areas in wings and tail. The loggerhead shrike is hard to distinguish, but the proportion of the head to the beak (which seems stubby in "L. ludovicianus" by comparison and is all-dark) is usually reliable. Indeed, the word "loggerhead" refers to the relatively larger head of the southern species. The lesser grey shrike is a smaller and comparatively short-tailed bird. It can best be recognized by the rather large black area above the bill, almost reaching to the forehead and without a


title: "Great grey shrike" content: white stripe above it. In flight, the wide instead of pointed black tail end of "L. minor" is characteristic. The African species are completely allopatric with "L. excubitor"; they lack white scapulars (grey-backed fiscal) or wingspots (Mackinnon's fiscal) and differ in some other details, particularly the tail pattern. Generally, its breeding range is found in Eurasia and northern Africa. In the high mountains of the Altai-Tian Shan region, it ranges south perhaps as far as 42° northern latitude. Its northern limit is generally 70° northern latitude. It is only found as a vagrant in Iceland, the British Isles, the Mediterranean


title: "Great grey shrike" content: region (excluding the Iberian Peninsula and perhaps Romania but including Cyprus), and Korea. There do not appear to be breeding records from the entire Kamchatka Peninsula; in Switzerland, the present day Czech Republic and southern Germany small populations were found in the mid-20th century but have declined or even disappeared since then. Except for the subspecies "bianchii" which is largely all-year resident, and subspecies "excubitor" in the temperate European parts of its range with their mild maritime climate, the species is a short-distance migrant. The migrations are triggered by scarcity of food and therefore, according to prey population levels, the


title: "Great grey shrike" content: winter range might little extend south beyond the breeding range, or be entirely parapatric to it. The populations of the Central Asian mountains mostly migrate downslope rather than southwards. Females are more prone to migration than males; they do not appear to migrate, on average, longer or shorter distances than males, and consequently are the dominant sex in many parts of the winter range. Birds leave for winter quarters a more or less short time after breeding – July to October, with most birds staying to September – and return to nest mainly in March/April, but some only arrive in


title: "Great grey shrike" content: May. In recent decades, the number of birds remaining on the breeding grounds all year has been noted to increase e.g. in Fennoscandia, whereas for example "borealis" seems to be as rare a winter visitor in northern Ohio as it was a century ago. The preferred habitat is generally open grassland, perhaps with shrubs interspersed, and adjacent lookout points. These are normally trees – at forest edges in much of the habitat, but single trees or small stands at the taiga-tundra border. In steppe, it will utilize any isolated perch, be it fence posts, power lines or rocks. In general,


title: "Great grey shrike" content: some 5–15 perching sites per hectare habitat seem to be required. It avoids low grassland with no lookouts and nesting opportunities (trees or large shrubs), as well as dense forest with no hunting ground. Apart from grassland, the birds will utilize a variety of hunting habitats, including bogs, clearings or non-industrially farmed fields. Breeding birds appear to have different microhabitat desires, but little detail is known yet. This species is territorial, but likes to breed in dispersed groups of a good half-dozen adults. It is not known to what extent the birds in such groups are related. In the temperate


title: "Great grey shrike" content: parts of its range, groups are perhaps apart, while individual territories within each group may be as small as but more typically are about twice that size. In less hospitable climes, territories may be more than . Throughout the breeding season, in prime habitat, territories are held by mated pairs and single males looking for a partner. In less productive habitat, "floaters" hold territories more ephemerally. This leads to shifts in population density between regions, as "floaters" move between groups of territorial birds in search of a bountiful unclaimed territory to settle down and/or a partner to mate with. On


title: "Great grey shrike" content: the wintering grounds, pairs separate to account for the lower amount of food available at that time, but if both members migrate they tend to have their wintering grounds not far apart. As it seems, once an individual great grey shrike has found a wintering territory it likes, it will return there subsequently and perhaps even try to defend it against competitors just like a summer territory. Throughout the year, the birds regularly but briefly move through a range up to three times larger than their territory; this is tolerated by territory owners in winter more easily than in summer,


title: "Great grey shrike" content: and the parts of Europe where all-year residents and winter visitors co-occur typically have population densities around eight birds/km (about thirty per square mile) and occasionally more in winter. Before and after the nesting season, groups of breeding birds will sometimes initiate gatherings; these seem to occur at the boundary of the group's combined range or in the unclaimed land separating it from neighbouring groups. The initiation signal is a conspicuous display flight given by a bird surveying its territory: it spirals tens of meters/yards high into the air, usually briefly does a fluttering hover at the top of the


title: "Great grey shrike" content: spiral, and then glides down. Group neighbours will respond by performing the same type of flight, and eventually about half the group's members will depart to the meeting location where they will spend several tens of minutes – sometimes more than an hour – chattering, calling, duetting, and excitedly moving about the meeting site (which typically is some small tree or shrubbery). In winter, birds will often assemble in small groups and roost together, particularly to keep warm during the night; this is apparently not initiated with a specific assembly display however. The flight of the great grey shrike is


title: "Great grey shrike" content: undulating and rather heavy, but its dash is straight and determined. It is, as noted above, also capable of hovering flights, which last briefly but may be repeated time after time because of the birds' considerable stamina. It will usually stay low above the ground in flight, approaching perches from below and landing in an upward swoop. In social interactions, birds signal an aggressive stance by a bold upright posture, fanning and then flicking the tail and eventually the wings also as the bird gets more excited. It signals its readiness to strike at an intruder by shifting to a


title: "Great grey shrike" content: horizontal pose and fluffing its feathers, raising them into a small crest along the top of the head. Birds appease conspecifics by head-turns away from them (if close by), or by imitating the crouching fluttering pose and calls given by fledglings begging for food (if sitting father apart). The submission gesture to prevent an imminent attack by a conspecific is pointing the beak straight up. Fledgelings moult part of their juvenile plumage before their first winter, and the rest in spring. Adults moult on their breeding grounds before going on migration, or before the depth of winter if they are


title: "Great grey shrike" content: resident. Sometimes adults also seem to moult some feathers before attempting to breed. As moult requires a considerable investment of energy, some significant evolutionary benefits to offset this are likely. Reducing feather wear and parasite load, moulting can make a bird more physically attractive and healthy, and may thus increase its chance of successful reproduction. The phenomenon is not well understood, however. The great grey shrike eats small vertebrates and large invertebrates. To hunt, this bird perches on the topmost branch of a tree, telegraph pole or similar elevated spot in a characteristic upright stance some meters/yards (at least one


title: "Great grey shrike" content: and up to ) above ground. Alternatively, it may scan the grassland below from flight, essentially staying in one place during prolonged bouts of mainly hovering flight that may last up to 20 minutes. It will drop down in a light glide for terrestrial prey or swoop hawk-like on a flying insect. Small birds are sometimes caught in flight too, usually by approaching them from below and behind and seizing their feet with the beak. If no prey ventures out in the open, great grey shrikes will rummage through the undergrowth or sit near hiding places and flash their white


title: "Great grey shrike" content: wing and tail markings to scare small animals into coming out. As noted above, it will sometimes mimic songbirds to entice them to come within striking distance. Typically, at least half the prey biomass is made up from small rodents from the Cricetidae (voles, lemmings) and Murinae (Eurasian mice and sometimes young Eurasian rats). Shrews, songbirds, lizards, and frogs and toads (typically as tadpoles) make up most of the remaining vertebrate prey. Birds are generally of little importance however, except in spring when male songbirds are engaged in courtship display and often rather oblivious of their surroundings, in late summer


title: "Great grey shrike" content: when inexperienced fledglings abound, and in winter when most small mammals hibernate. Occasionally bats, newts and salamanders, and even fish are eaten. Prey animals may exceptionally be almost as large as the birds themselves, for example chicks of the willow ptarmigan ("Lagopus lagopus") or a young stoat. Large arthropods are the second-most important prey by quantity, though not by biomass; in the latter respect they are only a bit more important than birds, except as food for nestlings where they usually form a substantial part of the diet. Most important among invertebrate prey are insects, especially beetles, crickets and grasshoppers,


title: "Great grey shrike" content: and bumblebees and wasps. Invertebrate prey of minor importance are spiders and scorpions, crayfish and isopods, snails, and oligochaete worms. Carrion and berries are rarely if ever eaten; though it might occasionally plunder songbird nests this is not well documented and it is not known to eat eggs. Prey is killed by hitting it with the hooked beak, aiming for the skull in vertebrates. If too large to swallow in one or a few chunks, it is transported to a feeding site by carrying it in the beak or (if too large) in the feet. The feet are not suited


title: "Great grey shrike" content: for tearing up prey, however. It is rather impaled upon a sharp point – thorns or the barbs of barbed wire – or wedged firmly between forking branches. Thus secured, the food can be ripped into bite-sized pieces with the beak. Orthoptera that the birds have recognized as containing noxious chemicals are left impaled in the larder for several days, until the chemicals that usually deter predators have been degraded. Great grey shrikes have also been observed to impale common toads ("Bufo bufo") and skin them – by ripping open the back skin and pulling it over the head –


title: "Great grey shrike" content: to avoid contamination of the meat by the toxic skin secretions. Large bones and similar inedible parts of prey animals are usually not ingested, but smaller ones such as tiny bones or the elytra of beetles are eaten and later regurgitated as pellets. The basic metabolic rate of the great grey shrike is around 800 milliwatts, or somewhat more than 11 milliwatts per gram of body mass. An adult of this species needs about of prey a day, probably somewhat more in winter. Under most circumstances, this would thus translate to one or two rodents, one or two additional vertebrate


title: "Great grey shrike" content: prey animals (including rodents), and up to a single vertebrate prey item's worth of invertebrates. Surplus food may be impaled for storage. These "larders" are typically around above ground and can be found anywhere within the birds' territory, but tend to be rather in the general vicinity of nest sites than far away from them. Great grey shrikes breed during the summer, typically once per year. In exceptionally good conditions, they raise two broods a year, and if the first clutch is destroyed before hatching they are usually able to produce a second one. Their monogamous pair bond is strong


title: "Great grey shrike" content: during the breeding season and loosens over winter; birds often choose a different mate than the year before. To seek out potential mates, males will venture outside their breeding territories. If a female thus encountered finds a male to her liking, she will visit to see whether they get along well and inspect the nesting sites he can offer. The courtship period is generally longer than in the Iberian grey shrike ("L. meridionalis"), usually starting about March and lasting to April/May. At first, the female rebuffs the male, only allowing him to feed her. Males give increasingly vocal displays and


title: "Great grey shrike" content: show off the white markings of the wings in flight and of the tail by fanning it and turning away from the female. He also occasionally turns to sit at a right angle to her. Eventually, the female will join in the male's displays, and the songs will become duets. To feed females and to show off their hunting prowess, males will make their food caches in conspicuous places during this time. When presenting nesting sites, males give the variety of calls described above and jerk their head and fanned tail. Copulation is typically initiated by the male bringing an


title: "Great grey shrike" content: attractive prey item to the female. With both giving begging calls, they approach until they are side by side. The male then raises and swings his body left and right a few times, and passes the prey to the female, followed by the actual copulation. The gatherings of neighbour groups (see above) cease when nesting is underway, and when the eggs are nearly ready to lay, the male guards his partner closely, perching higher than her to watch for threats and frequently feeding her. This apparently ensures her physical well-being rather than preventing extra-pair copulations, as neighbouring males will stray


title: "Great grey shrike" content: through each other's territory to snatch a quick fling with the resident females. In this, they have almost a one-in-three chance of success, and consequently the average grey shrike nest is very likely to contain offspring of more than one male. Females may deposit their eggs in neighbours' nests, but this seems to occur more rarely; in general, mated females are fairly reclusive after their eggs have started developing. A full clutch of eggs can be produced by a female in about 10–15 days. Nests are built in April or May more than above ground in trees. This height varies


title: "Great grey shrike" content: according to habitat, but while nests have been found almost up, most are 2–16 m above ground. Presence of mistletoes or vines like common ivy ("Hedera helix") on side branches near the trunk (where nests are preferentially built) will make a tree markedly more attractive. Fieldfares ("Turdus pilaris") nesting in the vicinity will also increase the desirability of nest sites to great grey shrikes, which moreover often refuse to prey upon these thrushes' nestlings though the opportunity is there. Apparently, the two species are more efficient in spotting potential nest predators – in particular corvids – early on and mobbing


title: "Great grey shrike" content: them off cooperatively than either is on its own. Otherwise, there is no clear preference for particular taxa of nesting trees, provided they are sufficiently dense. Conifers seem to have become more popular with European "L. excubitor" in recent decades, but a diversity of deciduous trees is used just as well. Far more rarely, large and especially thorny shrubs are used for nesting. The actual nesting site is chosen by the male; the courtship visits of the female are mainly to form and strengthen the pair bond. Also, though the partners build the nest together, the male collects most of


title: "Great grey shrike" content: the nesting material. The cup nest is quite sizable, measuring in outer diameter. Its body is constructed of coarse vegetable material – mainly large twigs and chunks of moss, though bits of fabric and rubbish may be added. The interior cup is in diameter and deep; it is lined with fine twigs and roots, lichen, hair and feathers. Building a nest from scratch takes a pair one to two weeks, but if nests of the previous year in good locations remain usable, they are repaired rather than discarded. Laying usually takes place in May. The clutch numbers three to nine


title: "Great grey shrike" content: eggs, typically around seven, with North American clutches tending to be larger on average than European ones. If a second clutch is produced in one breeding season, it is smaller than the first one. The eggs have a white background colour, usually with a grey hue and sometimes with a blue one; they are patterned with blotches of yellowish- to reddish-brown and purplish-grey, often denser around the blunt end. They measure around in length and in width. Incubation takes around 16 days but may be closer to three weeks for large clutches; it is generally done only by the female.


title: "Great grey shrike" content: While the male may briefly take over incubating, his task during this time is to provide food. The altricial nestlings hatch naked, blind and pink-skinned, weighing c. ; their skin turns darker after a few days. The inside of their beak is pink and they probably lack spots or other prominent marks; the wattles at the corners of the mouth are yellow as in many passerines. As the nestlings grow, the female broods them, and later on assists in providing food. The young fledge after 2–3 weeks, typically in late June or early July; they become independent of their parents


title: "Great grey shrike" content: about 3–6 weeks later. Sometimes, a parent will single out particular fledglings (possibly the weakest ones) and focus their care and feeding on these during this time. Other adults have occasionally been recorded assisting in feeding a pair's offspring; it is not clear whether these helpers at the nest are offspring of previous years, or unrelated non-breeding "floaters" or breeding neighbours. Common cuckoos ("Cuculus canorus") have been noted as regular brood parasites of "L. e. excubitor" in the past; for reasons unknown this has ceased since the late 1970s or so. It may well be that the cuckoo's gens laying


title: "Great grey shrike" content: eggs similar to those of the great grey shrike has become extinct. Among predators of eggs and nestlings, corvids (Corvidae) – extremely close relatives of the shrikes (Laniidae) as it happens – are most significant. Usually more than half of all nests manage to hatch at least one young, and around three-quarters of all eggs laid hatch, suggesting that if eggs are lost before hatching, it usually is the entire clutch. Half to three-quarters of the hatched young successfully fledge under most circumstances. They will become sexually mature in their first spring and often attempt to breed right away. On


title: "Great grey shrike" content: average, great grey shrikes get a chance at four breeding attempts during their life, with most birds in the wild getting eaten by a bird of prey or carnivorous mammal or dying of other causes before the end of their fifth winter. Raptorial birds are the main threat to shrikes after fledging, with regular predators including species as small as little owls (which are close to the same size as the shrike). The maximum documented lifespan, however, is 12 years. As remarked above, the great grey shrike has apparently become extinct as a breeding bird in Switzerland and the Czech


title: "Great grey shrike" content: Republic. Overall, its stocks seem to be declining in the European part of its range since the 1970s. In North America, the populations seem to have been stable by contrast, except in the east. The increase and decline seem to be reactions to changing land use, with an increase as the number of agricultural workers declined after World War II and land fell fallow, declining again when land consolidation (see e.g. "Flurbereinigung") had seriously depleted the number of hedgerows and similar elevated growth formerly common amidst the agricultural landscape. For such a predatory bird, the indiscriminate use of pesticides (which


title: "Great grey shrike" content: will accumulate in adult carnivores and inhibit breeding success) around the 1960s probably had a detrimental influence on stocks too. Altogether, the great grey shrike is common and widespread and not considered a threatened species by the IUCN (though they still include "L. meridionalis" in "L. excubitor"). Wherever it occurs, its numbers are usually many hundreds or even thousands per country. Its stronghold is the region around Sweden, where at least almost 20,000, perhaps as many as 50,000 were believed to live in the late 20th century. However, in some countries it is not robustly established; in Estonia only a


title: "Great grey shrike" content: few hundred are found, with less than 200 in Belgium and some more or less than 100 in Latvia and Lithuania, respectively. The few dozen in the Netherlands and the 10 birds or so in Denmark might disappear because of a few years of adverse circumstances. By contrast, in Luxembourg plentiful high-quality habitat is found; though the number of great grey shrikes in this tiny country is necessarily limited, the average population density there is 25 times as high as in Lithuania. Great grey shrike The great grey shrike ("Lanius excubitor") is a large songbird species in the shrike family


title: Canning content: Canning "Canning" is a method of preserving food in which the food contents are processed and sealed in an airtight container. Canning provides a shelf life typically ranging from one to five years, although under specific circumstances it can be much longer. A freeze-dried canned product, such as canned dried lentils, could last as long as 30 years in an edible state. In 1974, samples of canned food from the wreck of the "Bertrand", a steamboat that sank in the Missouri River in 1865, were tested by the National Food Processors Association. Although appearance, smell and vitamin content had deteriorated,


title: Canning content: there was no trace of microbial growth and the 109-year-old food was determined to be still safe to eat. During the first years of the Napoleonic Wars, the French government offered a hefty cash award of 12,000 francs to any inventor who could devise a cheap and effective method of preserving large amounts of food. The larger armies of the period required increased and regular supplies of quality food. Limited food availability was among the factors limiting military campaigns to the summer and autumn months. In 1809, Nicolas Appert, a French confectioner and brewer, observed that food cooked inside a


title: Canning content: jar did not spoil unless the seals leaked, and developed a method of sealing food in glass jars. Appert was awarded the prize in 1810 by Count Montelivert, a French minister of the interior. The reason for lack of spoilage was unknown at the time, since it would be another 50 years before Louis Pasteur demonstrated the role of microbes in food spoilage. The French Army began experimenting with issuing canned foods to its soldiers, but the slow process of canning foods and the even slower development and transport stages prevented the army from shipping large amounts across the French


title: Canning content: Empire, and the war ended before the process was perfected. Following the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the canning process was gradually employed in other European countries and in the US. Based on Appert's methods of food preservation, the tin can process was allegedly developed by Frenchman Philippe de Girard, who came to London and used British merchant Peter Durand as an agent to patent his own idea in 1810. Durand did not pursue food canning himself, selling his patent in 1811 to Bryan Donkin and John Hall, who were in business as Donkin Hall and Gamble, of Bermondsey. Bryan


title: Canning content: Donkin developed the process of packaging food in sealed airtight cans, made of tinned wrought iron. Initially, the canning process was slow and labour-intensive, as each large can had to be hand-made, and took up to six hours to cook, making canned food too expensive for ordinary people. The main market for the food at this stage was the British Army and Royal Navy. By 1817 Donkin recorded that he had sold £3000 worth of canned meat in six months. In 1824 Sir William Edward Parry took canned beef and pea soup with him on his voyage to the Arctic


title: Canning content: in HMS Fury, during his search for a northwestern passage to India. In 1829, Admiral Sir James Ross also took canned food to the Arctic, as did Sir John Franklin in 1845. Some of his stores were found by the search expedition led by Captain (later Admiral Sir) Leopold McClintock in 1857. One of these cans was opened in 1939, and was edible and nutritious, though it was not analysed for contamination by the lead solder used in its manufacture. During the mid-19th century, canned food became a status symbol amongst middle-class households in Europe, being something of a frivolous


title: Canning content: novelty. Early methods of manufacture employed poisonous lead solder for sealing the cans. Studies in the 1980s attributed the lead from the cans as a factor in the disastrous outcome of the 1845 Franklin expedition to chart and navigate the Northwest Passage. Later studies found this to be false. Increasing mechanization of the canning process, coupled with a huge increase in urban populations across Europe, resulted in a rising demand for canned food. A number of inventions and improvements followed, and by the 1860s smaller machine-made steel cans were possible, and the time to cook food in sealed cans had


title: Canning content: been reduced from around six hours to thirty minutes. Canned food also began to spread beyond EuropeRobert Ayars established the first American canning factory in New York City in 1812, using improved tin-plated wrought-iron cans for preserving oysters, meats, fruits and vegetables. Demand for canned food greatly increased during wars. Large-scale wars in the nineteenth century, such as the Crimean War, American Civil War, and Franco-Prussian War introduced increasing numbers of working-class men to canned food, and allowed canning companies to expand their businesses to meet military demands for non-perishable food, allowing companies to manufacture in bulk and sell to


title: Canning content: wider civilian markets after wars ended. Urban populations in Victorian Britain demanded ever-increasing quantities of cheap, varied, quality food that they could keep at home without having to go shopping daily. In response, companies such as Underwood, Nestlé, Heinz, and others provided quality canned food for sale to working class city-dwellers. In particular, Crosse and Blackwell took over the concern of Donkin Hall and Gamble. The late 19th century saw the range of canned food available to urban populations greatly increase, as canners competed with each other using novel foodstuffs, highly decorated printed labels, and lower prices. Demand for canned


title: Canning content: food skyrocketed during World War I, as military commanders sought vast quantities of cheap, high-calorie food to feed their millions of soldiers, which could be transported safely, survive trench conditions, and not spoil in transport. Throughout the war, soldiers generally subsisted on low-quality canned foodstuffs, such as the British "Bully Beef" (cheap corned beef), pork and beans, canned sausages, and Maconochies Irish Stew, but by 1916, widespread dissatisfaction with cheap canned food amongst soldiers resulted in militaries purchasing better-quality food to improve morale and the complete meals in a can began to appear. In 1917, the French Army began issuing


title: Canning content: canned French cuisine, such as coq au vin, Beef Bourguignon and Vichyssoise while the Italian Army experimented with canned ravioli, spaghetti bolognese, Minestrone and Pasta e fagioli. Shortages of canned food in the British Army in 1917 led to the government issuing cigarettes and amphetamines to soldiers to suppress their appetites. After the war, companies that had supplied military canned food improved the quality of their goods for civilian sale. The original fragile and heavy glass containers presented challenges for transportation, and glass jars were largely replaced in commercial canneries with cylindrical tin can or wrought-iron canisters (later shortened to


title: Canning content: "cans") following the work of Peter Durand (1810). Cans are cheaper and quicker to make, and much less fragile than glass jars. Glass jars have remained popular for some high-value products and in home canning. Can openers were not invented for another thirty years — at first, soldiers had to cut the cans open with bayonets or smash them open with rocks. Today, tin-coated steel is the material most commonly used. Laminate vacuum pouches are also used for canning, such as used in MREs and Capri Sun drinks. To prevent the food from being spoiled before and during containment, a


title: Canning content: number of methods are used: pasteurisation, boiling (and other applications of high temperature over a period of time), refrigeration, freezing, drying, vacuum treatment, antimicrobial agents that are natural to the recipe of the foods being preserved, a sufficient dose of ionizing radiation, submersion in a strong saline solution, acid, base, osmotically extreme (for example very sugary) or other microbially-challenging environments. Other than sterilization, no method is perfectly dependable as a preservative. For example, the microorganism "Clostridium botulinum" (which causes botulism) can only be eliminated at temperatures above the boiling point of water. From a public safety point of view, foods


title: Canning content: with low acidity (a pH more than 4.6) need sterilization under high temperature (116–130 °C). To achieve temperatures above the boiling point requires the use of a pressure canner. Foods that must be pressure canned include most vegetables, meat, seafood, poultry, and dairy products. The only foods that may be safely canned in an ordinary boiling water bath are highly acidic ones with a pH below 4.6, such as fruits, pickled vegetables, or other foods to which acidic additives have been added. Invented in 1888 by Max Ams, modern double seams provide an airtight seal to the tin can. This


title: Canning content: airtight nature is crucial to keeping micro-organisms out of the can and keeping its contents sealed inside. Thus, double seamed cans are also known as Sanitary Cans. Developed in 1900 in Europe, this sort of can was made of the traditional cylindrical body made with tin plate. The two ends (lids) were attached using what is now called a double seam. A can thus sealed is impervious to contamination by creating two tight continuous folds between the can's cylindrical body and the lids. This eliminated the need for solder and allowed improvements in manufacturing speed, reducing cost. Double seaming uses


title: Canning content: rollers to shape the can, lid and the final double seam. To make a sanitary can and lid suitable for double seaming, manufacture begins with a sheet of coated tin plate. To create the can body, rectangles are cut and curled around a die, and welded together creating a cylinder with a side seam. Rollers are then used to flare out one or both ends of the cylinder to create a quarter circle flange around the circumference. Precision is required to ensure that the welded sides are perfectly aligned, as any misalignment will cause inconsistent flange shape, compromising its integrity.


title: Canning content: A circle is then cut from the sheet using a die cutter. The circle is shaped in a stamping press to create a downward countersink to fit snugly into the can body. The result can be compared to an upside down and very flat top hat. The outer edge is then curled down and around about 140 degrees using rollers to create the end curl. The result is a steel tube with a flanged edge, and a countersunk steel disc with a curled edge. A rubber compound is put inside the curl. The body and end are brought together in


title: Canning content: a seamer and held in place by the base plate and chuck, respectively. The base plate provides a sure footing for the can body during the seaming operation and the chuck fits snugly into the end (lid). The result is the countersink of the end sits inside the top of the can body just below the flange. The end curl protrudes slightly beyond the flange. Once brought together in the seamer, the seaming head presses a first operation roller against the end curl. The end curl is pressed against the flange curling it in toward the body and under the


title: Canning content: flange. The flange is also bent downward, and the end and body are now loosely joined together. The first operation roller is then retracted. At this point five thicknesses of steel exist in the seam. From the outside in they are: The seaming head then engages the second operation roller against the partly formed seam. The second operation presses all five steel components together tightly to form the final seal. The five layers in the final seam are then called; a) End, b) Body Hook, c) Cover Hook, d) Body, e) Countersink. All sanitary cans require a filling medium within


title: Canning content: the seam because otherwise the metal-to-metal contact will not maintain a hermetic seal. In most cases, a rubberized compound is placed inside the end curl radius, forming the critical seal between the end and the body. Probably the most important innovation since the introduction of double seams is the welded side seam. Prior to the welded side seam, the can body was folded and/or soldered together, leaving a relatively thick side seam. The thick side seam required that the side seam end juncture at the end curl to have more metal to curl around before closing in behind the Body


title: Canning content: Hook or flange, with a greater opportunity for error. Many different parts during the seaming process are critical in ensuring that a can is airtight and vacuum sealed. The dangers of a can that is not hermetically sealed are contamination by foreign objects (bacteria or fungicide sprays), or that the can could leak or spoil. One important part is the seamer setup. This process is usually performed by an experienced technician. Amongst the parts that need setup are seamer rolls and chucks which have to be set in their exact position (using a feeler gauge or a clearance gauge). The


title: Canning content: lifter pressure and position, roll and chuck designs, tooling wear, and bearing wear all contribute to a good double seam. Incorrect setups can be non-intuitive. For example, due to the springback effect, a seam can appear loose, when in reality it was closed too tight and has opened up like a spring. For this reason, experienced operators and good seamer setup are critical to ensure that double seams are properly closed. Quality control usually involves taking full cans from the line – one per seamer head, at least once or twice per shift, and performing a teardown operation (wrinkle/tightness), mechanical


title: Canning content: tests (external thickness, seamer length/height and countersink) as well as cutting the seam open with a twin blade saw and measuring with a double seam inspection system. The combination of these measurements will determine the seam's quality. Use of a statistical process control (SPC) software in conjunction with a manual double-seam monitor, computerized double seam scanner, or even a fully automatic double seam inspection system makes the laborious process of double seam inspection faster and much more accurate. Statistically tracking the performance of each head or seaming station of the can seamer allows for better prediction of can seamer issues,


title: Canning content: and may be used to plan maintenance when convenient, rather than to simply react after bad or unsafe cans have been produced. Canning is a way of processing food to extend its shelf life. The idea is to make food available and edible long after the processing time. A 1997 study found that canned fruits and vegetables are as rich with dietary fiber and vitamins as the same corresponding fresh or frozen foods, and in some cases the canned products are richer than their fresh or frozen counterparts. The heating process during canning appears to make dietary fiber more soluble,


title: Canning content: and therefore more readily fermented in the colon into gases and physiologically active byproducts. Canned tomatoes have a higher available lycopene content. Consequently, canned meat and vegetables are often among the list of food items that are stocked during emergencies. In the beginning of the 19th century the process of canning foods was mainly done by small canneries. These canneries were full of overlooked sanitation problems, such as poor hygiene and unsanitary work environments. Since the refrigerator did not exist and industrial canning standards were not set in place it was very common for contaminated cans to slip onto the


title: Canning content: grocery store shelves. In canning toxicology, "migration" is the movement of substances from the can itself into the contents. Potential toxic substances that can migrate are lead, causing lead poisoning, or bisphenol A (BPA), a potential endocrine disruptor that is an ingredient in the epoxy commonly used to coat the inner surface of cans. Some cans are manufactured with a BPA-free enamel lining produced from plant oils and resins. On 20 February 2018, "Packaging Digest" reported that "At least 90%" of food cans no longer contained BPA. Salt (sodium chloride), dissolved in water, is used in the canning process. As


title: Canning content: a result, canned food can be a major source of dietary salt. Too much salt increases the risk of health problems, including high blood pressure. Therefore, health authorities have recommended limitations of dietary sodium. Many canned products are available in low-salt and no-salt alternatives. Rinsing thoroughly after opening may reduce the amount of salt in canned foods, since much of the salt content is thought to be in the liquid, rather than the food itself. Foodborne botulism results from contaminated foodstuffs in which "C. botulinum" spores have been allowed to germinate and produce botulism toxin, and this typically occurs in


title: Canning content: canned non-acidic food substances that have not received a strong enough thermal heat treatment. "C. botulinum" prefers low oxygen environments and is a poor competitor to other bacteria, but its spores are resistant to thermal treatments. When a canned food is sterilized insufficiently, most other bacteria besides the "C. botulinum" spores are killed, and the spores can germinate and produce botulism toxin. Botulism is a rare but serious paralytic illness, leading to paralysis that typically starts with the muscles of the face and then spreads towards the limbs. The botulinum toxin is extremely dangerous because it cannot be detected by


title: Canning content: sight or smell, and ingestion of even a small amount of the toxin can be deadly. In severe forms, it leads to paralysis of the breathing muscles and causes respiratory failure. In view of this life-threatening complication, all suspected cases of botulism are treated as medical emergencies, and public health officials are usually involved to prevent further cases from the same source. Canned goods and canning supplies sell particularly well in times of recession due to the tendency of financially stressed individuals to engage in cocooning, a term used by retail analysts to describe the phenomenon in which people choose


title: Canning content: to stay at home instead of adding expenditures to their budget by dining out and socializing outside the home. In February 2009 during a recession, the United States saw an 11.5% rise in sales of canning-related items. Some communities in the US have county canning centers which are available for teaching canning, or shared community kitchens which can be rented for canning one's own foods. There was a 1956 US documentary "The Miracle of the Can" that mentions the Pea Tenderomiter for the canning trade. Canning "Canning" is a method of preserving food in which the food contents are processed


title: Chinchilla content: Chinchilla Chinchillas are either of two species of crepuscular rodents of the parvorder Caviomorpha. They are slightly larger and more robust than ground squirrels, and are native to the Andes mountains in South America. They live in colonies called "herds" at high elevations of up to . Historically, chinchillas lived in an area that included parts of Bolivia, Peru, Argentina, and Chile, but today, colonies in the wild are known only in Chile. Along with their relatives, viscachas, they make up the family Chinchillidae. They are also related to the chinchilla rat. The chinchilla has the densest fur of all


title: Chinchilla content: mammals that live on land. In the water, the sea otter has a denser coat. The chinchilla is named after the Chincha people of the Andes, who once wore its dense, velvet-like fur. By the end of the 19th century, chinchillas had become quite rare after being hunted for their ultra-soft fur. Most chinchillas currently used by the fur industry for clothing and other accessories are farm-raised. Chinchillas are sometimes kept as pets, and may be considered a type of pocket pet. The two living species of chinchilla are "Chinchilla chinchilla" (formerly known as "Chinchilla brevicaudata") and "Chinchilla lanigera". "C.


title: Chinchilla content: chinchilla" has a shorter tail, a thicker neck and shoulders, and shorter ears than "C. lanigera". The former species is currently facing extinction; the latter, though rare, can be found in the wild. Domesticated chinchillas are thought to have come from the "C. lanigera" species. Formerly, chinchillas occupied the coastal regions, hills, and mountains of Chile, Peru, Argentina, and Bolivia. Overexploitation caused the downturn of these populations, As early as 1914, one scientist claimed that the species was headed for extinction. Five years of fieldwork (published in 2007) in Jujuy Province, Argentina, failed to find a single specimen. Populations in


title: Chinchilla content: Chile were thought extinct by 1953, but the animal was found to inhabit an area in the Antofagasta Region in the late 1900s and early 2000s. The animal may be extinct in Bolivia and Peru, though one specimen found (in a restaurant in Cerro de Pasco) may hail from a native population. In their native habitats, chinchillas live in burrows or crevices in rocks. They are agile jumpers and can jump up to . Predators in the wild include birds of prey, skunks, felines, snakes and canines. Chinchillas have a variety of defensive tactics, including spraying urine and releasing fur


title: Chinchilla content: if bitten. In the wild, chinchillas have been observed eating plant leaves, fruits, seeds, and small insects. In nature, chinchillas live in social groups that resemble colonies, but are properly called herds. Herd sizes can range from 14 members up to 100, this is both for social interaction as well as protection from predators. They can breed any time of the year. Their gestation period is 111 days, longer than most rodents. Due to this long pregnancy, chinchillas are born fully furred and with eyes open. Litters are usually small in number, predominantly two. Both species of chinchilla are currently


title: Chinchilla content: listed as Endangered by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species due to a severe population loss approximated at a 90% global population loss over the last 15 years. The severe population decline has been caused by chinchilla hunting by humans. Until 1996, they were listed as Indeterminate on the IUCN Red List. In 2006, the long-tailed subspecies was listed as "Vulnerable" while the short-tailed subspecies was listed as "Critically Endangered". By 2008, both were listed as "Critically Endangered", and in 2016 they were reclassified as "Endangered" due to limited recovery in some areas. The international trade in chinchilla fur


title: Chinchilla content: goes back to the 16th century. Their fur is popular in the fur trade due to its extremely soft feel, which is caused by the sprouting of 60 hairs (on average) from each hair follicle. The color is usually very even, which makes it ideal for small garments or the lining of large garments, though some large garments can be made entirely from the fur. A single, full-length coat made from chinchilla fur may require as many as 150 pelts, as chinchillas are relatively small. Their use for fur led to the extinction of one species, and put serious pressure


title: Chinchilla content: on the other two. Though it is illegal to hunt wild chinchillas, the wild animals are now on the verge of becoming extinct because of continued illegal hunting. Domesticated chinchillas are still bred for fur. The domestic chinchilla is descended from "Chinchilla lanigera," the long-tailed Chinchilla, and the more common one in the wild after the other species, "Chinchilla chinchilla", or short-tailed Chinchilla, has been hunted nearly to extinction. So they have thinner bodies, longer tails and larger ears. Chinchillas are popular pets, but require much care. They should only be purchased by experienced pet owners who are aware of


title: Chinchilla content: their needs. Chinchillas must have extensive exercise and dental care, due to their teeth continually growing throughout their life span, and since they lack the ability to sweat, temperatures need to be carefully controlled. They should be kept in an environment of . Their cage should always be placed in a well-lit area, but not placed in direct sunlight or in drafts. The animals instinctively clean their fur by taking dust baths, in which they roll around in special dust made of fine pumice, a few times a week; they do not bathe in water. If they get wet, they


title: Chinchilla content: should be dried off immediately or else their fur will grow fungus and they can possibly get a skin infection. Their thick fur resists parasites, such as fleas, and reduces loose dander. Chinchillas have been used in research since the 1950s. Since the 1970s, the prime interest in chinchillas by researchers is their auditory system. Other research fields in which chinchillas are used as an animal model include the study of Chagas disease, gastrointestinal diseases, pneumonia, and listeriosis, as well as of "Yersinia" and "Pseudomonas" infections. Chinchillas live active lives and can recover well from physical injury. Treating any bone


title: Chinchilla content: fractures or wounds in chinchillas is done much in the same way as with any other animal. In treating wounds, they should be cleaned and ointments used for simple wounds. If a wound is dressed then it may be necessary to put the animal into a neck collar to prevent licking at the wound. Fractures are problematic, because chinchillas will want to sit on their hind legs and eat with their front paws, so many types of injuries will disturb their natural eating behavior. An animal with a cast may be comforted by hand feeding. If a limb fracture does


title: Chinchilla content: not heal properly a veterinarian may recommend an amputation. Chinchillas are able to live happily in captivity if an injury results in the need for amputation of an arm or leg. Chinchilla breeders sometimes report seeing their animals have convulsions. Typically this happens only irregularly and then only for a few seconds, and not more than a few minutes at the most. Convulsions are a symptom that can have many causes, including a brain problem such as hemorrhaging, a vitamin or dietary element deficiency in the diet, or some kind of nervous system injury. If convulsions are observed after chinchillas


title: Chinchilla content: mate then it is not unlikely that they are related to a circulatory problem. As a general treatment for all kinds of convulsions, taking extra care to keep the animal's stress lowered is the best response. Giving vitamin B, cardiac medication, or a calcium injection may be indicated. Some chinchillas who are kept in groups have stress convulsions during feeding if they see other chinchillas getting food first. It helps the animals to be fed their food in a way that allows them to either be first or to not see others eating when they have to wait their turn.


title: Chinchilla content: Infectious diseases are better prevented than treated. Prevention strategies should include keeping the chinchilla accommodations clean, giving them a climate matching their natural one, providing an optimum diet, and immunization when appropriate. Listeriosis is not a typical chinchilla disease, but in group housing conditions it can spread as a digestive tract disease in a community. If it is identified, then all chinchillas in the community should be treated. Hygiene standards should be raised during treatment and subsequently. "Pasteurella" can be contracted from food and then transmitted among a group of chinchillas. Symptoms include apathy, digestive disorder, and fever. "Pseudomonas aeruginosa"


title: Chinchilla content: infections are widely distributed in nature and can affect chinchillas like many other animals. They can cause wide deaths in populations of chinchillas and spontaneous abortion in pregnant chinchillas. Respiratory tract infections can be caused by many pathogens, but, regardless of cause, usually result in difficult breathing and a nasal discharge. Young chinchilla are more likely to be affected and these infections are unlikely to result in an epidemic, even if transmissible. Gastrointestinal disorders are observed as either constipation or diarrhea. These are almost always the result of a problem with the diet, but if the diet is optimal, they


title: Chinchilla content: could be the symptom of an infectious disease. Problems with diet should be excluded before other treatments, and perhaps the regular food stock should be discarded and replaced on the presumption that it has spoiled. Constipation in chinchillas is difficult to observe in groups because it may not be obvious than an animal is not contributing to the population's waste. If it is identified, mild treatments include feeding paraffin to soften the feces. An experienced hand may massage the chinchilla to assist with a bowel movement. Chinchillas are easily distressed and when they are unhappy they may have physical symptoms.


title: Chinchilla content: In protecting their health, care should be taken not to disturb them, and many things disturb them. Humans who monitor the chinchillas can often have intuitive ideas about recent changes which might be disturbing chinchillas who exhibit new symptoms, as chinchillas are sensitive enough to physically react when something new is bothering them. It is not appropriate to suddenly change a chinchilla's regular diet, especially when they are sick, as this upsets them. Sick chinchillas may quit eating if they are stressed, which can make them even more weak. Chinchillas which live in communities and their breeding must not be


title: Chinchilla content: disturbed in February to March or from August to September, as they are especially sensitive in these breeding seasons. Chinchillas are social animals and are likely to be upset to have their breeding mate changed in breeding season. They are known to be disturbed by a change of diet in these times, so care should be taken by breeders that the food given at the beginning of these times is in ample supply and can be given without change for the duration of the season. Chinchillas may be treated with chloramphenicol, neomycin, or spectinomycin for digestive problems. Sulfonamides dissolved in


title: Chinchilla content: drinking water may be used. Colistin can be an effective antibiotic. Chinchilla Chinchillas are either of two species of crepuscular rodents of the parvorder Caviomorpha. They are slightly larger and more robust than ground squirrels, and are native to the Andes mountains in South America. They live in colonies called "herds" at high elevations of up to . Historically, chinchillas lived in an area that included parts of Bolivia, Peru, Argentina, and Chile, but today, colonies in the wild are known only in Chile. Along with their relatives, viscachas, they make up the family Chinchillidae. They are also related to


title: "Bill Kristol" content: the Clinton health care plan of 1993. In the first of what would become many strategy memos written for Republican policymakers, Kristol said the party should "kill", not amend, President Clinton's health care plan. A later memo used the phrase "There is no health care crisis," which Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole used in his response to Clinton's 1994 State of the Union address. Kristol was a leading proponent of the Iraq War. In 1998, he joined other foreign policy analysts in sending a letter to President Clinton urging a stronger posture against Iraq. Kristol argued that Saddam Hussein posed


title: "Perfect Dark" content: enemies were admired for their use of squad tactics, for waiting for the player to come back instead of obediently chasing after them, and for ducking around a corner for cover. "GamePro" also gave high marks to the game's Counter-Operative mode for not letting the player playing as Joanna known which enemy the opposing player controls. The multiplayer and replay value were seen as the strongest features of the game. Reviewers noted that the flexibility of options, number of game modes, "clever" weapons, number of unlockable features, and customisable Simulants give the game "endless replay value". GameCritics stated that ""Perfect


title: "Arrow (Israeli missile)" content: Missile 3, and MIM-104 Patriot PAC-3, that use kinetic, direct impact to destroy the target ("hit-to-kill") the Arrow 2 relies on explosive detonation. Arrow 2 is able to intercept its targets above the stratosphere, high enough so that any nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons do not scatter over Israel. The developers' intention was to perform the destruction sequence away from populated locations. According to Dr. Uzi Rubin, the missile was tested to determine whether chemical warfare agents would reach the ground should such a warhead be intercepted. The conclusion was that nothing would reach the ground if the warhead is


title: "Great blue heron" content: Great blue heron The great blue heron ("Ardea herodias") is a large wading bird in the heron family Ardeidae, common near the shores of open water and in wetlands over most of North America and Central America, as well as the Caribbean and the Galápagos Islands. It is a rare vagrant to coastal Spain, the Azores, and areas of far southern Europe. An all-white population found only in south Florida and the Florida Keys is known as the great white heron. There is a debate about whether it is a white color morph of the great blue heron, a subspecies


title: "Great blue heron" content: of it, or an entirely separate species. The great blue heron was one of the many species originally described by Carl Linnaeus in his 18th-century work, "Systema Naturae". The scientific name comes from Latin "ardea", and Ancient Greek (), both meaning "heron". The great blue heron is replaced in the Old World by the very similar grey heron ("Ardea cinerea"), which differs in being somewhat smaller (), with a pale gray neck and legs, lacking the browner colors that great blue heron has there. It forms a superspecies with this and also with the cocoi heron from South America, which


title: "Great blue heron" content: differs in having more extensive black on the head, and a white breast and neck. The five subspecies are: It is the largest North American heron and, among all extant herons, it is surpassed only by the goliath heron ("Ardea goliath") and the white-bellied heron ("Ardea insignis"). It has head-to-tail length of , a wingspan of , a height of , and a weight of . In British Columbia, adult males averaged and adult females . In Nova Scotia and New England, adult herons of both sexes averaged , while in Oregon, both sexes averaged Thus, great blue herons are


title: "Great blue heron" content: roughly twice as heavy as great egrets ("Ardea alba"), although only slightly taller than them, but they can weigh about half as much as a large goliath heron. Notable features of great blue herons include slaty (gray with a slight azure blue) flight feathers, red-brown thighs, and a paired red-brown and black stripe up the flanks; the neck is rusty-gray, with black and white streaking down the front; the head is paler, with a nearly white face, and a pair of black or slate plumes runs from just above the eye to the back of the head. The feathers on


title: "Great blue heron" content: the lower neck are long and plume-like; it also has plumes on the lower back at the start of the breeding season. The bill is dull yellowish, becoming orange briefly at the start of the breeding season, and the lower legs are gray, also becoming orangey at the start of the breeding season. Immature birds are duller in color, with a dull blackish-gray crown, and the flank pattern is only weakly defined; they have no plumes, and the bill is dull gray-yellow. Among standard measurements, the wing chord is , the tail is , the culmen is , and the


title: "Great blue heron" content: tarsus is . The heron's stride is around , almost in a straight line. Two of the three front toes are generally closer together. In a track, the front toes, as well as the back, often show the small talons. The subspecies differ only slightly in size and plumage tone, with the exception of subspecies "A. h. occidentalis", native to south Florida, which also has a distinct white morph, known as the great white heron (not to be confused with the great egret, for which "great white heron" was once a common name). The great white heron differs from other