title: Sergei Fedorov

text: The Bure–Fedorov–Mogilny line made its international debut at the 1989 World Junior Championships in Anchorage, Alaska. The top line of CSKA Moscow teammates combined for a total 38 points and led the Soviet Union over Canada for the gold medal. The combination of the three formed was promising for head coach Viktor Tikhonov, with expectations to replace the previous top Soviet line, the K–L–M combination of Vladimir Krutov, Larionov and Makarov.


title: Sergei Fedorov

text: Later that year, Fedorov made his senior debut with the Soviet national team as a 19-year-old at the 1989 World Championships in Sweden. He played with the full roster Soviet Union team that won the gold medal over Canada in their final game, and played along aside club teammates Mogilny and Vladimir Konstantinov. He also led the team in goals (6) and was second in points (9). The Soviet Union would repeat gold at the 1990 World Championships in Switzerland against Czechoslovakia, with Pavel Bure playing on Fedorov's wing.


title: Sergei Fedorov

text: In the 1991 Canada Cup, the team representing the Soviet Union was missing most of its top stars due to severe political turmoil at home. Many players were declining to play for the team, and some were purposely left off the roster (such as Pavel Bure and Vladimir Konstantinov) for fears of defection. It was not known until weeks before the start of the tournament that they would even send a team. This was the final major senior event in which a team representing the Soviet Union would play. Fedorov was asked to join the team (one year after defection), which he accepted to represent his country. Though the team finished in fifth place, he did help hold an undefeated Canada to a 3–3 tie in Quebec City in their last game, where Fedorov was paired against tournament scoring leader Wayne Gretzky.


title: Sergei Fedorov

text: In the 1996 World Cup of Hockey, Russia had played five preliminary games in order to set the groupings for the main tournament stage. Russia was the only team that went undefeated (winning against Finland (Moscow), Germany (Landshut), Sweden (Stockholm), USA (Detroit) and tied against Canada (Calgary). The United States, Sweden and Finland games saw the Bure–Fedorov–Mogilny line for the first (and only) time internationally at senior level, which was considered "perhaps the best forward line on earth" at the time. With Pavel Bure injured at the end of the game against the Americans, he was not able to play in the main tournament. One of Fedorov's goals came in the round robin of the tournament in the second period against Canada in Vancouver on a breakaway pass off the boards from defencemen Darius Kasparaitis, where he sprinted to the puck and shot it over the blocker of goaltender Curtis Joseph to tie the game. Fedorov and Mogilny played on the same line but it was Fedorov that led the team in scoring, although Russia would lose in the semi-finals against the United States after defeating Finland 5–0 in the quarter-finals.


title: Sergei Fedorov

text: On a team that was missing many of their top stars due to players declining and injuries, Fedorov with Pavel Bure and Mikhail Shtalenkov carried the team to a silver medal with Russia in the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano. In the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Fedorov and the Russians eliminated the Czech Republic in the quarter-finals 1–0, and ended the tournament winning a bronze medal in their final game, against Belarus.


title: Sergei Fedorov

text: In response on his decision to play hockey at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Fedorov said, "I don't think it is appropriate to delay my decision about the Olympics any further. As much as I would enjoy representing my country in Italy, I'm afraid that at this point in the season my focus has to remain with the Columbus Blue Jackets... I feel that the most important thing is for me to continue to work towards being 100 percent healthy. My main priority and responsibility is to the Columbus Blue Jackets and I don't believe participating in the Olympics, which is a short, intense tournament, would be the best thing to do."


title: Sergei Fedorov

text: The Washington Capitals' trio of Alexander Ovechkin, Alexander Semin and Fedorov competed on the same line for Russia and won the gold medal at the 2008 World Championships, 5–4 in overtime against Canada; Fedorov passed to Ilya Kovalchuk to set up the game-winning goal. The tournament was held for the first time in Canada (in Quebec City) for the 100th anniversary celebrations. At the 2009 World Championships, Russia would repeat as champions after again defeating Canada in the final.


title: Sergei Fedorov

text: Fedorov also played for Russia at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, the oldest player in the tournament at age 40. Although Russia entered the competition ranked number one in the world, Russia was eliminated in the quarter-finals. Fedorov nonetheless finished the Olympics at a point-per-game pace and tied Alexander Ovechkin for second overall in team scoring.


title: Sergei Fedorov

text: On December 27, 2013, Fedorov played for CSKA Moscow in the 2013 Spengler Cup—in two games, he scored one goal.


title: Sergei Fedorov

text: On November 9, 2015, Fedorov was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. During the weekend festivities, many of his past coaches and teammates commented on Fedorov's career. Scotty Bowman was speaking about having to put Sergei on defence when injuries were piling up: "He was the best defenseman in the league for a six-week period." Former teammate Brendan Shanahan said, "I'm convinced if Sergei played defense, he could have won a Norris Trophy ... He was so talented, so strong." Wayne Gretzky spoke on their friendship: "He was one of my closer friends that played on another team. Actually, the year he won the Hart Memorial Trophy I think it was, he lived with us for six weeks in the offseason and we trained together and spent a lot of time together." Alexander Ovechkin said he was "the best player I've ever played with. He was unbelievable. You put him in every position and he was going to be the best. His hockey sense was unbelievable. His shot and vision, unbelievable".


title: Sergei Fedorov

text: On July 14, 2021, Fedorov was named head coach of CSKA. In his first season, he brought CSKA back from a 3-1 series deficit to win the Gagarin Cup in 7 games.


title: Sergei Fedorov

text: Fedorov was born to Viktor and Natalia Fedorov in Pskov. Fedorov claimed he and tennis star Anna Kournikova were married in 2001. Kournikova's representatives deny any marriage to Fedorov, however Fedorov's agent, Pat Brisson, claims that although he doesn't know when they got married, he knew "he [Fedorov] was married". Although she claims to have never married the hockey superstar, she did turn over her South Beach condo as part of the divorce. Fedorov was also romantically linked to actress Tara Reid in 2004.


title: Sergei Fedorov

text: In 2006, Fedorov appeared in Soccer Aid, a football game that takes place in England pitting celebrities against each other to benefit UNICEF UK. He competed for the "rest of the world" squad.


title: Sergei Fedorov

text: On July 24, 2009, Fedorov filed a lawsuit against Joseph Zada for defrauding on an agreement to pay him $60 million to compensate him for the $43 million Fedorov invested with Zada over the past 11 years. The lawsuit was filed by Fedorov in Michigan. Fedorov won the suit but has been unable to collect on the judgment from Zada.


title: Sergei Fedorov

text: Fedorov continues his philanthropic endeavours via the Sergei Fedorov Foundation, a 501(c)(3) charitable foundation, which has donated over $800,000 to charities that mostly benefit children in need.


title: Sergei Fedorov

text: Fedorov currently serves as the head coach of CSKA Moscow. He resides in Moscow during hockey season and splits his summers between Detroit and Miami.


title: Trophic level

text: The trophic level of an organism is the position it occupies in a food web. A food chain is a succession of organisms that eat other organisms and may, in turn, be eaten themselves. The trophic level of an organism is the number of steps it is from the start of the chain. A food web starts at trophic level 1 with primary producers such as plants, can move to herbivores at level 2, carnivores at level 3 or higher, and typically finish with apex predators at level 4 or 5. The path along the chain can form either a one-way flow or a food "web". Ecological communities with higher biodiversity form more complex trophic paths.


title: Trophic level

text: The concept of trophic level was developed by Raymond Lindeman (1942), based on the terminology of August Thienemann (1926): "producers", "consumers" and "reducers" (modified to "decomposers" by Lindeman).


title: Trophic level

text: Trophic levels can be represented by numbers, starting at level 1 with plants. Further trophic levels are numbered subsequently according to how far the organism is along the food chain.


title: Trophic level

text: In real-world ecosystems, there is more than one food chain for most organisms, since most organisms eat more than one kind of food or are eaten by more than one type of predator. A diagram that sets out the intricate network of intersecting and overlapping food chains for an ecosystem is called its food web. Decomposers are often left off food webs, but if included, they mark the end of a food chain. Thus food chains start with primary producers and end with decay and decomposers. Since decomposers recycle nutrients, leaving them so they can be reused by primary producers, they are sometimes regarded as occupying their own trophic level.


title: Trophic level

text: The trophic level of a species may vary if it has a choice of diet. Virtually all plants and phytoplankton are purely phototrophic and are at exactly level 1.0. Many worms are at around 2.1; insects 2.2; jellyfish 3.0; birds 3.6. A 2013 study estimates the average trophic level of human beings at 2.21, similar to pigs or anchovies.


title: Philip Sheridan

text: General of the Army Philip Henry Sheridan (March 6, 1831 – August 5, 1888) was a career United States Army officer and a Union general in the American Civil War. His career was noted for his rapid rise to major general and his close association with General-in-chief Ulysses S. Grant, who transferred Sheridan from command of an infantry division in the Western Theater to lead the Cavalry Corps of the Army of the Potomac in the East. In 1864, he defeated Confederate forces under General Jubal Early in the Shenandoah Valley and his destruction of the economic infrastructure of the Valley, called "The Burning" by residents, was one of the first uses of scorched-earth tactics in the war. In 1865, his cavalry pursued Gen. Robert E. Lee and was instrumental in forcing his surrender at Appomattox Courthouse.


title: Philip Sheridan

text: Sheridan fought in later years in the Indian Wars of the Great Plains. Both as a soldier and private citizen, he was instrumental in the development and protection of Yellowstone National Park. In 1883, Sheridan was appointed general-in-chief of the U.S. Army, and in 1888 he was promoted to the rank of General of the Army during the term of President Grover Cleveland.


title: Philip Sheridan

text: Sheridan claimed he was born in Albany in the State of New York, the third child of six of John and Mary Meenagh Sheridan, Irish Catholic immigrants from the parish of Killinkere in County Cavan, Ireland. He grew up in Somerset, Ohio. Fully grown, he reached only 165 cm (5 feet 5 inches) tall, a stature that led to the nickname, "Little Phil." Abraham Lincoln described his appearance in a famous anecdote: "A brown, chunky little chap, with a long body, short legs, not enough neck to hang him, and such long arms that if his ankles itch he can scratch them without stooping."


title: Philip Sheridan

text: Sheridan worked as a boy in town general stores, and eventually as head clerk and bookkeeper for a dry goods store. In 1848, he obtained an appointment to the United States Military Academy from one of his customers, Congressman Thomas Ritchey; Ritchey's first candidate for the appointment was disqualified by failing an examination of mathematics skill and a "poor attitude." In his fourth year at West Point, Sheridan was suspended for a year for fighting with a classmate, William R. Terrill. The previous day, Sheridan had threatened to run him through with a fixed bayonet in reaction to a perceived insult on the parade ground. He graduated in 1853, 34th in his class of 52 cadets.


title: Philip Sheridan

text: Sheridan was commissioned as a brevet second lieutenant and was assigned to the 1st U.S. Infantry Regiment at Fort Duncan, Texas, then to the 4th U.S. Infantry Regiment at Fort Reading, California. Most of his service with the 4th Infantry was in the Pacific Northwest, starting with a topographical survey mission to the Willamette Valley in 1855, during which he became involved with the Yakima War and Rogue River Wars, gaining experience in leading small combat teams, being wounded (a bullet grazed his nose on March 28, 1857, at Middle Cascade, Oregon Territory), and some of the diplomatic skills needed for negotiating with Indian tribes. He lived with a mistress during part of his tour of duty, an Indian Rogue River woman and daughter of Takelma Chief Harney, named Frances by her white friends. He was promoted to first lieutenant in March 1861, just before the Civil War, and to captain in May, immediately after Fort Sumter.


title: Philip Sheridan

text: In the fall of 1861, Sheridan was ordered to travel to Jefferson Barracks, near St. Louis, Missouri, for assignment to the 13th U.S. Infantry. He departed from his command of Fort Yamhill, Oregon, by way of San Francisco, across the Isthmus of Panama, and through New York City to home in Somerset for a brief leave. On the way to his new post, he made a courtesy call to Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck in St. Louis, who commandeered his services to audit the financial records of his immediate predecessor, Maj. Gen. John C. Frémont, whose administration of the Department of the Missouri was tainted by charges of wasteful expenditures and fraud that left the status of $12 million in debt. Sheridan sorted out the mess, impressing Halleck in the process. Much to Sheridan's dismay, Halleck's vision for Sheridan consisted of a continuing role as a staff officer. Nevertheless, Sheridan performed the task assigned to him and entrenched himself as an excellent staff officer in Halleck's view.


title: Philip Sheridan

text: In December, Sheridan was appointed chief commissary officer of the Army of Southwest Missouri, but convinced the department commander, Halleck, to give him the position of quartermaster general as well. In January 1862, he reported for duty to Maj. Gen. Samuel Curtis and served under him at the Battle of Pea Ridge. Sheridan soon discovered that officers were engaged in profiteering. They stole horses from civilians and demanded payment from Sheridan. He refused to pay for the stolen property and confiscated the horses for the use of Curtis's army. When Curtis ordered him to pay the officers, Sheridan brusquely retorted, "No authority can compel me to jayhawk or steal." Curtis had Sheridan arrested for insubordination but Halleck's influence appears to have ended any formal proceedings. Sheridan performed aptly in his role under Curtis and, now returned to Halleck's headquarters, he accompanied the army on the Siege of Corinth and served as an assistant to the department's topographical engineer, but also made the acquaintance of Brig. Gen. William T. Sherman, who offered him the colonelcy of an Ohio infantry regiment. This appointment fell through, but Sheridan was subsequently aided by friends (including future Secretary of War Russell A. Alger), who petitioned Michigan Governor Austin Blair on his behalf. Sheridan was appointed colonel of the 2nd Michigan Cavalry on May 27, 1862, despite having no experience in the mounted arm.


title: Philip Sheridan

text: A month later, Sheridan commanded his first forces in combat, leading a small brigade that included his regiment. At the Battle of Booneville, Mississippi, July 1, 1862, he held back several regiments of Brig. Gen. James R. Chalmers's Confederate cavalry, deflected a large flanking attack with a noisy diversion, and reported critical intelligence about enemy dispositions. His actions so impressed the division commanders, including Brig. Gen. William S. Rosecrans, that they recommended Sheridan's promotion to brigadier general. They wrote to Halleck, "Brigadiers scarce; good ones scarce. ... The undersigned respectfully beg that you will obtain the promotion of Sheridan. He is worth his weight in gold." The promotion was approved in September, but dated effective July 1 as a reward for his actions at Booneville. It was just after Booneville that one of his fellow officers gave him the horse that he named Rienzi (after the skirmish of Rienzi, Mississippi), which he would ride throughout the war.


title: Philip Sheridan

text: Sheridan was assigned to command the 11th Division, III Corps, in Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell's Army of the Ohio. On October 8, 1862, Sheridan led his division in the Battle of Perryville. Under orders from Buell and his corps commander, Maj. Gen. Charles Gilbert, Sheridan sent Col. Daniel McCook's brigade to secure a water supply for the army. McCook drove off the Confederates and secured water for the parched Union troops at Doctor's Creek. Gilbert ordered McCook not to advance any further and then rode to consult with Buell. Along the way, Gilbert ordered his cavalry to attack the Confederates in Dan McCook's front. Sheridan heard the gunfire and came to the front with another brigade. Although the cavalry failed to secure the heights in front of McCook, Sheridan's reinforcements drove off the Southerners. Gilbert returned and ordered Sheridan to return to McCook's original position. Sheridan's aggressiveness convinced the opposing Confederates under Maj. Gen. Leonidas Polk, that they should remain on the defensive. His troops repelled Confederate attacks later that day, but did not participate in the heaviest fighting of the day, which occurred on the Union left.


title: Philip Sheridan

text: On December 31, 1862, the first day of the Battle of Stones River, Sheridan anticipated a Confederate assault and positioned his division in preparation for it. His division held back the Confederate onslaught on his front until their ammunition ran out and they were forced to withdraw. This action was instrumental in giving the Union army time to rally at a strong defensive position. For his actions, he was promoted to major general on April 10, 1863 (with date of rank December 31, 1862). In six months, he had risen from captain to major general.


title: Philip Sheridan

text: The Army of the Cumberland recovered from the shock of Stones River and prepared for its summer offensive against Confederate General Braxton Bragg. Sheridan's division participated in the advance against Bragg in Rosecrans's brilliant Tullahoma Campaign, and was the lead division to enter the town of Tullahoma. On the second day of the Battle of Chickamauga, September 20, 1863, Rosecrans was shifting Sheridan's division behind the Union battle line when Bragg launched an attack into a gap in the Union line. Sheridan's division made a gallant stand on Lytle Hill against an attack by the Confederate corps of Lt. Gen. James Longstreet, but was swamped by retreating Union soldiers. The Confederates drove Sheridan's division from the field in confusion. He gathered as many men as he could and withdrew toward Chattanooga, rallying troops along the way. Learning of Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas's XIV Corps stand on Snodgrass Hill, Sheridan ordered his division back to the fighting, but they took a circuitous route and did not participate in the fighting as some histories claim. His return to the battlefield ensured that he did not suffer the fate of Rosecrans who rode off to Chattanooga leaving the army to its fate, and was soon relieved of command.


title: Philip Sheridan

text: During the Battle of Chattanooga, at Missionary Ridge on November 25, 1863, Sheridan's division and others in George Thomas's army broke through the Confederate lines in a wild charge that exceeded the orders and expectations of Thomas and Ulysses S. Grant. Just before his men stepped off, Sheridan told them, "Remember Chickamauga," and many shouted its name as they advanced as ordered to a line of rifle pits in their front. Faced with enemy fire from above, however, they continued up the ridge. Sheridan spotted a group of Confederate officers outlined against the crest of the ridge and shouted, "Here's at you!" An exploding shell sprayed him with dirt and he responded, "That's damn ungenerous! I shall take those guns for that!" The Union charge broke through the Confederate lines on the ridge and Bragg's army fell into retreat. Sheridan impulsively ordered his men to pursue Bragg to the Confederate supply depot at Chickamauga Station, but called them back when he realized that his was the only command so far forward. General Grant reported after the battle, "To Sheridan's prompt movement, the Army of the Cumberland and the nation are indebted for the bulk of the capture of prisoners, artillery, and small arms that day. Except for his prompt pursuit, so much in this way would not have been accomplished."


title: Philip Sheridan

text: Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, newly promoted to be general-in-chief of all the Union armies, summoned Sheridan to the Eastern Theater to command the Cavalry Corps of the Army of the Potomac. Unbeknownst to Sheridan, he was actually Grant's second choice, after Maj. Gen. William B. Franklin, but Grant agreed to a suggestion about Sheridan from Chief of Staff Henry W. Halleck. After the war, and in his memoirs, Grant claimed that Sheridan was the very man he wanted for the job. Sheridan arrived at the headquarters of the Army of the Potomac on April 5, 1864, less than a month before the start of Grant's massive Overland Campaign against Robert E. Lee.


title: Philip Sheridan

text: In the early battles of the campaign, Sheridan's cavalry was relegated by army commander Maj. Gen. George Meade to its traditional role—screening, reconnaissance, and guarding trains and rear areas—much to Sheridan's frustration. In the Battle of the Wilderness (May 5–6, 1864), the dense forested terrain prevented any significant cavalry role. As the army swung around the Confederate right flank in the direction of Spotsylvania Court House, Sheridan's troopers failed to clear the road from the Wilderness, losing engagements along the Plank Road on May 5 and Todd's Tavern on May 6 through May 8, allowing the Confederates to seize the critical crossroads before the Union infantry could arrive.


title: Philip Sheridan

text: When Meade quarreled with Sheridan for not performing his duties of screening and reconnaissance as ordered, Sheridan told Meade that he could "whip Stuart" if Meade let him. Meade reported the conversation to Grant, who replied, "Well, he generally knows what he is talking about. Let him start right out and do it." Meade deferred to Grant's judgment and issued orders to Sheridan to "proceed against the enemy's cavalry" and from May 9 through May 24, sent him on a raid toward Richmond, directly challenging the Confederate cavalry. The raid was less successful than hoped; although his raid managed to mortally wound Confederate cavalry commander Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart at Yellow Tavern on May 11 and beat Maj. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee at Meadow Bridge on May 12, the raid never seriously threatened Richmond and it left Grant without cavalry intelligence for Spotsylvania and North Anna. Historian Gordon C. Rhea wrote, "By taking his cavalry from Spotsylvania Court House, Sheridan severely handicapped Grant in his battles against Lee. The Union Army was deprived of his eyes and ears during a critical juncture in the campaign. And Sheridan's decision to advance boldly to the Richmond defenses smacked of unnecessary showboating that jeopardized his command."


title: Philip Sheridan

text: Rejoining the Army of the Potomac, Sheridan's cavalry fought inconclusively at Haw's Shop (May 28), a battle with heavy casualties that allowed the Confederate cavalry to obtain valuable intelligence about Union dispositions. They seized the critical crossroads that triggered the Battle of Cold Harbor (June 1 to 12) and withstood a number of assaults until reinforced. Grant then ordered Sheridan on a raid to the northwest to break the Virginia Central Railroad and to link up with the Shenandoah Valley army of Maj. Gen. David Hunter. He was intercepted by the Confederate cavalry under Maj. Gen. Wade Hampton at the Battle of Trevilian Station (June 11–12), where in the largest all-cavalry battle of the war, he achieved tactical success on the first day, but suffered heavy casualties during multiple assaults on the second. He withdrew without achieving his assigned objectives. On his return march, he once again encountered the Confederate cavalry at Samaria (St. Mary's) Church on June 24, where his men suffered significant casualties, but successfully protected the Union supply wagons they were escorting.


title: Philip Sheridan

text: History draws decidedly mixed opinions on the success of Sheridan in the Overland Campaign, in no small part because the very clear Union victory at Yellow Tavern, highlighted by the death of Jeb Stuart, tends to overshadow other actions and battles. In Sheridan's report of the Cavalry Corps' actions in the campaign, discussing the strategy of cavalry fighting cavalry, he wrote, "The result was constant success and the almost total annihilation of the rebel cavalry. We marched when and where we pleased; we were always the attacking party, and always successful." A contrary view has been published by historian Eric J. Wittenberg, who notes that of four major strategic raids (Richmond, Trevilian, Wilson-Kautz, and First Deep Bottom) and thirteen major cavalry engagements of the Overland and Richmond–Petersburg campaigns, only Yellow Tavern can be considered a Union victory, with Haw's Shop, Trevilian Station, Meadow Bridge, Samaria Church, and Wilson-Kautz defeats in which some of Sheridan's forces barely avoided destruction.


title: Philip Sheridan

text: Throughout the war, the Confederacy sent armies out of Virginia through the Shenandoah Valley to invade Maryland and Pennsylvania and threaten Washington, D.C. Lt. Gen. Jubal Early, following the same pattern in the Valley Campaigns of 1864, and hoping to distract Grant from the Siege of Petersburg, attacked Union forces near Washington and raided several towns in Pennsylvania. Grant, reacting to the political commotion caused by the invasion, organized the Middle Military Division, whose field troops were known as the Army of the Shenandoah. He considered various candidates for command, including George Meade, William B. Franklin, and David Hunter, with the latter two intended for the military division while Sheridan would command the army. All of these choices were rejected by either Grant or the War Department and, over the objection of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, who believed him to be too young for such a high post, Sheridan took command in both roles at Harpers Ferry on August 7, 1864. His mission was not only to defeat Early's army and to close off the Northern invasion route, but to deny the Shenandoah Valley as a productive agricultural region to the Confederacy. Grant told Sheridan, "The people should be informed that so long as an army can subsist among them recurrences of these raids must be expected, and we are determined to stop them at all hazards. ... Give the enemy no rest ... Do all the damage to railroads and crops you can. Carry off stock of all descriptions, and negroes, so as to prevent further planting. If the war is to last another year, we want the Shenandoah Valley to remain a barren waste."


title: Philip Sheridan

text: Sheridan got off to a slow start, needing time to organize and to react to reinforcements reaching Early; Grant ordered him not to launch an offensive "with the advantage against you." And yet Grant expressed frustration with Sheridan's lack of progress. The armies remained unengaged for over a month, causing political consternation in the North as the 1864 election drew near. The two generals conferred on September 16 at Charles Town and agreed that Sheridan would begin his attacks within four days.


title: Philip Sheridan

text: On September 19, Sheridan beat Early's much smaller army at Third Winchester and followed up on September 22 with a victory at Fisher's Hill. As Early attempted to regroup, Sheridan began the punitive operations of his mission, sending his cavalry as far south as Waynesboro to seize or destroy livestock and provisions, and to burn barns, mills, factories, and railroads. Sheridan's men did their work relentlessly and thoroughly, rendering over 400 square miles uninhabitable. The destruction presaged the scorched-earth tactics of Sherman's March to the Sea through Georgia—deny an army a base from which to operate and bring the effects of war home to the population supporting it. The residents referred to this widespread destruction as "The Burning." There has been much controversy over the scorched-earth tactics. Sheridan's troops told of the wanton attack in their letters home, calling themselves "barn burners" and "destroyers of homes." One soldier wrote to his family that he had personally set 60 private homes on fire and believed that "it was a hard looking sight to see the women and children turned out of doors at this season of the year" (winter). A Sergeant William T. Patterson wrote that "the whole country around is wrapped in flames, the heavens are aglow with the light thereof ... such mourning, such lamentations, such crying and pleading for mercy [by defenseless women] ... I never saw or want to see again." The Confederates were not idle during this period and Sheridan's men were plagued by guerrilla raids by partisan ranger Col. John S. Mosby.


title: Philip Sheridan

text: Although Sheridan assumed that Jubal Early was effectively out of action and he considered withdrawing his army to rejoin Grant at Petersburg, Early received reinforcements and, on October 19 at Cedar Creek, launched a well-executed surprise attack while Sheridan was absent from his army, ten miles away at Winchester. Hearing the distant sounds of artillery, he rode aggressively to his command. He reached the battlefield about 10:30 a.m. and began to rally his men. Fortunately for Sheridan, Early's men were too occupied to take notice; they were hungry and exhausted and fell out to pillage the Union camps. Sheridan's actions are generally credited with saving the day (although Maj. Gen. Horatio G. Wright, commanding Sheridan's VI Corps, had already rallied his men and stopped their retreat). Early had been dealt his most significant defeat, rendering his army almost incapable of future offensive action. Sheridan received a personal letter of thanks from Abraham Lincoln and a promotion to major general in the regular army as of November 8, 1864, making him the fourth ranking general in the Army, after Grant, Sherman, and Meade. Grant wrote to Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton after he ordered a 100-gun salute to celebrate Sheridan's victory at Cedar Creek, "Turning what bid fair to be a disaster into glorious victory stamps Sheridan, what I have always thought him, one of the ablest of generals." A famous poem, "Sheridan's Ride", was written by Thomas Buchanan Read to commemorate the general's return to the battle. Sheridan reveled in the fame that Read's poem brought him, renaming his horse Rienzi to "Winchester," based on the poem's refrain, "Winchester, twenty miles away." The poem was widely used in Republican campaign efforts and some have credited Abraham Lincoln's margin of victory to it. As for Lincoln himself, the President, pleased at Sheridan's performance as a commander, wrote to Sheridan and playfully confessed his reassessment of the relatively short officer, "When this peculiar war began, I thought a cavalryman should be six feet four inches, but I have changed my mind. Five foot four will do in a pinch."


title: Philip Sheridan

text: Sheridan spent the next several months occupied with light skirmishing and fighting guerrillas. Although Grant continued his exhortations for Sheridan to move south and break the Virginia Central Railroad supplying Petersburg, Sheridan resisted. Wright's VI Corps returned to join Grant in November. Sheridan's remaining men, primarily cavalry and artillery, finally moved out of their winter quarters on February 27, 1865, and headed east. The orders from Gen. Grant were largely discretionary: they were to destroy the Virginia Central Railroad and the James River Canal, capture Lynchburg if practicable, then either join William T. Sherman in North Carolina or return to Winchester.


title: Philip Sheridan

text: Sheridan interpreted Grant's orders liberally and instead of heading to North Carolina in March 1865, he moved to rejoin the Army of the Potomac at Petersburg. He wrote in his memoirs, "Feeling that the war was nearing its end, I desired my cavalry to be in at the death." His finest service of the Civil War was demonstrated during his relentless pursuit of Robert E. Lee's Army, effectively managing the most crucial aspects of the Appomattox Campaign for Grant.


title: Philip Sheridan

text: On the way to Petersburg, at the Battle of Waynesboro, March 2, he trapped the remainder of Early's army and 1,500 soldiers surrendered. On April 1, he cut off Gen. Lee's lines of support at Five Forks, forcing Lee to evacuate Petersburg. During this battle he ruined the military career of Maj. Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren by removing him from command of the V Corps under circumstances that a court of inquiry later determined were unjustified. President Rutherford B. Hayes ordered a court of inquiry that convened in 1879 and, after hearing testimony from dozens of witnesses over 100 days, found that Sheridan's relief of Warren had been unjustified. Unfortunately for Warren, these results were not published until after his death.


title: Philip Sheridan

text: Sheridan's aggressive and well-executed performance at the Battle of Sayler's Creek on April 6 effectively sealed the fate of Lee's army, capturing over 20% of his remaining men. President Lincoln sent Grant a telegram on April 7: "Gen. Sheridan says 'If the thing is pressed I think that Lee will surrender.' Let the thing be pressed." At Appomattox Court House, April 9, 1865, Sheridan blocked Lee's escape, forcing the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia later that day. Grant summed up Little Phil's performance in these final days: "I believe General Sheridan has no superior as a general, either living or dead, and perhaps not an equal."


title: Philip Sheridan

text: After Gen. Lee's surrender, and that of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston in North Carolina, the only significant Confederate field force remaining was in Texas under Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith. Sheridan was supposed to lead troops in the Grand Review of the Armies in Washington, D.C., but Grant appointed him commander of the Military District of the Southwest on May 17, 1865, six days before the parade, with orders to defeat Smith without delay and restore Texas and Louisiana to Union control. However, Smith surrendered before Sheridan reached New Orleans.


title: Philip Sheridan

text: Grant was also concerned about the situation in neighboring Mexico, where 40,000 French soldiers propped up the puppet regime of Austrian Archduke Maximilian. He gave Sheridan permission to gather a large Texas occupation force. Sheridan assembled 50,000 men in three corps, quickly occupied Texas coastal cities, spread inland, and began to patrol the Mexico–United States border. The Army's presence, U.S. political pressure, and the growing resistance of Benito Juárez induced the French to abandon their claims against Mexico. Napoleon III announced a staged withdrawal of French troops to be completed in November 1867. In light of growing opposition at home and concern with the rise of German military prowess, Napoleon III stepped up the French withdrawal, which was completed by March 12, 1867. By June 19 of that year, Mexico's republican army had captured, tried, and executed Maximilian. Sheridan later admitted in his memoirs that he had supplied arms and ammunition to Juárez's forces: "... which we left at convenient places on our side of the river to fall into their hands".


title: Philip Sheridan

text: On July 30, 1866, while Sheridan was in Texas, a white mob broke up the state constitutional convention in New Orleans. Thirty-four blacks were killed. Shortly after Sheridan returned, he wired Grant, "The more information I obtain of the affair of the 30th in this city the more revolting it becomes. It was no riot; it was an absolute massacre." In March 1867, with Reconstruction barely started, Sheridan was appointed military governor of the Fifth Military District (Texas and Louisiana). He severely limited voter registration for former Confederates and ruled that only registered voters (including black men) were eligible to serve on juries. Furthermore, an inquiry into the deadly New Orleans riot of 1866 implicated numerous local officials; Sheridan dismissed the mayor of New Orleans, the Louisiana attorney general, and a district judge. He later removed Louisiana Governor James M. Wells, accusing him of being "a political trickster and a dishonest man". He also dismissed Texas Governor James W. Throckmorton, a former Confederate, for being an "impediment to the reconstruction of the State", replacing him with the Republican who had lost to him in the previous election Elisha M. Pease. Sheridan had been feuding with President Andrew Johnson for months over interpretations of the Military Reconstruction Acts and voting rights issues, and within a month of the second firing, the president removed Sheridan, stating to an outraged Gen. Grant that, "His rule has, in fact, been one of absolute tyranny, without references to the principles of our government or the nature of our free institutions."


title: Philip Sheridan

text: If Sheridan was unpopular in Texas, neither did he have much appreciation for the Lone Star State. In 1866 his quip was widely reported: "If I owned Texas and Hell, I would rent Texas and live in Hell."


title: Philip Sheridan

text: During the Grant administration, while Sheridan was assigned to duty in the West, he was sent to Louisiana on two additional occasions to deal with problems that lingered in Reconstruction. In January 1875, federal troops intervened in the Louisiana Legislature following attempts by the Democrats to seize control of disputed seats. Sheridan supported Republican Governor William P. Kellogg, winner of the 1872 state election, and declared that the Democratic opponents of the Republican regime who used violence to overcome legitimate electoral results were "banditti" who should be subjected to military tribunals and loss of their habeas corpus rights. The Grant administration backed down after an enormous public outcry. A headline in the "New York World" newspaper shrieked "Tyranny! A Sovereign State Murdered!" In 1876, Sheridan was also sent to New Orleans to command troops keeping the peace in the aftermath of the disputed presidential election in 1876.


title: Philip Sheridan

text: The protection of the Great Plains fell under the Department of the Missouri, an administrative area of over 1,000,000 square miles, encompassing all land between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains. Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock was assigned to the department in 1866 but had mishandled his campaign, resulting in Sioux and Cheyenne raids that attacked mail coaches, burned the stations, and killed the employees. They also killed and kidnapped a considerable number of settlers on the frontier. Under pressure from the governors, General Grant turned to Sheridan. In September 1866, Sheridan arrived at the former Fort Martin Scott near Fredericksburg, Texas, where he spent three months subduing Indians in the Texas Hill Country.


title: Philip Sheridan

text: In August 1867, Grant appointed Sheridan to head the Department of the Missouri and pacify the Plains. His troops, even supplemented with state militia, were spread too thin to have any real effect. He conceived a strategy similar to the one he used in the Shenandoah Valley. In the Winter Campaign of 1868–69 (of which the Battle of Washita River was part) he attacked the Cheyenne, Kiowa, and Comanche tribes in their winter quarters, taking their supplies and livestock and killing those who resisted, driving the rest back into their reservations. When Sherman was promoted to General of the Army following Grant's election as President of the United States, Sheridan was appointed to command the Military Division of the Missouri, with all the Great Plains under his command. Professional hunters, trespassing on Indian land, killed over 4 million bison by 1874. As historian Dan Flores has shown, the quotations attributed to Sheridan that celebrate buffalo hunting or that he ever appeared before the Texas legislature about this matter are almost certainly apocryphal. As Flores notes, "there is no evidence the nineteenth-century Texas legislature ever considered a bill to outlaw or regulate the hide hunt." These erroneous charges against Sheridan first surfaced in the 1907 memoir of buffalo hunter John Cook.


title: Philip Sheridan

text: Eventually the Indians returned to their designated reservations. Sheridan's department conducted the Red River War, the Ute War, and the Great Sioux War of 1876-77, which resulted in the death of a trusted subordinate, Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer. The Indian raids subsided during the 1870s and were almost over by the early 1880s, as Sheridan became the commanding general of the U.S. Army.


title: Philip Sheridan

text: Comanche Chief Tosawi reputedly told Sheridan in 1869, "Tosawi, good Indian," to which Sheridan supposedly replied, "The only good Indians I ever saw were dead." In "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee", Dee Brown attributed the quote to Sheridan, stating that "Lieutenant Charles Nordstrom, who was present, remembered the words and passed them on, until in time they were honed into an American aphorism: "The only good Indian is a dead Indian". Sheridan denied he had ever made the statement. Biographer Roy Morris Jr. states that, nevertheless, popular history credits Sheridan with saying "The only good Indian is a dead Indian." This variation "has been used by friends and enemies ever since to characterize and castigate his Indian-fighting career."


title: Philip Sheridan

text: Sheridan was promoted to lieutenant general on March 4, 1869. In 1870, President Grant, at Sheridan's request, sent him to observe and report on the Franco-Prussian War. As a guest of King Wilhelm I of Prussia, he was present when Emperor Napoléon III surrendered to the Germans, which was gratifying to Sheridan following his experiences with the French in Mexico. He later toured most of Europe and returned to the U.S. to report to Grant that although the Prussians were "very good brave fellows [who] had gone into each battle with the determination to win, ... there is nothing to be learned here professionally." He criticized their handling of cavalry and likened their practices to the manner in which Meade had attempted to supervise him. However, he referred to theirs as a "perfect military system" and had a high opinion of the officer corps. His words on the French were much more harsh; he criticized the French army for not taking numerous opportunities to halt the German advance, for advancing slowly and clumsily themselves, for not taking any of the numerous good opportunities to cut the enemy's unguarded lines of communication, and for being routed frequently. He remarked: "I am disgusted; all my boyhood's fancies of the soldiers of the great Napoleon have been dissipated, or else the soldiers of the "Little Corporal" have lost their elan in the pampered parade soldiers of the 'Man of Destiny'."


title: Philip Sheridan

text: In 1871, Sheridan was present in Chicago during the Great Chicago Fire and coordinated military relief efforts. The mayor, Roswell B. Mason, to calm the panic, placed the city under martial law, and issued a proclamation putting Sheridan in charge. As there were no widespread disturbances, martial law was lifted within a few days. Although Sheridan's personal residence was spared, all of his professional and personal papers were destroyed. When Chicago's Washington Park Race Track organized the American Derby in 1883 he served as its first president.


title: Philip Sheridan

text: On November 1, 1883, Sheridan succeeded General William T. Sherman as Commanding General of the U.S. Army, and held that position until his death. He was promoted on June 1, 1888, shortly before his death, to the rank of General in the Regular Army (the rank was titled "General of the Army of the United States", by Act of Congress June 1, 1888, the same rank held earlier by Grant and Sherman, which is equivalent to a five-star general, O-11, in the modern U.S. Army).


title: Philip Sheridan

text: Sheridan served as commander in chief of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States (MOLLUS), a military society of officers who served in the Union armed forces and their descendants, from 1886 until his death in 1888. He was also the first president of the Society of the Army of the Potomac when it was founded in 1869 and as the ninth president of the National Rifle Association in 1885.


title: Philip Sheridan

text: The protection of the Yellowstone area was Sheridan's personal crusade. He authorized Lieutenant Gustavus Doane to escort the Washburn Expedition in 1870 and for Major John W. Barlow to escort the Hayden Expedition in 1871. Barlow named Mount Sheridan, a peak overlooking Heart Lake in Yellowstone, for the general in 1871. As early as 1875, Sheridan promoted military control of the area to prevent the destruction of natural formations and wildlife.


title: Philip Sheridan

text: In 1882, the Department of the Interior granted rights to the Yellowstone Park Improvement Company to develop in the park. Their plan was to build a railroad into the park and sell the land to developers. Sheridan personally organized opposition to the plan and lobbied Congress for protection of the park; including expansion, military control, reducing the development to , and prohibiting leases near park attractions. In addition, he arranged an expedition to the park for President Chester A. Arthur and other influential men. His lobbying soon paid off. A rider was added to the Sundry Civil Bill of 1883, giving Sheridan and his supporters almost everything for which they had asked. In 1886, after a string of ineffectual and sometimes criminal superintendents, Sheridan ordered the 1st U.S. Cavalry into the park. The military operated the park until the National Park Service took it over in 1916.


title: Philip Sheridan

text: On June 3, 1875, Sheridan married Irene Rucker, a daughter of Army Quartermaster General Daniel H. Rucker. She was 22, and he was 44. They had four children: Mary, born in 1876; twin daughters, Irene and Louise, in 1877; and Philip, Jr., in 1880. After the wedding, Sheridan and his wife moved to Washington, D.C. They lived in a house given to them by Chicago citizens in appreciation for Sheridan's protection of the city after the Great Chicago Fire in 1871. Philip Sheridan Jr. was an army officer who attained the rank of major and was the husband of Isabel McGunnegle. Isabel McGunnegle was the daughter of army officer George K. McGunnegle.


title: Philip Sheridan

text: In 1888 Sheridan suffered a series of massive heart attacks two months after sending his memoirs to the publisher. Although thin in his youth, by 57 years of age he had reached a weight of over 200 pounds. After his first heart attack, the U.S. Congress quickly passed legislation to promote him to general of the army on June 1, 1888, and he received the news from a congressional delegation with joy, despite his pain.


title: Philip Sheridan

text: His family moved him from the heat of Washington to his summer cottage in the Nonquitt enclave of Dartmouth, Massachusetts, where he died of heart failure on August 5, 1888.


title: Philip Sheridan

text: His body was returned to Washington and he was buried on a hillside facing the capital city near Arlington House in Arlington National Cemetery. The sculpture on the marker was executed by English sculptor Samuel James Kitson. The burial helped elevate Arlington to national prominence. His wife Irene never remarried, saying, "I would rather be the widow of Phil Sheridan than the wife of any man living."


title: Philip Sheridan

text: Sheridan is the only person to be featured on a U.S. ten-dollar bill who was strictly associated with the military and not politics. He is featured on $5 and $10 bills.


title: Philip Sheridan

text: Sheridan appeared on $10 U.S. Treasury notes issued in 1890 and 1891. His bust then reappeared on the $5 silver certificate in 1896. These rare notes are in great demand by collectors today.


title: Philip Sheridan

text: Fort Sheridan in Illinois was named to honor General Sheridan's many services to Chicago. An equestrian statue of Sheridan by Gutzon Borglum (sculptor of the figures on Mt. Rushmore) at Belmont Avenue and Sheridan Road in Chicago depicts the general on his horse, Rienzi. Sheridan Road begins in Chicago, continues mostly along the shoreline of Lake Michigan for about 96 km (60 miles) through the North Shore suburbs, and leads to the Town of Fort Sheridan and ultimately Racine, Wisconsin. The landmark former U.S. Army base named for the general is now a reserve post and upscale residential community.


title: Philip Sheridan

text: Mount Sheridan in Yellowstone National Park was named for Sheridan by Captain John W. Barlow in 1871.


title: Philip Sheridan

text: The Sheridan Prize is a yacht-racing perpetual trophy awarded to the winner of an annual race on Geneva Lake. It was begun on the occasion of the general's visit to Lake Geneva (then, Geneva) in 1874.


title: Philip Sheridan

text: In 1937 the US Post Office issued a series of commemorative stamp issues honoring various Army and Navy heroes. Among them was an issue commemorating Generals Ulysses S. Grant, William T. Sherman and "Philip H. Sheridan".


title: Philip Sheridan

text: Sheridan County, North Dakota; Sheridan County, Nebraska; Sheridan County, Montana; Sheridan County, Wyoming; and Sheridan County, Kansas, are named for him, as are the cities of Sheridan, Colorado; Sheridan, Montana (in Madison County); Sheridan, Wyoming; Sheridan, Arkansas; Sheridan, Oregon; Sheridan, Indiana; and Sheridan, Illinois (LaSalle County).


title: Philip Sheridan

text: Sheridan Square in the West Village of New York City is named for the general and his statue is displayed nearby in Christopher Street Park. Sheridan Circle, Sheridan Street, and the neighborhood of Sheridan-Kalorama in Washington, D.C., are also named after him. Sheridan Avenue in the Bronx is one block east of Sherman Avenue. Sheridan Boulevard is a major north-south thoroughfare in Denver, Colorado.


title: Philip Sheridan

text: The only equestrian Civil War statue in Ohio honors Sheridan. It is in the center traffic circle on US Route 22 in Somerset, Ohio, not far from the house where Sheridan grew up.


title: Philip Sheridan

text: Sheridan High School is located 8 km (5 miles) north of General Sheridan's home town of Somerset. The athletic team is nicknamed "The Generals".


title: Philip Sheridan

text: In Albany, New York, there is an equestrian statue of Sheridan in front of the New York State Capitol, near Sheridan Avenue.


title: Philip Sheridan

text: Sheridan Road in Lawton, Oklahoma, leads to Fort Sill, where Sheridan supposedly uttered the words "The only good Indians I ever saw were dead."


title: Philip Sheridan

text: Sheridan Drive in Arlington National Cemetery partially encircles the area that contains the general's gravesite. The Sheridan Gate, constructed in 1879 and dismantled and placed in storage in 1971, was once the Cemetery's main entrance.


title: Philip Sheridan

text: New York State Route 324 ("Sheridan Drive") in the northern suburbs of Buffalo, New York, is named for Sheridan Road in Chicago, and thus indirectly after Philip Sheridan. An equestrian statue of the general was planned to be built there in 1925.


title: Philip Sheridan

text: John Philip Sousa wrote a descriptive piece for band memorializing Sheridan. Describing "Sheridan's Ride", published in 1891, as a "Scenes Historical", Sousa musically characterized Sheridan's famous ride back to his army in the Battle of Cedar Creek. The composition has six sections: Waiting for the Bugle, The Attack, The Death of Thoburn, The Coming of Sheridan, and The Apotheosis.


title: Philip Sheridan

text: Sheridan Hall on the Fort Hays State University campus in Hays, Kansas, is named in honor of Sheridan. The building commemorates Sheridan's time stationed at the Fort Hays military post.


title: Philip Sheridan

text: The original site of the Phil Sheridan Elementary School in Chicago, which opened in 1888, was in the South Chicago neighborhood. In 1998, the school was renamed the Arnold Mireles Academy in memory of a murdered South Side community activist. The present-day Sheridan Elementary School in Chicago is a magnet school located at 533 W. 27th Street, in the city's Bridgeport neighborhood.


title: Philip Sheridan

text: In Broward County, in southern Florida, there is another road named after Sheridan, Florida State Road 822, also known as "Sheridan Street", which runs on an east-west configuration, between State Road A1A at Hollywood Beach and U.S. Route 27, which borders the Everglades.


title: Philip Sheridan

text: J. Michael Straczynski has stated that the character of Captain John Sheridan in the "Babylon 5" television series is intended to be a direct descendant of General Sheridan.


title: Philip Sheridan

text: Sheridan is described in the PBS documentary "The West" (1996) as "a ruthless warrior" who "played a decisive role in the army's long campaign against the native peoples of the plains". And "at Petersburg he won an important victory that halted Robert E. Lee's retreat from Richmond and helped bring the war to an end.


title: Tribulus terrestris

text: Tribulus terrestris is an annual plant in the caltrop family (Zygophyllaceae) widely distributed around the world. It is adapted to thrive in dry climate locations in which few other plants can survive.


title: Tribulus terrestris

text: It is native to warm temperate and tropical regions in southern Eurasia and Africa. It has been unintentionally introduced to North America and Australia. An aggressive and hardy invasive species, "T. terrestris" is widely known as a noxious weed because of its small woody fruit – the bur – having long sharp and strong spines which easily penetrate surfaces, such as bare feet or thin shoes of crop workers and other pedestrians, the rubber of bicycle tires, and the mouths and skin of grazing animals.


title: Tribulus terrestris

text: Like many weedy species, this plant has numerous common names according to the world region, including goat's-head, bindii, bullhead, burra gokharu, bhakhdi, caltrop, small caltrops, cat's-head, devil's eyelashes, devil's-thorn, devil's-weed, puncture vine, and tackweed.


title: Tribulus terrestris

text: "Tribulus terrestris" is a taprooted herbaceous plant that grows as a summer annual in temperate climates.


title: Tribulus terrestris

text: The stems radiate from the crown to a diameter of about to over , often branching. They are usually prostrate, forming flat patches, though they may grow more upwards in shade or among taller plants.


title: Tribulus terrestris

text: Stems branch from the crown and are densely hairy. Leaves are opposite and pinnately compound. Densely hairy leaflets are opposite and up to long.


title: Tribulus terrestris

text: The flowers are wide, with five lemon-yellow petals, five sepals, and ten stamens. In Southern California, it blooms from April through October, where it is highly invasive in waste places and disturbed sites.


title: Tribulus terrestris

text: After the flower blooms, a fruit develops that easily falls apart into five burs. The burs are hard and bear two to four sharp spines, long and broad point-to-point. These burs strikingly resemble goats' or bulls' heads, characteristics which give the bur its common names in some regions. The "horns" are sharp enough to puncture bicycle tires and other air-filled tires. They can also cause painful injury to bare feet and can injure the mouths of livestock grazing on the plant.


title: Tribulus terrestris

text: Within each bur, seeds are stacked on top of each other, separated by a hard membrane. As an adaptation to dry climates, the largest seed germinates first, while the others may wait until more moisture is available before germinating. The bur spines point upward, where they stick into feet and fur of animals, serving the purpose of seed dispersal. This causes damage to domesticated livestock and degrades wool.


title: Tribulus terrestris

text: "T. terrestris" is now widespread throughout the world from latitudes 35°S to 47°N. It is distributed across warm temperate and tropical regions of southern Europe, southern Asia, throughout Africa, New Zealand, and Australia. It is also present across southern North America and in Central and South America. Over the 20th century, it appeared in California and became distributed northward, eventually appearing in British Columbia, Canada where it is classified as a noxious weed.


title: Tribulus terrestris

text: A network of fine rootlets arise from the taproot allow the plant to survive in arid conditions. It grows in almost any soil, but thrives in dry, loose, sandy soils, and even in sand or in deserts. It can prosper in heavier soils, especially if fertile or moist, and on compacted soils along roadsides.


title: Tribulus terrestris

text: The Greek word, τρίβολος meaning 'water-chestnut', translated into Latin as "tribulos". The Latin name "tribulus" originally meant the caltrop (a spiky weapon of similar shape), but in Classical times the word already meant this plant as well.


title: Tribulus terrestris

text: The plant is widely naturalized in the Americas and also in Australia south of its native range. In some states in the United States, it is considered a noxious weed and an invasive species. It is a "declared plant" ("infestations" described under "caltrop") in South Australia.


title: Tribulus terrestris

text: The leaves and shoots are eaten in East Asia. The stems have been used as a thickener, added to diluted buttermilk to give it the appearance of undiluted buttermilk. There is some evidence that "T. terrestris" was used in traditional medicine.


title: Tribulus terrestris

text: Although its extract has been used as a dietary supplement since the 1980s in belief that it increases testosterone levels to aid body building or sexual enhancement in men, "T. terrestris" did not consistently affect testosterone levels in controlled studies, has not been proven to be safe, and may adversely interact with prescription drugs. High-quality research on "T. terrestris" extract has not been conducted, and no reviews indicate that it has strength-enhancing properties, or anabolic steroid effects for use as a body-building supplement or sexual enhancement. The Australian Institute of Sport discourages athletes from using "T. terrestris" supplements.


title: Tribulus terrestris

text: In areas where it is an invasive species, "T. terrestris" is often sought to be eradicated. However, "T. terrestris" is considered a hardy plant, and its seeds remain viable for up to three years, making complete eradication difficult.


title: Tribulus terrestris

text: In smaller areas, "T. terrestris" is best controlled with manual removal, using a hoe to cut the plant off at its taproot. While this is effective, removing the entire plant by gripping the taproot, stem or trunk and pulling upward to remove the taproot is far more effective. This requires monitoring the area and removing the weed throughout the preseeding time (late spring and early summer in many temperate areas). This will greatly reduce the prevalence of the weed the following year. Mowing is not an effective method of eradication, because the plant grows flat against the ground.


title: Tribulus terrestris

text: Another avenue of physical eradication is to crowd out the opportunistic weed by providing good competition from favorable plants. Aerating compacted sites and planting competitive desirable plants, including broad-leaved grasses such as St. Augustine, can reduce the effect of "T. terrestris" by reducing resources available to the weed.


title: Tribulus terrestris

text: In June 2014, the town of Irrigon, Oregon, announced it would pay a bounty of one dollar for each large trash bag of puncturevine.


title: Tribulus terrestris

text: Chemical control is generally recommended for home control of "T. terrestris". There are few pre-emergent herbicides that are effective. Products containing oryzalin, benefin, or trifluralin will provide partial control of germinating seeds. These must be applied prior to germination (late winter to midspring).


title: Tribulus terrestris

text: After plants have emerged from the soil (postemergent), products containing 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D), glyphosate, and dicamba are effective on "T. terrestris". Like most postemergents, they are more effectively maintained when caught small and young. Dicamba and 2,4-D will cause harm to most broad-leaved plants, so the user should take care to avoid over-application. They can be applied to lawns without injuring the desired grass. Glyphosate will kill or injure most plants, so it should only be used as a spot treatment or on solid stands of the weed. A product from DuPont called Pastora is highly effective but expensive and not for lawn use.


title: Tribulus terrestris

text: Two weevils, "Microlarinus lareynii" and "M. lypriformis", native to India, France, and Italy, were introduced into the United States as biocontrol agents in 1961. Both species of weevils are available for purchase from biological suppliers, but purchase and release is not often recommended because weevils collected from other areas may not survive at the purchaser's location.


title: Tribulus terrestris

text: "Microlarinus lareynii" is a seed weevil that deposits its eggs in the young burr or flower bud. The larvae feed on and destroy the seeds before they pupate, emerge, disperse, and start the cycle over again. Its life cycle time is 19 to 24 days. "Microlarinus lypriformis" is a stem weevil that has a similar life cycle, excepting the location of the eggs, which includes the undersides of stems, branches, and the root crown. The larvae tunnel in the pith where they feed and pupate. Adults of both species overwinter in plant debris. Although the stem weevil is slightly more effective than the seed weevil when each is used alone, the weevils are most effective if used together and the "T. terrestris" plant is moisture-stressed.


title: Tribulus terrestris

text: Toxic compounds in the plant are known to cause liver damage when ingested at harmful dosages. When ingested, phylloerythrin accumulates in the blood as a byproduct of chlorophyl degradation; however, adverse reactions have not been confirmed in humans.


title: Tribulus terrestris

text: In sheep, consumption of "T. terrestris" causes tribulosis, also known as 'geeldikkop', which is a type of photodermatitis. Two alkaloids that seem to cause limb paresis (staggers) in sheep that eat "Tribulus terrestulis" are the beta-carboline alkaloids harman (harmane) and norharman (norharmane). The alkaloid content of dried foliage is about 44 mg/kg.


title: Flag of Thailand

text: The flag of Thailand (; , meaning 'tricolour flag') shows five horizontal stripes in the colours red, white, blue, white and red, with the central blue stripe being twice as wide as each of the other four. The design was adopted on 28 September 1917, according to the royal decree issued by Rama VI. Since 2016, that day is a national day of importance in Thailand celebrating the flag.


title: Flag of Thailand

text: The colours are said to stand for nation-religion-king, an unofficial motto of Thailand, red for the land and people, white for religions and blue for the monarchy, the last having been the auspicious colour of Rama VI. As the king declared war on Germany that July, some note the flag now bore the same colours as those of the UK, France, Russia and the United States.


title: Flag of Thailand

text: The Flag Act of BE 2522 (1979) stipulates the design of the national flag as "rectangular in shape with 6 part width and 9 part length, divided into five stripes throughout the length of the flag; with the middle stripe being 2 part wide, of deep blue colour, and the white stripes being 1 part wide next to each side of the deep blue stripes, and the red stripes being 1 part wide next to each side of the white stripes. The National Flag shall also be called the Tri-Rong flag".


title: Flag of Thailand

text: The colours of the flag were standardised in an announcement of the Office of the Prime Minister dated 30 September 2017, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of its adoption. It gives recommended values for determining the standard colours of physical cloth flags, defined in the CIELAB colour space under Illuminant D65 as follows.


title: Flag of Thailand

text: The first flag used for Siam was probably a plain red one, first used under Narai (1656–1688). Naval flags later used different symbols on the red ground—a white chakra, or the Hindu mythological elephant Airavata inside the chakra.


title: Flag of Thailand

text: Officially the first flag was created in 1855 by Mongkut (Rama IV), showing a white elephant on red ground, as the plain coloured flag was not distinct enough for international relations.


title: Flag of Thailand

text: In 1916 the flag was changed to show a white elephant in royal regalia. In 1916, the current design, but with the middle colour being the same red as the outer stripe, was defined as the civil ensign. The story goes that during a flood Vajiravudh (Rama VI) saw the flag hanging upside-down, and to prevent this from happening again created a new flag which was symmetrical. Later in 1917, the middle colour was changed to dark blue, which was similar in tone to indigo, which at the time was regarded as the auspicious colour for Saturday, the day Vajiravudh was born. According to other sources, the blue colour was also chosen to show solidarity with the Allies of World War I, which also had the colours blue-red-white in their flags.


title: Flag of Thailand

text: The naval ensign of the Royal Thai Navy (RTN) is the national flag with a red circle in the middle that reaches as far as the red stripes at the top and bottom. In the circle stands a white elephant, in full caparison, facing the hoist. The kingdom's naval jack is the national flag defaced with the emblem of the Royal Thai Navy in the middle. The regimental colours of the RTN is as same as this flag; both ensigns were adopted in 1917.


title: The Cars (album)

text: The Cars is the debut studio album by American rock band the Cars, released on June 6, 1978, by Elektra Records. Produced by Roy Thomas Baker, the album spawned the singles "Just What I Needed", "My Best Friend's Girl", and "Good Times Roll". It peaked at number 18 on the US "Billboard" 200 and has been certified six-times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).


title: The Cars (album)

text: Formed in Boston in 1976, the Cars consisted of Ric Ocasek, Benjamin Orr, Elliot Easton, David Robinson, and Greg Hawkes, all of whom had been in and out of multiple bands throughout the 1970s. After becoming a club staple, the band recorded a number of demos in early 1977. Some of these songs later appeared in finished form on "The Cars", such as "Just What I Needed" and "My Best Friend's Girl", while others were saved for a later release, such as "Leave or Stay" and "Ta Ta Wayo Wayo" (both of which later saw release on their 1987 album "Door to Door"). The demos for "Just What I Needed" and "My Best Friend's Girl" were often played on Boston radio by DJ Maxanne Sartori, giving the band frequent airplay.


title: The Cars (album)

text: Both Arista and Elektra attempted to sign the band, but in the end, Elektra was chosen, due to its lack of new wave acts, allowing the band to stand out more than they would have had they signed with the new wave-heavy Arista. Robinson said of the choice, "Here they had the Eagles and Jackson Browne, and along comes this crazy Boston band who wanted a black-and-white photo collage on their cover."


title: The Cars (album)

text: Musically, "The Cars" has been described as new wave, power pop, and synth-rock. It featured a large amount of technology on many of its tracks, due to the band's appreciation for new equipment. Robinson said, "We'd always get the latest stuff from music stores even if it would be obsolete in two months. It reached the point where I'd have 10 or 12 foot switches to hit during a short set." The album also is notable for frontman Ocasek's use of irony and sarcasm. Keyboardist Hawkes said, "There was definitely a little self-conscious irony in there. We started out wanting to be electric and straight-ahead rock, and it kind of turned into an artier kind of thing."


title: The Cars (album)

text: Unlike many of the Cars' album covers, the cover for "The Cars" was designed by the record company, rather than drummer Robinson. Robinson said in an interview that he "had designed a very different album cover [for "The Cars"] that cost $80.00 to design." He continued, "I remember the price exactly. It was completely finished and everything, but it was a little more bizarre than the cover that they had in mind, so they changed some of it because of copyright problems and put it in as the inner sleeve. But I think that was way more how we envisioned who we were then." The cover was not well liked by the members of the band, however. Robinson said, "I thought that when the Elektra came out it was way too slick. The pictures of us I didn't like." Guitarist Elliot Easton expressed dislike for "that big grinning face", saying, "Man, I got tired of that cover."


title: The Cars (album)

text: "The Cars" peaked at number 18 on the "Billboard" 200 in March 1979, spending 139 weeks on the chart. The record was also ranked number four on the "Billboard" 200 year-chart for 1979.


title: The Cars (album)

text: Three singles were released from the album: "Just What I Needed" (number 27 in the US, number 17 in the UK), "My Best Friend's Girl" (number 35 in the US, number three in the UK), and "Good Times Roll" (number 41 in the US), all of which enjoyed heavy airplay on AOR radio stations. Aside from the singles, album tracks "You're All I've Got Tonight", "Bye Bye Love", and "Moving in Stereo" all became radio favorites.


title: The Cars (album)

text: Critically, the album was well received. "The pop songs are wonderful", "Rolling Stone" critic Kit Rachlis stated in his 1978 review, adding: "Easy and eccentric at the same time, all are potential hits." He found that "the album comes apart only when it becomes arty and falls prey to producer Roy Thomas Baker's lacquered sound and the group's own penchant for electronic effects." Robert Christgau of "The Village Voice" wrote, "Ric Ocasek writes catchy, hardheaded-to-coldhearted songs eased by wryly rhapsodic touches, the playing is tight and tough, and it all sounds wonderful on the radio. But though on a cut-by-cut basis Roy Thomas Baker's production adds as much as it distracts, here's hoping the records get rawer."


title: The Cars (album)

text: In a retrospective review, AllMusic's Greg Prato praised "The Cars" as "a genuine rock masterpiece" and stated that "all nine tracks are new wave/rock classics", concluding: "With flawless performances, songwriting, and production, the Cars' debut remains one of rock's all-time classics." In 2000, it was voted number 384 in Colin Larkin's "All Time Top 1000 Albums". "Rolling Stone" ranked "The Cars" at number 282 on its 2003 list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time", with the ranking slipping to number 284 in the 2012 update of the list, and to number 353 in the 2020 update.


title: The Cars (album)

text: Elliot Easton said of the album, "We used to joke that the first album should be called "The Cars' Greatest Hits". We knew that a lot of great bands fall through the cracks. But we were getting enough feedback from people we respected to know that we were on the right track."


title: National Coalition Party

text: Ideologically, the National Coalition Party is positioned on the centre-right on the political spectrum, and it has been described as liberal, conservative, conservative-liberal, and liberal-conservative. Founded in 1918, the National Coalition Party is one of the "big three" parties that have dominated Finnish national politics for several decades, along with the Social Democratic Party and the Centre Party. The current party chair is Petteri Orpo, elected on 11 June 2016. The party self-statedly bases its politics on "freedom, responsibility and democracy, equal opportunities, education, supportiveness, tolerance and caring" and supports multiculturalism and LGBT rights. Their foreign stances are pro-NATO and pro-European orientated, and they are a member of the European People's Party (EPP).


title: National Coalition Party

text: The party's vote share was approximately 20% in parliamentary elections in the 1990s and 2000s. It won 44 out of 200 seats in the parliamentary elections of 2011, becoming the largest party in the Finnish Parliament (; ) for the first time in its history. On the municipal level, it became the most popular party in 2008. In the 2015 election, the NCP lost its status as the country's largest party, finishing second in votes and third in seats, but again joined the governing coalition. After the 2019 election, it became the third-largest party in the Finnish Parliament, behind the Social Democrats and the Finns Party, and became the second-largest opposition party after being excluded from the Rinne Cabinet.


title: National Coalition Party

text: The National Coalition Party was founded on 9 December 1918 after the Finnish Civil War by the majority of the Finnish Party and the minority of the Young Finnish Party, both supporting Prince Frederick Charles of Hesse as the King of Finland in the new monarchy. The previous day, the republicans of both parties had founded the National Progressive Party. With over 600 representatives, the foundational meeting of NCP declared the following:A national coalition is needed over old party lines that have lost meaning and have too long separated similarly thinking citizens. This coalition's grand task must be to work to strengthen in our nation the forces that maintain society. Lawful societal order must be strictly upheld and there must be no compromise with revolutionary aspirations. But simultaneously, determined constructive reform work must be pursued."The party sought to accomplish their task by advocating for constitutional monarchy and, failing that, strong governmental powers within a republican framework. On the other hand, their goal was to implement a number of social and economic reforms, such as compulsory education, universal health care, and progressive income and property taxation. The monarchist aims failed and Finland became a parliamentary republic—in which NCP advocated for strong presidential powers. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, the threat posed by Joseph Stalin's communist Soviet Union influenced Finnish politics. Communists, backed by Soviet leaders, accelerated their activities while the ideological position of the National Coalition Party shifted to strongly conservative. The new ideology was poorly received, particularly by the youth, attracted instead more to irredentist and fascist movements, such as the Academic Karelia Society or Patriotic People's Movement.


title: National Coalition Party

text: In the 1933 parliamentary election, the party formed an electoral coalition with the Patriotic People's Movement, founded by former supporters of the radical nationalist Lapua Movement—even though P.E. Svinhufvud, the party's first President of Finland, played a key role in halting the Lapua Movement and vanquishing their Mäntsälä rebellion. The result was a major defeat as the NCP lost 24 of its 42 seats in Parliament. The NCP broke ties with the Patriotic People's Movement in 1934 under the newly elected party chair J.K. Paasikivi, but was nevertheless shut out from the Finnish Government until the outbreak of the Winter War in 1939 and only slowly regained support.


title: National Coalition Party

text: During the Winter War and the Continuation War in 1939–1944, the party took part in the war-time national unity governments and generally had strong support for its government policies. After the wars, the National Coalition Party sought to portray itself as a defender of democracy against the resurgent Finnish communists. Chair Paasikivi, who had advocated making more concessions to Soviet Union before the Winter War and taken a cautious line regarding cooperation with Germany before the Continuation War, acted first as Prime Minister of Finland (1944–1946) and then as President (1946–1956) of Finland. Paasikivi is remembered as the formulator of Finnish foreign policy after World War II. The conflict between the NCP and the communist Finnish People's Democratic League culminated when President Paasikivi fired the communist Minister of the Interior Yrjö Leino, who had used the State Police to spy on the party's youth wing among other abuses.


title: National Coalition Party

text: In 1951, the party changed its official name from the original ' to the current '. The 1950s were also a time of ideological shifts, as the emphasis on individual liberty and free market reforms increased at the expense of social conservatism and maintenance of a strong government. A minor division in 1958 led to the formation of the Christian Democrats party. From 1966 to 1987, the party was in the opposition. By criticizing Finnish communists and President Urho Kekkonen of the Centre Party, the party had lost the President's trust—and thus governments formed by the Centre Party and left-wing parties followed one another. A new guard emerged within the NCP in the 1970s that sought to improve relations with long-serving President Kekkonen. Their work was partially successful in the late 1970s. However, even though the NCP supported Kekkonen for president in 1978 and became the second largest party in the country in the 1979 parliamentary election, a spot in the government continued to elude the NCP until the end of Kekkonen's time in office.


title: National Coalition Party

text: During the long years in opposition, the party's support grew steadily and in 1987 it attained the best parliamentary election result in its history so far. Harri Holkeri became the party's first prime minister since Paasikivi. During Holkeri's time in office, the Finnish economy suffered a downturn, precipitated by a multitude of factors, and the 1991 parliamentary election resulted in a loss. The party continued in government as a minor partner until 2003.


title: National Coalition Party

text: After losing six seats in the 2003 parliamentary election, the National Coalition Party spent the next electoral period in opposition. Jyrki Katainen was elected party chair in 2004 and in March 2006, vice-president of the European People's Party (EPP). Under the leadership of Katainen, chair until 2014, liberalism became the main attribute of the party. In the 2007 parliamentary election, the party increased its share to 50 seats in the largest gain of the election. The party held a close second place in Parliament, shy of the Centre Party and its 51 seats. After the election, the party entered into a coalition government together with the Centre Party, the Green League, and the Swedish People's Party. The NCP secured important ministerial portfolios, including finance and foreign affairs. In the 2011 parliamentary election, the party finished first place for the first time in its history with 44 seats, despite losing 6 seats, and party chair Jyrki Katainen formed his cabinet as a six-party coalition government from parties on the left and on the right after lengthy negotiations.


title: National Coalition Party

text: The National Coalition Party's candidate in the 2006 Finnish presidential election was former minister of finance and former party chair Sauli Niinistö. He qualified for the second round runoff as one of the top two candidates in the first round but was defeated by the incumbent Tarja Halonen with 51.8% of the vote against his 48.2%. The party nominated Sauli Niinistö again for the presidential election of 2012. Niinistö won the election, beating his Green League opponent Pekka Haavisto decisively on the second round with a 62.6% portion of the votes, and thus becoming the third president elected from the party and the first one since 1956. Niinistö's margin of victory was larger than that of any previous directly elected president in Finland. He won a majority in 14 of the country's 15 constituencies. Niinistö is described as a pragmatical fiscal conservative and a pro-European and supporting restraint of bailouts to partner countries. Upon taking office, Niinistö intended to strengthen interaction with the United States and China and maintain good relations with Russia as well as address the European debt crisis. Niinistö was re-elected in 2018 for a second six-year term. He ran as an independent but had the support of the National Coalition Party.


title: National Coalition Party

text: In 2014, Katainen stepped down as party chair and Prime Minister of Finland for a vice-president position in the European Commission. Katainen was replaced by Alexander Stubb as chair of the National Coalition Party in the June 2014 leadership election and thus became the prime minister. Katainen's cabinet was likewise succeeded by the cabinet of Alexander Stubb on 23 June 2014. Stubb went on to lead the party into the 2015 parliamentary election, in which the National Coalition Party placed second in votes and third in parliamentary seats. After the election, National Coalition joined a right-leaning majority coalition consisting of the three largest parties – the Centre Party, the Finns Party and the National Coalition Party. During his term, Stubb faced growing criticism for the NCP's poor poll results, the declining economy as well as compromises in the three-party government. After two years as party chair, Stubb was voted by 441 to 361 to be replaced by Petteri Orpo at the leadership election of June 2016.


title: National Coalition Party

text: According to its 2006-adopted party platform, the National Coalition Party's policy is based on "freedom, responsibility and democracy, equality of opportunity, education, supportiveness, tolerance and caring". The party is described by literature as a liberal and conservative as well as a liberal-conservative party in the centre-right with catch-all party characteristics. The non-profit Democratic Society described it as "the heir to both liberal and conservative strains of right-of-centre thought" that is becoming increasingly liberal compared to its official stance of conservatism.


title: National Coalition Party

text: Specifically, it contains elements of cultural and economic liberalism and social reformism. For example, it supports multiculturalism, work-based immigration, gay rights and same-sex marriage. Although it was previously considered to have been critical of the Nordic welfare model and campaigned for strict doctrines of economic liberalism, the party in the 1970s shifted to supporting more social liberalism, such as increased social security and a welfare state, which was justified by increased individual liberty. In international relations, the party advocates for multilateralism. It is pro-European and supports continued European integration within the European Union (EU). The party also advocates for Finnish membership in NATO.


title: National Coalition Party

text: The magazine "Suomen Kuvalehti" created a profile of a typical National Coalition Party voter from over 18,000 interviews in 2011: a 36-year-old lawyer or management consultant living with a family in the Capital region who supports economic liberalism and conservative values and enjoys alpine skiing and golf. Unlike other conservative parties in Europe, the party's voters are predominantly urban while rural regions favor the Centre Party. In 2005, the NCP had the highest proportion of women members out of the major parties. Membership in the party was momentarily on the rise in 2008, but had declined from 41,000 to 34,000 by 2016. In contrast, the party had 81,000 members in 1970. According to 2008 polling data, the National Coalition Party was the most positively viewed party by Finns and was the most favored party among young generations in 2008 and 2014 polls.


title: National Coalition Party

text: The main structure of the National Coalition Party comprises municipal and local chapters organized into districts and as well as the women's, student and youth wings. The party conference (), the main decision-making body convening every two years with representatives from the suborganisations as its members, elects the party chair and three deputy chairs as well as the 61-member party council ().


title: National Coalition Party

text: The party chair and the deputy chairs lead the party board (), which is in charge of the daily management and is composed of a representative from each district and from each of the three wings. The party council also elects the party secretary to head the main office, located in Helsinki, and to coordinate the National Coalition Party's activities according to the board's decisions. Additionally, the NCP has separate groups for coordinating ministers, members of Parliament, and members of the European Parliament.


title: National Coalition Party

text: Two foundations, ' and ', assist the party with a source of funding and as an archive, respectively. Reportedly, donations to ' are kept secret, but according to the treasurer, donations are a limited asset compared to the foundation's 5 million euro investment capital. In 2008, the foundation supported NCP with €400,000. The NCP owns two companies, ' and ', to publish the party newspapers ' and ' as well as to handle media communications. Additionally, some thematic organizations report themselves as close to the party, such as the Swedish-language group ' and the LGBT network "".


title: Common myna

text: The common myna or Indian myna (Acridotheres tristis), sometimes spelled mynah, is a bird in the family Sturnidae, native to Asia. An omnivorous open woodland bird with a strong territorial instinct, the common myna has adapted extremely well to urban environments.


title: Common myna

text: The range of the common myna is increasing at such a rapid rate that in 2000 the IUCN Species Survival Commission declared it one of the world's most invasive species and one of only three birds listed among "100 of the World's Worst Invasive Species" that pose a threat to biodiversity, agriculture and human interests. In particular, the species poses a serious threat to the ecosystems of Australia, where it was named "The Most Important Pest/Problem" in 2008.


title: Common myna

text: In 1760, the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the common myna in his "Ornithologie", based on a specimen that he mistakenly believed had been collected in the Philippines. He used the French name "Le merle des Philippines" and the Latin "Merula Philippensis". Although Brisson coined Latin names, they do not conform to the binominal system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature.


title: Common myna

text: When the Swedish naturalist, Carl Linnaeus, updated his "Systema Naturae" in 1766, for the 12th edition, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson. One of them was the common myna. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binominal name "Paradisea tristis" and cited Brisson's work. The type location was subsequently corrected to Pondicherry in southern India. The specific name "tristis" is Latin for "sad" or "gloomy". This species is now placed in the genus "Acridotheres" that was introduced by the French ornithologist Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot in 1816. The generic name "Acridotheres" is from the Greek ακριδος ("akridos"), meaning locust, and θηρας ("theras"), meaning hunter.


title: Common myna

text: The Sri Lankan subspecies "melanosternus" is darker than the Indian subspecies "tristis" and has half-black and half-white primary coverts and a larger yellow cheek-patch.


title: Common myna

text: The common myna is readily identified by the brown body, black hooded head and the bare yellow patch behind the eye. The bill and legs are bright yellow. There is a white patch on the outer primaries and the wing lining on the underside is white. The sexes are similar and birds are usually seen in pairs.


title: Common myna

text: The common myna obeys Gloger's rule in that the birds from northwestern India tend to be paler than their darker counterparts in southern India.


title: Common myna

text: The calls includes croaks, squawks, chirps, clicks, whistles and 'growls', and the bird often fluffs its feathers and bobs its head in singing. The common myna screeches warnings to its mate or other birds in cases of predators in proximity or when it is about to take off flying. Common mynas are popular as cage birds for their singing and "speaking" abilities. Before sleeping in communal roosts, common mynas vocalise in unison, which is known as "communal noise".


title: Common myna

text: The common myna is native to Asia, with its initial home range spanning Iran, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore, peninsular Thailand, Indochina, Japan (both mainland Japan and the Ryukyu Islands) and China.


title: Common myna

text: The common myna has been introduced to many other parts of the world such as Canada, Australia, Israel, New Zealand, New Caledonia, Fiji, the United States (South Florida only), South Africa, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan Uzbekistan, the Cayman Islands, islands in the Indian Ocean (the Seychelles, Mauritius, Réunion, Madagascar, the Maldives, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and the Lakshadweep archipelago) and also in islands of the Atlantic (such as Ascension and Saint Helena, Pacific Ocean and Cyprus February 2022. The range of the common myna is increasing to the extent that in 2000 the IUCN Species Survival Commission declared it among 100 of the world's worst invasive species.


title: Common myna

text: It is typically found in open woodland, cultivation and around habitation. Although it is an adaptable species, its population is abnormal and very much considered a pest in Singapore (where it is locally called as "gembala kerbau", literally 'buffalo shepherd') due to competition with the related introduced Javan myna.


title: Common myna

text: The common myna thrives in urban and suburban environments; in Canberra, for instance, 110 common mynas were released between 1968 and 1971. By 1991, common myna population density in Canberra averaged 15 birds per square kilometer. Only three years later, a second study found an average population density of 75 birds per square kilometer in the same area.


title: Common myna

text: The bird likely owes its success in the urban and suburban settings of Sydney and Canberra to its evolutionary origins; having evolved in the open woodlands of India, the common myna is pre-adapted to habitats with tall vertical structures and little to no vegetative ground cover, features characteristic of city streets and urban nature preserves.


title: Common myna

text: The common myna (along with common starlings, house sparrows, and feral rock doves) is a nuisance to city buildings; its nests block gutters and drainpipes, causing water damage to building exteriors.


title: Common myna

text: Common mynas are believed to pair for life. They breed through much of the year depending on the location, building their nest in a hole in a tree or wall. They breed at elevations of in the Himalayas.


title: Common myna

text: The normal clutch size is 4–6 eggs. The average size of the egg is . The incubation period is 17 to 18 days and fledging period is 22 to 24 days. The Asian koel is sometimes brood parasitic on this species. Nesting material used by common mynas includes twigs, roots, tow and rubbish. Common mynas have been known to use tissue paper, tin foil and sloughed off snake-skin.


title: Common myna

text: During the breeding season, the daytime activity-time budget of the common myna in Pune in April to June 1978 has been recorded to comprise the following: nesting activity (42%), scanning the environment (28%), locomotion (12%), feeding (4%), vocalisation (7%) and preening-related activities, interactions and other activities (7%).


title: Common myna

text: The common myna uses the nests of woodpeckers, parakeets, etc. and easily takes to nest boxes; it has been recorded evicting the chicks of previously nesting pairs by holding them in the beak and later sometimes not even using the emptied nest boxes. This aggressive behaviour contributes to its success as an invasive species.


title: Common myna

text: There is also some evidence that shows that in introduced environments, the species chooses to nest in more modified and artificial structures than in natural tree cavities when compared to native species.


title: Common myna

text: Like most starlings, the common myna is omnivorous. It feeds on insects, arachnids, crustaceans, reptiles, small mammals, seeds, grain and fruits and discarded waste from human habitation. It forages on the ground among grass for insects, and especially for grasshoppers, from which it gets the generic name "Acridotheres", "grasshopper hunter". It, however, feeds on a wide range of insects, mostly picked from the ground. It is a cross-pollinator of flowers such as "Salmalia" and "Erythrina". It walks on the ground with occasional hops and is an opportunistic feeder on the insects disturbed by grazing cattle as well as fired grass fields. Living in close proximity to human-made habitats, common mynas may also appear near roadsides to feed on roadkill.


title: Common myna

text: Common mynas roost communally throughout the year, either in pure or mixed flocks with jungle mynas, rosy starlings, house crows, jungle crows, cattle egrets and rose-ringed parakeets and other birds. The roost population can range from less than one hundred to thousands. The time of arrival of mynas at the roost starts before and ends just after sunset. The mynas depart before sunrise. The time and timespan of arrival and departure, time taken for final settlement at the roost, duration of communal sleep, flock size and population vary seasonally.


title: Common myna

text: The function of communal roosting is to synchronise various social activities, avoid predators, exchange information about food sources.


title: Common myna

text: Communal displays (pre-roosting and post-roosting) consist of aerial maneuvers which are exhibited in the pre-breeding season (November to March). It is assumed that this behaviour is related to pair formation.


title: Common myna

text: The IUCN declared the common myna as one of only three birds among the world's 100 worst invasive species (the other two being the red-vented bulbul and the common starling).


title: Common myna

text: The French introduced it in the 18th century from Pondicherry to Mauritius with the aim of controlling insects, even levying a fine on anyone persecuting the bird. It has since been introduced widely elsewhere, including adjacent areas in Southeast Asia, Madagascar, the Middle East, South Africa, the United States, Argentina, Germany, Spain and Portugal, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and various oceanic islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, including prominent populations in Fiji and Hawaii.


title: Common myna

text: The common myna is regarded as a pest in South Africa, North America, the Middle East, Australia, New Zealand and many Pacific islands. It is particularly problematic in Australia. Several methods have been tried to control the bird's numbers and protect native species.


title: Common myna

text: In Australia, the common myna is an invasive pest. They are often the predominant bird in urban areas along the whole east coast. In a 2008 popular vote, the bird was named "The Most Important Pest/Problem" in Australia. They have earned the nickname "flying rats", due to their numbers and their scavenging behaviour. They are also known as "the cane toad of the sky". However, there is little scientific consensus concerning the extent of its impact on native species.


title: Common myna

text: The common myna was first introduced to Australia between 1863 and 1872, in Victoria, to control insects in the market gardens of Melbourne. The bird is likely to have spread to New South Wales (where it is currently most populous) at around the same time, but documentation is uncertain. The bird was later introduced to Queensland as a predator of grasshoppers and cane beetles. Common myna populations in Australia are now concentrated along the eastern coast around Sydney and its surrounding suburbs, with sparser populations in Victoria and a few isolated communities in Queensland. During 2009 several municipal councils in New South Wales began trials of catching myna birds in an effort to reduce numbers.


title: Common myna

text: The myna can live and breed in a wide range of temperatures, ranging from the harsh winters of Canberra to the tropical climate of Cairns. Self-sustaining populations have been found in regions with a mean monthly warmest temperature no less than and a mean monthly coldest temperature no less than , implying that the common myna could spread from Sydney northward along the eastern coast to Cairns, and westward along the southern coast to Adelaide, but not to Tasmania, Darwin or the arid interior regions.