An updated catalogue of giant radio sources
  We present a catalogue of 349 giant radio sources (GRSs including both
galaxies and quasars). The database contains all giants known to date from the
literature. These GRSs cover the redshift range of 0.016$<$z$<$3.22 and include
radio sources of projected linear sizes larger than 0.7~Mpc which extend up to
4.7~Mpc. We provide the principal parameters (i.e. exact position of the host
in the sky, redshift, angular and projected linear size, red optical magnitude,
radio morphology type, total radio flux density and luminosity) for all the
sources as well as characteristics of the sample. Based on the distribution of
GRSs in the sky we identify regions where there is a paucity of giants, so that
future surveys for this type of objects could concentrate primarily in these
fields. From the analysis presented here, we estimate a lower limit for the
expected number of GRSs as about 2000, for the resolution and sensitivity
limits of FIRST, NRAO VLA Sky Survey and Sloan Digital Sky Survey surveys.
Compared with earlier compilations, there is a significant increase in the
number of large giants with sizes $>$ 2 Mpc as well as those at high redshifts
with z$>$1. We discuss aspects of their evolution and suggest that these are
consistent with evolutionary models.
