There are three major families of shorebirds: 1  Waders, about 220 species, include sandpipers, lapwings, snipes, plovers, stilts and various other species. These birds inhabit coasts and shorelines, as well as other open habitats. 2  Gulls, terns, skuas, jaegers and skimmers form a group of a little over 100 species.
The compass was probably invented in the Qin Dynasty (221-206BC) by Chinese fortune-tellers who used the lodestones to construct their fortune telling boards.
This was 150 years earlier than the cannon was developed in the west. The Song people also used gunpowder to make fire lances, or flamethrowers, and anti-personnel mines (for which we might be less grateful!). By the end of the Song Dynasty the Chinese had invented multi-stage rockets.his was a century earlier than the compass was first mentioned in Europe in 1190. The compass was further developed in the 8th Century AD when magnetised needles replaced loadstone, and between 850 and 1050 they became common as navigational devices on ships.