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.
The Compass in Ancient China. It is not possible to state with certainly who actually invented the first compass. But it may have been in use by the time of the Qin dynasty (221-206 BC). The earliest compasses were lodestones. This mineral is made of iron oxide which orients itself to a north and south axis.