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Columba Livia

Columba livia

The Rock Dove (Columba livia), or feral pigeon, is a member of the bird family Columbidae, doves and pigeons. In common usage, this bird is often simply referred to as the "pigeon". The British Ornithologists' Union and the American Ornithologists' Union have changed the official English name of the bird in their regions to Rock Pigeon. The Rock Dove has a restricted natural resident range in western and southern Europe, North Africa and into southwest Asia. Its habitat is natural cliffs, usually on coasts. Its domesticated form, the feral pigeon, has been widely introduced elsewhere, and is common, especially in cities, over much of the world. In Britain, Ireland, and much of its former range, the Rock Dove probably only occurs pure in the most remote areas. A Rock Dove's life span is anywhere from 3-5 years in the wild to 15 years in captivity, though longer-lived specimens have been reported. The species was first introduced to North America in 1606 at Port Royal, Acadia (now Nova Scotia). The Rock Dove is 30-35 cm long with a 62-68 cm wingspan. The white lower back of the pure Rock Dove is its best identification character, but the two black bars on its pale grey wings are also distinctive . The tail is margined with white. It is strong and quick on the wing, dashing out from sea caves, flying low over the water, its white rump showing well from above. Nova Scotia The head and neck of the mature bird are a darker blue-grey than the back and wings; the lower back is white. The green and lilac or purple patch on the side of the neck is larger than that of the Stock Dove, and the tail is more distinctly banded. Young birds show little lustre and are duller. Little parties will circle over the sea and the cliff tops, when the white under wing is equally conspicuous. In its flight, behaviour, and voice, which is more of a dovecot coo than the phrase of the Wood Pigeon, it is a typical pigeon. Though fields are visited for grain and green food, it is nowhere so plentiful as to be a pest. The bowing courtship, when the metallic lustre of the neck is fully displayed, often takes place on ledges where Guillemots and Razorbills sit. Razorbill The nest is usually on a ledge in a cave; it is a slight structure of grass, heather, or seaweed. Like all pigeons it lays two white eggs. The eggs are incubated by both parents for about 18 days. The nestling has pale yellow down and a flesh coloured bill with a dark band. It is tended and fed on "milk" like other doves. The fledging period is 30 days.

Domestication

Rock Doves have been domesticated for several thousand years, giving rise to the domestic pigeon. Trained domestic pigeons are able to return to the home loft if released at a location that they have never visited before and that may be up to 1000 km away. A special breed, called homing pigeons has been developed through selective breeding to carry messages and members of this variety of pigeon are still being used in pigeon racing. Pigeons are also bred for meat and by fanciers to develop many exotic forms. Among those forms are the carrier pigeons, a variety of pigeon with wattles and a unique, almost vertical, stance ([http://members.aol.com/duiven/highlight/carrier/carrier.htm pictures]). Pigeons' extraordinary navigation abilities are in part due to the fact that they are able to sense the Earth's magnetic field with tiny magnetic tissues in their head. This is all the more surprising as they are not a migratory species. Many domestic birds have escaped or been released over the years, and have given rise to the feral pigeon. These show a variety of plumages, although some look very like the pure Rock Doves. The scarcity of the pure wild species is due to interbreeding with feral birds. Domestic pigeons are commonly used in laboratory experiments in biology, medicine and cognitive science. They have been trained to distinguish between cubist and impressionist paintings, for instance. In another project, pigeons were shown to be more effective than humans in spotting shipwreck victims at sea. Current (2004) research in pigeons is widespread, encompassing shape and texture perception, exemplar and prototype memory, category-based and associative concepts, and many more unlisted here (see Pigeon intelligence and discrimination abilities of pigeons).

Feral pigeons in cities

Feral pigeons, also called city doves or city pigeons, find the ledges of high buildings a perfect substitute for sea cliffs, and have become abundant in cities all over the world. Some city squares are famous for them, for example:
- Trafalgar Square - London
- Dam Square - Amsterdam
- Martin Place - Sydney
- Piazza San Marco - Venice
- Tasmajdan park- Belgrade In some cities feeding them is forbidden because of the pollution they cause and the danger that they spread diseases. Some fences and ledges of buildings are equipped with special vertical wires etc. to discourage pigeons from staying there. fence See also birdfeeding, pigeon sport.

References

- Collins Bird Guide by Mullarney, Svensson, Zetterström and Grant ISBN 0-00-219728-6

External links

- [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_016 Why do pigeons bob their heads?] (from The Straight Dope)
- [http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/wildfacts/factfiles/3030.shtml BBC Life and Nature] (from the BBC) Category:Columba ja:カワラバト

Bird

Many - see section below. Birds are bipedal, warm-blooded, egg-laying vertebrates characterized primarily by feathers, forelimbs modified as wings, and hollow bones. Birds range in size from the tiny hummingbirds to the huge Ostrich and Emu. Depending on taxonomic viewpoint, there are about 8,800–10,200 living bird species (plus about 120–130 that have become extinct in the span of human history) in the world, making them the most diverse class of terrestrial vertebrates. Birds are a very differentiated class, with some feeding on nectar, plants, seeds, insects, rodents, fish, carrion, or other birds. Most birds are diurnal, or active during the day. Some birds, such as the owls and nightjars, are nocturnal or crepuscular (active during twilight hours). Many birds migrate long distances to utilise optimum habitats (e.g., Arctic Tern) while others spend almost all their time at sea (e.g. the Wandering Albatross). Some, such as frigatebirds, stay aloft for days at a time, even sleeping on the wing. Common characteristics of birds include a bony beak with no teeth, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, high metabolic rate, and a light but strong skeletons. Most birds are characterised by flight, though the ratites are flightless, and several other species, particularly on islands, have also lost this ability. Flightless birds include the penguins, Ostrich, kiwi, and the extinct Dodo. Flightless species are vulnerable to extinction when humans or the mammals they introduce arrive in their habitat, for example the Great Auk, flightless rails, and the moa of New Zealand.

Bird orders

New Zealand This is a list of the taxonomic orders in the class Aves. The list of birds gives a more detailed summary, including families.
- Struthioniformes, Ostrich, emus, kiwis, and allies
- Tinamiformes, tinamous
- Anseriformes, waterfowl
- Galliformes, fowl
- Sphenisciformes, penguins
- Gaviiformes, loons
- Podicipediformes, grebes
- Procellariiformes, albatrosses, petrels, and allies
- Pelecaniformes, pelicans and allies
- Ciconiiformes, storks and allies
- Phoenicopteriformes, flamingos
- Accipitriformes, eagles, hawks and allies
- Falconiformes, falcons
- Turniciformes, button-quail
- Gruiformes, cranes and allies
- Charadriiformes, plovers and allies
- Pteroclidiformes, sandgrouse
- Columbiformes, doves and pigeons
- Psittaciformes, parrots and allies
- Cuculiformes, cuckoos
- Strigiformes, owls
- Caprimulgiformes, nightjars and allies
- Apodiformes, swifts
- Trochiliformes, hummingbirds
- Coraciiformes, kingfishers
- Piciformes, woodpeckers and allies
- Trogoniformes, trogons
- Coliiformes, mousebirds
- Passeriformes, passerines Note: This is the traditional classification (the so-called Clements order). A more recent, radically different classification based on molecular data has been developed (the so-called Sibley order) and is gaining acceptance.

Evolution

Birds are generally considered to have evolved from theropod dinosaurs. Specifically, birds are members of Maniraptora, a group of theropods which includes dromaeosaurs and oviraptorids. As more non-avian theropods that are closely related to birds are discovered, the formerly clear distinction between non-birds and birds becomes less so. Recent discoveries in North-east China (Liaoning Province) demonstrating that many small theropod dinosaurs had feathers contribute to this ambiguity. The basal bird Archaeopteryx, from the Jurassic, is well-known as one of the first "missing links" to be found in support of evolution in the late 19th century. It remains the most primitive known bird. Other Mesozoic birds include the Confuciusornithidae, Enantiornithes, Ichthyornis, and Hesperornithiformes, a group of flightless divers resembling grebes and loons. The recently discovered dromaeosaur, Cryptovolans, was capable of powered flight, contained a keel and had ribs with uncinate processes. In fact, Cryptovolans makes a better "bird" than Archaeopteryx which is missing some of these modern bird features. Because of this, some paleontologists have suggested that dromaeosaurs are actually basal birds whose larger members are secondarily flightless, i.e. dromaeosaurs evolved from birds and not the other way around. Evidence for this theory is currently inconclusive, but digs continue to unearth fossils (especially in China) of the strange feathered dromaeosaurs. It should be noted that although ornithischian (bird-hipped) dinosaurs share the same hip structure as birds, birds actually originated from the saurischian (lizard-hipped) dinosaurs, and thus arrived at their hip structure condition independently. In fact, the bird-like hip structure developed a third time among a peculiar group of theropods, the Therizinosauridae. Modern birds are classified in Neornithes, which are split into the Paleognathae and Neognathae. The paleognaths include the tinamous (found only in Central and South America) and the ratites. The ratites are large flightless birds, and include ostriches, cassowaries, kiwis and emus; some scientists suspect that the ratites represent an artificial grouping of birds which have independently lost the ability to fly, others contend that the ratites never had the ability to fly and are more directly related to the dinosaurs. The basal divergence from the remaining Neognathes was that of the Galloanseri, the superorder containing the Anseriformes (ducks, geese and swans), and the Galliformes (the pheasants, grouse, and their allies). See the chart. The classification of birds is a contentious issue. Sibley & Ahlquist's Phylogeny and Classification of Birds (1990) is a landmark work on the classification of birds (although frequently debated and constantly revised). Evidence for the various orders seems to be fairly good, but the relationships between the orders are in a state of disarray. Evidence from modern bird anatomy, fossils and DNA have all been brought to bear on the problem but no strong consensus has emerged. See also: Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy.

Reproduction

Although most male birds have no external sex organs, the male does have two testes which become hundreds of times larger during the breeding season to produce sperm. The female's ovaries also become larger, although only the left ovary actually functions. In the males of species without a phallus (see below), sperm is stored within the proctodeum compartment within the cloaca prior to copulation. During copulation, the female moves her tail to the side and the male either mounts the female from behind or moves very close to her. He moves the opening of his cloaca, or vent, close to hers, so that the sperm can enter the female's cloaca, in what is referred to as a cloacal kiss. This can happen very fast, sometimes in less than one second. The sperm is stored in the female's cloaca for anywhere from a week to a year, depending on the species of bird. Then, one by one, eggs will descend from the female's ovaries and become fertilized by the male's sperm, before being subsequently laid by the female. The eggs will then continue their development in the nest. cloacal kiss.]] Many waterfowl and some other birds, such as the ostrich and turkey, do possess a phallus. Except during copulation, it is hidden within the proctodeum compartment within the cloaca, just inside the vent. The avian phallus differs from the mammalian penis in several ways, most importantly in that it is purely a copulatory organ and is not used for dispelling urine. After the eggs hatch, parent birds provide varying degrees of care in terms of food and protection. Precocial birds can care for themselves independently within minutes of hatching; altricial hatchlings are helpless, blind, and naked, and require extended parental care. The chicks of many ground-nesting birds such as partridges and waders are often able to run virtually immediately after hatching; such birds are referred to as nidifugous. The young of hole-nesters, on the other hand, are often totally incapable of unassisted survival. "Fledging" is the process of a chick acquiring feathers until it can fly. Some birds, such as pigeons, geese, and Red-crowned Cranes, remain with their mates for life (or for a long period) and may produce offspring on a regular basis.

Mating systems and parental care

Sources for this section include:
- Gowaty, Patricia Adair: Male Parental Care and Apparent Monogamy among Eastern Bluebirds (Sialia Sialis). The American Naturalist 121(2): 149-160 (1983).
- Ketterson, Ellen D. and Nolan, Val: Male Parental Behavior in Birds. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 25: 601-28 (1994).
- Zeveloff, Samuel and Boyce, Mark: Parental Investment and Mating Systems in Mammals. Evolution 34(5): 973-982 (1980).

The three predominant mating systems are polyandry, polygyny, and monogamy. Monogamy is seen in approximately 91% of all bird species. Polygyny constitutes 2% of all birds and polyandry is seen in less than 1%. Monogamous species of males and females pair for the breeding season. In some cases, the individuals may pair for life. One reason for the high rate of monogamy among birds is due to the fact that male birds are just as adept at parental care as females. In most groups of animals, male parental care is rare, but in birds it is quite common; it is more extensive in birds than in any other vertebrate class. In fact, male care can be seen as important or essential to female fitness. "In one form of monogamy such as with obligate monogamy a female cannot rear a litter without the aid of a male" (Gowaty, 1983). obligate The parental behavior most associated with monogamy was male incubation. This is very interesting, because male incubation is the most confining male parental behavior. It not only consumes time, but also may require physiological changes that interfere with usual mating. With the extreme loss of mating opportunities, there is a reduction in the reproductive success among males. "This information then suggests that sexual selection may be less intense in taxa where males incubate, hypothetically because males allocate more effort to parental care and less to mating" (Ketterson and Nolan, 1994). It is understood then that the females associated with these males base their choice of mate on parental behaviors rather than physical appearance.

Respiration

Birds respire by means of crosscurrent flow: the air flows at a 90° angle to the flow of blood in the lungs' capillaries. In addition to the lungs themselves, birds have posterior and anterior air sacs (typically nine) which control air flow through the lungs, but do not play a direct role in gas exchange. There are three parts involved in respiration:
- the anterior air sacs (interclavicular, cervicals, and anterior thoracics),
- the lungs, and
- the posterior air sacs (posterior thoracics and abdominals). It takes a bird two full breaths, to completely cycle the air from each inhalation through the lungs and out again. The air flows through the air sacs and lungs as follows:
- First inhalation: air flows through the trachea and bronchi into the posterior air sacs.
- First exhalation: air flows from the posterior air sacs to the lungs.
- Second inhalation: air flows from the lungs to the anterior air sacs.
- Second exhalation: air flows from the anterior sacs back through the trachea and out of the body. Since during inhalation and exhalation fresh air flows through the lungs in only one direction, birds are able to diffuse more oxygen into their blood. Unlike humans and other mammals, there is no mixing of oxygen rich air and carbon dioxide rich air. Thus, the partial pressure of oxygen in a bird's lungs is the same as the environment. This is why you would more likely see a bird on Mount Everest than, say, a mouse. Avian lungs do not have alveoli, as mammalian lungs do, but instead contain millions of tiny passages known as parabronchi, connected at either ends by the dorsobronchi and ventrobronchi. Air flows through the honeycombed walls of the parabronchi and into air capillaries, where oxygen and carbon dioxide are traded with cross-flowing blood capillaries by diffusion.

Other anatomy

mouse Birds possess a ventriculus, or gizzard, that is composed of four muscular bands that act to rotate and crush food by shifting the food from one area to the next within the gizzard. Depending on the species, the gizzard may contain small pieces of grit or stone that the bird has swallowed to aid in the grinding process of digestion. For birds in captivity, only certain species of birds require grit in their diet for digestion. The use of gizzard stones is a similarity between birds and dinosaurs, which left gizzard stones called gastroliths as trace fossils. Birds also have skeletons possessing unique characteristics. See bird skeleton. The region between the eye and bill on the side of a bird's head is called a lore. This region is sometimes featherless, and the skin may be tinted (as in many species of the cormorant family).

Birds and humans

cormorant cormorant cormorant Birds are an important food source for humans. The most commonly eaten species is the domestic chicken and its eggs, although geese, pheasants, turkeys, and ducks are also widely eaten. Other birds that have been utilized for food include emus, ostriches, pigeons, grouse, quails, doves, woodcocks, songbirds, and others, including small passerines such as finches. At one time swans and flamingos were delicacies of the rich and powerful, although these are generally protected now. Many species have become extinct through over-hunting, such as the Passenger Pigeon, and many others have become endangered or extinct through habitat destruction, deforestation and intensive agriculture being common causes for declines. Numerous species have come to depend on human activities for food and are widespread to the point of being pests. For example the common pigeon or Rock Dove (Columba livia) thrives in urban areas around the world. In North America, introduced House Sparrows, Common Starlings, and House Finches are similarly widespread. Other birds have been used by humans: for example Homing pigeons to carry messages (many are still kept for sport), falcons for hunting, cormorants for fishing. Chickens and pigeons are popular subjects in experimental research in biology and comparative psychology. As birds are extra-sensitive to toxins, the Canary was often used in coal mines to indicate the presence of poisonous gases, so that the miners could escape. Colorful, particularly tropical, birds (e.g., parrots, and mynahs) are often kept as pets although this has led to smuggling of some endangered species; CITES does considerable work to deter this. Bird diseases that can be contracted by humans include these: psittacosis, salmonellosis, campylobacteriosis, Newcastle's disease, mycobacteriosis (avian tuberculosis), avian influenza, giardiasis, and cryptosporiadiosis.

Trivia

- To preen or groom their feathers, birds use their bills to brush away foreign particles.
- The birds of a region are called the avifauna.
- Few birds use chemical defences against predators. Tubenoses can eject an unpleasant slime against an aggressor, and some species of pitohui, found in New Guinea secrete a powerful neurotoxin in their feathers.
- Birds are among the most extensively studied animal groups, with hundreds of academic journals devoted to their study.

References and external links

- [http://www.bsc-eoc.org/avibase/avibase.jsp?lang=EN&pg=home Avibase - The World Bird Database]
- [http://www.i-o-c.org/IOComm/index.htm International Ornithological Committee]
- [http://www.birdlife.org/ Birdlife International] - Dedicated to bird conservation worldwide; has a database with about 250,000 records on endangered bird species
- [http://birdingonthe.net/ Birdingonthe.net]
- [http://www.surfbirds.com/ Surfbirds Birdwatching and World Birding]
- [http://worldtwitch.com/ Worldtwitch - rare bird news around the world]
- [http://www.birdforum.net/ BirdForum] Category:Chordates
- Category:Ornithology ko:새 ms:Burung ja:鳥類 simple:Bird th:นก

British Ornithologists' Union

The British Ornithologists' Union (BOU) aims to encourage the study of birds ("ornithology") in Britain, Europe and throughout the world, in order to understand their biology and to aid their conservation. It was founded in 1858 by Professor Alfred Newton, Henry Baker Tristram and other scientists. Its quarterly journal, Ibis, has been published since 1859. It is based at the Natural History Museum's ornithology outpost at Tring, Hertfordshire, England.

External link

- [http://www.bou.org.uk/ BOU website] Category:Ornithological organizations Category:Conservation in the United Kingdom

American Ornithologists' Union

The American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) is the oldest and largest ornithological organization in the Western Hemisphere. Unlike the National Audubon Society, its members are primarily professional ornithologists rather than amateur birdwatchers. It was founded in September 1883 by Elliott Coues, Joel Asaph Allen and William Brewster. Its quarterly journal, The Auk, has been published since January, 1884. Other significant publications include the AOU Checklist of North American Birds, which is the standard reference work for the field, and a monograph series, Ornithological Monographs.

External link

- [http://www.aou.org/ AOU website] Category:United States organizations Category:Ornithological organizations

North Africa

North Africa is a region generally considered to include:
- Algeria
- Egypt
- Libya
- Mauritania
- Morocco
- Sudan
- Tunisia
- Western Sahara The Azores, Canary Islands, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Madeira are sometimes considered to be a part of North Africa. The Maghreb (also called Northwest Africa or Tamazgha) is the portion of North Africa that consititutes Morocco, Western Sahara, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Mauritania (thus excluding the Nile Valley). In common usage - particularly in French - the term is often restricted to the first three countries, as all are former French colonies. In Arabic, the term can also refer to Morocco alone. Some countries in northern Africa, particularly Egypt and Libya, often get included in common definitions of the Middle East, since they in some respects have closer ties to western Asia than to the Maghreb. In addition, the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt is part of Asia, making Egypt a transcontinental country.

People

The people of North Africa can be divided into roughly three, distinct groups: the Berbers of the Maghreb; the Tuareg and other, original black Berbers; and the Nilotic blacks of the Nile Valley. Maghreb Berbers are generally fairer-skinned than the Berbers to the west. They are considered indigenous to the area, and are believed be the descendants of black Berbers mixed with Asiatic and Caucasoid peoples who spread westward, laterally across the continent. Berbers predominate in the northwestern part of Africa, but the area also hosts various black Berber peoples and equatorial Africans, as well. Over the centuries, there has been some intermariage between Maghreb Berbers, who generally are classified as "Caucasoid," with black Africans, producing a population with a wide range of phenotypical characteristisc, including skin color and hair texture. Most Maghreb Berbers outside much of Morocco and parts of Algeria, identify themselves as Arabs and no longer speak Tamazight, their original language, and speak Arabic. Far more Tuareg Berbers speak Tamazight, an Afro-Asiatic language; but they, too, have been Arabized culturally, though to far a lesser extent than have the Maghreb Berbers.

Culture

North Africa is naturally divided into three rather distinct cultural regions: the Maghreb (Northwest Africa), the Sahara, and the Nile Valley. The culture of the Maghreb and the Sahara combines indigenous Berber and Arab elements. Most Maghrebis and Saharans have mixed Berber, Arab, and sometimes also black African, ancestry. They speak either Arabic or Berber, and follow Islam; however, the dialects of the Sahara (Arabic and Berber) are in general notably more conservative than those of the coast. These two languages are related, both being members of the Afro-Asiatic language family. The Maghreb (Northwest Africa) is believed to have been inhabited by Berbers since the beginning of recorded history. However, Berbers were influenced by other cultures that came in contact with them: Nubians, Greeks, Phoenicians, Egyptians, Romans, Vandals, Arabs, and lately Europeans. In the Sahara, the distinction between sedentary oasis inhabitants and nomadic Bedouin and Tuareg is particularly marked. The Nile Valley, tracing its heritage back to the Pharaohs, has more recently been inhabited by Arabic-speakers, most of them Muslims, though some - the Copts - are Christians. In Nubia, straddling Egypt and Sudan, a significant population retains the Nubian language. Further down the Nile Valley, in the southern Sudan, the culturally entirely distinct world of the largely non-Muslim Nilotic and Nuba peoples begins. North Africa formerly had a large Jewish population, a large portion of which emigrated to France or Israel when the North African nations gained independence. Prior to the modern establishment of Israel, there were about 600,000-700,000 Jews in North Africa, including both Sfardīm (immigrants from France, Spain and Portugal from the Renaissance era) as well as indigenous . Today, less than fifteen thousand remain in the region, and are mostly part of a French-speaking urban elite. (See Jewish exodus from Arab lands.)

History

After the Middle Ages the area was loosely under the control of the Ottoman Empire, except Morocco. After the 19th century, it was colonized by France, the United Kingdom, Spain and Italy. During the 1950s, 1960s and into the 1970s, all of the North African states gained independence, except for a few small Spanish colonies on the far northern tip of Morocco, and the Western Sahara, which went from Spanish to Moroccan rule.

Britain

:This article deals with the history of the word Britain. For clarification of terminology and an overview of articles about Britain and Ireland see British Isles (terminology). The word Britain is an informal term used to refer to
- the island of Great Britain which consists of the nations of England, Scotland and Wales.
- the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland or UK,
- sometimes the Roman province called "Britain" or "Britannia" The word British generally means belonging to or associated with Britain in one of the first two senses above (i.e. the United Kingdom or the island of Great Britain). However, the term has a range of related usages, as described in this article. Etymologically, these words are closely related to Brittany, the name of the western French peninsula, and its adjective Breton.

Earliest attested references

- Pretaniké; Pretanikai nesoi (Pretanic isles) - 325 BC
- Britannia - 55 BC (Julius Caesar, Roman invasion of Britain)
- Breten - 855 (Old English Chronicle, introduction)
- Brittisc - 855 (OED)
- Grate Briteigne - 1548 (OED)
- British isles - 1550 (in Latin; map of Sebastian Munster cited in British Isles article)

Etymology

The etymology of the name Britain is thought to derive from a Celtic word, Pritani, "painted people/men", a reference to the inhabitants of the islands' use of body-paint and tattoos. If this is true, there is an interesting parallel with the name Pict, connected with a Latin word of the same meaning. The modern Welsh name for Britain is Prydain. The Q-Celtic form was Cruithin, showing that the Common Celtic singular form was qr[ui]tanos. The root is presumably that of the modern Gaelic/Irish word cruth 'shape, form'. It has also been postulated that Britain may derive from the Celtic goddess Brigid; the form of the word, however, is against this postulation. In 325 BC the Greek explorer Pytheas of Massalia visited a group of islands which he called Pretaniké, the principal ones being Albionon (Albion) and Ierne (Erin). The records of this visit date from much more recent times, so there is room for these details to be disputed, but it does seem to attest pre-Roman use of the name by Celtic-speaking inhabitants of the islands - or the names used by the Phoenecians Pytheas went with. The Roman geographer Ptolemy called the larger island Megale Brettania (Great Britain), and the smaller island Micra Bretannia (Little Britain).

Britain and Brittany

The original reference seems to have been to the territory in which the Brythonic languages were spoken, which more or less coincided with the Roman province of Britannia, an area equivalent to modern England, Wales and southern Scotland. In the Early Middle Ages speakers of a Brythonic language which later evolved into Breton migrated from Cornwall to Armorica, Western France, possibly because of pressure from Saxon invasions. This is why different forms of the same name apply to insular Britain and continental Brittany. In French the similarity is even more obvious: Bretagne and Grande Bretagne. Geoffrey of Monmouth used the names Britannia minor to refer to the Armorican region and Britannia major for the island. The element great in the term Great Britain thus simply means large, to make the distinction from Brittany.

Historical evolution of the term Britain

The kingdoms established on the island of Great Britain were perceived to be dominant over the whole archipelago, which thus came to be known as the British Isles. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England, the queen's astrologer and alchemist, John Dee, wrote mystical volumes predicting a British Empire and using the terms Great Britain and Britannia. After Elizabeth's death in 1603 the kingdoms shared one King, James VI of Scotland and I of England. On 20 October 1604 he proclaimed himself "King of Great Brittaine" (thus including Wales and also avoiding the cumbersome title "King of England and Scotland"). This title was eventually adopted formally in 1707 when the Kingdom of Great Britain was formed. Politically, then, British has been used to described someone or something from the United Kingdom, in its various forms, since 1707. Briton or Brit are also used colloquially in this form, though the use of Briton here is incorrect. Since its formation, the kingdom was enlarged in 1801 by the addition of the island of Ireland - already ruled by the British monarchy - to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and was then reduced in 1922 by the independence of the Irish Free State, now the Republic of Ireland. The name of the kingdom changed accordingly, in 1927 becoming The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. British was also used to describe members of nations that formed part of the British Empire. This use now, however, could be seen as justifying the colonial era, even if only applied historically.

Modern use of the term 'British'

The modern use of the term 'British' is as an adjective to describe someone or something from the United Kingdom. It is officially used as the term to describe the nationality of a citizen of the United Kingdom. Irish Nationalists may reject this term as offensive, as it is used to describe Irish people in Northern Ireland. Many people from England, Scotland and Wales also dislike the term, preferring to define themselves as natives of their own particular country. It is also frequently used to describe residents of the United Kingdom's current colonies. This may still offend some people, though since the British Overseas Territories Act 2002 all residents of the United Kingdom's remaining colonies have been eligible for British citizenship, making the term more apt. British occurs in the legal term British Islands . This was coined to describe all of the islands of the British Isles, exlcuding those that form part of the Republic of Ireland, when they act together as a political whole. Geographically, the term can be used in various ways:
- To describe someone from the island of Great Britain
- In the term British Isles, the traditional term for the entire archipelago of islands that lie off the north west coast of France, of which Great Britain and Ireland are the two biggest. Note that this is not intended to imply that all of these islands are part of the United Kingdom, for many of them are part of the Republic of Ireland. However, confusion caused by this term can lead to offense.
- The term has historically been used to describe someone or something from the British Isles. Due to the above mentioned potential for offense, this rarely happens today. For example the British Lions a rugby team which draws players from the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland has been renamed to the British and Irish Lions.
- Sometimes British applies to an area or territory currently or formerly governed by or a dependent territory of the United Kingdom, for example the British Virgin Islands, the British Indian Ocean Territory, or British Columbia which is now a province of Canada.

Brutus of Troy

In keeping with the mediaeval penchant for etymologising country names in terms of eponomous heroes, English historians of the late mediaeval and early modern periods charted the history of the nation from Brutus of Troy, supposedly a hero of the Trojan war who founded Britain just as Aeneaus' descendant Romulus founded Rome, Frankus France, and so forth. The life of Brutus, anglicised as Brute, was recorded in the literary tradition of the Prose Brute. This was long accepted as the etymology of Britain.

Sources and further reading

- A History of Britain: At the Edge of the World, 3000 BC - 1603 AD by Simon Schama, BBC/Miramax, 2000 ISBN 0786866756
- A History of Britain, Volume 2: The Wars of the British 1603-1776 by Simon Schama, BBC/Miramax, 2001 ISBN 0786866756
- A History of Britain - The Complete Collection on DVD by Simon Schama, BBC 2002
- The Isles, A History by Norman Davies, Oxford University Press, 1999, ISBN 0195134427
- Shortened History of England by G. M. Trevelyan Penguin Books ISBN 0140233237
- Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English by Eric Partridge, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1966

External links

- [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/ British History Online] Category:British Isles Category:History of Britain Category:Europe simple:Britain

North America

North America is a continent in the northern hemisphere bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the south by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific Ocean. It covers an area of 24,497,994 km² (9,458,728 sq mi), or about 4.8% of the Earth's surface. As of July 2002, its population was estimated at more than 514,600,000. It is the third largest continent in area, after Asia and Africa, and is fourth in population after Asia, Africa, and Europe. Both North and South America are named after Amerigo Vespucci, who was the first European to suggest that the Americas were not the East Indies, but a previously undiscovered (by Europeans) New World. North America occupies the northern portion of the landmass generally referred to as the New World, the Western Hemisphere, the Americas, or simply America. North America's only land connection is to South America at the narrow Isthmus of Panama. (For geopolitical reasons, all of Panama – including the segment east of the Panama Canal in the isthmus – is often considered a part of North America alone.) According to some authorities, North America begins not at the Isthmus of Panama but at the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, with the intervening region called Central America and resting on the Caribbean Plate. Most, however, tend to see Central America as a region of North America, considering it too small to be a continent on its own. Greenland, although a part of North America geographically, is not considered to be part of the continent politically.

Physical features

Greenland, plutonic, metamorphic rock types of North America. ]] Plate tectonics recognizes the vast majority of North America as being the surface of the North American Plate. Parts of California and western Mexico are known for being the edge of the Pacific Plate, with the two plates meeting along the San Andreas fault. The continent can be divided into four great regions (each of which contains many sub-regions): the Great Plains stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian Arctic; the geologically young, mountainous west, including the Rocky Mountains, the Great Basin, California and Alaska; the raised but relatively flat plateau of the Canadian Shield in the northeast; and the varied eastern region, which includes the Appalachian Mountains, the coastal plain along the Atlantic seaboard, and the Florida peninsula. Mexico, with its long plateaus and cordilleras, falls largely in the western region, although the eastern coastal plain does extend south along the Gulf. The western mountains are split in the middle, into the main range of the Rockies and the coast ranges in California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia with the Great Basin – a lower area containing smaller ranges and low-lying deserts – in between. The highest peak is Denali in Alaska. Since 1931, Rugby, North Dakota, has officially been recognized as being at the geographic center of North America. The location is marked by a 4.5 metre (15 foot) field stone obelisk. Image:North america terrain 2003 map.jpg|North America bedrock and terrain. Image:North america basement rocks.png|North American cratons and basement rocks. Image:North America Tectonic Elements.jpg|Tectonic elements of North America Image:North america craton nps.gif|North American craton.

Territories and regions

craton On the main continent landmass, there are three large and relatively populous countries:
- Canada - many large islands off the shore of North America belong to Canada, including Vancouver Island and the Queen Charlotte Islands on the west, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Cape Breton Island on the east, and the Canadian Arctic islands (including Ellesmere Island, Baffin Island, and Victoria Island) in the north
- Mexico - the Revillagigedo archipelago and numerous smaller islands off its coast belong to Mexico
- The United States - the 48 contiguous states and Alaska are part of North America, while the state of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean is not; the Aleutian Islands south of Alaska also belong to the U.S. At the southern end of the continent, in a relatively small area known as Central America, are the countries of:
- Belize
- Costa Rica
- El Salvador
- Guatemala
- Honduras
- Nicaragua
- Panama ¹ At the southeastern end of the continent lies a chain of islands territories called the Antilles, the Caribbean or the West Indies, which include the countries:
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Bahamas
- Barbados
- Cuba
- Dominica
- Dominican Republic
- Grenada
- Haiti
- Jamaica
- Saint Kitts and Nevis
- Saint Lucia
- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
- Trinidad and Tobago ¹ And the dependencies:
- Anguilla (British overseas territory)
- Aruba ² (part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands)
- Cayman Islands (British overseas territory)
- Guadeloupe (French région d'outre-mer)
- Martinique (French région d'outre-mer)
- Montserrat (British overseas territory)
- Navassa Island (U.S. territory)
- Netherlands Antilles ¹ (part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands)
- Puerto Rico (U.S. commonwealth)
- Turks and Caicos Islands (British overseas territory)
- British Virgin Islands (British overseas territory)
- U.S. Virgin Islands (territory of the USA) Lying in the Atlantic Ocean but considered part of the continent are the dependencies:
- Bermuda, a British overseas territory found about 1,072 km (670 mi.) southeast of New York City
- Greenland, the largest island in the world and a self-governing dependency of Denmark, which is located in the far north of the continent to the east of Nunavut.
- Saint Pierre and Miquelon, a French collectivité d'outre-mer off the south coast of Newfoundland, is the last of France's once vast possessions in America north of the Caribbean. ¹ These states and dependencies have territory both in North and South America.
² These dependencies lie in South America, but are considered North American because of cultural and historical reasons.
See here for details.

Usage

The United States, Canada, and the other English-speaking nations of the Americas (Belize, Guyana, and the Anglophone Caribbean) are sometimes grouped under the term Anglo-America, while the remaining nations of North and South America are grouped under the term Latin America. Alternatively, Northern America is used to refer to Canada and the U.S. together (plus Greenland and Bermuda), while Central America is mainland North America south of the United States. The West Indies generally include all islands in the Caribbean Sea. In this respect, Latin America generally includes Central America and South America and, sometimes, the West Indies. The term Middle America is sometimes used to refer to Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean collectively. The term "North America" may mean different things to different people. The term in common usage is often taken to mean "the United States and Canada, only" by some people of the United States and Canada, excluding Mexico and the countries of Central America, unless the context makes it clear that they are to be included (such as with specific reference to Mexico, when talking about NAFTA). For example, guides to wild flora and fauna published by the National Audubon Society for "North America" frequently include only species found in Canada and the U.S. This may be attributed to the fact that culturally and economically, the U.S. and Canada are more alike to each other than they are to the rest of North America. Mexicans, however, are acutely aware that Mexico is a part of North America and object to this usage. Central Americans, however, are generally content to be called Central Americans – largely because of their shared history, which includes several attempts at supranational integration in the region and in which Mexico, their much larger northern neighbor, was never involved.

Political divisions and regions

Notes:
¹ Continental regions as per UN categorisations/map.
² Depending on definitions, Aruba, Netherlands Antilles, Panama, and Trinidad and Tobago have territory in one or both of North and South America.
³ Due to ongoing activity of the Soufriere Hills volcano beginning 1995, much of Plymouth, Montserrat's de jure capital, was destroyed and government offices relocated to Brades.

External links

- http://www.america-norte.com/america-norte-mapa.htm Category:Continents Category:North America zh-min-nan:Pak Bí-chiu ko:북아메리카 ja:北アメリカ simple:North America th:ทวีปอเมริกาเหนือ

Habitation at Port-Royal

The Habitation at Port-Royal is a National Historic Site located at Port Royal in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia.

Île-Saint-Croix settlement

In 1604, the French nobleman Pierre Dugua de Monts (Sieur de Monts) led an expedition to North America to reconnoiter lands between 40º N and 45º N latitude where he had been given a monopoly on the fur trade by the Government of France. In addition to complete fur-trading rights, he was also given power of admiralty, the right to seize any ships and cargo of illegal traders, the right to give land grants to members of his company, and in general, near complete control over all aspects of government in New France. A condition for this grant was the stipulation that he establish a colony, thus Dugua, accompanied by cartographer Samuel de Champlain and 77 other settlers, all men (most of whom were hired for a one-year term), a settlement was established on a small island in a river on the north shore of what they called Baie François (today called the Bay of Fundy). The island, named Île-Saint-Croix in the Riviére-St-Croix (which drains into Passamaquoddy Bay), became a deathtrap in the winter of 1604-1605 as the settlers succumbed to scurvy and diseases brought on by malnutrition and the cold. Due to the island's small size, the meagre wood supply was quickly depleted and isolation on the island in the river kept settlers away from area wildlife, or assistance from the nearby Passamaquoddy Nation. In the spring of 1605, the surviving settlers (36 of the 79 had perished), left with Dugua and Champlain on an expedition to a more favourable settlement location on Baie François.

Port-Royal settlement

Dugua and Champlain decided to move their settlement to the north shore of present-day Annapolis Basin, a sheltered bay on the south shore of the Bay of Fundy which had been discovered by Champlain earlier in the spring of 1605 during a coastal reconnaissance. Champlain would note in his journals, that the bay was of impressive size; he believed it an adequate anchorage for several hundred ships of the French Royal Fleet, if ever necessary. As such, he would name the basin "Port-Royal", the Royal Port; this was, for many years, the name of both the body of water, and the subsequent French and Acadian settlements in that region. Nestled against the North Mountain range, they set about constructing a log stockade fortification called a "Habitation." With assistance from members of the Mi'kmaq Nation and a local chief named Membertou, coupled with the more temperate climate of the fertile Annapolis Valley, the settlement prospered. Mindful of the disastrous winter of 1604-1605 at the Île-Saint-Croix settlement, Champlain established l'Ordre de Bon Temps (the Order of Good Cheer) as a social club ostensibly to promote better nutrition and to get settlers through the winter of 1606-1607. Supper every few days became a feast with a festive air supplemented by performances and alcohol and was primarily attended by the prominent men of the colony and their Mi'kmaq neighbours while the Mi'kmaq women, children, and poorer settlers looked on and were offered scraps. Unfortunately in 1607, Dugua had his fur trade monopoly revoked by the Government of France, forcing settlers to return to France that fall. The Habitation was left in the care of Membertou and the local Mi'kmaq until 1610 when Sieur de Poutrincourt, another French nobleman, returned with a small expedition to Port-Royal. Poutrincourt converted Membertou and local Mi'kmaq to Catholicism, hoping to gain financial assistance from the government. As a result, Jesuits became financial partners with Poutrincourt, although this caused division within the community. In May, 1613 the Jesuits moved on to the Penobscot River valley and in July, the settlement was attacked by Samuel Argall of Virginia. Argall returned in November that same year and burned the Habitation to the ground while settlers were away nearby. Poutrincourt returned from France in spring 1614 to find Port-Royal in ruins and settlers living with the Mi'kmaq. Poutrincourt then gave his holdings to his son and returned to France. Poutrincourt's son bequeathed the settlement to Charles La Tour upon his own death in 1623.

Port-Royal in history

Port-Royal was a French "beach head" in North America and is counted as the third continuously-occupied (i.e. permanent) European settlement on the continent after St. Augustine, which was settled by Spain in 1565 and St. John's, which was settled by the British in certainly not 1497, probably later like 1655. Port-Royal outlasted the ill-fated English settlement at Roanoke and pre-dated English settlements at Jamestown (1607) and Plymouth (1620) and the French settlement at Québec (1608). As such, Port-Royal is also the founding community of la Nouvelle-France, the start of French colonization efforts in North America. Despite the destruction of the Habitation in 1613, French settlers continued to establish communities in the fertile Annapolis Valley which Champlain had discovered in his quest to relocate the Île-Saint-Croix settlement. These settlers moved into the better soils on the tidal marshes of Minas Basin in the eastern reaches of the Bay of Fundy (Baie François) and also the Bay's northern reaches at Beaubassin on the Tantramar_Marshes. These settlers named the region surrounding the Baie François Acadie and referred to themselves as Acadien. Port-Royal was also the site of the first sailing ship built in Canada in 1606 for coastal exploration, and it was also the first site of crops being planted in Canada (as can be authenticated).[http://users.andara.com/~grose/portroy.html] Nearby the first grist mill built in North America was located - a reproduction today hides a small hydro-electric plant.

Replica construction

In the 1920s and 1930s, chiefly under the leadership of Harriet Taber Richardson, native of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and summer resident of Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotian preservationists and historians began lobbying the Government of Canada to build a replica of the Habitation which stood from 1605 until its destruction in 1613. The government agreed after much persuasion and a replica was built in 1939-1940. Today, this replica serves as the cornerstone of Port-Royal National Historic Site of Canada, and coupled with the nearby Fort Anne National Historic Site of Canada in Annapolis Royal, continues to commemorate this important historic region for Canadians and visitors. Image:Port-Royal_Nova-Scotia_1.jpg|Entrance Image:Port-Royal_Nova-Scotia_2.jpg|Blason Image:Port-Royal_Nova-Scotia_3.jpg|Courtyard Image:Port-Royal_Nova-Scotia_4.jpg|Outside view

External links

- [http://www.statcan.ca/english/freepub/98-187-XIE/earlyfre.htm Censuses of Canada - 1665 to 1871 - Early French Settlements]
- [http://parkscanada.pch.gc.ca/lhn-nhs/ns/portroyal/index_e.asp Port-Royal National Historic Site of Canada]
- [http://www.nps.gov/sacr/ Saint Croix Island International Historic Site] Category:Nova Scotia history Category:Acadia Category:National Historic Sites of Canada Category:Annapolis Valley Category:History of Canada

Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia (Latin for New Scotland; Gaelic:Alba Nuadh; French: Nouvelle-Écosse; Mi'kmaq: Gespogwitg; German: Neuschottland) is a Canadian province located on Canada's south eastern coast. It is the most populous province in Maritimes, and its capital, the Halifax Regional Municipality, is the economic and cultural center of the region. Nova Scotia is the second smallest province in Canada, with an area of only 55,284 km², but its population of 937,889[http://gov.ns.ca/finance/statistics/agency/index.asp] Nova Scotians (or, less formally, Bluenosers) makes it the seventh most populous province. Nova Scotia's economy continues to be largely resource based, but has in recent years become more diverse. Traditional industries such as fishing, mining, forestry and agriculture remain very important, and have been joined by tourism, technology, film production, music and other cultural industries. The territory now known as Nova Scotia was home to the Mi'kmaq when the first European settlers arrived. In 1604, French settlers estabished the first permanent settlement north of Florida at Port Royal, founding what would become known as Acadia. The British Empire obtained control of the region between 1713 and 1760, and established the new capital at Halifax in 1749. Nova Scotia was one of the founding four provinces to join Confederation with Canada in 1867.

History

Paleo-Indians camped at locations in present-day Nova Scotia approximately 11,000 years ago. Archaic Indians are believed to have been present in the area between 1,000 and 5,000 years ago. Mi'kmaq, the First Nations of the province and region, are their direct descendants. The explorer John Cabot visited present-day Cape Breton in 1497. The first European settlement in Nova Scotia was established by French lead by Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Monts. They established the first capital for the colony Acadia at Port Royal in 1604 at the head of the Annapolis Basin. In 1620, the Plymouth Council for New England, under James I of England/James VI of Scotland designated the whole shorelines of Acadia and the Mid-Atlantic colonies south to the Chesapeake Bay as New England. In the latter 1620s, a group of Scots was sent by Charles I of England and Scotland to set up the colony of 'Nova Scotia'. (The Latin appellation was so stated in Sir William Alexander's 1621 land grant.) However owing to the signing of a peace treaty with France, the territory was given to the French and the Scots ordered to abandon their mission before their colony had been properly established. The French took control of the Mi'kmaq and other First Nations territory. In 1654, King Louis XIV of France appointed aristocrat Nicholas Denys as Governor of Acadia and granted him the confiscated lands and the right to all its minerals. British colonists captured Acadia in the course of King William's War but Britain returned it to France at the peace settlement. It was recaptured in the course of Queen Anne's War and its conquest confirmed in the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713. France retained possession of Île St Jean (Prince Edward Island) and Île Royale (Cape Breton Island) on which it established a fortress at Louisbourg to guard the sea approaches to Quebec. This fortress was captured by American colonial forces, then of returned by the British to France, then ceded again after the French and Indian War. Thus mainland Nova Scotia became a British colony in 1713, although Samuel Vetch had a precarious hold on the territory as governor from the fall of Acadian Port-Royal (Annapolis Royal) in October 1710. British governing officials became increasingly concerned over the unwillingness of the French-speaking, Catholic Acadians, who were the majority of colonists, to pledge allegiance to the British Crown, then George II. The colony remained mostly Acadian despite the settlement of a large number of mostly German foreign Protestants along the South Shore in 1750. In 1755, the British forcibly expelled the Acadians in what became known as the Great Expulsion. The colony's jurisdiction changed during this time. Nova Scotia was granted a supreme court in 1754 with the appointment of Jonathan Belcher and a legislative assembly in 1758. In 1763 Cape Breton Island became part of Nova Scotia. In 1769, St. John's Island (now Prince Edward Island) became a separate colony. The county of Sunbury was created in 1765, and included all of the territory of current day New Brunswick and eastern Maine as far as the Penobscot River. In 1784 the western, mainland portion of the colony was separated and became the province of New Brunswick, and the territory in Maine entered the control of the state of Massachusetts. Cape Breton became a separate colony from 1784 to 1820, when it was again joined to Nova Scotia. 1820 Ancestors of more than half of present-day Nova Scotians arrived in the period following the Acadian Expulsion. Approximately 30,000 United Empire Loyalists (American Tories) settled in Nova Scotia (when it comprised present-day Maritime Canada) following the defeat of the British in the American Revolutionary War. Approximately 3,000 of this group were slaves of African ancestry, about a third of which soon relocated themselves to Sierra Leone in 1792. Large numbers of Gaelic-speaking Highland Scots emigrated to Cape Breton and the western portion of the mainland during the late 18th century and 19th century. About one thousand Ulster Scots settled in mainly central Nova Scotia during this time, as did just over a thousand farming migrants from Yorkshire and Northumberland between 1772 and 1775. Nova Scotia was the first colony in British North America and in the British Empire to achieve responsible government in January-February 1848 and become self-governing through the efforts of Joseph Howe. Pro-Confederate premier Charles Tupper led Nova Scotia into the Canadian Confederation in 1867, along with New Brunswick, Quebec, and the Province of Canada. Nova Scotica was the first Province in Canada to vie for independence from Canada. In the Provincial election of 1868, the Anti-Confederation Party won 18 out of 19 Federal seats, and 35 out of 38 seats in the provincial legislature. For seven years, William Annand and Joseph Howe led the ultimately unsuccessful fight to convince British Imperial authorities to release Nova Scotia from Confederation. The government was vocally against Confederation, contending that it was no more than the annexation of the Province to the pre-existing province of Canada: :"the scheme [confederation with Canada] by them assented to would, if adopted, deprive the people [of Nova Scotia] of the inestimable privilege of self-government, and of their rights, liberty, and independence, rob them of their revenue, take from them the regulation of trade and taxation, expose them to arbitrary taxation by a legislature over which they have no control, and in which they would possess but a nominal and entirely ineffective representation; deprive them of their invaluable fisheries, railroads, and other property, and reduce this hitherto free, happy, and self-governed province to a degraded condition of a servile dependency of Canada."(Excerpted from the Address to the Crown by the Government, from the Journal of the House of Assembly, Province of Nova Scotia, 1868) A motion passed by the Nova Scotia House of Assembly in 1868 refusing to recognize the legitimacy of Confederation has never been rescinded. Nova Scotia flags flew at half mast on Canada Day as late as the 1920s, at the end of the Maritime Rights Movement. See also individual articles on Nova Scotia history.

Geography

Nova Scotia history The province's mainland is a peninsula, connected to mainland North America by the Isthmus of Chignecto, and surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, including numerous bays and estuaries. Cape Breton Island, a large island to the northeast of the Nova Scotian mainland, is also part of the province, as is Sable Island, a small island notorious for its shipwrecks, approximately 175 km (95 nm)from the province's southern coast. Nova Scotia is Canada's second smallest province in area (after Prince Edward Island), and no point in Nova Scotia is more than 56 km from the sea. See also individual articles on Nova Scotia geography and below for a map.

Ten Largest Municipalities

Map

image:Ns-map.png

Demographics

Population

Nova Scotia is the seventh most populated province in Canada with an estimated 937,889 residents as of July 1, 2005. It accounts for 3% of the population of Canada. The population density is approximately 17 persons/km². Roughly 60% of the population live in rural parts of the province. In about 1861, the population was about 331 000 people and the population of Halifax alone was 29 580.

Employment

Unemployment is at just under 8% of the work force, as of May 2005.

Per capita income

Per capita income is just over $30,000 (Can), of which just over $19,000 is disposable.

Gross Domestic Product

Nova Scotia GDP is presently approximately $29 billion (Can) annually.

National and ethnic origins

According to the most recent federal government census conducted in 2001, 95.4% of Nova Scotians are Canadian born. Of the 4.6% of Nova Scotia residents who had immigrated to Canada, 45% per cent of immigrants were from Asia; 29.3% were from Europe (excluding the United Kingdom); 21.9%, the Middle East; 11.8%, the United States; and 6.8%, the United Kingdom. In the same census, 50.7% of Nova Scotians indicated that their single ethnic origin to be "Canadian", which are mostly made of up of British, Irish and French ancestries. 30.8% indicated it to be "British and Irish"; 7.2%, "European"; 5.5%, "French"; 2.1%, "Black"; 1.9%, "Aboriginal Canadian"; 0.6%, "Arab/West Asian"; 0.4%, "Chinese"; 0.4% "South Asian". Each other category - "Filipino", "Japanese", "Korean", "Latin American", "Southeast Asian", and "Visible minority, n.i.e." - accounts for less than 0.2% of the population makeup. (Statistics source: The statistics presented here were obtained from the [http://www.gov.ns.ca/finance/statistics/agency/index.asp Government of Nova Scotia's statistics website].)

Other facts

South Asian features the schooner Bluenose.]] Nova Scotia is in the Atlantic Standard Time zone. The Bluenose, which appears on the back of the Canadian ten-cent piece (dime) and current Nova Scotia license plate was built in Lunenburg, a town on the South Shore. 500–1000 Nova Scotians today are fluent in Scottish Gaelic. In 2004, Nova Scotia voted to invite Turks and Caicos Islands to join the province, should these Caribbean islands ever become part of Canada. This would bypass the problems with admitting Turks and Caicos as a separate province. In November 1761, a furious storm sent the merchant ship Auguste to its doom, taking with it 114 souls bound for France, and all of their earthly possessions. One of seven survivors, Monsieur St. Luc de la Corne, made an epic trek of almost one-thousand miles in the dead of a Canadian winter back to his family in Montreal. Almost 250 years later, what is left of the Auguste and her valuable cargo of gold and silver lies on the bottom of Cape Breton's Aspy Bay, in the Canadian Province of Nova Scotia. Underwater explorer, Joe Amaral, and his team have sifted through the sands of Aspy Bay looking for treasure and answers to what really happened during this devastating shipwreck. So far, they have found several cannon, lead sheathing from repairs to the ship, a few coins, and a spoon.

External links

- [http://www.gov.ns.ca/ Government of Nova Scotia]
- [http://novascotia.com Government of Nova Scotia's official tourism]
- [http://www.novatrails.com Nova Scotia hiking & tourism info]
- [http://explorens.com Explore Nova Scotia tourism info]
- [http://www.novascotialife.com Nova Scotia Come To Life]
- [http://www.courts.ns.ca Courts of Nova Scotia]
- Category:Former British colonies Category:Scottish colonies Category:Peninsulas ko:노바스코샤 주 ja:ノバスコシア州 simple:Nova Scotia zh-min-nan:Nova Scotia

Stock Dove

The Stock Dove (Columba oenas) is a member of the family Columbidae, doves and pigeons. In the northern part of its European and western Asiatic range the Stock Dove is a migrant, elsewhere it is a well distributed and often plentiful resident. The three western European Columba pigeons, though superficially alike, have very distinctive characters; the Wood Pigeon may at once be told by the white on its neck and wing, but the Rock Dove and Stock Doves are more alike in size and plumage. The former, however, has a white rump, and two well-marked black bars on the wing, but the rump of the Stock is grey, and the bars are incomplete. The haunts of the Stock Dove are in more or less open country, for though it often nests in trees it prefers parklands to thick woods. It is common on coasts where the cliffs provide holes. Its flight is quick, performed by regular beats, with an occasional sharp flick of the wings, characteristic of pigeons in general. It perches well, and in nuptial display walks along a horizontal branch with swelled neck, lowered wings, and fanned tail. During the circling spring flight the wings are smartly cracked like a whiplash. The Stock Dove is sociable as well as gregarious, often consorting with Wood Pigeons, though doubtless it is the presence of food which brings them together. Most of its food is vegetable; young shoots and seedlings are favoured, and it will take grain. The short, deep, "grunting" Ooo-uu-ooh call is quite distinct from the modulated cooing notes of the Wood Pigeon; it is loud enough to be described, somewhat fancifully, as "roaring". The nest, though it is seldom that any nest material is used, is usually in a hole in a tree, a crack in a rock face, or in a rabbit burrow, but the bird also nests in ivy, or in the thick growth round the boles of linden trees. Category:Columba

Wood Pigeon

:For the New Zealand Wood Pigeon see Kererū. The Wood Pigeon (Columba palumbus) is a member of the family Columbidae, Doves and Pigeons. In the colder northern and eastern parts of its European and western Asiatic range the Wood Pigeon is a migrant, but in southern and western Europe it is a well distributed and often abundant resident. The three western European Columba pigeons, Wood Pigeon, Stock Dove and Rock Dove, though superficially alike, have very distinctive characteristics; the Wood Pigeon may at once be told by its larger size at 38-43 cm, and the white on its neck and wing. It is otherwise a basically grey bird, with a pinkish breast. Juvenille birds do not have the white patches on either side of the neck. When they are about 6 months old (about 3 months out of the nest) they gain a small white patch on both sides of the neck, which gradually enlarge until they are fully formed when the bird is about 8 months old (approx ages only). Juvenile birds also have a greyer beak and an overall lighter grey appearance than adult birds. It breeds trees in woods, parks and gardens, laying two white eggs in a simple stick nest which hatch after 17 to 19 days. The young fly at 16 to 35 days. Its flight is quick, performed by regular beats, with an occasional sharp flick of the wings, characteristic of pigeons in general. It takes off with a loud clattering. It perches well, and in its nuptial display walks along a horizontal branch with swelled neck, lowered wings, and fanned tail. During the display flight the bird climbs, the wings are smartly cracked like a whiplash, and the bird glides down on stiff wings. The Wood Pigeon is gregarious, often forming very large flocks outside the breeding season. Most of its food is vegetable, taken from open fields or gardens and lawns; young shoots and seedlings are favoured, and it will take grain. The call is a characteristic cooing. This species can be an agricultural pest, and it is often shot, being a legal quarry species in most European countries. It is wary in rural areas, but often quite tame where it is not persecuted.

External links

- http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4646685.stm BBC News article: Wood Pigeon 'most common UK bird'
- http://www.angliasporting.co.uk Woodpigeon: The Ultimate Sporting Bird' Category:Columba

Guillemot

The Guillemots comprise two genera of auks, Uria and Cepphus. There are five species:
- Uria
- Common Guillemot or Common Murre, Uria aalge
- Brunnich's Guillemot or Thick-billed Murr