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 bronze plate was also marked with constellations, cardinal points, and other symbols important to the Ancient Chinese. Another style of compass was made by placing an iron needle that had been rubbed with a lodestone on a piece of wood and floating the wood in a bowl of water.