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"In which film does Sean Connery sing ""A Pretty Irish Girl""?"
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Sean Connery Singing “My Pretty Irish Girl”
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Sean Connery Singing “My Pretty Irish Girl”
In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, I present Sean Connery singing “My Pretty Irish Girl” in Darby O’Gill and the Little People.
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
I’ve actually seen this movie (saw it with my girlfriend) and it was tolerable. Some funny moments. Apparently this was the role that set him up to play Bond.
Huh.
Thanks for sharing.I hope it will be helpful for a lot of people are looking for themes nay.ban can visit the following link to see the specific instructions the.toi think it’s very useful.
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Darby O'Gill and the Little People
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What is the common name for the plant Iberis?
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Clyde's Stuff: Clyde’s Movie Palace: Darby O’Gill and the Little People (1959)
Darby O’Gill and the Little People
Starring
Directed by
Robert Stevenson
It being St. Patrick’s Day Weekend, and not having any green beer on hand, I could think of no better way than to spend it with my friend King Brian of Knocknasheega and downing a few rounds of stout. It was during our third round at Finnegan’s Tavern when the King looks up at me.
“Clyde,” he says, “ it’s a wonderful Irish name you have there, a name any Irishman would and should be proud of.”
I took a sip of my stout and turned to look down at the king. I know you're not supposed to look down at a King but in King Brian's case, unless he’s standing on your shoulder it’s kind of hard not to.
“Well, actually I think it’s a Scottish name,” I told him.
This threw King Brian into a hysterical rage.“YOU DARE TO QUESTION MY JUDGEMENT!” He says putting down his empty cup.
“Dare to call me a liar will you! I’ll have the plague visited upon you so fast you won’t know what hit you! I’ll send for the Coach de Bower”
I began to panic. I could almost hear the banshee woman wailing away outside Finnegan’s. I knew about the powers
of the little people and also know that when angered, hell hath no fury like an intoxicated Leprechaun. Take my word for it. Clyde’s number one rule is never to disagree with the wee people, especially their fearless leader.
“Why no, your highness, I would never do that. I bow to your infinite wisdom in these matters. If you say it’s Irish, then far be it for me to challenge you on such a matter. It must be the ale clouding my thoughts.”
King Brian poured himself another cup and took a sip. But he still looked angry. “Don’t be so condescending,” he told me. “But you can make it up to me.“
“Anything you ask, King Brian! Anything at all!” I wanted nothing more than to please the king, lest I be spirited away to spend the rest of my days in some cave buried in the hills of Ireland.
“Here you are, Clyde, writing movie reviews for more than half a decade now, and you’ve yet to write one for my own film. And with St. Patrick's Day upon us, him being the great patron saint of all Ireland, the greatest country in the world, and still not one word in that blog of yours about the greatest movie about Ireland has ever been commited to celluloid. What do you have to say for yourself?”
I had to think fast. “Well King, Brian, I was going to write one to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the film next year.”
He looked at me suspiciously. “I don’t care about that,” he said downing the rest of his stout and heading towards the door. He turned to look back towards me. “You write it now. You do it this weekend and no excuses or I’ll……”
“If you want it this weekend, then this weekend it will be,” I told him. He turned to leave but quickly turned back to
me.
“And I expect it to have a high grade,” he said. “Otherwise….”
I didn’t want to know what otherwise meant. But I wouldn’t let threats ruin my integrity. I just didn’t tell King Brian that. He’d find out soon enough. I could only sigh as I watched him disappear through the door, not even bothering to open it. I paid our tab to the barkeep. I couldn’t figure out why I was always getting left with the tab when it was King Brian who had the pot of gold.
So that was yesterday and this is today. The movie King Brian was referring to is Darby O’Gill and the Little People. Darby was a film conceived by Disney in the forties and finally brought to the screen in late 1959. It took a while, but sometimes it’s better to get it right than to hurry the process along and end up with something that’s average at best or mediocre at worst.
Darby O’Gill ( Albert Sharpe ) is a widower who lives with his beautiful daughter Kate ( Janet Munro ) in a small town in Ireland. It is Darby’s job to look after the grounds and manor of Lord Fitzpatrick ( Walter Fitzgerald ). But old age having caught up with him, Darby spends most of his time in the local pub telling wild tales about his many exciting encounters with King Brian and the Leprechauns. As Lord Fitzpatrick puts it, “Darby retired five years ago and didn’t tell me about it.”
So Lord Fitzpatrick hires young Michael McBride ( Sean Connery ) to replace Darby, at which time Darby will be retired to half pay and will also have to move from the home he lives in to a smaller home on the grounds.
Darby decides to hide this fact from Katie and tells her that Michael is just to be his helper. At the same time, local
woman Sheelah Sugrue ( Estelle Winwood ) and her son Pony ( Kieron Moore ) plot to have Pony be the one hired by Lord Fitzpatrick so that Pony can than have Katie as his bride.
In the middle of all this plotting and planning, King Brian kidnaps Darby to make him a permanent resident inside of the mountain where the Leprechauns dwell. King Brian sees it as helping Darby out since he's about to be sacked by the Lord of the Manor. It is left up to Darby to plan his own escape, and to get Michael and Katie to fall in love before Katie finds out Darby has been fired. Either that or he must capture King Brian once again in order to be granted his three wishes which he will then use to set things straight.
And it would be a shame for me to tell you anymore than that because to uncover the details of how all of this is
resolved would be to give away the many magical surprises the film has in store. Of the Disney live action films from the
fifties and sixties this is one of the best.
Although Disney originally wanted Barry Fitzgerald for the role of Darby, he plucked Albert Sharpe out of retirement and it couldn’t have been a better choice. Although I like Fitzgerald's work, I can’t picture anyone but Sharpe being able to do what he does here which is to make you believe there are not only Leprechauns but that he has a personal relationship with each and every one of them. Sharpe was seventy four years old when the film was made, but he shows no signs of having slowed down in this film. He's one irrepressible old codger.
Janet Munro as Katie is both beautiful and charming, not to mention feisty when the occasion calls for it so she certainly takes after Darby in that respect. There are times when her temper can get the better of her. She is however, not in any
hurry to become anybody’s wife. She has her father to take care of and that is enough (although in this film it would seem that the main goal in life of any female is to find a man to take care of). When Munro smiles, it lights up the screen and would melt any man’s heart no matter what country he is from.
Sean Connery comes to Darby O’Gill pre-James Bond. I think it’s his first major role and the freshness of a young actor early in his career plays to his advantage. After all, Michael is the new young colt hired by Fitzpatrick to look after his estate so the comparison is applicable.
What’s more important is whether the chemistry between the three main leads work. (Connery, Munro, Sharpe) It certainly does here. Michael knows that because of his years and the work experience he has, Darby deserves a certain amount of begrudging respect. Michael actually seems very uncomfortable with the fact that he will be not only replacing Darby, but taking his home as well. Not to mention that he quickly develops a crush on Katie, who would have to be evicted as well.
The romance, such as it is in these Disney films from the 50’s, acquits itself quite well. To help things along, Sean and Janet sing a charming little song called A Pretty Irish Girl that will have you sing right along with them. Yes boys and girls, ladies and gents, mums and dads, sisters and brothers, James Bond can sing and you can too by playing the included video and lending your dulcet tones to the proceedings. Often it is claimed that Munro and Connery’s singing was dubbed, and after locating the version by O’Dowda and Murray and having listened I to both recordings extensively, I’m inclined to discount it.. From Wikipedia :
Regarding the duet, Pretty Irish Girl, apparently sung by Sean Connery and Janet Munro: It has been alleged that the vocals on the recording were dubbed by Irish singers, Brendan O'Dowda and Ruby Murray. A single of the duet was released in the UK. However, the deeper male vocal and breathy female vocal (which matches Munro’s a capella finish to the song, plainly recorded on set) performing the song in the American version of the film do not match the voices of O'Dowda (a tenor) nor Murray (a trained singer.) Connery does sing the song Pretty Irish Girl (with solo piano accompaniment) on the 1992 compilation The Music of Disney: A Legacy of Song, and in 1959 Top Rank released a single in the UK (catalog number JAR 163) which featured Connery and Munro singing the song.
A Pretty Irish Girl is sung throughout the movie.
And of course I can’t forget about King Brian and for me to tell you that he was played by actor Jimmy O'Dea would be Leprechaun blasphemy causing me to incur King Brian’s wrath so I just won’t say anything about that fact. King Brian is King Brian and don’t argue otherwise or I’ll sick the banshee lady on you.
For a film about Leprechauns to succeed it has to also be able to make us believe we are seeing real true to life little people. Darby O’Gill certainly surpasses anything beyond expectations. It’s amazing how a film that I just reviewed that was made in 1976 (King Kong) can be so clunky with its effects, and this film made in 1959 can be done in such a spectacular fashion and still bring wonderment almost fifty years later.
Most of the shots were made using forced perspective and matte painting, but unlike the previously mentioned King Kong film, you are never ever aware of it. It gives credence to the fact that when you take pride in your work and such care in doing so, rather than just spending money and plastering it up on the screen, that for years people will be scratching their head wondering how you achieved the desired results. (Note: I do know how it was done now after watching the DVD with its special features. Alas, sometimes its better not to know as it takes away some of the magic you’ve always felt for so many years.)
The success for the special effects work can be laid at the feet of special effects technician and matte artist Peter Ellenshaw. Most of Darby was filmed in Hollywood with only a very few location shots added. But it doesn’t matter because thanks to Ellenshaw’s wonderful Matte work and the Cinematography of Winton Hoch, you will believe that every second of this film was made in Ireland as they work to bring it magically to life. You can tell that every frame of this film was put onto the big screen with the love, care, and artistry of someone who took extreme pride in their work.
So honestly, I can think of no better way for you to spend St. Patrick’s Day than to pick up the DVD and enter the world of King Brian and the Leprechauns. Just tell them that King Brian of Knocknasheega sent you. Oh and about that grade……that’s not the banshee I hear is it? It’s an A King Brian! It’s an A! Now send her away!
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i don't know
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Who was Al Gore's running mate in their bid for the 2000 US Presidency?
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What if John Kerry was Al Gore's Running Mate in 2000?
What if John Kerry was Al Gore's Running Mate in 2000?
What if John Kerry was Al Gore's Running Mate in 2000?
« on: August 09, 2007, 11:22:39 pm »
The three finalists for Al Gore's running mate were John Kerry, John Edwards, and Joe Lieberman. As we all know, Lieberman was selected.
What if Gore had selected John Kerry? Would things have worked out differently?
I think it's possible that Kerry might have flipped Gore the election. Mainly because...
(a) His presence may arguably have swung at least a handful of New Hampshire voters into voting for Gore; Gore only lost New Hampshire by a few thousand votes and winning NH would have won him the presidency without Florida.
(b) He would likely have done better against Cheney in the VP debate and his more progressive record would have swayed SOME (by no means all) Nader voters into sticking with the Democratic ticket (some of the more informed Green Party voters - and a lot of them were just tuned out wannabe hippies - cited Joe Lieberman as a key reason they voted for Nader).
On the other hand, Kerry would probably not have helped much in Florida, where Lieberman's presence might have helped (although getting retired liberal Jews from NY to vote for Gore can't have been that hard). Also, Kerry would almost certainly not have garnered the positive press the Lieberman selection did in August; the buzz the ticket had coming out of the convention was a huge boost to Gore and a Gore/Kerry ticket might not have had the same positive press coverage and the same momentum.
I can think of another likely outcome; had Gore and Kerry still lost, I think Kerry would have failed to be the '04 nominee. Let's assume that Kerry still votes for the IWR resolution as in real life, he still starts out as the frontrunner in '03 and let's assume Howard Dean's run occurs as in real life. When Iowa voters look for an alternative, they might turn instead to John Edwards, who was a fresher face. Kerry would have been more of a known commodity had he been the VP nominee in '00 and he may not have been able to pick up as much support from voters who didn't know him as well.
Although, on the other hand, if Kerry had more campaign experience from '00 and DID become the '04 nominee, maybe he would have campaigned better and emerged victorious.
Thoughts?
« Reply #1 on: August 11, 2007, 10:07:42 pm »
New Hampshire flips to Gore but Iowa flips to Bush.
Iowa farmers and small town residents are upset with Kerry's military service record, and vote more strongly for Bush, giving Bush the state.
Bush wins Florida by a margin of approximately 100,000, so there is no question as to who wins Florida, and there is clearly no recount. Without Lieberman on the Democratic ticket, this brings down Jewish turnout in Florida, hurting Gore's chances in that state.
Cheney is up to debating anyone in public life, including Kerry. Cheney emphasizes his foreign policy expertise and contrasts it with Kerry's lack of experience in this field.
Not in the debate, but on the campaign trail, Bush does not make the reference, but it is left up to Cheney to make the reference to the "elitist northeastern liberal," and Cheney uses this to great effect.
Kerry may have helped with some of the Nader voters, however, by the same token, more independents and moderates decide to go with Bush, balancing out the Nader voters who went with Gore.
Bush/Cheney 274
Gore/Kerry 264
In 2004, John Edwards wins the Democratic nomination, picks Dick Gephardt for Vice President, and the two go on to be demolished in the election by George W Bush and Dick Cheney.
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Quote from: President Thomas E. Dewey on August 11, 2007, 10:07:42 pm
New Hampshire flips to Gore but Iowa flips to Bush.
Iowa farmers and small town residents are upset with Kerry's military service record, and vote more strongly for Bush, giving Bush the state.
Bush wins Florida by a margin of approximately 100,000, so there is no question as to who wins Florida, and there is clearly no recount. Without Lieberman on the Democratic ticket, this brings down Jewish turnout in Florida, hurting Gore's chances in that state.
Cheney is up to debating anyone in public life, including Kerry. Cheney emphasizes his foreign policy expertise and contrasts it with Kerry's lack of experience in this field.
Not in the debate, but on the campaign trail, Bush does not make the reference, but it is left up to Cheney to make the reference to the "elitist northeastern liberal," and Cheney uses this to great effect.
Kerry may have helped with some of the Nader voters, however, by the same token, more independents and moderates decide to go with Bush, balancing out the Nader voters who went with Gore.
Bush/Cheney 274
Gore/Kerry 264
In 2004, John Edwards wins the Democratic nomination, picks Dick Gephardt for Vice President, and the two go on to be demolished in the election by George W Bush and Dick Cheney.
I think this map is the most accurate.
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Quote from: Vosem on May 14, 2010, 07:45:09 pm
Kerry does better than Lieberman in the debate, and the home-state effect, combined, are enough to put N.H. in the Democratic column. Gore/Kerry wins 271-267. However, Kerry is not Jewish, so Bush wins by a much larger margin in Florida. The outcome is the opposite of RL: Bush wins the popular vote, Gore wins electoral.
Thus energizing the Republican base (and bringing many young and unintelligent voters to the GOP) leading to a close win in 2004 under the assumption that Gore cheated.
However, this would be a small consequence, as real life probably would've asserted itself anyways, with the GOP being blamed for the recession by the general public, leading to a Dem victory anyways in 08.
« Last Edit: May 22, 2010, 02:29:01 pm by ArchangelZero »
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Quote from: Vosem on May 14, 2010, 07:45:09 pm
Kerry does better than Lieberman in the debate, and the home-state effect, combined, are enough to put N.H. in the Democratic column. Gore/Kerry wins 271-267. However, Kerry is not Jewish, so Bush wins by a much larger margin in Florida. The outcome is the opposite of RL: Bush wins the popular vote, Gore wins electoral.
Thus energizing the Republican base (and bringing many young and unintelligent voters to the GOP) leading to a close win in 2004 under the assumption that Gore cheated.
However, this would be a small consequence, as real life probably would've asserted itself anyways, with the GOP being blamed for the recession by the general public, leading to a Dem victory anyways in 08.
This would have probably been the best case scenario for the country. No Iraq War and smaller deficits (or no deficits at all) with the Republicans still receiveing the blame for the financial crisis and Great Recession.
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Quote from: Vosem on May 14, 2010, 07:45:09 pm
Kerry does better than Lieberman in the debate, and the home-state effect, combined, are enough to put N.H. in the Democratic column. Gore/Kerry wins 271-267. However, Kerry is not Jewish, so Bush wins by a much larger margin in Florida. The outcome is the opposite of RL: Bush wins the popular vote, Gore wins electoral.
Thus energizing the Republican base (and bringing many young and unintelligent voters to the GOP) leading to a close win in 2004 under the assumption that Gore cheated.
However, this would be a small consequence, as real life probably would've asserted itself anyways, with the GOP being blamed for the recession by the general public, leading to a Dem victory anyways in 08.
This would have probably been the best case scenario for the country. No Iraq War and smaller deficits (or no deficits at all) with the Republicans still receiveing the blame for the financial crisis and Great Recession.
The only problem that I see with this is September 11. While Gore was in favour of preemptive strikes against Afghanistan (which may of killed off Bin Laden and put the plan on hold indefinitely) we don't know that 9/11 would've still happened (and if it did happen, would Gore attack Afghanistan and stay there this long, and would he have attacked Iraq if there really were reports from the CIA about WMDs?
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Quote from: Derek on May 22, 2010, 03:13:30 pm
and major. I don't see Kerry and Gore agreeing on much of anything either.
Gore and Kerry would have agreed that tax cuts for the rich are bad. They would ahve also agreed that it is necessary to protect the environemnt, support international opinion, and promote affirmative action.
Yes but what should the tax rates be? What should the environmental regulations be? Nothing is scarier than international opinion. And not every democrat is the the same. I hate to burst your happy little bubble, but Kerry is a New England elitist who thinks he's better than everyone else. You don't remember this story in 2003, but he actually asked a waitress "Don't you know who I am?" when they said they just had the last codfish ordered. Al Gore is a southerner and has somewhat conservative roots even though he's moved to the left in the past 10 years. Gore ran a centrist campaign in 2000 while Kerry only tried to appear moderate in 2004.
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Quote from: Vosem on May 14, 2010, 07:45:09 pm
Kerry does better than Lieberman in the debate, and the home-state effect, combined, are enough to put N.H. in the Democratic column. Gore/Kerry wins 271-267. However, Kerry is not Jewish, so Bush wins by a much larger margin in Florida. The outcome is the opposite of RL: Bush wins the popular vote, Gore wins electoral.
Thus energizing the Republican base (and bringing many young and unintelligent voters to the GOP) leading to a close win in 2004 under the assumption that Gore cheated.
However, this would be a small consequence, as real life probably would've asserted itself anyways, with the GOP being blamed for the recession by the general public, leading to a Dem victory anyways in 08.
This would have probably been the best case scenario for the country. No Iraq War and smaller deficits (or no deficits at all) with the Republicans still receiveing the blame for the financial crisis and Great Recession.
The only problem that I see with this is September 11. While Gore was in favour of preemptive strikes against Afghanistan (which may of killed off Bin Laden and put the plan on hold indefinitely) we don't know that 9/11 would've still happened (and if it did happen, would Gore attack Afghanistan and stay there this long, and would he have attacked Iraq if there really were reports from the CIA about WMDs?
With or without 9/11, I seriously doubt Gore would have invaded Iraq. He was against it in 2002 in RL and from what I've read the CIA and FBI evidence was very vague as to whether there were actually WMDs in Iraq. Bush Jr. just decided to manipulate the information and only show that which favored the case that there were WMDs in Iraq. Also, I don't think Gore would have implemented tax cuts for the rich or Medicare Part D, which, together with the lack of a war in Iraq, would have made the deficit and debt smaller (with or without 9/11). Thus, what I wrote was completely accurate, assuming Gore would ahve lost his relection bid (and I think he would have, with or without 9/11).
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Quote from: Vosem on May 14, 2010, 07:45:09 pm
Kerry does better than Lieberman in the debate, and the home-state effect, combined, are enough to put N.H. in the Democratic column. Gore/Kerry wins 271-267. However, Kerry is not Jewish, so Bush wins by a much larger margin in Florida. The outcome is the opposite of RL: Bush wins the popular vote, Gore wins electoral.
Thus energizing the Republican base (and bringing many young and unintelligent voters to the GOP) leading to a close win in 2004 under the assumption that Gore cheated.
However, this would be a small consequence, as real life probably would've asserted itself anyways, with the GOP being blamed for the recession by the general public, leading to a Dem victory anyways in 08.
This would have probably been the best case scenario for the country. No Iraq War and smaller deficits (or no deficits at all) with the Republicans still receiveing the blame for the financial crisis and Great Recession.
The only problem that I see with this is September 11. While Gore was in favour of preemptive strikes against Afghanistan (which may of killed off Bin Laden and put the plan on hold indefinitely) we don't know that 9/11 would've still happened (and if it did happen, would Gore attack Afghanistan and stay there this long, and would he have attacked Iraq if there really were reports from the CIA about WMDs?
With or without 9/11, I seriously doubt Gore would have invaded Iraq. He was against it in 2002 in RL and from what I've read the CIA and FBI evidence was very vague as to whether there were actually WMDs in Iraq. Bush Jr. just decided to manipulate the information and only show that which favored the case that there were WMDs in Iraq. Also, I don't think Gore would have implemented tax cuts for the rich or Medicare Part D, which, together with the lack of a war in Iraq, would have made the deficit and debt smaller (with or without 9/11). Thus, what I wrote was completely accurate, assuming Gore would ahve lost his relection bid (and I think he would have, with or without 9/11).
Kerry was for the war in Iraq and even voted to give Bush the authority to act on it. He flipflopped on the issue when the public became impatient as he was politically calculating election chances. Medicare part D was good for seniors. My grandparents very much enjoy it.
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Gore would win.
I gotta wonder why he didn't pick Jeanne Shaheen though...
I think she asked not to be picked, plus he might have been worried about her inexperience. Even though I agree that picking Shaheen would have been a good move strategically. It would have energized the female vote in favor of Gore, delivered NH for Gore, and possibly ewnergized the Democratic base. Also, if Shaheen would have had a good performance in her VP debate with Cheney, I think that all questions about her inexperience would have been off the table and answered. Lieberman added nothing to Gore's campaign that Gore didn't already have. It was a huge waste picking him, and a mistake that gave us 8 years of a horrendous President.
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Quote from: Derek on June 08, 2010, 10:31:00 pm
Then we would've had to listen to his crazy flashbacks in 2000 as we were forced to hear in 2004.
Yeah, but people in 2000 would have respected his flaskbacks and admired him as a war hero, in contrast to 2004, when the GOP swiftboated him.
Stop the spin. He flew Jane Fonda around in Vietnam and I'm not sure if that's known to the public or not but I would've paid personally for an ad that had real footage of these 2 doing such a thing. He met with the enemy without permission from us in a time of war which is TREASON. As a reward he earned himself a spot in the North Vietnamese War Museum dedicated to the northern victory in the 70's. After analyzing his behavior, Kerry was at best traumatized and unfit for command.
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Quote from: Derek on June 08, 2010, 10:31:00 pm
Then we would've had to listen to his crazy flashbacks in 2000 as we were forced to hear in 2004.
Yeah, but people in 2000 would have respected his flaskbacks and admired him as a war hero, in contrast to 2004, when the GOP swiftboated him.
Stop the spin. He flew Jane Fonda around in Vietnam and I'm not sure if that's known to the public or not but I would've paid personally for an ad that had real footage of these 2 doing such a thing. He met with the enemy without permission from us in a time of war which is TREASON. As a reward he earned himself a spot in the North Vietnamese War Museum dedicated to the northern victory in the 70's. After analyzing his behavior, Kerry was at best traumatized and unfit for command.
That's all a bunch of crap and lies. That Jane Fonda picture was fabricated. And you wonder why many people here don't like you.
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Quote from: Derek on June 08, 2010, 10:31:00 pm
Then we would've had to listen to his crazy flashbacks in 2000 as we were forced to hear in 2004.
Yeah, but people in 2000 would have respected his flaskbacks and admired him as a war hero, in contrast to 2004, when the GOP swiftboated him.
Stop the spin. He flew Jane Fonda around in Vietnam and I'm not sure if that's known to the public or not but I would've paid personally for an ad that had real footage of these 2 doing such a thing. He met with the enemy without permission from us in a time of war which is TREASON. As a reward he earned himself a spot in the North Vietnamese War Museum dedicated to the northern victory in the 70's. After analyzing his behavior, Kerry was at best traumatized and unfit for command.
That's all a bunch of crap and lies. That Jane Fonda picture was fabricated. And you wonder why many people here don't like you.
I'm not saying anything about the photo. I'm saying what happened. People here don't like me because I'm a Republican. As a Republican that's something that I'll always have to deal with but it makes me a stronger person.
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Joe Lieberman
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What is the common name for the bird Passer domesticus?
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Lieberman accepts, takes aim at rivals - tribunedigital-baltimoresun
Lieberman accepts, takes aim at rivals
Gore's VP choice gives speech filled with faith, family
Bid for moral high ground
Democratic ticket endorsed by auto workers union
Election 2000
August 09, 2000|By Jonathan Weisman | Jonathan Weisman,SUN NATIONAL STAFF
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Vice President Al Gore formally named Joseph I. Lieberman as his running mate yesterday, proclaiming that the Connecticut senator's nomination at next week's Democratic National Convention will "make real the great ideal that we are one country, with a common destiny."
Under a blazing sun, before an enthusiastic, placard-waving crowd at Nashville's War Memorial, Lieberman, 58, accepted with pride, prayer and a speech filled with exaltations of family and faith.
Lieberman, the first Jewish person to secure a place on a major party ticket, also took a few swipes at the Democrats' rivals for the White House, Texas Gov. George W. Bush and former Defense Secretary Dick Cheney.
Lieberman's speech signaled that the Democrats will contest their Republican opponents for the moral high ground that Bush believes will win him the presidency.
The senator's remarks were saturated with religion as he sought to project his reputation for integrity onto Gore, a reputation grounded in his denunciations of sex and violence in popular culture and cemented in 1998 by his stinging condemnation of President Clinton's behavior in the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
The senator vowed that he and Gore will "help renew the moral center of this nation."
Far from playing down his Judaism, Lieberman pushed his religion front and center, praising Gore for the "chutzpah," a Yiddish word for audacity, that he showed by breaking down a historical barrier.
The selection "shows Al's faith in the tolerance of this diverse nation, in the basic fairness of the American people," Lieberman said.
"And I want to say to the people of America, Al Gore trusts you, which is one good reason for you to place your trust in him."
Last night, in his first interview as Gore's running mate, Lieberman took pains to answer an age-old and somewhat loaded question about Jewish loyalty, emphasizing to talk show host Larry King, "My first and primary loyalty is to the United States of America."
The statement was reminiscent of John F. Kennedy's efforts in 1960 to reassure voters that the nation's first Roman Catholic president would not be beholden to the pope.
Republican damage control
Bush moved yesterday to blunt any resurgence Gore might enjoy as a result of his selection of Lieberman.
The governor tried to use Lieberman's centrist voting record and reputation for moral probity against the vice president, saying he respects Lieberman's convictions, strong faith and record on Social Security, missile defense and education.
"This selection now presents the vice president with an interesting test of whether he will continue attacking positions his running mate shares or whether he will lift up our nation by elevating the tone of his presidential campaign," Bush said.
The Gore campaign, which has lagged behind Bush's in the polls and languished for much of the summer, appeared newly confident yesterday. Lieberman's selection has been warmly greeted by politicians and prognosticators in both parties.
An overnight Gallup poll, taken for CNN and USA Today, showed Gore virtually erasing Bush's significant lead. That poll, however, surveyed registered voters. Likely voters were questioned in the polls that showed Bush with far wider leads.
Long-sought endorsement
Also yesterday, Gore secured the long-sought endorsement of the United Auto Workers union, which, along with the Teamsters, had withheld its support for months.
"As president, Al Gore will work day and night to make sure that every American is lifted by the rising tide of economic growth," UAW President Stephen P. Yokich said.
"In contrast, George W. Bush offers nothing more or less than a replay of the voodoo economics of the 1980s, a trillion-dollar-plus tax cut that would make the rich richer at the expense of working families."
Hugs and laughter
Lieberman and Gore laughed together on the podium, hugged and exchanged high-fives after the senator repeated a line used in 1988 by that year's GOP presidential candidate, George Bush: "If you have to change horses in midstream, doesn't it make sense to get on the one that's going in the right direction?"
Just as Bush has signaled that he would fight for the presidency on traditionally Democratic issues, such as Social Security and education, Gore, Lieberman and their wives, Tipper and Hadassah, fired back that they would not cede to the GOP its traditional advantage on the issues of religion and values.
They sought to reclaim some of the ground that Bush has tried to seize, appealing to the immigrants the Texas governor has assiduously courted.
Tipper Gore spoke emotionally of Hadassah Lieberman's mother, who survived the Nazi death camps of Dachau and Auschwitz, and her father, who organized an escape from a Nazi labor camp, then turned his attention to caring for Jewish orphans after World War II.
"This country is our country," Hadassah Lieberman said. "This land is your land, and anything is possible for us."
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i don't know
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Which country's national airline is called Malev?
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Hungary’s Malev Airline Halts Flights - The New York Times
The New York Times
Global Business |Hungarian National Airline Halts Flights
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Photo
Because of unpaid debts, some of Malev's planes were not allowed to take off on Friday, causing the airline to halt its entire fleet and stranding thousands of passengers like these in Budapest. Credit Attila Kisbenedek/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
PARIS — The Hungarian national airline, Malev, halted all flights Friday, stranding thousands of passengers after creditors started seizing its planes outside the country over unpaid debts, and becoming the second state-owned airline in a week to succumb to Europe’s economic woes.
The airline, which was re-nationalized two years ago after a failed privatization, had been losing money for years, while its debt had ballooned to 60 billion forints, or $271 million. On Thursday, a court in Budapest placed Malev under the control of a bankruptcy trustee, saying the airline could only make payments that were essential to continue offering service.
The government, which is itself seeking help from the European Union and the International Monetary fund to handle its own heavy debt load, had hoped the court move would stave off the claims of creditors while Malev, a member of the Oneworld airline alliance, drew up a restructuring plan.
But with the airline’s future in doubt, creditors at airports in Ireland and Israel refused to allow Malev aircraft to take off, necessitating the decision to ground the airline’s flights. In recent days, a number of suppliers and service providers had begun to demand payments in advance, draining the airline’s cash reserves to levels it said were “unsustainable.”
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“What we fretted about the most and what we’ve done the most to avert has come to pass,” Lorant Limburger, Malev’s chief executive, said in a statement posted on the airline’s Web site. “We apologize to all of our passengers.”
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Malev’s situation had been more tenuous since the European Commission ordered it in January to repay about 100 billion forints of state aid, including loans and debt deferrals, that it had received from 2007 to 2010.
The commission, which polices Europe’s competition rules, said there was no reason to believe that Malev could turn itself around.
Malev and other airlines that have relied on state support to stay afloat are seeing the flow of government cash dwindle as Europe’s protracted sovereign debt crisis leads governments to cut spending.
Spanair, based in Barcelona, collapsed on Jan. 27, stranding 23,000 passengers. The Spanish airline had been kept aloft with the help of €150 million, or about $200 million, of subsidies from regional authorities in Catalonia. A consortium of investors led by the Catalonian government held a stake of nearly 86 percent in Spanair, while SAS, the Scandinavian carrier, held 10.9 percent.
Such carriers, which turned to governments after failing to drum up support from private-sector investors, are likely to find access to new funds difficult in the current environment, analysts said.
But Europe’s economic downturn, combined with high fuel prices and rising airport taxes and fees, has been threatening the viability of smaller, privately owned airlines as well. Czech Connect Airlines, based in Brno, ceased operations last month, as did the Italian carrier Air Alps and Cirrus Airlines of Germany. CargoItalia, a freight operator based in Milan, wound up its business last month.
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“The classic way that airlines go bankrupt is they run out of cash,” especially in the low season from January to April, said Paul Sheridan, global head of risk at Ascend, an aviation consulting firm in London.
“There will be more airlines like Malev facing a squeeze on revenue and profit generation in 2012,” Mr. Sheridan said. “They will also be facing lack of access to finance and the rising cost of finance.”
Malev’s grounding was likely to have affected 5,000 to 6,000 passengers Friday. The airline said that it would arrange alternate flights for passengers with confirmed bookings for the next three days, provided those tickets were purchased before the groundings Friday.
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At Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport near Paris, most of the confusion had been cleared up by late Friday afternoon, as Air France, a code-sharing partner, was working to accommodate stranded Malev passengers there.
“I really trusted Malev,” said Eszter Vegh, 26, a medical student from Szeged, Hungary, who had been in France for training and was still waiting to hear whether she would be able to make it home Friday night. “I’m very disappointed.”
“What I really liked about Malev was that the price you saw on the page was the price you pay,” Ms. Vegh said, “unlike so-called cheap airlines where you ended up paying 50 percent more by the time you’ve added in baggage fees and stuff.”
Malev’s market share has stalled in recent years, faced with growing competition on its European routes, particularly from low-cost carriers. The airline carried roughly three million passengers in 2011 and 2010, down from 3.3 million in 2009. The Budapest-based budget airline Wizz Air, meanwhile, saw its Hungarian traffic climb 13 percent last year, to 1.4 million passengers. EasyJet, which is based in London, had traffic on its Hungarian routes rise 10 percent in the year to Sept. 30, to 556,000.
Analysts predicted that rival airlines would quickly move in fill the void left by Malev’s demise.
Ryanair, the largest low-cost carrier in Europe, which had stopped its Hungary services two years ago, said Friday that it would start operating 31 routes from Budapest in April, in the hope of capturing two million passengers a year.
Wizz Air has announced plans to invest 25 billion forints to expand its Budapest operation this year and to nearly double the number of its weekly flights. Wizz Air said it expected its passenger numbers to reach two million this year, a jump of more than 40 percent from 2011.
Ellen Baker contributed reporting.
A version of this article appears in print on February 4, 2012, on Page B3 of the New York edition with the headline: Hungary’s Malev Airlines Grounds Flights After Creditors Seize Its Planes. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe
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Hungary
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Edward Seckerson replaced Ned Sherrin as presenter in 2007, and was replaced in 2008 by Paul Gambaccini on which Radio 4 programme?
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Hungarian airline Malev collapses - BBC News
BBC News
Image caption Malev is part of the Oneworld airline alliance, which also includes British Airways
The Hungarian national airline Malev has folded after its financial situation became unsustainable.
"At 0500 GMT... after 66 years of almost continuous operation Malev will no longer take off," it said.
It came after the European Commission ordered Malev to repay various forms of state aid received from 2007 to 2010.
The sums involved amounted to 38 billion forints (130m euros; $171m; £108m), a sum equal to its entire 2010 revenue.
"Despite its best interests the owner can no longer provide financial resources for the operation of the airline in the wake of the condemning decision of the European Commission," an airline statement said.
The European Consumer Organisation, which "defends the interests of all Europe's consumers", said the news came after Spanair's collapse in the very same week.
"This development is yet more incontrovertible proof that the current update of European legislation on air travel must incorporate a mandatory guarantee against airline bankruptcies," it said.
'Inherited skeletons'
The carrier employs 2,600 people and is responsible for close to half of all air traffic at Budapest Liszt Ferenc airport.
Part of the Oneworld airline alliance, which also includes American Airlines and British Airways, Malev has a leased fleet of 22 passenger aircraft.
In 2010 it posted a loss of 24.6bn forints, although an improved 2011 figure had been predicted.
Chief executive Lorant Limburger said the immediate reason for the collapse was the demand for upfront payments by its suppliers.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on state radio that two Malev planes were still overseas, one in Tel Aviv, the other in the Irish Republic.
The premier said those planes were not allowed to take off because of Malev's debts.
He told radio station MR1-Kossuth that Malev may possibly be relaunched "if we manage to get rid of the inherited skeletons".
On Thursday, Hungary's government appointed a receiver to the airline to try to protect it from creditors' claims.
Hungarian newswire MTI had said that 64 Malev flights were scheduled to fly from Budapest on Friday.
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i don't know
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Which woman replaced George Stephenson on the £5 note in 2002?
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Mystery woman ready to oust Sir Winston Churchill from new £5 note | The Times
Mystery woman ready to oust Sir Winston Churchill from new £5 note
Alex Ralph
Last updated at 12:01AM, June 22 2013
The Bank of England has picked a woman to feature on the five-pound note as a “contingency”, as a row over the choice of Sir Winston Churchill to appear on banknotes intensifies.
Sir Mervyn King’s decision to replace Elizabeth Fry, one of only two women selected since historical figures were introduced in 1970, with the wartime leader has caused a furore. It has led to an online petition and the threat of legal action under the Equality Act.
Yesterday 46 MPs and peers urged the Governor to review the decision. Campaigners are demanding that Fry be replaced with Mary Wollstonecraft,
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Elizabeth Fry
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What structure, designed by John Paxton for Prince Albert, was destroyed by fire on the 30th November 1936?
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BBC NEWS | UK | New �5 notes reissued
Wednesday, 21 August, 2002, 04:07 GMT 05:07 UK
New �5 notes reissued
The serial numbers should no longer rub off
The Bank of England is to restart distribution of the new �5 notes.
The notes have already been delivered to banks and post offices, and from Wednesday morning are being made available to the public.
Distribution of the notes was suspended just a week after their introduction in May, following complaints that their serial numbers could be rubbed off.
It was highly embarrassing for the Bank, which had previously stated the note was the most secure ever produced.
It later ran tests which traced the problem to the fact that the ink had not dried properly, because of a new protective varnish that had been put on the notes just before the serial numbers were printed.
With the new version, the protective varnish will be applied only after the serial number has been printed on to the bank note.
The Bank has altered the way the notes are printed
A Bank of England spokesperson said: "We're confident we've fixed the problem."
The new notes are the same size and colour as the existing note but have extra security features, including a hologram.
Victorian prison reformer Elizabeth Fry replaces George Stephenson on the note, becoming only the second woman to appear on the back of an English banknote.
They are supposed to have a longer life span than the current "fivers", which last on average less than one year.
Three million of the first batch of notes are still in circulation - they remain legal tender even if the serial numbers have been removed.
According to the Bank the serial numbers are not a key security feature, but merely give information about the note's origin.
The notes could in due course become collectors' items.
WATCH/LISTEN
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i don't know
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Of which African country is Dodoma the official capital city?
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Dodoma, Tanzania - The new capital city of Tanzania | Greenwich Mean Time
Dodoma, Tanzania
The new capital city of Tanzania
Dodoma, Tanzania, Time
Clock showing the current local time now in Tanzania (Dar es Salaam Time Zone)
Dodoma, Tanzania, Map
Dodoma Airport (DOD)
Dodoma, Tanzania, Information
Located in the heartland of Tanzania, Dodoma is the nation’s new official political capital and the seat of government in the country.
Comparably much smaller and less developed than the country’s commercial centre, Dar es Salaam , Dodoma remains a centre for national politics. Situated on the eastern edge of the southern highlands, the city of Dodoma is surrounded by a rich agricultural area and pleasant scenery. Dodoma has many places and items of interest to recommend it to the passing visitor. It is the centre of Tanzania’s growing wine industry and the Tanganyika Vineyards Company is active in promoting its products.
Historically, Dodoma was a stopover on the overland caravan route that travelled from the Swahili Coast inland toward Lake Tanganyika. Early in the 20th century, the city became a major point on the Central Line railway, which carried agricultural crops for export to the harbour in Dar es Salaam.
In recent times, the Dodoma's economic base has declined in favour of the coastal city, but in the early days of Tanzanian independence, there was a popular political motion to move the entire government to the town in the southern highlands. These days, the government legislature meet in Dodoma, and divide their time between the inland city and Dar es Salaam on the coast.
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Tanzania
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Which monarch (1135-1141) preceded Henry II?
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Tanzania - Country Information
Tanzania
Itineraries
Tanzania
Tanzania (officially in Swahili: Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania = United Republic of Tanzania) is a republic in East Africa and consists of the former Tanganyika and the islands of Zanzibar (Unguja actually) and Pemba. The Mafia Archipelago is formed by the 50-km-long island of Mafia, a dozen smaller islands and numerous coral rocks. Tanzania is bordered in the north to Kenya (769 km) and Uganda (396 km), in the south to Mozambique (756 km), Malawi (475 km) and Zambia (338 km) and in the west to the Democratic Republic of Congo (459 km), Rwanda (217 km) and Burundi (451 km). Tanzania is bordered to the east in its entirety to the Indian Ocean and the other limits exist for a large proportion of water in the western Lake Tanganyika, in northwest Lake Victoria and Lake Malawi in the southwest, while the border with Mozambique formed by the Rovuma River. The total area is 945,087 km2 of Tanzania and Tanzania is about 22.5 times as large as the Netherlands or as large as France, Germany and Belgium together. It is also the largest country in East Africa.
The mainland of Tanzania has an amazing variety of landscapes. very significant is the Great Rift Valley, which originates in Turkey and via the Red Sea to Ethiopia and splits into an eastern and western part. The western arm of the Rift Valley goes via Uganda to Tanzania, the eastern arm comes through Kenya into Tanzania. The total length of the Great Rift Valley is more than 9,700 kilometres.
As a result of the emergence of the Great Rift Valley also several large lakes came to existence, including Lake Natron, Lake Manyara and Lake Tanganyika, where at 1,430 meters depth the lowest point of Africa can be found. Tanzania has many large and small rivers, but none of them are navigable. A number of rivers float into salt water, the Pangani, Ruvu, Rufiji and Rovuma mouths in the Indian Ocean, the Kagera in the Mediterranean Sea and the Malagarasi in the Atlantic Ocean. Because of the many rivers and lakes, Tanzania has more surface water than any country on the continent of Africa.
The presents of volcanic activity, Africa's highest mountain, the volcano Kilimanjaro (5,895 meters) rose up at what now is the border with Kenya. Tanzania still has a working (stratospheric) volcano in the north by Lake Natron, the Ol Doinyo Lengai or "Mountain of God '. The mountain is 2,890 meters high with eruptions in 1917, 1926, 1940 and 1966-67 and the crater filled with lava since 1983. Mount Meru is the fourth highest mountain in Africa. Tanzania also has a fairly narrow coastal strip and a flat to slightly hilly central plateau with an average altitude of 1,200 meters. The dominant landscape in Tanzania is the savannah (in the Serengeti), a landscape with mostly pasture and the odd tree here and there. Furthermore, it has beautiful steppe landscape and tropical forests. The Ambori Caves are the largest cave system in East Africa with ten caves that provide access to a network of limestone tunnels with an estimated 200 km length. The largest caves are thirteen meters high.
Capital of Tanzania, Dodoma
Located in the heartland of Tanzania, Dodoma is the nation's official political capital and the seat of government in the country. Comparably much smaller and less developed than the country's commercial centre, Dar es Salaam, Dodoma remains a centre for national politics. Situated on the eastern edge of the southern highlands, the city of Dodoma is surrounded by a rich agricultural area and pleasant scenery. Dodoma has many places and items of interest to recommend it to the passing visitor. It is the centre of Tanzania's growing wine industry and the Tanganyika Vineyards Company is active in promoting its products.
Historically, Dodoma was a stopover on the overland caravan route that travelled from the Swahili Coast inland toward Lake Tanganyika. Early in the 20th century, the city became a major point on the Central Line railway, which carried agricultural crops for export to the harbour in Dar es Salaam. In recent times, the towns' economic base has declined in favour of the coastal city, but in the early days of Tanzanian independence, there was a popular political motion to move the entire government to the town in the southern highlands. These days, the government legislature meet in Dodoma, and divide their time between the inland city and Dar es Salaam on the coast.
People of Tanzania
The Tanzanian population consists of 98% from Africans and consists of approximately 120 tribes, mostly Bantu speaking, which in the past came from West and North Africa. The oldest group of residents speak Khoisan (a so-called "click language"), a language which is also similar to the Hottentots from southern Africa. The Cushitic speaking tribes came from Ethiopia and Somalia to Tanzania. The largest tribes are those of the Sukuma, Nyamwezi, Haya, Nyakyusa and Chagga and with each more than 1 million members. In addition to the African population also Nilotic (Luo, Maasai), Arabs, Asians (mainly Indians and Pakistanis live in Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar) and Europeans have their home in Tanzania. The original population of Zanzibar consists of Hadimu, Tumbatu and Pemba. There are no contradictions between the various dominant strains. This is most likely because none of the tribes have a majority of more than 10% of the total population.
Language
Kiswahili is mainly spoken in East Africa by about 50 million people (in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Congo and Rwanda). In Tanzania and Kenya it is one of the official national languages. For most people who speak Kiswahili it is not their native language. The Swahili language, called by the Tanzanian Kiswahili (the preposition 'ki' indicates, language) is used among others in primary education. English is also widely used, including in the secondary and higher education, in parliament and at official occasions. The Swahili language is a mix of original Bantu languages, strongly influenced by Arabic, Portuguese and Hindi. The Swahili was formerly a lingua franca or common business language. The Swahili word comes from the Arabic "Sawa hili ', that means 'the coast".
Religions
Ca. 25% of the population is still into indigenous nature religions, which are often mixed with other religions. A number of tribes are not (almost not) influenced by other religions, particularly the Maasai. Their god is called Engai and the main holy place is on the still active volcano Ol Doinyo Lengai, "the Mountain of God". The percentage of Muslims in Tanzania is about 35% and on the island of Zanzibar even 95% of the population is Muslim. The first mosque was built in 1107 and currently the island has about fifty mosques. On the mainland, most Muslims live in coastal areas. Hindus are more to be found in Dar es Salaam among the Asian population. The number of Christians, mainly can be found within the central part of the country, is estimated at 46%, of which 33% Roman Catholic and 13% Anglican, Presbyterian, Lutheran and Orthodox.
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i don't know
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Which station is the London terminus for the Chiltern Railways?
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London – High Wycombe – Oxford / Birmingham
Timetable Changes – The FA Cup Third Round: Wycombe Wanderers vs Stourbridge FC (15:00 KO)
In connection with the above football event, Chiltern Railways are pleased to announce the operation of the following two additional public trains on this date, aimed at Stourbridge FC supporters making a day trip to High Wycombe:
* 09.53 Stourbridge Junction – High Wycombe: Calls at Cradley Heath (10.00) – Birmingham Moor Street (10.25) – High Wycombe (11.48).
* 18.14 High Wycombe – Stourbridge Junction: Calls at Birmingham Moor Street (19.32) – Cradley Heath (19.54) – Stourbridge Junction (20.07).
To facilitate further travel options to/from High Wycombe, the following trains are amended as shown:
* 09.12 Birmingham Snow Hill – Marylebone calls additionally at High Wycombe at 10.36.
* 10.12 Birmingham Snow Hill – Marylebone calls additionally at High Wycombe at 11.36.
* 11.12 Birmingham Snow Hill – Marylebone calls additionally at High Wycombe at 12.36.
* 12.12 Birmingham Snow Hill – Marylebone calls additionally at High Wycombe at 13.36.
* 17.10 Marylebone – Birmingham Snow Hill is extended to Cradley Heath (19.30) and Stourbridge Junction (19.42).
* 17.40 Marylebone – Birmingham Snow Hill calls additionally at High Wycombe at 18.03.
* 18.10 Marylebone – Birmingham Snow Hill is extended to Cradley Heath (20.30) and Stourbridge Junction (20.42).
* 18.40 Marylebone – Birmingham Snow Hill calls additionally at High Wycombe at 19.03.
* 19.40 Marylebone – Birmingham Snow Hill calls additionally at High Wycombe at 20.03.
Please refer to the attached timetable for full details.
Further information:
London – High Wycombe – Oxford / Birmingham
Timetable Changes – Engineering Works
Due to engineering works taking place in the Aylesbury area, the line is closed between Princes Risborough and Aylesbury until 11:00. Rail replacement buses will operate between Princes Risborough and stations to Aylesbury during this period.
Trains will operate as normal between Marylebone and stations to Birmingham/Oxford.
London – Amersham – Aylesbury Vale Parkway
Timetable Changes – Engineering Works
Due to engineering works taking place in the Aylesbury area, the line is closed between Stoke Mandeville and Aylesbury until 11:00. Trains will operate between Marylebone and Great Missenden; rail replacement buses will operate between Great Missenden and stations to Aylesbury Vale Parkway.
Due to London Underground station staff strike action, Chiltern Railways trains are unable to call at London Underground stations (Harrow On The Hill to Amersham inclusive) after approximately 23:00.
Please refer to the attached timetables for full details.
Further information:
London – High Wycombe – Oxford / Birmingham
Timetable Changes – Engineering Works
Due to engineering works, the line is closed between Oxford Parkway and Oxford all day. Trains will operate as normal between Marylebone and Oxford Parkway (in both directions). Connecting Oxford Bus Company service 500 buses will operate between Oxford Parkway and Oxford.
Additionally, throughout the day, many trains from Marylebone will depart up to 2 minutes earlier or later than normal.
London – Amersham – Aylesbury Vale Parkway
Timetable Changes – Additional Trains
In connection with London Underground engineering works, additional trains will operate between Marylebone and Harrow On The Hill (in both directions) throughout the day.
Trains will operate as normal between Marylebone and stations to Aylesbury Vale Parkway.
Please refer to the attached timetables for full details.
Further information:
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Marylebone
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Whose voice was used for the character Lord Farquaar in the film Shrek?
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Wendover Station | Trains to Wendover – Trainline
Trains to Wendover
Share this route
Wendover's 1892 station in Buckinghamshire is on Chiltern Railway's London Marylebone-to-Aylesbury line, with journeys to the capital taking about 50 minutes. Ideal if, say, you're the Prime Minister needing to get back to business after a weekend at your country retreat of Chequers, or one of the many London commuters who now live in Wendover. Once part of the London Underground, Wendover station joined the national rail network in the 1960s when it underwent considerable renovations. The station underwent more work in 2013 when it had a new footbridge and lifts added. The pretty market town offers antique hunting and art-gallery wanderings galore. The market on the third Saturday of every month is also worth a peek, with excellent local produce on sale. Taking afternoon tea at Lady Grey is a popular Wendover pursuit, particularly after a stroll through the surrounding woodlands or along the Ridgeway Path, a National Trail that passes down through the centre of town.
Station details & facilities
The Station Approach entrance to Wendover station leads from a large car park, with ticket machine, cycle racks, cafe and accessible toilets, into a ticket office. The concourse leads to the canopied platform 1 with toilets, bench seating and a step-free footbridge to platform 2. There are few buses from Wendover, but there is a taxi office in front of the station. For travellers in need of a meal, the Shoulder of Mutton is a minute's walk along Station Approach.
Ticket Office
Lost Property phone number : 03456 005 165
Facilities
Telephones : False
Telephones type : Coins and cards
Staff Help Notes : Ticket office staff will assist wherever possible. Please note that the advertised availability of staff may differ from time to time without notice due to local arrangements or staff sickness.
Customer Service Notes :
We welcome your feedback, suggestions and ideas to help us to make changes to improve your services.
Customer help points :
Cycle storage location : Car park entrance.
Accessibility
Accessible Booking Office counter : False
Accessible taxis : unknown
For taxis from all UK stations visit www.traintaxi.co.uk.
Trains to Wendover
Station Approach, Pound Street, Wendover, HP22 6BN
Ticket Office Hours
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i don't know
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Which river is Hamburg on?
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Hamburg | Germany | Britannica.com
Hamburg
Last Updated:
4-15-2015
Hamburg, city and Land (state), located on the Elbe River in northern Germany . It is the country’s largest port and commercial centre.
Hamburg, Germany.
Take a video tour of Hamburg.
Contunico © ZDF Enterprises GmbH, Mainz
Overview of Hamburg’s port.
Contunico © ZDF Enterprises GmbH, Mainz
The Free and Hanseatic City (Freie und Hansestadt) of Hamburg is the second smallest of the 16 Länder of Germany, with a territory of only 292 square miles (755 square km). It is also the most populous city in Germany after Berlin and has one of the largest and busiest ports in Europe . The official name, which covers both the Land and the town, reflects Hamburg’s long tradition of particularism and self-government. Hamburg and Bremen (the smallest of the ... (100 of 4,053 words)
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Elbe
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Which famous building, on the South Coast of England did John Nash design for King George IV?
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Elbe River | river, Europe | Britannica.com
Elbe River
Meissen
Elbe River, Czech Labe, one of the major waterways of central Europe . It runs from the Czech Republic through Germany to the North Sea , flowing generally to the northwest. The river rises on the southern side of the Krkonoše (Giant) Mountains near the border of the Czech Republic and Poland . It then makes a wide arc across Bohemia (northwestern Czech Republic) and enters eastern Germany about 25 miles (40 km) southeast of Dresden. For the remainder of its course it flows through Germany. Above Hamburg the Elbe splits into two branches; these rejoin farther downstream, and the river then broadens into its estuary, the mouth of which is at Cuxhaven , where it flows into the North Sea.
Elbe River
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
The total length of the Elbe is 724 miles (1,165 km), of which roughly one-third flows through the Czech Republic and two-thirds through Germany. Its total drainage area is 55,620 square miles (144,060 square km). Major tributaries are the Vltava (Moldau), Ohře (Eger), Mulde, and Saale rivers, all of which join it from the left, and the Iser, Schwarze (“Black”) Elster, Havel, and Alster rivers from the right.
Physical features
Physiography
The Elbe is formed by the confluence of numerous headwater streams in the Krkonoše Mountains a few miles from the Polish-Czech frontier. It flows south and west, forming a wide arc for about 225 miles in the Czech Republic to its confluence with the Vltava at Mělník and is joined 18 miles downstream by the Ohře. It then cuts to the northwest through the picturesque Elbe Sandstone Mountains, and, in a gorge four miles long, it enters Germany. Between Dresden and Magdeburg the Elbe receives many long tributaries, of which all except the Schwarze Elster are left-bank streams. These are the Mulde and the Saale and its tributaries—including the Weisse (“White”) Elster, the Unstrut, and the Ilm. These left-bank tributaries rise in the Ore Mountains or the Thuringian Forest and form the drainage basin of the middle Elbe, with its geographic foci in Halle and Leipzig. Halle is on the Saale, just below the confluence of the Weisse Elster; Leipzig lies at the confluence of the Pleisse and the Weisse Elster. Below Magdeburg the Elbe receives most of its water from its right bank. Most of these tributaries rise in the uplands of Mecklenburg.
The Elbe, Oder, and Vistula river basins and their drainage network.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Tour the Elbe Sandstone Mountains in Saxon Switzerland National Park, eastern Germany.
Contunico © ZDF Enterprises GmbH, Mainz
Similar Topics
World Tour
The lower course of the Elbe is tidal as far as the dam at Geesthacht, above Hamburg, where the river flow periodically reverses its direction. The average tide at Hamburg is about eight feet. However, during storms the water may rise much higher, occasionally even flooding parts of the city.
The economy
By means of the Elbe and its connecting waterways, vessels from Hamburg can navigate to Berlin , the central and southern sections of eastern Germany, and the Czech Republic. The Mittelland Canal , a short distance below Magdeburg, runs westward about 200 miles to the Dortmund–Ems Canal , carrying barges of up to 1,000 tons to the German industrial cities of Osnabrück, Hannover, Salzgitter, Hildesheim, Peine, and Wolfsburg and connecting with the Weser and Rhine rivers. The Elbe–Havel Canal carries traffic from Magdeburg eastward to the network of waterways around Berlin and farther on to Poland. The Kiel Canal runs from the mouth of the Elbe to the Baltic Sea , and the Elbe–Lübeck Canal , starting at Lauenburg, also runs to the Baltic, following an older (14th-century) canal . Another canal connects the lower Elbe with Bremerhaven on the Weser River . The Elbe itself is navigable for 1,000-ton barges as far as Prague through the Vltava. In eastern Germany it serves the river ports of Magdeburg, Schönebeck, Aken, Dessau, Torgau , Riesa, and Dresden, carrying bituminous coal, lignite, coke, metal, potash, grain, and piece goods. Although Hamburg lies far upstream from the mouth of the Elbe, it is one of the largest seaports in Europe; a six-line railway tunnel and a multilane road tunnel under the Elbe there are important links in trans-European traffic flows.
The Kiel Canal, which runs from the mouth of the Elbe River to the Baltic Sea, at Kiel, Germany.
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The basin of the Elbe has been settled since prehistoric times. Until the Middle Ages the river was the western boundary of the area inhabited by the northern Slavs. In the 12th century the Germans began to colonize the lands east of the Elbe and along the Baltic Sea. In World War II a point on the Elbe near Torgau was the meeting place of the U.S. and Soviet armies. From the end of the war until 1990, the river formed part of the demarcation between East and West Germany .
The city of Hamburg dates from the early 9th century ad. Together with Lübeck, Hamburg established the Hanseatic League in 1241. Today it is Germany’s second largest city, surpassed only by Berlin. Another ancient city on the Elbe is Magdeburg , which in the early 9th century was a trading post on the border between the Germans and the Slavs. In the 13th century it was a flourishing commercial city and an important member of the Hanseatic League. Today it is the largest inland harbour of eastern Germany. The other chief city of the Elbe is Dresden, founded about 1200. During the 18th century Dresden developed into a great centre of the fine arts, known as “Florence on the Elbe.” Its beautiful architecture, almost completely destroyed during World War II, has been partially rebuilt. Other towns of historical interest along the Elbe include Wittenberg, the birthplace of the Protestant Reformation, and Meissen , which became famous for the manufacture of porcelain.
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i don't know
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Who was the Democratic candidate defeated by George Bush Snr in 1988?
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Presidential Election of 1988
Change History! Try out the 1988 interactive map
1988 Election Facts
Dukakis won West Virginia; however one Elector cast a vote for Dem. Vice-President candidate Lloyd Bentsen (with Dukakis as Vice-President)
Issues of the Day: Stock market crash, Iran-Contra, Progress in US-USSR relations (INF Treaty)
Margin of Victory Map
This map is shaded by how large the popular vote difference was between the two nominees. It is a way to view the relative competitiveness of each state. These maps are also available as a timeline for each election from 1972-2016 .
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Michael Dukakis
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What is the common name for the plant Vinca?
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Michael Dukakis - Biography - IMDb
Michael Dukakis
Jump to: Overview (3) | Mini Bio (1) | Spouse (1) | Trivia (15) | Personal Quotes (2)
Overview (3)
5' 8" (1.73 m)
Mini Bio (1)
Michael Dukakis, three-term governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts who served longer in that post than any other person in history, is best remembered in history as the 1988 Democratic candidate for President in an election in which Ronald Reagan 's vice president, George Bush , effectively used "Swift Boat" tactics to undermine Dukakis' candidacy.
Born Michael Stanley Dukakis on November 3, 1933 to Greek-immigrant parents in Brookline, Massachusetts (the birthplace of both John F. Kennedy and his 1988 Presidential opponent Bush). Dukakis' father was a Harvard-educated physician and his mother was a Massachusetts schoolteacher. She worked to eliminate first her native Greek accent and then her New England accent to remove imperfections from her speech pattern that might hinder her teaching ability. In a time and place where non-Anglo-Saxon ethnicity was looked down upon (even that of the Irish Americans who emigrated to the U.S. with the ability to speak English and a knowledge of Anglo-Saxon politics) and even proved a hindrance to social mobility, the Dukakis family was committed to assimilation. Part of the bad rap against Dukakis that would cost him his first reelection campaign as governor and his bid for the White House was that he was too stiff and formal; yet, being brought up in an era and place in which overt displays of emotion were looked down upon upon by the ruling class of Boston Brahmins as too "ethnic" (as well as betraying lower-caste origins), one can understand Dukakis' coolness and reserve as being an attempt not to be stereotyped by his social "betters". (His contemporary, three-term New York governor Mario Cuomo , said that when he entered law practice in the early 1950s, he was told to ditch his Italian name and rename himself something along the lines of "Mike COnnors". He, of course, refused, though that type of ethnic cleansing was considered normal among upwardly mobile and socially ambitious "urban ethnics" of the time.)
The class system in Boston was so strict before being shattered by John F. Kennedy 's presidency that JFJ's father, Joseph P. Kennedy , felt the need to relocate his family to New York City in the 1930s so that they would no grow up amidst anti-Irish prejudice. Despite the fact that he was one of the richest men in the country and his wife was the daughter of a Boston mayor, an Irish Catholic was beyond the pale, socially, to the Boston Brahmins, the brethren of the Cabot and Lodge families that dominated the self-proclaimed "Hub" of the universe. (A local ditty went about Boston hailed the Hub as "...the land of the bean and the cod,/Where the Lodges speak only to the Cabots,/And the Cabots speak only to God.)
After graduating from Swarthmore College in 1955, Dukakis served as an enlisted intelligence analyst in the U.S. Army. After completing his military service, he graduated from Harvard Law School in 1960. After serving in the General Court (Massachusetts legislature), Dukakis was elected governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1974, defeating the incumbent Republican Francis W. Sargent. The commonwealth was undergoing a fiscal crisis and the Republican Party was very unpopular in the commonwealth, the only state that had been won in the electoral college by 1972 Presidential candidate George McGovern two years before. Dukakis' victory was the result, partially, of his taking a pledge not to increase the state's sales tax to balance the state budget, but he reneged on the promise soon after taking office. During the great Blizzard of 1978, which shut down Boston and a good deal of the Commonwealth, "The Duke" went into local TV studios in a sweater to announce emergency bulletins. The coldness of his public persona in the midst of the crisis was likened to that of the weather itself, and hurt his popularity. Combined with a nation-wide and local backlash against the high property tax rates, and his reneging on his promise to not raise the sales tax, he lost to Edward J. King in the Democratic primary, as King capitalized on the issue of taxes. Following California's lead, the voters of the Commonwealth voted for Proposition 2 and 1/2 that limited property tax rates to 2 1/2% of the property valuation.
Dukakis defeated King in in the Democratic primary in 1982, and easily defeated his Republican opponent to be reelected governor. (Fellow future Democratic Presidential nominee John Kerry was elected Lieutenant Governor on the same ballot with Dukakis, serving in the Dukakis administration from 1983 to 1985, when he was took Paul Tsongas 's Senate seat.) The second term and the first years of Dukakis' third term as governor were very successful (he won re-election in 1986 with over 60% of the vote), during which time he presided over a booming economy fueled by the high-technology industry, second at the time only to that of California. A reform-minded technocrat, Dukakis was given credit for the "Massachusetts Miracle" (part of the credit of which should be attributed to Masssachusetts Congressman Tip O'Neil, who had taken over JFK's old congressional district, who as the powerful Democratic Speaker of the House helped direct billions in defense spending to the Commonwealth).
The National Governors Association voted Dukakis the most effective governor in 1986, positioning Dukakis for a bid for the presidency. Basing his candidacy as the architect of the "Massachusetts Miracle", Dukakis overcame the other contenders for the Democratic Party presidential nomination (a group dubbed the "Seven Dwarfs" by the media for their collective lack of stature or prominence on the national stage; Dukakis' own personal lack of stature). The success of the Dukakis' campaign was largely attributed to campaign manager John Sasso, who had originally worked for rival candidate Joseph Biden. (Having also managed the campaigns of Al Gore and John Kerry , Sasso is now 0-3 in presidential election contests.)
Dukakis came out of the Democratic convention with an overwhelming lead over Ronald Reagan's heir-apparent, Vice President George Bush , the Republican nominee, but would not or could not handle the dirty campaign tactics that were the stock-in-trade of all the Vice President's men, including Lee Atwater . While the Dukakis camp expected an attack on their candidate as a traditional liberal, they did not seem to be able to cope with the McCarthyite vitriol from the Bush camp, which sought to make the "L" word the equivalent of what communism had been in the early 1950s. Harking back to McCarthy, Bush had accused Dukakis during one of their televised debates as being a "card-carrying member of the American Civil Liberties Union," replacing "communist" with the ACLU (a variation of the "L"-word) and recycling an old charge from the '50s against liberals and "fellow travelers".
Unlike future Democratic Presidential candidate Bill Clinton (who had delivered the key-note address at the 19988 Democratic convention), who
when confronted with Bush's dirty tactics, such as pillorying his
wife Hillary, shot back that "I'm not running for First Lady", thus touching on Bush's Achilles heel, the "Wimp Factor" -- Dukakis would not fight back. He either was constitutionally unable to fight back, or thought it beneath his dignity to answer the smears and accusations. Issues the Bush campaign chose to highlight were his veto of legislation requiring public school teachers to lead pupils in the Pledge of Allegiance and his opposition to capital punishment.
As it had during the Big Blizzard, The Duke's stoical personality as projected to the voting public was interpreted as a lack of passion (which ran against the traditional stereotype of the Greek-American being fiery if not hot headed, an image that Dukakis, like his mother earlier, chose to expunge from his being). His opponents, touching on his reputation as a technocrat and superb administrator, referred to him as "Zorba the Clerk." Nevertheless, Dukakis widely was perceived to have performed well in the first presidential debate with Bush, and his candidacy was buoyed by his running mate, Texas Senator Lloyd Bentsen, who was not afraid to take off the gloves. However, in the second debate, the runner stumbled; Dukakis had been suffering from the flu. Still, his performance was poor and played to his reputation as being cold, particularly his response to moderator Bernard Shaw 's question, "Governor, if Kitty Dukakis [his wife] were raped and murdered, would you favor an irrevocable death penalty for the killer?"
Projecting himself as a man of reason, Dukakis replied with no visible emotion, "No, I don't, and I think you know that I've opposed the death penalty during all of my life," and then explained his stance. Many observers felt Dukakis' answer lacked the normal emotions one would expect of a person discussing a loved one's rape and death. Many - including the candidate himself - believe that this, in part, cost Dukakis the election, as his poll numbers dropped from 49% to 42% nationally overnight. Other commentators thought the question itself was unfair, in that it injected an irrelevant emotional element into the discussion of a policy issue.
Arguably the greatest issue of the campaign was that of race and crime, as articulated by the Bush camp in the prison furlough program issue. Framed by Lee Atwater , the Bush camp ran ads that criticized Dukakis for a prison furlough program that resulted in the release of convicted murderer Willie Horton , an African American, who committed a rape and assault in Maryland after fleeing Massachusetts. While it was Al Gore during the Democratic primaries that was the first candidate to publicly raise the furlough issue and highlight the fact that a furloughed prisoner had broken into a house, raped a woman and beaten her husband, Gore never mentioned Horton by name or highlighted the fact that he black, as the TV ads did merely by running his picture.
Despite the fact that the furlough program was started before Dukakis' gubernatorial administration and that the federal government under Ronald Reagan had a similar program that had resulted in similar outcomes, candidate Bush decided to play the race and crime card to boost his candidacy. Bush mentioned Horton by name in a speech in June 1988 and an "independent" political action committee (PAC) legally not affiliated with the Bush campaign, the National Security Political Action Committee, aired an ad entitled "Weekend Passes" which used a mug shot image of the African American Horton. The Bush campaign refused to repudiate it, and indeed, followed it up with its own, official campaign ad, "Revolving Door," criticizing Dukakis over the furlough program without mentioning Horton.
The first Bush to be president also hammered on the patriotism theme (and unlike his son, an errant National Guard pilot during the Vietnam War, George H.W. Bush was an authentic war hero, serving honorably during the Second World War) to undermine Dukakis by portraying him as soft on defense, in regards to the controversial "Star Wars" Space Defense Initiative program, which Dukakis promised to scale down. The response to this provocation lead to a public relations disaster when the Dukakis campaign engineered a photo-op at the General Dynamics plant in Michigan in September 1988, in which The Duke was photographed driving an M1 Abrams tank. Filmed wearing a safety helmet that seemed too large for his head, Dukakis looked awkward, out of place, and decidedly uncomfortable in such a military setting. Footage of Dukakis was used by the Bush campaign as evidence he would not make a good commander-in-chief, and "Dukakis in the tank" is still shorthand among political operatives for disastrous public relations outings.
The campaign arguably was the dirtiest since the 19th century until Bush's son ran for reelection against John Kerry in 2004. Dukakis lost the 1988 election and retired from active politics after his gubernatorial term expired in 1991. The "Massachusetts Miracle" expired during the lead up to the recession that gripped America in the Bush administration, and The Duke's popularity withered as he was forced to significantly raise taxes. He did not run for a fourth term in 1990; controversial Boston University President John Silber, a social reactionary who was dubbed by Ronald Reagan his "Favorite Demcorat" won the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, and narrowly lost the general election to William Weld , ushering in nearly two decades of Republican governors in the heavily Democratic Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
After the end of his term, he served on the board of directors for Amtrak. Splitting his time between Boston and Los Angeles, California, he became a professor of political science at Boston's Northeastern University and a visiting professor of public policy at the University of California, Los Angeles. Dukakis has recently developed a strong passion for grassroots campaigning and the appointment of precinct captains to coordinate local campaigning activities, two strategies he feels are essential for the Democratic Party to compete effectively in both local and national elections. His policies have become gospel to Howard Dean, the head of the Democratic Central Committee. He also has taken a strong role in advocating for effective public transportation and high speed rail as a solution to automobile congestion and the lack of space at airports.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: Jon C. Hopwood
Spouse (1)
( 20 June 1963 - present) (3 children)
Trivia (15)
First cousin of Olympia Dukakis .
Presidential candidate 1988.
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i don't know
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"In May 1987, which actor had top ten hits with ""Respect Yourself"" & ""Under the Boardwalk""?"
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Ask Billboard: Actors, Actresses On Billboard Charts | Billboard
Ask Billboard: Actors, Actresses On Billboard Charts
COMMENTS
Ask Billboard: Actors, Actresses On Billboard Charts
Ask Billboard is updated each week. As always, submit your questions about Billboard charts, sales and airplay, as well as general music musings, to [email protected]. Please include your first and last name, as well as your city, state and country, if outside the U.S.
We're featuring just one question this week, since it's such a good one that invites extensive, and fun, rummaging through Billboard's chart archives.
DOUBLE THREATS
Hi Gary,
With Gwyneth Paltrow assisting the "Glee" cast the past two weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 with "Forget You" and "Singing in the Rain / Umbrella," I was wondering if you could provide a list of songs by actors/actresses-turned-singers that have charted on Billboard lists.
Thank you,
Subang Jaya, Malaysia
Hi Jesper,
Paltrow is merely the latest in a long line of such renaissance men and women. And, as Billboard's Women in Music celebration showcased, Lea Michele and the rest of the "Glee" cast are combining music and acting like few others before. The troupe has totaled 97 Hot 100 hits in the past 18 months.
In addition to Paltrow, the "Glee" cast has previously brought a screen star to the Hot 100. "Dream On," featuring Neil Patrick Harris, reached No. 26 in June.
Here is but a partial list, in no particular order, of other celebrated actors and actresses that have impacted Billboard charts. In the spirit of Paltrow's acting resume sporting abundantly more credits than her musical output, we'll stick to those known primarily for their acting talents, as opposed to those more synonymous with both music and acting (a la Miley Cyrus , Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato , to name a current, Disney-related few).
As always, Chart Beat readers are encouraged to round out the sampling, either in the comments section below or by e-mailing [email protected].
Jennifer Love Hewitt
The film and TV star reached the Pop Songs chart in 1999 with "How Do I Deal" (No. 36) and in 2002 with "Barenaked" (No. 35), the latter cut the title song from her fourth album.
John Schneider
Bo Duke of "The Dukes of Hazzard" sped to 17 Country Songs hits between 1981 and 1987, including four No. 1s.
Tom Wopat
... Cousin Luke Duke, meanwhile, placed 11 titles on Country Songs between 1986 and 1991.
Jared Leto
Starring in TV's "My So-Called Life" and films including "How to Make an American Quilt," "Girl, Interrupted" and "Panic Room," Leto has racked three No. 1s on Alternative Songs in his role as frontman for Thirty Seconds to Mars : "From Yesterday" (2007) and "Kings and Queens" and "This Is War" (2010).
Lynda Carter
TV's beloved "Wonder Woman" leapt to No. 10 on Jazz Albums last year with "At Last."
Raven Symone
With a Hot 100 discography that makes 10-year-old Willow Smith seem of a certain age, the former "Cosby Show" star climbed to No. 68 on the Hot 100 in 1993 with "That's What Little Girls Are Made Of." She knew of what she sang, reaching the chart at age 7.
Lindsay Lohan
Prior to her well-documented legal obstacles, the actress did anything but lie low on the Billboard 200. "Speak" arrived at No. 4 on Christmas Day 2004 and "A Little More Personal (Raw)" bowed at No. 20 exactly a year later.
Scarlett Johansson
The Golden Globe-nominated star topped Heatseekers Albums in 2008 with "Anywhere I Lay My Head." Her Pete Yorn duets album "Break Up" reached the top 10 on Digital Albums and Rock Albums a year later.
Jane Krakowski
Known for roles in "Ally McBeal" and, currently, "30 Rock," Krakowski made her film debut as backwoods cousin Vicki in "National Lampoon's Vacation" in 1983. (Her character's deadpan line about her French-kissing skills - "Daddy says I'm the best at it" - was (barely) edited for TV as "My science teacher says I'm the best at it"). She provided the vocals for, and scored a featured artist credit on, Jim Brickman 's No. 4 Adult Contemporary ballad "You" in 2003.
Bruce Willis
The actor moonlighted as a singer, exhibiting a sixth sense for hit-making. He made two Hot 100 visits in 1987: "Respect Yourself" (No. 5) and "Under the Boardwalk" (No. 59).
As Gywneth Paltrow, aka McKinley High substitute teacher Holly Holliday, assists the "Glee" cast on two Hot 100 hits, what other stars of screens big and small have spent time on Billboard surveys?
Our list continues:
Clint Eastwood
The legendary star of the 1980 movie "Bronco Billy" turned a song from the film - "Bar Room Buddies," with Merle Haggard - into a No. 1 on Country Songs.
Joey Lawrence
While playing goofy and good-natured Joey Russo on "Blossom," the then-amply-coiffed actor singer enjoyed two Hot 100 hits in 1993, including the No. 19 "Nothin' My Love Can't Fix."
Richard Harris
The accomplished late Irish actor, known best to younger viewers as paternal Albus Dumbledore in the first two "Harry Potter" movies, tallied four Hot 100 hits, including 1968's No. 2 "MacArthur Park."
Lorne Greene
The "Bonanza" TV star had a way with chart bullets, too, gunning to No. 1 on the Hot 100 46 years ago this week with "Ringo."
John Travolta
Even before his popularity exploded with roles in "Saturday Night Fever" and "Grease," Travolta, then a not-so-studious student on "Welcome Back, Kotter," reached No. 10 on the Hot 100 in 1976 with "Let Her In." He added five more chart entries through 1978.
Don Johnson
Two years after the 1984 debut of "Miami Vice," Johnson rode the wave of the TV show's popularity to No. 5 on the Hot 100 with "Heartbeat."
Wayne Brady
The multi-talented talk show host/improv actor has resided on Billboard charts repeatedly since 2005. His 2008 set "A Long Time Coming" peaked at No. 20 on R&B/Hip-Hop Albums.
Milla Jovovich
The "Fifth Element" actress (and one-time hilarious guest on "Married...With Children" as a French exchange student whom the Bundys welcomed only for the stipend that accompanied her presence) rose to No. 21 on Alternative Songs in 1994 with "Gentlemen Who Fell."
Katey Sagal
Peg Bundy herself vacated her favorite place - the living room couch - long enough to reach No. 33 on Heatseekers Albums with "Well..." in 1994, the same week that Jovovich peaked with her sole entry on Alternative Songs.
Crystal Bernard
The "Wings" comedienne took flight on Adult Contemporary in 1995 with "Forever Tonight," a duet with Peter Cetera (No. 22), and on Hot Country Singles Sales two years later with "State of Mind" (No. 14).
Jamie-Lynn Sigler
HBO's Meadow Soprano strolled to a No. 32 peak on Heatseekers Albums in 2001 with "Here to Heaven." She has since expressed regret over the pop album's quality. How much regret? "I hated every moment of it."
Patrick Swayze
As the Black Eyed Peas return the chorus of "(I've Had) The Time of My Life" to the top 10 in "The Time (Dirty Bit)" (13-9), fellow "Dirty Dancing" smash "She's Like the Wind" reached No. 3 on the Hot 100 for Swayze in 1988.
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Bruce Willis
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Which Briton won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2001?
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Bruce Willis – Albums Collection (1987-1999) [FLAC] | Lossless Music Download
Bruce Willis – Albums Collection (1987-1999) [FLAC]
Bruce Willis – Albums Collection (1987-1999) [FLAC]
EAC Secure Rip | FLACx3 (Image + Cue + Log) – 1.2 GB | Complete Scans (Jpeg 600 dpi) – 292 MB |
Blues, R&B, Soul | Motown Records | 162:51 minutes | 5% WinRar Recovery
Best known as the action hero behind cinema’s Die Hard series, Bruce Willis (b. March 19, 1955; Penns Grove, NJ) became a twice-over recording artist during the late ’80s. His debut album, The Return of Bruno, became a surprise seller after the single “Respect Yourself” hit the Top Five in early 1987. Willis had two other modest hits, and recorded another LP two years later, but has remained outside music for the most part — performing only occasionally to inaugurate several Planet Hollywood restaurants.
Bruce Willis – The Return Of Bruno (1987)
The Return of Bruno is the debut album by actor Bruce Willis. Released by Motown in 1987, this album is an eclectic gathering of R&B music sung by Willis, with backing musicians including Booker T. Jones, Ruth Pointer and The Temptations.
The album peaked at #14 on the Billboard 200 album chart. Leadoff single “Respect Yourself” received considerable airplay, peaking at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and number 7 in the UK. Follow-up singles “Young Blood” and “Under the Boardwalk” did not fare nearly as well, peaking at #68 and #59, respectively. However, in Britain “Under the Boardwalk” was a massive success, reaching #2 in the charts and becoming the UK’s 12th best-selling single of 1987.
At the height of Moonlighting mania and after the Seagram’s wine cooler commercials showcased his vocal skills, Motown asked Bruce Willis to record a full album of blues, R&B, and soul — hence, The Return of Bruno. Willis has more vocal talent than, say, Cybill Shepherd, but he doesn’t quite have the conviction or skill of the Blues Brothers. Often, it’s difficult to hear him strain for notes on familiar items like “Under the Boardwalk,” “Young Blood,” and “Respect Yourself,” but that same limited talent makes the ready-made originals “Jackpot,” “Down in Hollywood,” and “Flirting with Disaster” appealing kitsch. And, really, The Return of Bruno isn’t anything more than a kitsch artifact — Willis may deeply believe he has vocal talent, but the album stands more as a testament to the excesses of Reagan-era celebrity and baby-boomer nostalgia than as a piece of music. Reviewed by Stephen Thomas Erlewine allmusic.com
Track Listing
01. Comin’ Right Up (Brock Walsh) – 3:30
02. Respect Yourself (Luther Ingram, Mack Rice) – 3:53
03. Down in Hollywood (Ry Cooder, Tim Drummond) – 5:20
04. Young Blood (Jerry Leiber, Doc Pomus, Mike Stoller) – 4:08
05. Under the Boardwalk (Kenny Young, Arthur Resnick) – 3:03
06. Secret Agent Man / James Bond Is Back (Steve Barri, P.F. Sloan) / (John Barry) – 4:48
07. Jackpot (Bruno’s Bop) (Robert Kraft, Bruce Willis) – 4:12
08. Fun Time (Allen Toussaint) – 3:38
09. Lose Myself (Larry John McNally, Jon Lind) – 3:56
10. Flirting with Disaster (Brock Walsh, Jeff Lorber) – 4:33
Album Released: January 20, 1987
Bruce Willis – If It Don’t Kill You, It Just Makes You Stronger (1989)
Bruce Willis’s second studio album for Motwon Records.
It’s hard to fully explain the lukewarm reception that Willis’s second album received, especially after the generally warm reception for The Return of Bruno. It’s possible it was the rather dull cover artwork, possibly the long album title. It could even have been the choice of music and musical styles, which covers R&B from the ’40s to the ’60s for the most part — horn-driven, powerhouse music that has Stax all over it. Rather than trying to appeal to everyone and coming up with abysmal vanity projects, Willis, one of many actors who decided to try the music world, has thrown himself at the music he loves best, and has come up looking good on the second release. Willis is no opera tenor, but he has a powerful bluesy shout (not to mention a mean harmonica talent) that deserves its thundering presence in generally thundering mixes (this band works, sweats, and rocks out with a nice live sound in the studio). He also writes fairly decent Iyrics, which is a major plus, and he has a distinct sense of humor, which goes even further toward making the man likable. The exceptions are the somewhat pedestrian cover of “Save the Last Dance for Me,” which has the disadvantage of a beautiful, unsurpassable original to compare it against (Willis doesn’t seem to know what to do with it, and sort of wanders around vocally) and the cover of Louis Jordan’s “Barnyard Boogie,” executed from Jordan’s charts. Overall, though, this is a hyped-up and extremely energizing album. Reviewed by Steven McDonald allmusic.com
Track Listing
02. Crazy Mixed-Up World (3:28)
03. Turn It Up (A Little Louder) (4:08)
04. Soul Shake (2:53)
05. Here Comes Trouble Again (4:55)
06. Save The Last Dance For Me (3:52)
07. Blues For Mr. D (5:28)
08. Tenth Avenue Tango (4:07)
09. Can’t Leave Her Alone (3:57)
10. Barnyard Boogie (2:58)
11. Love Makes The World Go Round (2:58)
12. I’ll Go Crazy (3:30)
Album Released: September 20, 1989
Bruce Willis – Classic Bruce Willis (1999)
The Universal Masters Collection: Classic Bruce Willis
Track Listing
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i don't know
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In which Charles Dickens novel does the character Bentley Drummie appear?
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Bentley Drummle in Great Expectations
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Character Analysis
Bentley Drummle is Pip's lifelong nemesis. He's mean, haughty, and abrasive. Oh, and did we mention, rich? Jaggers actually likes Drummle (well, he is a shady lawyer), but tells Pip to stay away from him. Drummle eventually marries Estella, to Pip's great anguish, and he becomes an abusive husband. He dies while mistreating a horse, and we're only a little sorry.
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Great Expectations
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Which celebrated cook was born Isabella Mary Mayson?
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Five. Presentation of Characters
Five. Presentation of Characters
[ Victorian Web Home —> Authors —> Charles Dickens —> Works —> Literary Relations —> Theme and Subject ]
Charles Dickens: An Introduction to His Novels
[E. D. H. Johnson's Charles Dickens: An Introduction to His Novels originally appeared three decades ago (1969) in the paperback Random House Study in Language and Literature Series. It has been included in the Victorian web with the kind permission of the late author's family.
The original text has almost no notes. All links have been added by GPL .
Page breaks in the paperback edition have been indicated within the text by [5/6] in order to permit readers to cite original page numbers.]
Bibliographical Note
If you want your public to believe in what you write you must believe in it yourself. When I am describing a scene I can as distinctly see what I am describing as I can see you now. So real are my characters to me that on one occasion I had fixed I upon the course which one of them was to pursue. The character, however, got hold of me and made me do exactly the opposite to wbat I bad intended; but I was so sure that he was right and I was wrong that I let him have his own way. — Charles Dickens, quoted by Henry Fielding Dickens, Harper's Monthly Magazine, CXXIX (1914)
It is remarkable that what we call the world, which is so very credulous in what professes to be true, is most incredulous in what professes to be imaginary; and that, while, every day in real life, it will allow in one , man no blemishes, and in another no virtues, it will seldom admit a very strongly-marked character, eitber good or bad, in a fictitious narrative, to be within the limits of probability. — Nicholas Nickleby, Preface
In seasons of pestilence, some of us will have a secret attraction to the disease — a terrible passing inclinationto die of it. And all of us have like wonders hidden in our breastsn only needing circumstances to evoke them. — A Tale of Two Cities, Book Three, Chapter 6
he characters in Dickens' novels are real in the same way that characters in plays are real, and in the same way, perhaps, that living people seem real to each other. Their true identities are masked even from themselves under conventionally prescribed poses, yet declare themselves through all kinds of surface clues: not only in the overt act, but in its accompanying gesture and facial expression; not just in the spoken word, but in the intonation and turn of speech with which it is uttered. Dickens' method of characterization does not allow for the delicate probing of psychological states of mind; rather its success depends on the artist's resourcefulness in creating consistent and emphatically defined patterns of individualized responses to external circumstance; in showing, that is to say, character in action. Like Browning's Fra Lippo , whose "soul and sense" grew "sharp alike" through early neglect, Dickens might have traced to his waiflike boyhood in the London streets his preternatural alermess to "the look of things," the tokens of dress or mannerism which differentiate one personage from another. But unless this acuity of vision had been tempered by the additional faculties of insatiable curiosity about human behavior [115/116] and a genial, if sometimes caustic, sympathy with its oddities, the novelist would never have achieved the comprehensive humanity which informs his attitude towards his creatures. "His genius," Forster well remarked, "was his fellow feeling with his race; his mere personality was never the bound or limit to his perceptions, however strongly sometimes it might colour them...."
Incredible though they often are, the beings who populate Dickens' stories command assent because of the vitality imparted to them by their creator's own transparent belief in their reality. "No man," according to Forster, "had ever so surprising a faculty as Dickens of becoming himself what he was representing . . ."; and the critic George Henry Lewes wrote: "Dickens once declared to me that every word said by his characters was distinctly heard by him...." These statements are corroborated by Mary Dickens' account of seeing her father act out the fictional roles which he was imagining. The novelist's instructions to his illustrators are further evidence of the fact that his characters had assumed in the mind's eye the lineaments of living people. And frequent references to works in hand indicate the extent to which the writer became immersed in the lives of their characters. As he approached the end of The Old Curiosity Shop, he confessed to his future biographer: "I went to bed last night utterly dispirited and done up. All night I have been pursued by the child; and this morning I am unrefreshed and miserable." Of the emotional toll exacted by his Christmas book, "The Chimes," he wrote to Forster:
Since I conceived, at the beginning of the second part, what must happen in the third, I have undergone as much sorrow and agitation as if the thing were real; and have [116/117] wakened up with it at night. I was obliged to lock myself in when I finished it yesterday, for my face was swollen for the time to twice its proper size, and was hugely ridiculous.
Forster is undoubtedly correct in associating Dickens' closeness to his characters with his keen dramatic sense:
He had the power of projecting himself into shapes and suggestions of his fancy which is one of the marvels of creative imagination, and what he desired to express he became. The assumptions of the theatre have the same method at a lower pitch, depending greatly on personal accident; but the accident as much as the genius fayoured Dickens, and another man's conception underwent in his acting the process which in writing he applied to his own.
E. M. Forster in Aspects of the Novel drew on Dickens to illustrate his theoretical disapproval of two-dimensional or "flat" characters. Yet, impressed by the "wonderful feeling of human depth" conveyed by many of these figures, he had to concede that the novelist's "immense success with types suggests that there mav be more in flatness than the severer critics admit." Forster's argument had in part been anticipated by George Santayana in an important essay on Dickens. No one has better described the conventional point of view which finds it more comfortable to pretend that Dickens is a mere caricaturist:
He was the perfect comedian. When people say Dickens exaggerates, it seems to me thev can have no eyes and no ears. They probably have oniy notions of what things and people are; they accept them conventionally, at their diplomatic value. Their minds run on in the region ofSx discourse, where there are masks only and no faces, ideas and no facts; they have little sense for those living grimaces that play from moment to moment upon the [117/118] countenance of the world. The world is a perpetual caricature of itself; at everv moment it is the mockery and the contradiction of what it is pretending to be. But as it nevertheless intends all the time to be something different and highly dignified, at the next moment it corrects and checks and tries to cover up the absurd thing it was, so that a conventional world, a world of masks, is superimposed on the realitv, and passes in every sphere of human interest for the realitv itself. Humour is the perception of this illusion, the fact allowed to pierce here and there through the convention, whilst the convention continues to be maintained, as if we had not observed its absurdity. Pure comedy is more radical, cruder, in a certain sense less human; because comedy throws the convention over altogether, revels for a moment in the fact, and brutally says to the notions of mankind, as if it slapped them in the face, There, take that! That's what you really are! At this the polite world pretends to laugh, not tolerantly as it does at humour, but a little angrily. It does not like to see itself by chance in the glass, without having had time to compose its features for demure self-contemplation. "What a bad mirror," it exclaims, "it must be concave or convex; for surely I never looked like that. Mere caricature, farce and horse play. Dickens exaggerates; I never was so sentimental as that, I never saw anything so dreadful; I don't believe there were ever any people like Quilp, or Squeers, or Serjeant Buzfuz." But the polite world is lying; there are such people; we are such people ourselves in our true moments, in our veritable impulses; but we are careful to stifle and hide those moments from ourselves and from the world; to purse and pucker ourselves into the mask of our conventional personality, and so simpering, we profess that it is very coarse and inar- tistic of Dickens to undo our life's work for us in an instant and to remind us of what we are.
There is no reason to quarrel with Forster's assertion that Dickens' characters ultimately derive from the "humours" of Jonsonian comedy — Every Man in His Humour, it will be remembered, was the first play to be performed by Dickens' amateur company, with the novelist himself in the part of Bobadill. But too much [118/119] has been made of their typological aspect. Although Dickens did not work from living models, he often combined in one figure traits taken from different individuals, or, conversely, distributed among several characters the qualities observed in a single great eccentric. When the chiropodist, Mrs. Hill, protested against her portrait as Miss Mowcher in David Copperfield, Dickens retorted that all his characters "being made out of many people, were composite and never individual." Some of the foibles of John Dickens crop up in John Jarndyce and William Dorrit, as well as in Micawber. The originality which Dickens exercised in naming characters suggests that they were never con- ceived purely as types. Bumble and Bounderby and Pumblechook are ail blustering and officious fools; but as the connotations of their names betoken, generic likeness is sunk in idiosyncratic aberrations from the norm.
Like seventeenth-century "humorous" characters and their progeny in the novels of Smollett and Field- ing, the immortal comic and grotesque creations of Dickens' early period spring full-blown into existence, with no possibility or need for further growth. The scenes in which they appear are dramatically con- structed to allow them to appear "in character," as it were. Thus it may be said that in the novels from Pickwick Papers to Martin Chuzzlewit the action reveals, but does not develop, character. Chesterton shrewdly observed of Dickens' practice at this time in his career: ". . . the moving machinery exists only to display entirely static character. Things in the Dickens story shift and change only in order to give us glimpses of great characters that do not change at all."
Chesterton's statement, however, does not make sufficient allowance for the surprise and pleasure [119/120] attending progressive revelation. While characters certainly do not change in the sense that they are psychologically transformed, their experiences lead to behavior so unpredictable that growing familiarity is attended by a constant sense of discovery. This developing awareness, indeed, is a refraction of Dickens' own delight in creation. With regard to Pecksniff and Jonas Chuzzlewit he wrote Forster, while Martin Chuzz1ewit was in progress:
As to the way in which these characters have opened out, that is to me one of the mosr surprising processes of the mind in this sort of invenrion. Given what one knows, what one does nor know springs up; and I am as absolutely certain of its being true, as I am of the law of gravitation — if such a thing be possible — more so.
In Dickens' world character is never so inscrutable as the circumstances which bring out its inherent potentialities. Those two amiable buffoons, Dick Swiveller and Toots, need only to fall in love to become themselves lovable. And from that trio of limply fatuous aristocrats, Cousin Feenix, Sir Leicester Dedlock, and Twemlow, loyalty to the traditional values of their order calls forth a wholly admirable display of dignity.
Much as has been written about Dickens' supreme humorous figures, they resist critical analysis. Like their compeers, the great originals of Shakespearean comedy, they enjoy a free and autonomous life, uncircumscribed by the works in which they appear. Theirs is the license traditionally accorded the clown, whose antic disposition is a law unto itself. The Dickensian comic spirit is unfailingly embodied in histrionic guise. Its exemplars are self-declared fantasts, "of imagination all compact." They inhabit a world [120/121] of their own making, a world which parodies, yet exists in total defiance of reality, a world in which the distinction between shadow and substance is turned topsy-turvy. At the outset stands Sam Weller with his inexhaustible store of analogues deriving from the absurd reactions of nonexistent beings caught in preposterous predicaments, and at the end there is Wegg, vicariously involved in the doings of his imaginary "Miss Elizabeth, Master George, Aunt Jane, and Uncle Parker." In between comes Sairey Gamp, not by any stretch of the fancy to be divorced from her fictitious confidante, Mrs. Harris.
These beings live by the power of the spoken word, though each has appropriated the resources of language for ends that subvert all habitual channels of communication. For them words are magic talismans, expressive of a perpetual state of wish-fulfillment, reordering actuality into conformity with felt needs. Dick Swiveller's idiom with its hodgepodge of music hall cliches provides the same escape from an impoverished present that Flora Finching finds in the lunatic disarray of her recollections. There is no disappointment for which Micawber cannot compensate by the triumphant exercise of his epistolary style. Like Falstaff and the other clowns in Shakespeare, Dickens' comedians are fully self-aware. They enact their roles quite as much for their own delectation as to impose on their auditors, even though, as the novelist said, "My figures seem disposed to stagnate without crowds about them." "The great fool," Chesterton wrote, "is he in whom we cannot tell which is the conscious and which the unconscious humour." This ambiguity characterizes all of Dickens' greatest comic scenes, but none more than those in which Micawber appears. There is, for example, the unforgettable episode when David, about to part from his friends, receives [121/122] the following lecture on the future conduct of his affairs:
We had a very pleasant day, though we were all in a tender state about our approaching separation.
"l shall never, Master Copperfield," said Mrs. Micawber, "revert to the period when Mr. Micawber was in difficulties, without thinking of you. Your conduct has always been of the most delicate and obliging description. You have never been a lodger; you have been a friend."
"My dear," said Mr. Micawber, "Copperfield," for so he had been accustomed to call me of late, "has a heart to feel for the distresses of his fellow-creatures when they are behind a cloud, and a head to plan, and a hand to — in short, a general ability to dispose of such available property as could be made awav with."
I expressed my sense of this commendation, and said I was very sorry we were going to lose one another.
"My dear young friend," said Mr. Micawber, "I am older than you; a man of some experience in life, and -- and of some experience, in short, in difficulties, generally speaking. At present, and until something turns up (which I am, I may say, hourly expecting), I have nothing to bestow but advice. Still my advice is so far worth taking that — in short, that I have never taken it myself, and am the" — here Mr. Micawber, who had been beaming and smiling, all over his head and face, up to the present mo- ment, checked himself and frowned — "the miserable wretch you behold."
"My dear Micawber!" urged his wife.
"I say," returned Mr. Micawber, quite forgetting himself and smiling again, "the miserable wretch you behold. My advice is, never to do to-morrow what you can do to-day. Procrastination is the thief of time. Collar him!"
"My poor papa's maxim," Mrs. Micawber observed.
"My dear," said Mr. Micawber, "your papa was very well in his way, and Heaven forbid that I should disparage him. Take him for all in all, we ne'er shall — in short, make the acquaintance, probably, of anybody else possessing, at his time of life, the same legs for gaiters, and able to read the same description of print without spectacles. But he applied that maxim to our marriage, [122/123] my dear; and that was so far prematurely entered into, in consequence, that I never recovered the expense."
Mr. Micawber looked aside at Mrs. Micawber, and added, "Not that I am sorry for it. Quite the contrary, my love." After that he was grave for a minure or so. "My other piece of advice, Copperfield," said Mr. Micawber, "you know. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pound ought and six, result misery. The blossom is blighted, the leaf is withered, the God of day goes down upon the dreary scene, and — and in short you are for ever floored. As I am!"
To make his example more impressive, Mr. Micawber drank a glass of punch with an air of great enjoyment and satisfaction, and whistled the College Hornpipe.
The lesser comic characters in Dickens exhibit the same extraordinary resilience and imaginative supremacy over adversity, born of an unquenchable inclination to idealize reality. The novels are thronged with individuals w ho thus get along on theatrical make-believe. Their company includes such foolish widows as Mrs. Nickleby and Mrs. Sparsit; humble artisans whose fancies are related to their callings like Miss La Creevy and Jenny Wren; social impostors like Turvevdrop and Mrs. General, with her fixation on the "formation of a surface"; would-be philosophers, such as the likable Captain Cuttle and the detestable Skimpole.
It is a recognized fact that Dickens' humorous vein runs most richly through the early novels. Its thinning out and turning acrid in the later work is commonly attributed to a decline in the exuberant optimism of the youthful years. But there are other reasons for this apparent loss of comic verve more closely allied with Dickens' artistic development. Professors Butt and Tillotson have shown in Dickens at Work that on the [123/124]rare occasions in his later career when the novelist overwrote his monthly numbers, comic passages were always the first to be sacrificed to space requirements. The increasingly rigorous plot construction, first manifest in Dombey and Son, entailed a more functional view of characterization. Such characters as Major Bagstock, Bounderby, and Podsnap are creatures of their environments, giving lip service to the values on which worldly reputation depends. In contrast to the freedom enjoyed by their predecessors in the early stories who belong to no definable social class, these figures do not create for themselves private roles to satisfy the hunger of the imagination, but rather strut and fret through public parts, prescribed by their notion of what is expected of them. As a result, their playacting, expressive of the author's satiric intent, no longer provokes the untrammeled laughter of a Sam Weller or Mrs. Gamp or Micawber.
Strangely akin to these embodiments of the pure comic spirit are the grotesque villains of Dickens' early writings. Fagin, Squeers, Quilp, Pecksniff, even Uriah Heep, are only to be distinguished from their antic counterparts by a greater inclination and capacity to cause hurt. Like the clowns, their unfailing vivacity and resourcefulness constantly defy narrative restraint, so that the scenes in which they appear seem staged to release their sinister hilarity. Condemnable though these figures may be, moral reprobation sinks before the spectacle of Fagin schooling his gang of pick- pockets, or Quilp bullying his wife by a display of indiscriminate voracity, or Pecksniff liquorishly fon- dling Mary Graham. For these characters also make an enduring appeal through their histrionic virtuosity. Old Martin Chuzzlewit is in reality paying grudging tribute to this faculty when he says to Pecksniff: [124/125]
"Why, the annoying quality in you, is . . . that you never had a confederate or partner in your juggling; you would deceive evervbody, even those who practise the same arr; and have a way with you, as if you — he, he, he! — as if you really believed yourself. I'd lay a handsome wager now, . . . if I laid wagers, which I don't and never did, that you keep up appearances by a tacit understanding, even before your own daughters here.... You're not offended, Pecksniff?"
"Offended, my good sir!" cried that gentleman, as if he had received the highest compliments that language could convey.
In the later novels evil-doing, as has been said, is presented under an instiutionalized aspect; and the villains, as a general rule, no longer exhibit the same malignant joy in wrong for its own sake. Already in Barnaby Rudge, Dennis the hangman condones his scoundrelism by appealing to the punitive legal system of which he is a minion; and so barefaced a malefactor as Blandois in Little Dorrit repeatedly insists that he is a gentleman who conducts himself no whit differently from respectable members of the business and professional classes. Yet, although the behavior of a Dombey or a Tulkinghorn or a Madame Defarge is in part explicable by class affiliation, the rampant evil in Dickens' world cannot finally be assimilated to any social system. There lurks at its heart an insoluble element suggestive of the novelist's ambivalent attitude toward the sources of human motivation.
Much of the time Dickens seems to have subscribed to the teaching of the political economists that individuals are shaped by environment. Monks' diabolical plot against Oliver is based on the assumption that the boy cannot avoid being contaminated by association with Fagin and his gang. "The wily old Jew," Dickens writes, "had the boy in his toils. Having prepared his [125/126] mind, by solitude and gloom, to prefer any society to the companionship of his own sad thoughts in such a dreary place, he was now slowly instilling into his soul the poison which he hoped would blacken it, and change its hue for ever." Similarly, of Nicholas Mckleby's appalled recognition that Dotheboys Hall is a spawning-ground for every kind of vice, the novelist says:
But the pupils — the young noblemen! How the last faint traces of hope, the remotest glimmering of any good to be derived from his efforts in this den, faded from the mind of Nicholas as he looked in dismay around! Pale and haggard faces, lank and bony figures, children with the countenances of old men, deformities with irons upon their limbs, boys of stunted growth, and others whose long meagre legs would hardly bear their stooping bodies all crowded on the view together; there were the bleared eye, the hare-lip, the crooked foot, and every ugliness of distortion that told of unnatural aversion conceived by parents for their offspring, or of young lives which, from the earliest dawn of infancy, had been one horrible en- durance of cruelty and neglect. There were little faces which should have been handsome, darkened with the scowl of sullen, dogged suffering; there was childhood with the light of its eye quenched, its beauty gone, and its helplessness alone remaining; there were vicious-faced boys, brooding, with leaden eyes, like malefactors in a jail; and there were young creatures on whom the sins of their frail parents had descended, weeping even for the mercenary nurses they had known, and lonesome even in their loneliness. With every kindly sympath~ and affection blasted in its birth, with every young and healthy feeling flogged and starved down, with every revengeful passion that can foster in swollen hearts, eating its evil way to their core in silence, what an incipient Hell was breeding here!
The warped natures of Smike in Nicolas Nickleby and of Hugh in Barnaby Rudge are alike referable to [126/127] early neglect and maltreatment. And in the Preface to Martin Chuzzlewit Dickens, somewhat unconvinc- ingly, attempts to explain Jonas' criminal disposition on the same grounds:
I conceive that the sordid coarseness and brutality of Jonas would be unnatural, if there had been nothing in his early education, and in the precept and example always before him, to engender and develop the vices that make him odious. But, so born and so bred, admired for that which made him hateful, and justified from his cradle in cunning, treachery, and avarice; I claim him as the legiti- mare issue of the father upon whom those vices are seen to recoil.
At other times Dickens' division of his characters into camps, opposing unassailable virtue to immitigable depravity, points to an essentially Manichaean habit of mind. In answer to the charge that the portraiture of Sikes was too unrelieved in its darkness, the author offered the following tentative excuse in the Preface to Oliver Twist:
. . . I fear there are in the world some insensible and callous natures, that do become utterly and incurably bad. Whether this be so or not, of one thing I am certain: that there are such men as Sikes, who, being closely followed through the same space of time and through the same current of circumstances, would not give, by the action of a moment, the faintest indication of a better nature.
In the same novel the half brothers, Monks and Oliver, stand in implausibly stark contrast. The malevolent motivation of the one is as incomprehensible as is the other's innate innocence, given the conditions under which he grows up. A similar polarity of moral ab- solutes creates an unbridgeable gulf between Quilp and Nell in The Old Curiosity Shop. [127/128]
Sceptical of organized charity and all other official agencies for reform, Dickens relied on individual benevolence to relieve suffering and misfortune. In the early novels, as has been noted, this mission is entrusted to the company of affluent and compassionate elders which includes Pickwick, Brownlow, the Cheeryble brothers, Garland, old Martin Chuzzlewit, Betsey Trotwood, and John Jarndyce. Although the Cheeryble brothers were inspired by a pair of philanthropic Manchester industrialists, Dickens' portrayal of this type is so deliberately lacking in realism that one may doubt whether its exemplars were ever actual to their creator in other than a symbolic sense. Their Olympian hovering over the action of the stories, on which they fortuitously intervene at opportune moments, suggests that they belong to a transcendent order representative of ideal charity. Esther Summerson, indeed, acknowledges as much when she admits at the end of Bleak House to feeling towards John Jarndyce "as if he were a superior being. . . ."
Dickens' growing insight during the 1840S into the organic constitution of Victorian society led to im- portant developments in his methods of presenting character, as well as to the perfecting of his narrative art. A shift in perspective is reflected in the very titles of the later novels. In contrast to the early works named after their protagonists, Bleak House, Hard Times, A Tale of Two Cities, Nobody's Fault (the original title of Little Dorrit), Great Expectations, and Our Mutual Friend call attention to the new emphasis on theme within an expanding social focus. Edmund Wilson was the first to point out that Dickens originated "a new literary genre . . . the novel of the social group." Beginning with Dombey and Son, there is an increasing interaction between characters and their cultural milieu. Motivation is determined more by [128/129] environmental pressures and less by the impulses of the isolated and unrestrained ego. Society has assumed the role of corporate villain, and hldividual malefactions are made to seem symptomatic of prevalent abuses. The victimized child is a recurrent figure in Dickens' fiction from his earliest work; but in the mature novels the all but universal neglect or abuse of children by their parents is systematically elaborated as one of the signs of the times. Dombey's pride, so fatal to the happiness of his family, is a class pride, typifying the irresponsible exercise of authority by those in positions of rank and power. The novelist ironically poses the question: "Was Mr. Dombey's master-vice, that ruled him so inexorably, an un- natural characteristic?" And he goes on: "It might be worth while, sometimes, to inquire what Nature is, and how men work to change her, and whether, in the enforced distortions so produced, it is not natural to be unnatural." Given a social order dedicated to the perversion of all natural bonds, there is little to choose between Dombey and all the other heartlessly self- infatuated parents, including Mrs. Jellyby, Gradgrind, William Dorrit, Podsnap.
Such is the power of institutionalized evil in these later novels that individual philanthropy is of little avail. John Jarndyce is helpless to safeguard his wards, and Boffin seems almost to have been conceived as a parodv of the Pickwickian savior. In Dickens' early work, charity exists as a transcendent ideal, invading the stories from outside in the persons of altruistic, but essentially disengaged, benefactors. Florence Dombey bey signalizes the emergence of new type to embody the regenerative power of love, now represented as in- hering within the social scene. She is the first of the suffering girl heroines who play a redemptive role in most of the subsequent novels. The category includes, [129/130] in addition to Florence, Agnes Wickfield, Esther Summerson, Sissy Jupe, Amy Dorrit, Lizzie Hexam. There is an unmistakable family likeness among these characters. A development from the lost children, Oliver Twist and Nell, of the earlier works, they exhibit in fusion a number of traditional strains associated with the archetypal figure of the saintly innocent, as variously endorsed by New Testament Christianity and the romantic glorification of childhood.
The type can be enlarged to include the actual fools who so often originate or are the occasion for meritorious actions in Dickens' fiction: Smike, Barnaby Rudge, Mr. Dick, Maggy in Little Dorrit, perhaps even Joe Gargery. Henry James, who was less than sympathetic with these characters, wrote of Jenny Wren in his review of Our Mutual Friend: "Like all Mr. Dickens's pathetic characters, she is a little monster, . . . she belongs to the troop of hunchbacks, imbeciles, and pre- cocious children, who have carried on the sentimental busi- ness in all Mr. Dickens's novels, the little Nells, the Smikes the Paul Dombeys."
In virtually every respect, save incorruptibility of heart, they stand at the farthest remove from the images of paternal benignity. Whereas Pickwick and his successors are aging and securely prosperous members of the middle class, these figures are young girls, usually destitute and invariably unprotected. Esther is illegimate; Sissy and Lizzie come from the dregs of society and are illiterate. All have lost their mothers and have been neglected or otherwise mistreated by fathers or surrogate parents. They resemble each other in additional ways, which doubtless reflect Dickens' dislike of nis own disorderly family life. They share with their creator, for example, a kind of passion for tidiness in their domestic arrangements. Of Nell, who is in many ways the progenitor of the type, Gissing wrote: "From the beginning of the story, when she is seen making order and comfort in the gloomy old house, to the end of her wanderings in the cottage by [130/131] the still churchyard, her one desire is for the peace and security of home." Furthermore, like Nell, Dickens' later heroines habitually reverse the customary pattern of familial responsibility, the daughter assuming the place of mother and wife to the erring father. In every case the sovereign virtue which enables these beings to remain irreproachably immaculate amidst all the evil which environs them is a spiritual holiness based on unreflecting trust in divine providence. And their indubitable role in their respective narratives is to embody the dynamic power of love, as a touchstone for making moral discriminations among the actions of all the other characters.
Although Dickens' girl heroines are much more vitally involved in their stories than the patriarchal benefactors whom they replace, they, like all of the novelist's creatures who conform to type, are con- ceived in fundamentally static terms. They are, how- ever, frequently played off against a very different kind of female character who testifies to Dickens' growing concern with the psychological grounds of internal conflict. For the later novels present a remarkable series of women of passionate temperament, whose outbursts of feeling and reckless actions signify divided natures. They all, for one reason or another, have been humiliated, placed on the defensive, and relegated to the position of outsiders by society, with which they seek to get even for their wounded self-esteem. Their number includes Edith Dombey, Rosa Dartle, Lady Dedlock and Hortense, Louisa Gradgrind, Fanny Dorrit, Miss Wade and Tattycoram, and, with significant differences, Estella and Bella Wilfer. Whether innocent or guilty, all these fear, while at the same time they resent and defy, the tyranny of opinion. The sympathy which they in part compel as victims under a moral code inequitable in its oppression of their sex [131/132] is counteracted by their erratic response to fancied grievances. For all, like Miss Wade, are neurotic self-tormentors, riven between hatred against those who have used them and against themselves for submitting to be so used. Dickens, however, could never rival Richardson or Charlotte Brontë in fineness of insight into the feminine nature; and the interest which these characters arouse is dissipated through such anticlimactic scenes as that between Edith Dombey and Carker, or Rosa Dartle and Emily, or Louisa Gradgrind and her father on the night of Harthouse's attempted seduction.
Forster perceptively observed of Dickens' methods of characterization that
no man could better adjust the outward and visible oddities in a delineation to its inner and unchangeable veracities. The rough estimates we form of character, if we have any truth of perception, are on the whole correct: but men touch and inrerfere with one another by the contact of their extremes, and it may very often become necessarily the main business of a novelist to display the salient points, the sharp angles, or the prominences merely.
While generally true enough, this statement fails to take into account Dickens' fascination with the phenomenon of split personality or to give credit to his techniques for dramatizing the buried motives which individuals keep hidden from the world and even from themselves. That the writer had developed to a high degree the facultv of self-disassociation and was cap- able of dispassionately probing his own subliminal states of mind is apparent from his occasional writings. In "A Fly-Leaf in a Life" from The Uncommercial Traveller he speaks of "Being accustomed to ob- serve myself as curiously as if I were another man . . ."; and a second piece, entitled "Lying Awake" gives an astonishing display of the power of autosuggestion [132/133] on the passive mentality. Not surprisingly, then, in his more searching character studies, Dickens takes account of the conditions of imaginative awareness which lie on the borderline between the conscious and the unconscious and which find expression in dreams and related states.
Dickens' use of dreams for fictional purposes is extremely sophisticated, anticipating in many respects the findings of Freud. He is especially original in exploiting what may be called the waking dream, in which impressions derived from the surrounding world merge with subjective imaginings. Oliver Twist undergoes two such experiences, which leave in their wake an intuitive sense of the evil threatening him. The first occurs in Chapter 9 when Oliver "in a drowsy state, between sleeping and waking" beholds Fagin sorting over the jewelry which includes the trinket once in the possession of the boy's dead mother. "At such times," the author comments, "a mortal knows just enough of what his mind is doing, to form some glimmering conception of its mighty powers, its bounding from earth and spurning time and space, when freed from the restraint of its corporeal as- sociate." The second and more sinister episode comes in Chapter 34. Oliver's new-found security in the Maylie household is shattered when he awakens from a nap to the certainty that Fagin and Monks have been watching him through the open window. The scene is prefaced by this passage:
There is a kind of sleep that sreals upon us sometimes, which while it holds the body prisoner, does not free the mind from a sense of things abour it, and enable it to ramble ar its pleasure. So far as an overpowering heaviness, a prosrration of strengrh, and an utter inability tO control our thoughrs or power of morion, can be called sleep, this is it; and yet, we have a consciousness of all [133/134] that is going on about us, and, if we dream at such a time, words which are really spoken, or sounds which really exist at the moment, accommodate themselves with surprising readiness to our visions, until reality and imagination become so strangelv blended that it is afterwards almost a matter of impossibility to separate the two. Nor is this, the most striking phenomenon incidental to such a state. It is an undoubred fact, that although our sense of touch and sight be for the time dead, yet our sleeping thoughts, and the visionary scenes that pass before us, will be influenced and materially influenced, bv the mere silent presence of some external object; which may not have been near us when we closed our eves: and of whose vicinity we have had no waking consciousness.
Equally ambiguous in their implications are the dis- torted images of actuality that penetrate the drowsing minds of Nell, frightened by the nocturnal apparition of her father in the grip of his mania, and of Stephen Blackpool holding vigil over his drunken wife.
Allied with the dream state are the hallucinations which may torment the imagination under extreme emotional stress. Pip prophetically foresees Miss Havisham's death in the hanging effigy that appears to him on his first visit to Satis House. And memories of their long years of imprisonment come back to unsettle the minds of William Dorrit in his final collapse at Rome and Dr. Manette after Lucy's marriage. Differing in effect but equally revelatory of conflicting levels of apprehension are the watery visions which precede Paul Dombey's death and which shadow Eugene Wrayburn's struggle to survive.
Another device for dramatically projecting the warring impulses in man's nature, and one which particularly appealed to Dickens' imagination, is that of doubling. Sometimes, as in the case of Flintwinch and his twin brother, the novelist uses similarity in appearance [134/135] merely as a narrative contrivance. More often, however, a character recognizes in his double the more ideal or the more degraded half of his divided being. Thus, Sydney Carton confronts his better nature in Charles Darnay; and Edith Dombey's discovery of spiritual kinship with the fallen Alice Marwood provokes the surmise: "In this round world of many circles within circles, do we make a weary journey from the high grade to the low, to find at last that they lie close together, that the two extremes touch, and that our journey's end is but our starting-place?"
These graphic methods of bringing to the surface that clandestine other self which lurks in the inner recesses of being are displayed with special adroimess in the depictions of criminal behavior which are by general agreement Dickens' psychological masterpieces. R. H. Hutton, one of the novelist's earliest and most sagacious critics, declared: "No author indeed could draw more powerfully than he the mood of a man haunted by a fixed idea, a shadowy apprehension, a fear, a dream, a remorse...." And calling attention to Dickens' success in presenting "the restlessness of a murderer," Hutton comments on his knowledge of �'the sort of supremacy which a given idea gets over the mind in a dream, and in those waking states of neryous apprehension akin to dreams." Dream psychology is strikingly used to differentiate between two contrasting kinds of criminal mentality in the nightmares which visit Montague Tigg and Jonas Chuzzlewit on the eve of the murder of one by the other. Jonas, furthermore, is paralyzed by the hallucinatory conviction that he has become two separate individuals, as he prepares, after his deed of violence, to return to the room from which he set out in disguise: [135/136]
Dread and fear were upon him. To an extent he had never counted on, and could not manage in the least degree. He was so horribly afraid of that infernal room ar home. This made him, in a gloomy, murderous, mad way, not only fearful for himself bur of himself; for being, as it were, a part of the room: a something supposed to be there, yet missing from ir: he invested himself with irs mysteri- ous terrors; and when he pictured in his mind the ugly chamber, false and quiet, false and quiet, through the dark hours of two nights; and the tumbled bed, and he nor in it, though believed to be; he became in a manner his own ghost and phantom, and was at once the haunting spirit and the haunted man.
In like manner, subjective and objective reality intermingle and are confused in the visions that accompany the headlong flights of Sikes and Carker; and the staring eyes of the dog that drive Sikes over the parapet and the rushing of the engine that dismembers Carker gradually take on for the reader the same unearthly significance lent them in the demented imaginations of the transgressors.
Lady Dedlock, Bradley Headstone, and John Jasper brilliantly exemplify Dickens' handling of the device of doubling to project complexity of motivation in narrative terms. The true nature of each is revealed through the disguises that he assumes. At different times Lady Dedlock is identified with her fierce maid-servant Hortense and Jenny, the brickmaker's wife. The first deception helps create suspense about the perpetrator of Tulkinghorn's murder; the second serves to prolong the chase which fatally terminates at the gates of the burial ground. At a deeper metaphori- cal level, however, the two characters for whom Lady Dedlock is mistaken represent the felonious and con- science-stricken impulses contending in her breast. Hortense in a very real sense is her symbolic agent in settling accounts with the lawyer who has discovered [136/137]her secret. In changing garb with Jenny, Lady Ded- lock not only tacitly acquiesces to the common tie which unites all forlorn mothers, but symbolically atones for her failure in love toward her own daughter. Bradley Headstone's plot to pin suspicion on Rogue Riderhood is a subtle elaboration of Hortense's similar scheme with regard to Lady Dedlock. Of Bradley clad in his schoolmaster's attire the author writes that "there was a certain stiffness in his manner of wearing this, as if there were a want of adaptation between him and it...." When he masquerades as Riderhood, however, Dickens says: "And whereas, in his own schoolmaster's clothes, he usually looked as if they were the clothes of some other man, he now looked in the clothes of some other man, or men, as if they were his own." Bradley's hope that he can return to his old self by shedding the incriminating raiment is as unavailing as are his efforts to put behind him the crime which he perpetually reenacts in his thoughts. Riderhood's arrival to taunt him with the evidence of his duplicity precipitates the teacher's symbolic gesture of erasing his name which he has written on the black- board. The denouement follows with inflexible logic; for the circumstances of their deaths seal the fellow- ship of these twin spirits.
The Mystery of Edwin Drood, even in its un- finished form, carries to still more refined extremes Dickens' exploration of the mysterious incongruities in human motivation. The characterization of John Jasper, lay precentor of Cloisterham Cathedral and opium-eater, melodious singer and strangler, anticipates Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. For in this schizophrenic the two selves are fully internalized, and the conflict between good and evil is traced to its ultimate source in the irreconcilable duality of human nature.[137/138]
No one has presented the corrosive effects of guilt more vividly than Dickens. It, more than any other force, motivates change, whether for better or worse, in those of his characters who are not merely static. Dickens' villains are customarily destroyed by guilt, just as his protagonists are redeemed by its operation. It works, however, in different ways, being an effect of wicked actions, but a cause of noble conduct. Its destructive power is manifest in Dickens' earliest delineations of criminals, a Sikes or Ralph Nickleby. Not until relatively late in his career did he succeed, largely through its instrumentality, in creating psychologically convincing roles for the heroes of his stories.
The youthful "leads" who give their names to the early novels or who are nominally apportioned prominent parts in them, Nicholas Nickleby, Kit Nubbles, Jo Willett, Martin Chuzzlewit, Walter Gay, remain for the most part insubstantial figures. Bourgeois variations on the picaro seeking his fortune through adversity, they emerge unscathed from their adventures to enjoy the reward of the conventional happy ending. David Copperfield is the first of Dickens' protagonists who recognizably grows to maturity as a result of the trials he passes through. His characterization is the combined result of Dickens' deepened social awareness and of his need to impose a meaningful pattern on his own early experiences. In this novel, furthermore, Dickens first seriouslv confronted a challenge which he shared with other Victorian novelists: namely, the problem of locating within the context of contempo- rary manners and morals the grounds for heroic action. His solution to this problem, paralleling similar efforts by Thackeray , Trollope , and Meredith , was to seek to redefine the traditional concept of the gentleman in conformity with Victorian ideals. In David's eyes, it is Steerforth and not himself who is the hero [138/139] of the story through half its course. And, indeed, the two figures strangely complement each other. Both exhibit a certain ruthlessness in pursuing their ends. Without the narrator's proneness to self-delusion, Steerforth lacks the saving grace of fellow-feeling for the sensibilities of others which mitigates David's weakness. His egoism and readiness to capitalize on his personal charm and the prerogatives of social rank reappear in such gentlemen manque's as Harthouse in Hard Times and Henry Gowan in Little Dorrit. On the other hand, Steerforth repays David's idolatry with genuine, if condescending, affection; and he is sufficiently shamefaced over his failure to live up to the image he has instilled in David's heart to part with him before the final betrayal. If Steerforth so often usurps interest from the protagonist, it is because his conduct exhibits signs of inner stresses of conscience from which David is exempt as a result of the better fortune contrived for him.
Richard Carstone, whose deterioration under the seductive vision of unmerited gain carried out the author's original plan for Walter Gay, is a transitional figure, anticipating the more complexly motivated protagonists of subsequent novels. Arthur Clennam, Sydney Carton, Pip, and Eugene Wrayburn are inheritors of Richard's well-meaning, but vacillating, nature. Like him, also, they nurture undefined, although deeply ingrained, feelings of guilt, which relate them in many ways to the malefactors for whom Dickens compels sympathy. It was one of the novelist's great original insights that unjust treatment may be fully as effective as actual wrongdoing in arousin~ feelings of remorse and self-doubt. In The Old Curiosity Shop Kit Nubbles' anguish at being falsely accused occasions the following passage of commentary: [139/140]
Let moralists and philosophers say what they may, it is very questionable whether a guilty man would have felt half as much misery that night, as Kit did, being innocent. The world, being in the constant commission of vast quantities of injustice, is a little too apt to comfort itself with the idea that if the victim of its falsehood and malice have a clear conscience, he cannot fail to be sustained under his trials, and somehow or other to come right at last; "in which case," sav they who have hunted him down, " — though we certainly don't expect it — nobody will be better pleased than we." Whereas, the world would do well to reflect, that injustice is in itself, to every generous and properlv constituted mind, an injury, of all others the most insufferable, the most torturing, and the most hard to bear; and that many clear consciences have gone to their account elsewhere, and many sound hearts have broken, because of this very reason, the knowledge of their own deserts only aggravating their sufferings, and rendering them the less endurable.
Although reproachless, Florence Dombey cannot shed the conviction that she is somehow to blame for her father's hostility. Of the state of mind which ensued on his brutal whipping by Murdstone, David Copperfield says: "My stripes were sore and stiff, and made me cry afresh, when I moved; but they were nothing to the guilt I felt. It lay heavier on my breast than if I had been a most atrocious criminal, I dare say." And Pip nurses a residue of self-recrimination as a result of his sister's harsh treatment.
Guilt, instilled by injustice, has in Dickens' view the invariable effect of paralyzing the wills of its victims. The resulting apathy made up in equal measure of self-pity and distrust of active engagement in outside affairs, is brilliantly exemplified by the narrator of the strange short story entitled, "George Silverman's Explanation," as well as in Miss Wade's "The History of a Self-Tormentor." Such poseurs as Harthouse [140/141]and Gowan and Bentley Drummle make much of this lassitude as an aspect of their gentlemanly pretensions. The self-lacerating habit of mind which it induces in more consequential figures is most penetratingly explored in Little Dorrit, where it is associated not only with Mrs. Clennam's gloomy Calvinism, but with all the other socially sanctioned forms of egoism which incapacitate the characters in this novel. William Dorrit is not less disabled by his assumption of grandeur than Merdle is by his false eminence as a financier or Casby by his patriarchal posture or Miss Wade by her masochistic delusions.
Humphry House noted that Dickens' view of human nature does not allow for the concept of original sin. Its place is taken by the complex of penitential feelings which enmesh the novelist's most deeply studied characters — feelings which, although they originate in some private conviction of failure or insufficiency, carry with them a sense of responsibility for the evil perpetrated by others. As a result, for all these individuals the inertia imposed by the self-inflicted consciousness of guilt seeks release in acts of vicarious atonement for the actual guilt of others. Arthur takes on himself the burden of Mrs. Clennam's unrevealed secret, and Rokesmith sacrifices his in- heritance to make amends for the eccentric provisions of old Harmon's will.
In Dickens' world love is the only force strong enough to burst the bonds the imprisoning ego and to release the capacity for genuinely altruistic action. This is not the divisive sexual passion, which is really another form of self-love. A late discovery in Dickens' fiction, its power destroys Bradley Headstone and John Jasper, leading to deeds of violence which only confirm their dreadful isolation from their kind. The characters [141/142]who achieve self-transcendence are the ones who undergo a change of heart, having learned through suffering to prefer a good other than their own.
Allegorical implications hover over Dickens' representations of spiritual redemption. The fact cannot be too strongly emphasized, however, that Dickens invariably took pains to knit his thematic concerns into the texture of the narrative proper. For example, the expectations raised by Jarvis Lorry's password, "Recalled to Life" at the start of A Tale of Two Cities, are circumstantially satisfied by the recovery of Dr. Manette. It is only in the context of the entire train of events leading up to Sydney Carton's heroic sacrifice that the phrase takes on full metaphorical significance. The same is true for the splendid irony of the remark made at the end of Chapter 2 by Jerry Cruncher whose gruesome calling as a Resurrection-Man has yet to be revealed: "'Recalled to life.' That's a Blazing strange message. Much of that wouldn't do for you, Jerry! I say, Jerry! You'd be in a Blazing bad way, if recalling to life was to come into fashoion, Jerry!"
Although most clearly announced in A Tale of Two Cities, the theme of resurrection is common to all the late novels. Dombey and Son first establishes a recurrent pattern in which the regeneration of a central character is preceded by a period of illness or nervous disorder. Florence Dombey saves her father from suicide. David Copperfield is free to seek out Agnes only after a period of probation in Switzerland. Arthur Clennam undergoes purgation in the Marshalsea. Joe Gargery returns to nurse Pip through the sickness which ensues on Magwitch's death. John Rokesmith emerges with a new identity from near-drowning; and Eugene Wrayburn, broken in body and spirit, is quite literally reborn. In each instance, recovery conforms to the stages in the experience of conversion. The individual, having passed through his dark night of despair, affirms his recovery by some deed of expiation. These deeds are manifold in their points of moral reference; they may be motivated by a desire on the doer's part [142/143] to compensate for his own past transgressions; but in their salvific effects on the lives of others they incarnate the triumph of love over evil. Thus, Sydney Carton's death, in saving the husband of his beloved, at the same time redeems both the inhumanity of Darnay's aristocratic forbears and, more directly through his kindness to the seamstress, the matching inhumanity of the revolutionary tribunal. By succoring Magwitch, Pip does not simply repay in full his debt to his benefactor, but makes up for Compeyson's betrayal of Magwitch and his own of Joe.
The cases of Clennam and Wrayburn are slightly different, since each is tangibly recompensed for his transformation (as is also true for Pip in the revised ending of Great Expectations). Yet, each acts without expecting reward; and neither story, as has been pointed out, can be said to end in unclouded felicity. For in rededicathlg themselves to the happiness of Amy Dorrit and Lizzie Hexam, both Arthur and Eugene bring to their unions the contrite knowledge that through their own previous misprisal of the treasures of devotion offered them, they have helped confirm the martyr's role reserved for saints in this world. Nevertheless, Dickens is finally saying that salvation from the blight of the social will can only come through the reconstitution of the individual will by love.
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i don't know
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Of which high street retailer was Kate Swann the Chief Executive until July 2013?
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May | 2012 | Retail News | Page 2
Retail News
Posted by retail360uk
Walmart, the world’s biggest supermarket chain by sales, is poised to expand its smallest format stores, creating a further potential hurdle for Tesco’s lossmaking US business, Fresh & Easy.
Bill Simon, chief executive of Walmart’s US business told an investor conference last week that its smallest stores – which span 12,000 to 15,000 sq ft – were performing ahead of expectations and it planned to roll out more of these Walmart Express outlets.
Tesco’s Fresh & Easy stores, primarily in California, are about 10,000 sq ft, although it is rolling out a smaller format of 3,000 to 4,000 sq ft to move deeper into urban areas.
Speaking at a Morgan Stanley retail conference, Mr Simon said he was happy with the sales performance of the 10 initial Walmart Express outlets, a mix of grocer, pharmacy and convenience store.
He added: “What we are also happy with … is that inside of 12 months, they are turning profitable.”
Mr Simon said the group was still analysing how many Walmart Express stores could be supported by individual markets.
“You will see us in the back half of this year go to a market and build them out very densely so that we can understand their interaction with the rest of the market, including us,” he said.
Locations for Walmart Express stores include Chicago and North Carolina. The retailer is also opening midsized supermarkets of about 40,000 sq ft in markets including California.
Walmart’s move underlines the shift in the US from big hypermarkets to smaller stores, as consumers shop more locally amid rising fuel costs and to save money by cutting down on food waste.
But Walmart’s plans come at a delicate time for Philip Clarke, chief executive of Tesco. Last month, he revealed that Fresh & Easy would not meet its target of breaking even by February next year.
Instead, the chain is now expected to break even during the 2013-14 financial year. Tesco has also put significant US store openings on hold as it strives to make existing ones profitable.
Tesco is introducing a series of initiatives to turn round Fresh & Easy, including experimenting with a version of its “click and collect” online shopping service.
It has refitted stores, introducing features that are standard in the US, such as in-store bakeries and takeaway coffee. It has also made the supermarkets feel warmer and less utilitarian, and last year introduced a version of its successful Clubcard loyalty scheme.
Tesco has also shaken up the Fresh & Easy management. Tesco could not be reached for comment on Walmart’s plans.
Posted by retail360uk
Today is the first day of trade for Shoprite’s convertible registered bonds on the JSE after the group received approval on Friday.
SA’s biggest supermarket chain announced a concurrent share and bond offering in March aimed at raising funds to expand its operations, a move analysts say will help it take on Walmart.
It issued 27,1-million new shares, or about 5% of total shares in issue, at a price of R127,50 for proceeds of close to R3,5bn.
Its bond and share offering raised about R8bn, which CEO Whitey Basson said would strengthen its balance sheet by converting existing short-term funding to longer-term loans.
Shoprite placed R4,5bn fixed-rate senior unsecured guaranteed convertible registered bonds due in 2017 in March, and on May 9 placed R200m debt instruments.
The debt instruments would be traded in nominals of R10000 on the JSE’s equity trading platform, the company said.
The bonds, which may be converted into Shoprite shares during the life of the bond, will carry semiannual interest of 6,5% and will be redeemable at par in 2017, unless converted into shares at the election of the bond holder.
The initial conversion price in respect of the bonds will be set at a premium of 32,5%-37,5% above the placing price of its equities.
The bonds will be issued at 100% of their nominal amount and, unless previously converted, repurchased or redeemed, will be redeemed at par in 2017.
Shoprite will have the option to call the bonds after the first three years if the price of the shares exceeds the prevailing conversion price over a specified period.
Posted by retail360uk
India’s Gitanjali Group, one of the world’s largest jewelery retailers and a favourite with Bollywood film stars, is setting up in the Middle East and will open its first store in Dubai next month.
Founded in India in 1966, Gitanjali Group has an annual turnover of over US$2.1bn and has around 4,000 points of sale in India, with additional outlets in China, the US, Japan and the UK.
“The group is eyeing the lucrative Middle Eastern market and as a result opening its first store beginning of next month in Dubai,” a spokesperson said on Monday.
“As part of an aggressive expansion plan they intend to open a number of stores this year in Dubai to cater to the luxury clients of the region.”
Listed on Indian stock exchanges since 2007, Gitanjali;s gems are a favourite with Bollywood superstars, with Shah Rukh Khan, Katrina Kaif, Salman Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Sonakshi Sinha, Bipasha Basu, Kareena Kapoor already signed up as brand ambassadors.
Posted by retail360uk
The opening of Ski Dubai in 2005 was a turning point for the Middle East. The construction of an ice cold winter resort in the middle of the desert meant Dubai had conquered the unconquerable, and there was no stopping the region’s most ambitious developers from then on. Indeed, when Saudi Arabia said recently it planned to build the world’s first underwater mosque, it came as no surprise to expatriates and those who have visited the Gulf states before, many of whom were already familiar with the region’s love of innovative ideas.
UAE-based developer Majid Al Futtaim (MAF) Holding, the company behind Ski Dubai and Mall of the Emirates, has continued to profit from its wintry investment ever since. Not only does the company now have a reputation as an expert mall and resort builder, but it has also enjoyed a healthy and regular income from the retail side of the business. Today, it is eyeing a whole host of shopping centres and novel entertainment concepts across the Middle East and Africa, quite possibly including more ski resorts in the Arab world’s biggest markets.
“We’re looking at around ten or eleven malls in the next five to seven years,” says Peter Walichnowski, head of Majid Al Futtaim (MAF) Properties, from the MAF headquarters in Dubai. Sitting next to him is Iyad Malas, the CEO of MAF Holding. He explains how MAF Properties is the division responsible for building the company’s malls, hotels and mixed-use developments, but in truth all aspects of the business including MAF Ventures and MAF Retail, have their part to play. Walichnowski adds: “We’re not only concentrating on very large malls like the Mall of the Emirates; we’re also looking at neighbourhood and community malls.”
Certainly the concept of neighbourhood shopping is becoming more popular in the region, with several rival retail conglomerates announcing similar plans. According to Walichnowski, a
neighbourhood mall has approximately 20 shops whilst a community mall will have around 100.
Posted by retail360uk
MUSCAT — The Wave, Muscat, the Sultanate’s premier lifestyle destination, is set to see an eightfold increase in its retail space with the release of Al Marsa Village Centre. By 2014, The Wave, Muscat will claim its place on Muscat’s retail map with Al Marsa Village Centre expanding the retailing opportunities at The Wave, Muscat from 1,500 sqm to 12,500 sqm.
Almeria North, home to Costa Coffee, WH Smith, Kwik Kleen, Shang Thai, Al Fair and Pizza Express, is now 100 per cent occupied and is set to welcome its final tenant, Shakespeare and Co, opening in July. This latest addition to Almeria North will occupy a 300 sqm café-restaurant decked out in cozy chic interiors, a concept which has seen phenomenal success.
With a diverse menu, offering traditional Arabic fare to French patisserie, indoor and outdoor seating and a private dining room, Shakespeare and Co will offer a completely new dining experience for The Wave, Muscat and wider Muscat residents.
Following the successful development and leasing of the Almeria North precinct, ground will be broken on The Wave, Muscat community shopping development, the Al Marsa Village Centre in the coming months. The construction works are scheduled for completion in Q1 2014.
The village centre development will be the premier retail destination within The Wave, Muscat and will include a combined total of 10,500 sqm of retail and commercial space for lease, including 400 dedicated car parking spaces.
Anchored by one of the world’s premium grocers, Waitrose, the Al Marsa Village Centre will also host community services including medical and dental facilities complemented by further food and beverage outlets.
Troy Hart, Vice-President of Asset Management at The Wave, Muscat, said: “This is a significant year for our retail, seeing us welcome a number of regional and international names to The Wave, Muscat.
“Al Marsa Village Centre will offer residents and the Muscat community a full service local retail centre to cater to all their needs. We look forward to welcoming Waitrose and Shakespeare and Co’s first operations in Oman. It’s an exciting time for The Wave, Muscat and for retailers looking to align their brands with the premium lifestyle destination in Oman.”
Posted by retail360uk
The former boss of PC World and Currys will reportedly receive a $56million (£36million) golden hello from Apple after taking charge of its retail arm.
John Browett was awarded the hefty payout from the technology giant following its poaching of him from Dixons Retail in February.
The payment, which will be staggered over five years and paid in shares, is likely to fuel the debate even further over executive pay.
John Browett, former executive at Tesco and Dixons, received the huge payout after joining Apple in February
The decision to set Mr Browett’s salary so high comes after a series of shareholder revolts elsewhere, in which investors have overwhelmingly voted to reject company’s pay reports.
But boards have insisted that they must offer strong incentives in a bid to recruit the best talent and remain competitive.
The generous salary is not the first time Apple has been willing to spend vast sums on retaining or attracting senior staff.
Tim Cook, who replaced Steve Jobs as chief executive last August, is said to be sitting on deferred stock worth more than $500million (£320 million).
It emerged last week, however, that Cook refused roughly $75million in dividends from over one million shares.
In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday, Apple says Mr Cook asked that his restricted stock units not receive dividends.
A recently instituted company program had allowed Apple employees to accumulate dividends on their restricted stock units that are still vesting, according to the company.
Mr Browett, who is now in charge of overseeing Apple’s 361 stores worldwide was formerly a management high-flyer at Tesco’s internet shopping division.
He subsequently joined Dixons at the end of 2007, and overhauled the business after a sustained period of under-performance.
And whilst sales and profits have been under pressure in recent months, Dixons saw off the challenge of US firm Best Buy, which earlier this year shut its 10 ‘big box’ megastores in a joint venture with Carphone Warehouse.
Posted by retail360uk
Ram Garikipati: Korean retail therapy for foreign chains : Two of the Big Three failed in one of Asia’s most dynamic markets. Their experiences hold lessons for foreign retailers.
After a quiet period, intense lobbying for opening up multi-brand retail once again seems to be hotting up. On May 24, Carrefour’s India head, Jean-Noel Bironneau, met Commerce Minister Anand Sharma, and his counterparts from Wal-Mart, Tesco and Costco will no doubt follow soon.
Ever since the government announced its decision to allow foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail trade, and then backtracked, there have been a flurry of articles on the pros and cons of such a move. There is no clear answer and those in favour and against FDI have expressed ample views. So, another attempt to do so would be futile, although it must be stressed that allowing FDI does not mean that the global retail giants will automatically wind up capturing the market.
Take their experience in South Korea, home to one of Asia’s most dynamic and largest retail markets, ranking fourth behind Japan, China and India, with a relatively wealthy population. Wal-Mart and Carrefour have had to beat a retreat after struggling for years to increase market share. Tesco is the only successful foreign retailer, going from strength to strength.
The varying success of these three retail giants in South Korea has become must-read case studies for all potential foreign investors. It also holds lessons for them in the Indian market, given the high complexities in terms of a wide geographic spread and distinct regional consumer preferences.
Historically, South Korea kept its major retailing operations closed to foreign ownership. It was only in 1988 that the government began a series of three-year plans designed to improve the efficiency and productivity of the retail and distribution industry. The first stage of this process occurred in 1989 when regulations on the establishment of foreign companies’ subsidiaries and the inflow of FDI were eased. Then, foreign retailers were permitted to establish stores at a maximum size of 1,000 sq m, as prescribed by the second stage of the open-up policy.
The regulations on the number and size of retail outlets of foreign companies were further relaxed in the third stage of the programme beginning in 1993, when foreign companies were allowed to open up to 20 stores with each store not exceeding 3,000 sq m. It was not until 1996 that FDI in the Korean retail market was completely liberalised and foreign retailing companies began expanding there in earnest.
Sensing huge opportunities, Wal-Mart, Carrefour and Tesco entered the country around the same time, but adopted different strategies.
Wal-Mart attempted to penetrate the Korean market by building stores in distant areas where land prices were low, replicating the US strategy of smaller-city store build-up. It had only 16 stores in all of Korea with just one in the Seoul metropolitan area and could not achieve economies of scale. The company expected the Korean consumers to drive to its stores for price shopping as American consumers do. However, this location strategy did not match well with the Korean consumers’ lifestyle and shopping habits. They prefer to buy smaller units on a more frequent basis and to have accessibility to a store within walking distance.
As a result, Wal-Mart faced serious challenges in implementing its core competence in South Korea. Moreover, it could not enjoy its buyer power in the local vendor market and had no control over its Korean supply chain and procurement. Eventually, it packed its bags in 2006.
Carrefour had a similar story. Despite its experience elsewhere, the company failed to localise its stores to a sufficient extent. Instead, it tried to introduce its global practices and strategies in the country. Its store layout, ambience, products and location failed to attract customers. The company wanted to attract customers by providing them high-quality products in bulk at low prices. Its stores were styled like warehouses and were simple in appearance compared to the stores of its competitors. Initially, customers were enthusiastic, but most of them were not bulk purchasers.
Also, unlike other markets, Korean customers prefer a clean and sophisticated atmosphere along with low prices. At the time of its exit in 2006, Carrefour was the fourth-largest retailer in the country, with 32 hypermarkets. The company had invested $1.5 billion, making it the largest foreign investor in the Korean market, but that was not enough to guarantee it success.
In contrast, Tesco had an effective “localisation” strategy for downstream activities. It entered the market by forming a joint venture with a major local partner, Samsung, leveraging its knowledge and expertise of the local market. Tesco devoted considerable attention to transferring its core capabilities to this new market, but did not attempt to iterate the British version of its retail format. It gradually increased its stake in the company to 95 per cent, but continued to localise its 450 stores, consisting of both large hypermarkets and small Express stores. Also, of Tesco’s 27,000 staff in Korea, only four are expatriates. As a result, it became one of Tesco’s biggest success stories, generating a third of its overseas sales.
One key factor that contributed to Tesco’s success was its ability to create “value” that is suitable for the Korean tastes and preference. While other foreign brands like Wal-Mart and Carrefour have failed, Tesco’s Korean brand, Homeplus, is moving from strength to strength, as it closes the gap with the market leader E-mart. It also has leveraged Korean’s love for high-tech, having just launched innovative virtual stores in subway and bus stops where customers can use their smartphones to buy products that are delivered right to their homes.
These stories contain valuable lessons for the global retail companies who now wish to expand their presence in India, whenever the law permits. Their multi-brand retail strategy has to be different from their wholesale cash and carry stores. Moreover, it is important to heavily localise operations keeping Indian tastes in mind, with or without a domestic partner. Blindly applying western business models for the Indian market will not work.
Posted by retail360uk
Lisney report….
The retail landscape remained very challenging during the first quarter of 2012. Economic uncertainty across Europe together with the on-going absence of funding in Ireland continued to dampen confidence. Cautious consumer sentiment and reduced spending resulted in further consolidation.
Since the peak of consumer spending in January 2008, the amount of money taken in by retailers at the tills is down over 28% with the volume of stock sold down over 22%. In the past 12 months, the areas most affected are department stores (volume -5.6% and value -4.5%), clothing and textiles (volume -2.7% and value -2.4%), and furniture and lighting (volume -6.6% and value -10.2%).
Despite the difficult conditions many retailers, both local and overseas, view the Irish market with enthusiasm as a result of the flexible leasing arrangements that can be obtained on attractive rental terms.
Activity
Demand for prime retail opportunities increased in Q1. This mainly emanated from overseas fashion, discount and restaurant operators, who see the value available when seeking new leases. In spite of this, the first quarter of 2012 did bring some casualties. The UK lingerie retailer La Senza went into liquidation and video game retailer Game went into administration. This resulted in both retailers closing all their stores in the Republic of Ireland. In addition, the landmark Dublin Woollen Mills store on Liffey Street closed their doors after 125 years in business with the freehold property now on the market at a price tag of €1.8m.
The troubled fashion retail chain A-Wear, which was purchased by Hilco in December 2011, has been sold once again to the Flacks Group. Company principal, Michael Flacks, has indicated that he is committed to developing the business and maintains that the company is seeking to open new stores in about 15 locations nationwide.
Dublin City Centre
No new lettings were completed on Grafton Street and Henry Street in the opening three months of the year, however, the number of enquiries has noticeably increased. Indeed, offers have been received for properties on both streets.
There was some positive news announced for Grafton Street in early March with Dublin City Council stating its’ intending to re-pave the street at a cost of €2.5m. Works are due to commence in January 2013 and it is estimated that it will take 12 months to complete due to the phased nature of the task. This should go some way towards assisting with the vacancy issues on the street. Lisney’s Retail Shutter Count shows that there are six units currently unoccupied on the street. In addition to this, there are further occupied units on the market for assignment or sub-let.
The rumoured deal whereby US retailer Banana Republic would take accommodation by combining the Zerep and the former Richard Allan stores on Grafton Street, is reportedly not now progressing. However, we understand that the retailer is continuing to seek representation on the street. Other retailers with requirements for Grafton Street include footwear retailers, Irregular Choice and Sketchers in addition to European jeweller, Thomas Sabo.
Henry Street arguably offers better value and this is reflected in the limited availability. Currently there are no unoccupied units on the street and there are only three shops available by way of assignment or sub-letting.
Dublin Surburban Shopping Centres
The leading suburban shopping centres continued to attract retailers in Q1, thus insuring that vacancy levels remain at manageable and respectable levels.
Dundrum Town Centre has secured a number of new retailers over the opening months of the year. The former bag shop Furla was divided into two 43 sqm stores and are now let to beauty product retailer Keihls and jeweller Pandora. Both retailers are reported to have taken their stores on long leases and have each paid an annual rent of about €130,000 exclusive of service charge and rates. Also secured for the centre was Café du Lart, who took the former Chinese Buffet King unit, a 465 sqm restaurant on a long lease at a reported rent of €200,000 pa.
In Blanchardstown Town Centre, construction has commenced on Boots’ new flagship store, which is due to open in the autumn. The store will extend to approximately 2,050 sqm and has been let to Boots on a long lease subject to a reported rent of €1.3m per annum exclusive of rates and service charge. Also in the centre, Compu B has taken a new lease of the former 130 sqm Monsoon store at a reported rent of €165,000 pa. Argus has closed their unit on first floor level but continue to trade from the adjacent West End Retail Park.
Out of Town Retail
Following a long period of inactivity, the first quarter of 2012 saw an increase in interest and indeed activity in out of town retail parks. Retailers such as DFS, Homestore + More, Easy Living and Maxi Zoo are seeking opportunities mainly in the greater Dublin area. Landlords have had to adopt a much more hands on approach in terms of the asset management of these parks. This includes consideration of alternative uses and the likelihood of obtaining the necessary planning consent for such uses.
In Blanchardstown Retail Park, DFS has taken a new lease on the former Curry’s unit. The accommodation, which extends to approximately 1,950 sqm, was let on a long-term lease subject to a rent reportedly in excess of €400,000 pa.
Outlook
The current level of retailer enquiries is encouraging. We expect a further increase in the number of transactions over the coming months given the excellent opportunities available for retailers seeking to expand or gain representation in Ireland. This will be particularly the case in Dublin city centre. That said, we expect the market to remain challenging, principally for those seeking to dispose of pre-February 2010 leases.
LISNEY RETAIL TEAM
Posted by retail360uk
The UK’s largest home improvement retailer says it is investing £69 million in a series of product revamps across its stores over the next few months.
B&Q, which is owned by FTSE 100 firm Kingfisher, said it would spend £19 million in developing new tiling and flooring shops within shops, which will see it launch £32 million worth of products. An additional £18 million will be invested in more “fashion-driven female friendly” ranges.
The ranges, which fall under the Colours brand, are a part of Kingfisher’s sourcing strategy with around 35% of the new tiling range being common across the group so customers will find the same products in the UK or its Castorama chain in France and Poland.
Martyn Phillips, B&Q UK and Ireland chief executive, said: “Customers from Penzance to Perth can buy products in B&Q knowing they are as stylish as those sold in our sister stores in Paris – globally sourced yet tailored to local trends and at the best possible prices.”
Among the product launches will be 64 new hard wood flooring products.
The announcement comes ahead of a trading update later this week, when the company is expected to reveal that the dismal weather in April left a dent in the sales.
Retail analyst Philip Dorgan expects B&Q’s owner Kingfisher to report an 11% drop in the chain’s like-for-like sales for the first quarter as it also comes up against tough comparisons with strong trading a year earlier.
It will leave B&Q profits down by 11% to £66 million, with the wider UK and Ireland operation, including trade arm Screwfix, off 11% at £76 million.
However there is still cause for optimism at Kingfisher, which has impressed analysts with a four-year turnaround programme that has resulted in full-year profits more than doubling to £807 million.
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H.E. Ahmed Butti Ahmed, Executive Chairman of Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation, Dubai Customs Director General, inaugurated the second Middle East Fragrance Summit (MEFS) 2012 which will last for two days at The Ritz Carlton – DIFC in Dubai.
In the opening speech, H.E. Ahmed Butti Ahmed stressed the important position of the summit as it represents the global platform for industry manufacturers and retailers to discuss, innovate and strategize on how to tap the unlimited potential of the Middle East fragrance retail market.
On his part, Mr. Shahzad Haider, Chairman of Fragrance Foundation Arabia (FFA), said: “Dubai Customs participation will considerably contribute to supporting this summit at the local and global levels.”
In his welcome speech, Haider commended the vigorous efforts of the government organizations in organizing fragrance industry and retail in the UAE. Haider also stressed that the public and private sectors should cooperate to fight counterfeited products and enact a federal law to resist this issue.
Mr. Mohammed Al Fahim, CEO of Paris Gallery Group – UAE, started the first session in the summit and spoke about the evaluation of fragrance market in the UAE, while Ms. Victoria Christian owner of Clive Christian – UK then started a session on the art of fragrance industry and brand creation. Mr. Roja Dove from Roja Dove Fragrances – UK – discussed retail market development.
Eng. Mohammed Badri, Director General of Emirates Standardization and Metrology Authority “ESMA” spoke about the mechanisms of organizing the fragrance market and cosmetics in the UAE. Badri stressed that ESMA will create a specialized national committee during the second half of December 2012 to produce standard federal specifications to control and supervise the fragrance & cosmetics sector.
The final session witnessed a panel discussion about the trends and preferences of consumers. Most interesting part was live polling where industry leaders vote their opinion on the mist crucial aspects of fragrance and its future. Many prominent figures participated in the panel discussion such as Mr. Hussein Adam Ali, Chairman of Swiss Arabian Fragrance, Mr. Mark Lockyer, Managing Director of Sampling Innovations – UK, Mr. Roja Dove from Roja Dove and Mr. Abdul Wahab Al Hawaj.
Posted by retail360uk
A rumor has been flying this afternoon about a potential Facebook acquisition of Norwegian browser company Opera. Pocket-lint broke the news in a post earlier today indicating that it had “heard from one of its trusted sources that the social networking giant is looking to buy Opera Software, the company behind the Opera web browser.”
Opera started in 1994 as a research project at Telenor, the largest Norwegian telecommunications company. In 1995, it branched out into a separate company named Opera Software ASA. The company claims to have around 200 million users across all of its platforms making it one of the top commercial browsers available. The company is also well known for its mobile browser which has particularly good HTML5 support, a growing standard in the mobile application space.
It’s interesting to note that it seems that “web browsers” lately have become the new status symbol for major web companies, with Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Apple and Yahoo all offering it’s own take on them. A mobile browser component would compliment the mythical “Facebook Phone” rumored to be in development completing all the required components needed to launch it’s own phone platform. If the rumor turns out to be true, we may be about to see the emergence of yet another browser war. This time embedded with all your social information. A scary thought for some, but a necessary one.
The browser may very well be the the new OS after all.
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A decade after the dot-com implosion, traditional retailers are lagging in their embrace of digital technologies.
To survive, they must pursue a strategy of omnichannel retailing—an integrated sales experience that melds the advantages of physical stores with the information-rich experience of online shopping.
Retailers face challenges in reaching this goal. Many traditional retailers arenʼt technology-savvy. Few are adept at test-and-learn methodologies. They will need to recruit new kinds of talent. And theyʼll need to move away from analog metrics like same-store sales and focus on measures such as return on invested capital.
Traditional retailers must also transform the one big feature internet retailers lack—stores—from a liability into an asset. They must turn shopping into an entertaining, exciting, and emotionally engaging experience. Companies like Disney, Apple, and Jordanʼs Furniture are leading the way.
Posted by retail360uk
Facing an uncertain U.S. economy and a flailing Europe, Italian fashion house Prada is planning to open 260 stores in the next three years to capture consumers in emerging markets who are hungry for luxury goods, a report says.
The Milan company, which owns Miu Miu and Church’s in addition to its marquee Prada brand, is planning fresh outlets in countries such as Turkey, China and Brazil, according to Bloomberg.
Prada Chief Executive Patrizio Bertelli (also husband of head designer Miuccia Prada) told Bloomberg that the company will add 100 new stores this year and 160 stores the following two years.
“We are expanding in Morocco, Istanbul, Beirut, Dubai and Qatar,” Bertelli said. “Brazil is also a big market we’re looking at.”
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DUBAI – New Yorker’s new store is placed in the Ibn Battuta Mall in Dubai. The German leading company of young fashion presents its latest collection on about 500 square metres retail space and invited all customers to the opening party on May 23.
With its brands Fishbone, Fishbone Sister, Smog, Amisu and Censored, New Yorker offers a wide range of latest trends. The modern shop concept assures an enjoyable shopping atmosphere while the New Yorker in-store radio provides all visitors with the latest music.
At the opening party, New Yorker had some great offers for its visitors. DJ Lins put on the show during the whole event. Promoters informed in and around the mall about the new store and its special offers.
The New Yorker Summer Collection 2012 is colourful and hot as the upcoming seasons: Fishbone Sister—Sun, sea and summer feeling. Hot summer looks with beach and tropical prints in neon and loud colours on tank tops and t-shirts. Combinations with grey melange, white and light pastels make the colours seem even brighter. Amisu — Pythons, palms and papaya — animal, ikat and tropical all-over prints for hot looks. Ladies become a taste of exotic passion and mix very different patterns for a bold style. Flowers on skinny jeans and fruits on shirts — lively and colourful or in soft pastels. Patterns are a must! Fishbone — Maximum colour blocking with bright and neon colours. Colourful stripes, cool street art and geometric all-over prints combined with denim and unicolours — all in bright and neon colours such as blue, green, orange or turquoise. Smog — Casual sailor and surfer looks. Sporty with polo shirts matched with short chinos and bermuda shorts. Sand, blue melange and coral goes along with the theme of colour.
The 12 ‘Portas pilot’ areas :
Bedford – mentoring support for businesses
Croydon – transforming the Old Town market
Dartford – school for shopkeepers
Greater Bedminster – street art, street theatre
Liskeard – vibrant arts scene, guerrilla gardening
Margate – putting education and enjoyment first
Market Rasen – restoring market town look
Nelson – youth cafe, art and vintage market
Newbiggin-by-the-Sea – transport, pop-up shops
Stockport – Markets and Underbanks revamp
Stockton-on-Tees – Globe Theatre entertainment
Wolverhampton – modern day town criers
Market Rasen wins Mary Portas high street cash
Market Rasen will get cash from a £1.2m government pot and advice from retail expert Mary Portas.
The town’s bid said its community team would “blitz” unkempt areas and work with landlords to fill empty shops.
The money from the Portas Pilot scheme will be used to offer free parking and restore the appearance of the town’s market.
The other successful applicants for the government award were Bedford, Croydon, Dartford, Greater Bedminster, Liskeard, Margate, Nelson, Newbiggin-by-the-Sea, Stockport, Stockton-on-Tees and Wolverhampton.
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Local Government Minister Grant Shapps said he had received more than 370 applications.
The government accepted the 28 recommendations from Ms Portas in her report on how to rejuvenate UK High Streets.
Sara Scott, from the Business Improvement Group in Market Rasen, said: “We’re absolutely over the moon about the news, it’s a brilliant result for the town and the traders.
“We’re hoping to do a regular market on a Saturday, but Market Rasen also has markets on Tuesdays and Fridays.
“So we’re hoping that if we put enough effort into making Saturday a big event then there’ll be some kind of overflow into the other days of the week to keep the town busy.”
Traders in the town believe the redevelopment would not only increase the number of people shopping in the area but also attract more businesses to open.
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Morgan Stanley, the lead investment bank in Facebook’s troubled initial public offering, will compensate retail investors who overpaid when they bought stock in the social network site’s flotation, a person familiar with the matter said.
The source said the firm was reviewing orders its retail clients placed for Facebook stock and would make price adjustments if the clients paid too much. The person did not say what amount constituted overpaying.
Facebook’s IPO (initial public offering) was highly anticipated. But technical problems on the Nasdaq Stock Market delayed the stock’s open last Friday. The stock closed nearly flat on its first trading day at 38.23 dollars (£24.50).
Morgan Stanley and Facebook face at least two lawsuits over the IPO. Both actions claim analysts at the large underwriting investment banks cut their second-quarter and full-year forecasts for Facebook just before the IPO and told only a handful of clients.
Morgan Stanley has declined to comment on the lawsuits and Facebook described them as “without merit”.
On Thursday Facebook’s stock closed up 1.03 dollars, or 3.2%, at 33.03 dollars. This gives the company a market value of 90.4 billion dollars (£57.9 billion), down from 105 billion (£67.3 billion) at the end of trading last Friday.
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Chief commercial officer Steve Gray and supply chain and business efficiency director Philip Streatfield have left Lloydspharmacy, just months after its managing director quit the business after less than a year in the role.
The departures come just a month after the health and pharmaceutical retailer restructured to create a new UK country board to oversee a shared operations strategy with its sister wholesale firm All About Health (AAH). The health and pharmaceutical retailer and AAH are both owned by German parent Celesio.
As a result of the restructure, Gray stepped into the role of chief commercial officer of Celesio. He was previously healthcare services director.
The departure of Philip Streatfield comes just ten months after he joined the company. He was previously European supply chain and IT director at stationery wholesaler Spicers.
It is unclear if both Gray and Streatfield left with jobs to go to.
A Lloydspharmacy spokeswoman said: “Lloydspharmacy can confirm that Steve Gray has decided to resign from the organisation to embark upon new challenges and opportunities.”
She added: “Clearly Steve’s departure leaves a gap in the country board and at Lloydspharmacy, but we expect to move swiftly to identify a suitable replacement.”
It is unclear if Streatfield’s role will be filled.
The departures mark the latest changes at management level for the health and pharmaceutical retailer. Managing director Tony Page left the company in January after less than a year in the role. The company said last month that he would not be replaced after it created the new UK country board.
Through the restructure, former AAH group managing director Mark James became chief executive of the newly formed Celesio UK country board. AAH finance director Thorsten Beer was appointed chief financial officer.
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Fashion retail chain Mr Price hoped to extend trading space by 5% in the coming year and was set to launch an online store to grow market share, it said in its results for the 52-weeks ended March, released yesterday.
The owner of Miladys, Sheet Street and Mr Price Home will open about 70 new stores and expand highly performing stores and reduce the size of poorly performing stores, it said.
The company warned it would need to increase investment in supply chain and information technology to match the complex needs of its growing business.
Last year CEO Stuart Bird said the group would focus on “internationalisation”. The company opened a store in Nigeria during the period and planned to open one in Ghana next month.
Its past financial year consisted of 52 trading weeks, against 53 weeks over the previous period.
Good performances from its apparel divisions combined with a strong performance from its home-ware division grew sales 10,2%. Sales excluding new stores rose 8,2%.
Other revenue grew 23,3% thanks to a 47,8% rise in income from the sale of financial services and a 20,3% increase in interest on trade receivables. Continued focus resulted in costs increasing 8,8%, a rate lower than the sales growth, the company said.
The apparel division, which accounts for more than 70% of group sales and consists of Mr Price, Mr Price Sport and Miladys, increased sales and other revenue by 13,7% to R8,7bn, with comparable sales up 10,6% and retail selling price inflation of 4,6%.
The home division ( Mr Price Home and Sheet Street) increased sales and other revenue by 10,7% to R3,4bn, with comparable sales up by 9,5% and retail selling price inflation of 5,9%.
Nedbank Securities retail analyst Syd Vianello said the company’s results were in line with guidance it had given.
“The home division made a strong recovery and improvements were made in Miladys and Mr Price apparel.” He credited the rationalisation of the store base, but suggested it could be the first sign that there has been a fundamental shift in the market, putting Mr Price in the lead.
Mr Vianello said the company had got its fashion right and reaped the benefits of consumers down-trading. “The numbers are also ahead of Stats SA retail numbers and that of the Retailers Liaison Committee sales growth data,” he said.
Earlier this month, Statistics SA said retail sales fell 1,2% in the first quarter of the year.
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Scottish fashion retailer M&Co, which has almost 300 stores across the UK, has just debuted in the Middle East. First store is now up and running in Dubai and soon will see more outlets across the Gulf.
The store is located in the fashion central of Dubai – The Dubai Mall. M&Co is exclusively distributed in the Middle East by Liwa Trading Enterprises, retail arm of Al Nasser Holdings.
Commenting on the launch of the store, Iain McGeoch, Chairman and CEO of M&Co says, “We are happy to open our first flagship store in this region. Dubai being an ultimate retail paradise, we believe it is a perfect launch pad for our brand in the gulf market. We are confident that our partnership with Liwa will benefit our business as the Group has a strong hold in the retail market. They understand the market and the consumer pulse very well which will be the strength of M&Co in the region.”
“We are pleased to introduce M&Co to this region. As a well-established and recognized fashion brand in the UK, M&Co will certainly enhance our brand portfolio and diversify our business in the UAE and the international markets. As a Group we aim to bring quality and trendy international fashion brands to the region for our customers here to have a complete shopping experience. We hope to take the brand across the UAE in the near future,” added Aniss Baobied, General Manager of Liwa Trading Enterprises LLC.
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By global standards, the e-commerce platform in South Africa is small, but online retail sales have shown a steady increase over the past five years as the one-time timidness of South African shoppers takes a backseat and a growing number of techno-savvy consumers turn to the net for retail therapy and bargain-hunting.
A recent study from MasterCard revealed that online shopping had increased in South Africa and continued to show growth potential.
The company’s Worldwide Online Shopping Survey said the number of South Africans shopping online had steadily increased over the past two years, with 58% of respondents saying they used the internet for shopping.
This was an increase from the 53% in 2010, and 44% in 2009.
According to Arthur Goldstuck, managing director of World Wide Worx, once people are experienced internet users and go online regularly, their propensity to shop online increases dramatically.
“The key is to convert that propensity into shopping behaviour,” Goldstuck said.
He believes that from next year the participation curve will rise significantly and quickly.
Yesterday, Durban-based Mr Price reported a 19% rise in diluted headline earnings per share to 464.5c for the year ended March, from 388.8c a year ago. The current financial year comprised 52 trading weeks, while the prior year included 53 trading weeks, the group noted.
Operating profit grew 21.7% to R1.5-billion, and revenue rose 10% to R12.1-billion.
The company’s success stems from its fast-fashion model, which tracks offshore trends from the likes of Topshop, Mango and H&M, and delivers fashion offerings timeously, at affordable prices.
Mr Price’s return on equity increased from 46.0% to 47.2%.
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The new chief executive of Mothercare has vowed to be “ruthless” in cutting its UK costs, compete more aggressively on price and drive online growth to turn around the calamitous performance of its domestic operation.
Simon Calver, who joined the mother and baby group in April from DVD rental firm Lovefilm, today unveiled his turnaround plan to restore the UK business to “acceptable levels of profitability” in three years.
But the scale of the mountain he has to climb was laid bare by Mothercare posting a full-year loss of £102.9 million, following hefty non-cash write downs on the value of its Early Learning Centre business and property restructuring charges. The retailer, which has 1,339 shops in 59 countries, has “suspended” its dividend until the turnaround plans deliver a “marked improvement” in its results.
In his first public comments since taking the helm, Calver said: “We need to invest in e-commerce, be ruthless with our non-store cost base.”
The retailer, which has 311 UK shops, plans to slash its UK non-store costs by £20 million a year by 2015 in areas including distribution, more efficient contracts with suppliers, payroll and head office.
While it shrinks its UK business, Mothercare will “accelerate” its growth overseas, particularly in India, Brazil, Russia and China, and introduce dedicated websites in all its major international markets.
Mothercare plans to reduce its UK store numbers to 200 shops by March 2015, which Calver said was “absolutely the right number”.
The City appeared to like the overall message as Mothercare’s shares jumped by 24.8p, or 15%, to 189.3p.
Its UK business posted a loss of £24.7 million over the 53 weeks to March 31, dragged down by a 6.2% fall in underlying sales and tumbling margins.
Mothercare will introduce a cheaper “value” range of clothing in July to combat the threat of the supermarkets. But it will also launch a designer range from Jools Oliver, the wife of the TV chef Jamie, a month later.
Mother and baby products retailer Mothercare has reported a pre-tax loss of £103 million for the year to end March as it takes steps to turn its struggling UK business around. This compares with a profit of £8.8 million in the previous year.
Underlying profit before tax fell to £1.6 million from £28.5 million a year ago. The majority of the losses were the result of £55 million writedown on the value of the group’s Early Learning Centre together with charges relating to its store closure programme.
Mothercare currently operates 311 UK stores but plans to reduce store numbers to 200 by March 2015.
Worldwide network sales at the group rose 6.4% to £1,232.4 million with growth coming from the retailer’s stores outside of the UK. While total UK sales fell 4.6% to £560 million, total international sales rose 17.8% to £672.4 million.
Like-for-like sales in the UK dropped 6.2%. In contrast, international like-for-like sales rose 6.1%.
Mothercare said its UK business had suffered due to “a challenging economic backdrop” and an increasingly competitive environment.
Following two profit warnings last year and a subsequent review of the business, Mothercare announced a new strategy for the next three years. Priorities include reducing non-store costs and restoring UK profitability as well as accelerating international growth and developing the retailer’s worldwide multi-channel offering.
Calver added: “We need to invest in e-commerce, be ruthless with our non-store cost base and use our scale and growth worldwide to drive sourcing economies and pass these savings onto the customers to improve our value for money around the world.
“Everything we do will enhance customer value, experience and loyalty in each of our 59 countries. My team and I are up for the challenge and, whilst there is much to do in this difficult economic climate, I look forward to delivering the ‘Transformation and Growth’ plan. As a team, this will be our most important delivery yet.”
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Mall operator Majid Al Futtaim today announced that it plans to open 20 additional outlets at its Mall of the Emirates centre before the end of the year.
New stores at the Dubai-based mall – which is home to the world’s largest indoor ski slope – include high-end designer brands Prada, Longchamps and Kate Spade, which are all set to open in summer.
Eateries including International House of Pancakes, The Cheesecake Factory and the UAE-based fast food outlet Just Falafel will also open at the centre.
“Retail stores and restaurants seeking to expand throughout the world are often choosing the UAE to open their first Middle East location, based on the growing demands for high-fashion and choice across shopping and dining sectors, said Fuad Sharaf, senior asset director, asset management, shopping malls, at MAF.
“Mall of the Emirates is boosting the UAE’s retail landscape by offering international brands with a platform for growth,” he added.
Last month, the company revealed plans to increase rents for retailers this year, as revenues at the shopping hub continue to rise.
Executives at Majid Al Futtaim (MAF) Properties told Arabian Business that rates would go up in 2012 after the mall, home of Ski Dubai, reported a 16 percent rise in sales in Q1.
“Yes, [rents will increase in 2012] because our first quarter of this year is already up 16 percent in sales so that will translate into improved returns for retailers,” Peter Walichnowski, CEO of MAF Properties said.
“We have never dropped rents. Rents are a function of turnover and our turnover is going up. The retailers are always happy to pay more rent if the turnover is going up. In Dubai, our retailers are very happy; we have waiting lists on all our malls, so there is no shortage of retailers wanting to get in.”
Walichnowski added that the company would also boost rates at its Deira City Centre and Mirdif City Centre properties, which he claimed were proving similarly popular with local and international brands.
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Prada, the Italian fashion company that owns the Miu Miu and Church’s brands, plans to add 260 stores in the next three years to tap demand in emerging markets including Brazil, China and Arabian Gulf countries.
“We are expanding in Morocco, Istanbul, Beirut, Dubai and Qatar,” CEO Patrizio Bertelli said in an interview with Bloomberg Television conducted in Italian via a translator. “Brazil is also a big market we’re looking at.”
Demand for Prada’s leather goods and other items is increasing even as China’s economic growth slows and Europe’s debt crisis weighs on consumer spending, according to Bertelli. Chinese tourists are fueling growth in Europe, he said.
Sales of discretionary goods in China will grow by a compounded annual rate of 13.4 percent between 2010 and 2020, as shoppers in the world’s second-largest economy become richer, McKinsey & Company said in a report in March. Chinese urban disposable income rose 14 percent to about RMB21,810 (US$3,450) in 2011.
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A couple of months ago Apple was planning its first retail location in Sweden after job listings were discovered on Apple’s website. There were reports at the time that the store would end up somewhere in Stockholm’s city center, but the exact location was otherwise unknown. Today, local reports from 99mac and others claimed Apple is now confirming to new employees that the store will be located in the NK mall in Stockholm. According to the report, there is also talk that Apple is planning more retail locations for Malmö and Gothenburg, and possibly a second location in Stockholm.
The Stockholm store increases Apple’s retail presence to 13 countries, and it is expected to open sometime in August or September. NK Mall has two locations in Stockholm and Gothenburg, with the Stockholm location alone receiving roughly 12 million visitors annually.
Posted by retail360uk
Facebook, the social networking company that listed last week in one of the largest initial public offerings (IPOs) in US history, will open an office in Dubai in a bid to boost advertising revenues from the oil-rich GCC.
The social network will open up in Dubai Internet City with an initial staff of three, local media reported citing sources familiar with the plans. The official launch date is slated for May 30.
Facebook is one of the most popular social networking sites in the Arab world. More than half of the UAE’s population is signed up to the site, according to a 2011 report by the Dubai School of Government. Arab Facebook users reached 43m April, according to an Arab Social Media report.
Facebook listed its shares on Friday in the third-largest IPO in US history, valuing the eight-year old company at US$104bn.
But the social networking company’s sky-high valuation coupled with trading glitches has left the stock languishing near its offering price.
Shares in New York on Tuesday closed 8.9 percent lower at US$31, following an 11 percent decline on Monday.
The firm has lost more than US$19bn in market capitalisation from its US$38 per share offering price last week.
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Luxury fashion brand Burberry Group has reported a strong set of annual results with both revenue and pre-tax profits up as it continued to open new stores.
In the year to 31 March 2012, profit before tax soared 24 per cent to £366 million from £296 million in 2011, while revenue also jumped 24 per cent to £1.86 billion.
The retailer opened another 23 stores in the period, including its first flagship outlets in Hong Kong, Paris and Taipei.
All regions saw double-digit growth in the year but Asia Pacific now accounts for 37 per cent of both retail and wholesale revenue, making it the company’s largest region.
In China alone Burberry has 63 stores, making up 12 per cent of group retail and wholesale revenue, as it capitalises on the region’s increasing wealth.
The UK and France also performed well, in spite of the tough economic climate in both countries.
Chief executive officer Angela Ahrendts commented, ‘While we remain vigilant about the external environment, we will continue to invest in front-end opportunities within our brand, digital and retail strategies, to drive sustained, profitable growth and enduring customer engagement over the long term.’
In its trading statement, the group revealed that it plans to invest up to £200 million in the coming year, which will see its retail space grow by between 12 per cent to 14 per cent.
It highlighted menswear, which grew 26 per cent and now represents 24 per cent of revenue, as a ‘significant growth opportunity’.
The group’s full-year dividend rose 25 per cent to 25p.
Despite the results, shares in Burberry are trading down 4.04 per cent to 1,330.00p at 09.41am.
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Vodafone Group CEO Vittorio Colao says he expects the number of its UK retail stores to be cut over the next three years
Vodafone Group CEO Vittorio Colao says he expects the number of its UK retail stores to be cut over the next three years.
Vittorio, who was speaking during an event held in London today (May 22) to discuss the operators financial year performance, told Mobile News Vodafone wants its stores to be more focussed on services rather than sales.
He said this will see the size of some stores increased, but the number of locations reduced as part of a strategy to boost customer service and retention levels. He did not discuss how many of Vodafone’s 400 stores would likely be cut however.
Vittorio also confirmed Vodafone will enhance its self-care and online support service by providing additional training to staff so they are better qualified to answer customer queries.
Vittorio said: “I imagine there will be fewer (stores) but they will be bigger and more open with more services in them. There will be fewer walls full of handsets and many more areas for services, and hopefully more people in the shops.”
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UAE-based Splash, a mid-market fashion retailer and a unit of Landmark Group, is planning to enter a number of African markets via franchise agreements, the firm’s CEO told Arabian Business.
The business, which sells a mixture of Western and its own fashion brands, has signed deals to open outlets in Libya and Kenya, as well as Sri Lanka, Raza Beig said.
“In the next 18 months we’ll be in about in another 15 or 16 cities,” he said, adding that the African continent will be the “first concentration”. The retailer’s only presence in Africa at the moment is in Egypt, where it has two outlets.
Beig added that Splash was also eyeing Far Eastern markets. “There’s also a lot of dialogue from the East, but we’ve not yet finalised it,” he said.
When expanding into international markets in the past the firm has typically invested its own cash, Beig said, but is now instead seeking franchise partners to do so.
“In Egypt when we went in we put our own money in, in Lebanon we went in we put our own money in. But now we’ve decided we’re going to take the franchise route,” he said.
“It’s easier and the person on the opposite side understands their markets very well and they can share the risk.”
Beig did not rule out the possibility of Splash at some point in the future expanding into more developed retail markets, such as Western Europe.
“We don’t know what’s going to happen in the West in the next 5-10 years – someone might come up to us and say we want your franchise, and we will give it,” he said.
Splash, established 19 years ago in UAE emirate Sharjah, is part of Micky Jagtiani’s Dubai-based conglomerate Landmark, whose other brands include retailers Homecentre and Babyshop and no frills hotel chain CityMax.
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Trading conditions for Marks & Spencer’s Ireland division “remain difficult”, according to the full year results for the retailer, which indicated an overall fall in profits of 1.2% across its business. Underlying profit to the 31 March 2012 stood at £705.9 million, down from £714.3 million last year.
Group sales at the retailer were up 2% to £9.9 billion, while its international sales were up 5.8%, however, this was mainly driven by growth in India, China and Hong Kong.
While the M&S figures do not go into detail on its Irish performance, the full year statement noted that “trading in the Republic of Ireland and Greece continued to be impacted by weakness in the local economies.” M&S launched a dedicated Ireland website earlier this year for the first time.
“Marks & Spencer performed well in a challenging economic environment, growing group sales by 2% and holding market share,” said chief executive Marc Bolland. “We managed the business prudently with tight control of costs and capital investment, delivering earnings in line with last year, and substantial efficiency savings in our capital investment plans.”
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Set to open April 4 this year, Fujairah City Centre is developed by Majid Al Futtaim and will be the first integrated entertainment and retail centre in the emirate, as well as one of the largest shopping malls in the region. Located on the intersection of the new Fujairah-Dubai highway and the Masafi Highway at the entrance to Fujairah city, the mall will have a 1,000-space car park, 34,000 sqm of retail space, a multi-screen VOX cinema, a Magic Planet family entertainment centre and scores of food and beverage outlets. Anchor retail tenants will include Centrepoint, Paris Gallery, Max Fashion and Carrefour (the largest in the emirate), as well as 105 value and mid-market brands, 85 percent of which will be new to Fujairah. The mall, which is in the final stages of construction, is also on-track to obtain a LEED Gold rating for its environmentally friendly design, making it the first building in the emirate to receive this classification.
Doha Festival City is a QR6bn (US$1.65bn) mega project and is slated for completion in the fourth quarter of 2014. The development, which is a joint venture between Bawabat Al-Shamal Real Estate Company (BASREC), the Al-Futtaim Group, Qatar Islamic Bank and other investors, will fill the gap in Qatar’s retail market and boost the amount of gross leasable area (GLA) for retailers by 260,000 sqm. The mall is being designed with four distinct interior zones: Water Concourse, Garden Promenade, Rainforest Boardwalk and Fashion Galleria. IKEA, which part of the Al-Futtaim Group in the region, will be the first section of the mall to be constructed, with a scheduled opening date of Q4 this year. The 32,000 sq m store will later be accompanied by a mix of other international and local brands such as Toys R Us, Marks & Spencer and Intersport across 400 outlets, and shoppers will have access to some 8,500 car parking spaces and a vehicle management system. The project is located 15km north of downtown Doha on Al Shamal Road, one of the main arterial routes to the city centre, making it an ideal location for a big mall. Linked to the shopping area will be automotive showrooms, two hotels and an entertainment complex, which Al Futtaim says will be “very large”. No further details have been given at this stage.
Abu Dhabi still might not be able to match Dubai on the retail front, but with the new Yas Mall on its way, this will not be the case for long. Despite missing its original scheduled completion date of 2011, the mall has managed to retain the interest of several retail heavyweights, signing deals with firms such as MH Alshaya, the Landmark Group, Dubai Holding Group, Royal Sporting House and Liwa Trading. Developer Aldar Properties says the mall will have more than 235,000 sqm of retail space when it opens in Q4 of next year, 95 percent of which it expects to have leased out to retailers by the end of 2012. Upon completion, the whole development will feature some 700 retail and food units including four major department stores and six hotels, and will be connected to tourist destinations such as Ferrari World Abu Dhabi, the Yas Island water park and the Formula 1 Yas Marina Circuit. Geant is set to be the mall’s anchor tenant, after holding company Retail Arabia signed a long term year lease agreement with Aldar for a hypermarket spread over an area of more than 16,000 sqm and stocking over 65,000 products. According to reports, the mall’s Ikea store will be also the largest in the whole of the MENA region.
Spanning a massive 3m sqm, Cairo Festival City – the mixed-use urban community by Al Futtaim Group – is set to offer a premier indoor and outdoor shopping destination to residents of Greater Cairo named Cairo Festival Centre. Located 15 minutes from Cairo International Airport, the modern retail resort will be the focal point of the wider community, providing 180,000 sqm of retail space, over 300 shops and at least 95 restaurants and cafes. Among its 17 major anchors are Al Futtaim retail partners and brands such as Ikea, Plug-Ins and Marks & Spencer, while a mix of other names like hypermarket chain Carrefour have also signed up for space. As well as shopping, the mall will also provide a 17 screen multiplex cinema complex via Renaissance Cinemas, parking for more than 7,000 and an ‘edutainment centre’ known as KidZania Cairo. Completian of the centre remains unconfirmed following the country’s revolution.
The US$300m Beirut City Centre shopping mall is set to open next year and could create 1,200 retail jobs according to developer Majid Al Futtaim (MAF). The project, located in the capital’s Hazmieh district on the Damascus-Beirut road, will house a total of 200 stores over three levels and 40 international food and beverage outlets, including the first Carrefour hypermarket in Lebanon and an open-air, rooftop dining area. Beirut City Centre is the first shopping destination to be built by mall developer MAF in the country and will also include a VOX Cinemas multiplex and a Magic Planet family entertainment centre. Having commenced construction on the mall in September 2009, MAF has scheduled completion for early 2013. As with some of MAF’s other retail destinations, the mall is aiming for a LEED silver rating by incorporating eco-friendly technologies into the design.
The Pointe is a new AED300m shopping centre planned for the Palm Jumeirah, as developer Nakheel tries to boost its retail offering. Not to be confused with the recently announced Palm Mall, (situated close to the Shoreline apartments,) the 136,000 sqm mall will be located at the tip of the Palm Jumeirah, across the bay from Atlantis Hotel, covering 131,000sqm and including 56,120sqm of high end retail shops. Among its main features will be offshore computer-controlled fountains, a 34,130sqm promenade, and a marina with floating pontoons, not to mention 1,200 car parking spaces, monorail access and boat rides between the centre and the hotel. With a focus on its food and beverage and leisure offering, the mall is expected to have approximately 120 restaurants and cafes, and hoped to add to existing tourist destinations on the Palm, servicing not only residents but also visitors to Dubai. The Pointe should be ready to open at the end of 2013.
Another mall to make an appearance in the coming years is the Mall of Arabia in Dubailand. It is set to house a 15-screen cinema, a bowling alley and state-of-the-art performance stage, as well as a rooftop hotel and access to a Restless Planet theme park. As for the shopping, the resort is expected to have more than 1,000 retail outlets across more than 929,000 sqm of GLA, making it bigger than Dubai Mall, which currently holds the title for the largest shopping centre in the world. Media reports last predicted a revised completion date of 2013 for the US$5bn project, but the developer has since informed Arabian Business that the mall will open at the end of the 2015. A spokesperson said the mall was definitely still in the pipeline, but currently came second on the priority list after the nearby theme park, which is set to open in 2013.
Despite a year of political turbulence, there are plenty of new developments still on the agenda for Egypt’s capital city, Cairo. One such development, the Mall of Egypt, is set to provide 160,000 sqm of GLA, and most intriguingly, a Ski Dubai-type resort, known as Ski Egypt. The AED2.71bn development is being developed by Majid Al Futtaim, the same company that oversaw Ski Dubai. It is hoped to be the dominant super mall serving the western half of the city, with a strong fashion element, 17-screen cinema, family entertainment centre and over 50 food and beverage outlets. It is set for a 2014 opening, giving the developer just enough time to prepare for the tourist influx.
The 200,000 sqm Mall of Syria will be located in the Sabboura Yafour district in Syria’s capital Damascus, and form part of Majid Al Futtaim’s Khams Shamat tourist development. Upon completion in 2015, the mall will take the title of the biggest shopping centre in the Levant region, with as many as 300 shops and a variety of international and local retail brands. Linked to the mall will be hotels, business districts, touristic apartments and modern civic amenities, to provide a fully integrated mixed use development. The site was chosen specifically for its status as the western growth corridor for Damascus, and one which is easily accessible to tourists travelling on the Beirut/Damascus international highway.
With a soft opening taking place in March 2012, Muscat Grand Mall is the most recent of the region’s new shopping centres to be opened and the latest to launch in the Omani capital. Located in the Al Khuwair district, it hopes to attract nearly 20,000 visitors a day when all stores are officially opened. It has a gross floor area of 67,000 sqm divided between 160 new outlets, with top retail names including Sharaf DG, Homes R Us, Tim Horton’s café, Shoe Studio, Garage and Aeropostale, not to mention Carrefour which will be the mall’s anchor tenant. There will also be a multiplex cinema, a food court, a children’s entertainment area and a mix of international restaurants and cafes. The centre is part of the mixed use Al Tilal Complex being developed by Al Madina Real Estate and will later be accompanied by residential and commercial projects.
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Abu Dhabi residents spend an average of nearly US$5bn on retail goods each year, but 20 percent still prefer to travel to Dubai to do their shopping, according to a report by a leading real estate consultancy firm.
Real estate consultants at DTZ estimated that Abu Dhabi’s retail spending is around AED17bn (US$4.6bn). Despite this, the UAE capital “must look to improve the overall standard of retail offer in both its destination mall and luxury goods offer,” the report said, pointing to the fact around a fifth of Abu Dhabi residents regularly opt to travel to Dubai for shopping trips.
“This is mainly due to Abu Dhabi’s inability to match Dubai’s regional malls with their varied fashion offers and adjoining leisure activities,” DTZ said.
The report is hopeful that the opening of new regional malls, such as Yas Mall, and the increase in retail space by 137 percent over the next two years will help stem the flow of shoppers to Dubai.
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Hopes for a recovery in the British economy are set to receive another setback this week when official government data reveals lacklustre retail sales in April, underlined by Marks & Spencer which is expected to say that UK growth continues to slow.
According to the US data group Opera Solutions, the Office of National Statistics will say sales rose just 1pc year-on-year in April, less than a third of the 3.3pc growth recorded in March. The sharp slowdown in sales has in part been caused by the warmer weather in April 2011 compared with this year.
Arnab Gupta, chief executive of Opera Solutions, said the Diamond Jubilee and Olympics could boost sales this summer, but warned of an “Olympic-sized hangover” for retailers in the fourth quarter of 2012.
“We’re going to see a lot of retail spending by consumers brought forward for the Olympics, Euro 2012 and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee,” he said. “Stocking up and extended Sunday opening hours during the whole of July will pull sales forward from August and from September.”
M&S, a bellwether for the UK retail market, is expected to warn this week that its future growth rests on the internet and international sales.
Marc Bolland, the chief executive, will admit that less than £8 in every £10 it takes will come from its shops on Britain’s high streets over the next two years because the company will fail to hit its targets in the UK.
Of all the major British retailers, M&S sells the smallest proportion of its goods online. However it is expected to use its annual results on Tuesday to say that it is catching up, despite losing ground on the high street.
Some analysts are calling on the company to commit to offering its full food range online to help it make up for lost sales momentum in womenswear, which is the most important part of its business but has been hit hard by competition and recession-hit shoppers cutting back. Two years ago, Britain’s biggest clothing retailer set itself an ambitious target to increase its sales by between £1.6bn to £2.5bn a year by 2013/14.
Mr Bolland is expected to announce, alongside the company’s results, that this now looks unachievable. “No one could have envisaged quite how tough the UK consumer economy was going to be,” said one insider. It is unlikely he will scrap the targets altogether, but guide analysts to the very bottom end of the range.
Despite poor sales in the UK, made worse by the failure to stock enough popular products in March and April, Mr Bolland will say plans for a complete roll-out of the company’s re-formatted stores will go ahead.
Mr Bolland also said in 2010 that he wanted M&S’s then relatively tiny online business and its fledgling international business to make up 10pc each of its total sales of between £11.6bn to £12.5bn by 2013/14.
He is likely to say that, despite the disappointing performance in the UK, these two arms are trading ahead of schedule and are likely to represent a far bigger slice of the overall business, while the UK legacy business is likely to make up less than 80pc of the total group sales.
The company is forecast to publish turnover just shy of £10bn, up from £9.74bn the previous year.
Pre-tax profit is forecast to fall to £694m from £714m.
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South Africa’s AVI to acquire Green Cross
South Africa’s AVI has acquired footwear manufacturer and retailer Green Cross, it has been announced.
AVI, whose licenced brands include Lavazza and Douwe Egberts Cafitesse in the food and beverage sector; and fashion names including Kurt Geiger and Lacoste, said the transaction represents a rare opportunity to acquire an established, category-leading brand of relevant scale with a solid record of profitable operations.
AVI said it would work to substantially increase the scale and profitability of Green Cross’ operations through increased brand focus, product innovation, enhanced consumer messaging and greater investment in both the business’ retail and wholesale operations.
Green Cross was founded in 1975 and is a vertically integrated manufacturer, importer and retailer of ladies, men’s and children’s footwear in South Africa and surrounding areas. All sales by the business are made under the Green Cross brand, which is owned by Green Cross in South Africa and several other jurisdictions.
Green Cross has production facilities in Epping, Cape Town, and sells its products through a network of 30 retail outlets situated across South Africa. Wholesale sales are made through a network of third party retailers, distributors and agents, accounting for approximately 48 per cent of consolidated turnover in Green Cross’ last financial year.
For the financial year ending 29 February 2012, Green Cross posted revenues of R300.6 million, with operating profit after tax of R50.4 million.
AVI’s brand portfolio includes more than 53 brands: 33 owned brands and over 20 international brands under licence. Brands span a range of hot and cold beverages, sweet and savoury snacks, fresh and convenience foods, out-of-home ranges, cosmetics, shoes and accessories, and apparel.
With a turnover of R7.6 billion in FY11, AVI’s brands are a household name in South Africa.
RELATED TERMS: Manufacturing Retail and Leisure Africa AVI beverage food Kurt Geiger retail South Africa News
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Apple’s march to world domination continues, this time with a
What’s surprising about this store announcement is that Apple apparently made managers of a successful Zara fashion store at the Drake Circus Shopping Centre (above) in Plymouth “an offer they can’t refuse.”
The Zara store, which fills a 21,045 square-foot space in the mall, has about ten years to go on a fifteen-year lease. Zara is out; Apple will assume the lease for the remainder of the time. ifoAppleStore notes that this space is almost double the size of the standard Apple Store, so Apple may just occupy the ground floor and sublet the upper level.
26 Zara employees are losing their jobs as a result of the announced closing, but there’s a good chance that more jobs than that will be created when the Apple Store opens. The Drake Circus store is about 45 miles from the Princesshay Apple Store in Exeter, and fills in coverage for the Devon and Cornwall region of the country.
#bizitalk
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After 8 months of construction the wait is finally over. There to unveil the plaque was Executive Mayor, Mpho Khunou, Boitekong Mall opened its doors on 26th April 2012.
A VIP function was held the morning of the launch where Peter Manzana, Unit Manager of Communication from the Executive Mayor’s Office and Rustenburg Local Municipality commended the Developers for their efforts in giving the community a place they can call theirs. Fontis Developments, Benhaus Group, Periscopic Property Management and Councillors from the local Municipality were amongst the delegates who attended the function.
The centre was flooded during the launch weekend with shoppers taking advantage of the opening specials. Shoppers also stood a chance to win branded Boitekong Mall merchandise through the in-centre spend to win competition and enjoyed entertainment by live performers and a kids entertainment area.
“The opening of Boitekong Mall not only offered the surrounding community a variety of stores and transport facilities at their doorstop but it also opened opportunities for employment,” says Tom Roodt, from Fontis Developments.
With its modern exterior design and prominent location, Boitekong Mall enjoys extensive visibility from passing vehicles and pedestrians and is perfectly positioned to become a convenient shopping destination for the surrounding community.
For shoppers to the centre, it will become a place to be themselves and have a good time, whilst delivering all their shopping essentials.
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As Facebook floats with a valuation of more than $100bn, Retail Week asks what advantages the social network has created for retailers?
Engagement
Some retailers have adopted tactics, such as an interactive Tesco game on Facebook, to build brand awareness. The retailer’s virtual fitting room – using augmented reality – for its F&F fashion brand has been a hit too. Facebook also allows retailers to engage with customers in a more informal manner and share tips and information – such as recipes – with dedicated shoppers, increasing brand engagement.
Using and integrating data
Facebook’s Open Graph – the footprint of connections that Facebook users produce as they interact with friends and online content – has allowed retailers such as eBay to integrate marketing tailored for a specific audience. Although some users are uncomfortable with such use of their data, Facebook remains a free service which they are paying for with their information.
Retailers can also now integrate their Facebook page users’ data with their existing databases, allowing them to get in touch with customers quickly and effectively.
Driving traffic
A large number of retailers use Facebook simply to drive traffic to their own website.
Targeting new customers
Department store group House of Fraser teamed up with the National Union of Students to offer a 10% student discount to Facebook users who ‘like’ the retailer.
Testing ranges
Retailers including C&A have used Facebook to gauge the popularity of new products and work out volumes to stock in store accordingly. Some retailers have even polled Facebook users to decide which of new stores to open first.
Easy payment
Retailers including Asos have opened Facebook shops using Paypal to transact. This allows Facebook users to navigate to a shop quickly, without having to take a deliberate decision to ‘go shopping’ on the conventional etail site.
Timelines
The new timeline format of Facebook has allowed retailers to take advantage of a more fashionable, design-led profile. It also tracks users’ history, showing what users have done in the past and enabling advertising to be tailored accordingly.
Location-specific deals
Argos and Debenhams are among the retailers who have signed up to the Facebook Deals initiative, which allows retailers to use the Place application to create location-specific deals, tailoring the offer for customers and increasing the likelihood they will make a purchase.
Marketing
The impact of social media is evident at Burberry, one of the most adept users of sites such as Facebook. The luxury goods specialist now has 10m Facebook fans – second only in fashion to Victoria’s Secret. Burberry linked the launch of its Burberry Body fragrance last year to Facebook by giving a sample to people who ‘liked its page.
Instagram
Facebook’s $1bn acquisition of the photo-sharing app may have surprised some, but Instagram has already been used by Ted Baker to send high quality images to its Facebook page and drive traffic from fashion shoppers.
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May | 2012 | Retail News | Page 2
Retail News
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Walmart, the world’s biggest supermarket chain by sales, is poised to expand its smallest format stores, creating a further potential hurdle for Tesco’s lossmaking US business, Fresh & Easy.
Bill Simon, chief executive of Walmart’s US business told an investor conference last week that its smallest stores – which span 12,000 to 15,000 sq ft – were performing ahead of expectations and it planned to roll out more of these Walmart Express outlets.
Tesco’s Fresh & Easy stores, primarily in California, are about 10,000 sq ft, although it is rolling out a smaller format of 3,000 to 4,000 sq ft to move deeper into urban areas.
Speaking at a Morgan Stanley retail conference, Mr Simon said he was happy with the sales performance of the 10 initial Walmart Express outlets, a mix of grocer, pharmacy and convenience store.
He added: “What we are also happy with … is that inside of 12 months, they are turning profitable.”
Mr Simon said the group was still analysing how many Walmart Express stores could be supported by individual markets.
“You will see us in the back half of this year go to a market and build them out very densely so that we can understand their interaction with the rest of the market, including us,” he said.
Locations for Walmart Express stores include Chicago and North Carolina. The retailer is also opening midsized supermarkets of about 40,000 sq ft in markets including California.
Walmart’s move underlines the shift in the US from big hypermarkets to smaller stores, as consumers shop more locally amid rising fuel costs and to save money by cutting down on food waste.
But Walmart’s plans come at a delicate time for Philip Clarke, chief executive of Tesco. Last month, he revealed that Fresh & Easy would not meet its target of breaking even by February next year.
Instead, the chain is now expected to break even during the 2013-14 financial year. Tesco has also put significant US store openings on hold as it strives to make existing ones profitable.
Tesco is introducing a series of initiatives to turn round Fresh & Easy, including experimenting with a version of its “click and collect” online shopping service.
It has refitted stores, introducing features that are standard in the US, such as in-store bakeries and takeaway coffee. It has also made the supermarkets feel warmer and less utilitarian, and last year introduced a version of its successful Clubcard loyalty scheme.
Tesco has also shaken up the Fresh & Easy management. Tesco could not be reached for comment on Walmart’s plans.
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Today is the first day of trade for Shoprite’s convertible registered bonds on the JSE after the group received approval on Friday.
SA’s biggest supermarket chain announced a concurrent share and bond offering in March aimed at raising funds to expand its operations, a move analysts say will help it take on Walmart.
It issued 27,1-million new shares, or about 5% of total shares in issue, at a price of R127,50 for proceeds of close to R3,5bn.
Its bond and share offering raised about R8bn, which CEO Whitey Basson said would strengthen its balance sheet by converting existing short-term funding to longer-term loans.
Shoprite placed R4,5bn fixed-rate senior unsecured guaranteed convertible registered bonds due in 2017 in March, and on May 9 placed R200m debt instruments.
The debt instruments would be traded in nominals of R10000 on the JSE’s equity trading platform, the company said.
The bonds, which may be converted into Shoprite shares during the life of the bond, will carry semiannual interest of 6,5% and will be redeemable at par in 2017, unless converted into shares at the election of the bond holder.
The initial conversion price in respect of the bonds will be set at a premium of 32,5%-37,5% above the placing price of its equities.
The bonds will be issued at 100% of their nominal amount and, unless previously converted, repurchased or redeemed, will be redeemed at par in 2017.
Shoprite will have the option to call the bonds after the first three years if the price of the shares exceeds the prevailing conversion price over a specified period.
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India’s Gitanjali Group, one of the world’s largest jewelery retailers and a favourite with Bollywood film stars, is setting up in the Middle East and will open its first store in Dubai next month.
Founded in India in 1966, Gitanjali Group has an annual turnover of over US$2.1bn and has around 4,000 points of sale in India, with additional outlets in China, the US, Japan and the UK.
“The group is eyeing the lucrative Middle Eastern market and as a result opening its first store beginning of next month in Dubai,” a spokesperson said on Monday.
“As part of an aggressive expansion plan they intend to open a number of stores this year in Dubai to cater to the luxury clients of the region.”
Listed on Indian stock exchanges since 2007, Gitanjali;s gems are a favourite with Bollywood superstars, with Shah Rukh Khan, Katrina Kaif, Salman Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Sonakshi Sinha, Bipasha Basu, Kareena Kapoor already signed up as brand ambassadors.
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The opening of Ski Dubai in 2005 was a turning point for the Middle East. The construction of an ice cold winter resort in the middle of the desert meant Dubai had conquered the unconquerable, and there was no stopping the region’s most ambitious developers from then on. Indeed, when Saudi Arabia said recently it planned to build the world’s first underwater mosque, it came as no surprise to expatriates and those who have visited the Gulf states before, many of whom were already familiar with the region’s love of innovative ideas.
UAE-based developer Majid Al Futtaim (MAF) Holding, the company behind Ski Dubai and Mall of the Emirates, has continued to profit from its wintry investment ever since. Not only does the company now have a reputation as an expert mall and resort builder, but it has also enjoyed a healthy and regular income from the retail side of the business. Today, it is eyeing a whole host of shopping centres and novel entertainment concepts across the Middle East and Africa, quite possibly including more ski resorts in the Arab world’s biggest markets.
“We’re looking at around ten or eleven malls in the next five to seven years,” says Peter Walichnowski, head of Majid Al Futtaim (MAF) Properties, from the MAF headquarters in Dubai. Sitting next to him is Iyad Malas, the CEO of MAF Holding. He explains how MAF Properties is the division responsible for building the company’s malls, hotels and mixed-use developments, but in truth all aspects of the business including MAF Ventures and MAF Retail, have their part to play. Walichnowski adds: “We’re not only concentrating on very large malls like the Mall of the Emirates; we’re also looking at neighbourhood and community malls.”
Certainly the concept of neighbourhood shopping is becoming more popular in the region, with several rival retail conglomerates announcing similar plans. According to Walichnowski, a
neighbourhood mall has approximately 20 shops whilst a community mall will have around 100.
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MUSCAT — The Wave, Muscat, the Sultanate’s premier lifestyle destination, is set to see an eightfold increase in its retail space with the release of Al Marsa Village Centre. By 2014, The Wave, Muscat will claim its place on Muscat’s retail map with Al Marsa Village Centre expanding the retailing opportunities at The Wave, Muscat from 1,500 sqm to 12,500 sqm.
Almeria North, home to Costa Coffee, WH Smith, Kwik Kleen, Shang Thai, Al Fair and Pizza Express, is now 100 per cent occupied and is set to welcome its final tenant, Shakespeare and Co, opening in July. This latest addition to Almeria North will occupy a 300 sqm café-restaurant decked out in cozy chic interiors, a concept which has seen phenomenal success.
With a diverse menu, offering traditional Arabic fare to French patisserie, indoor and outdoor seating and a private dining room, Shakespeare and Co will offer a completely new dining experience for The Wave, Muscat and wider Muscat residents.
Following the successful development and leasing of the Almeria North precinct, ground will be broken on The Wave, Muscat community shopping development, the Al Marsa Village Centre in the coming months. The construction works are scheduled for completion in Q1 2014.
The village centre development will be the premier retail destination within The Wave, Muscat and will include a combined total of 10,500 sqm of retail and commercial space for lease, including 400 dedicated car parking spaces.
Anchored by one of the world’s premium grocers, Waitrose, the Al Marsa Village Centre will also host community services including medical and dental facilities complemented by further food and beverage outlets.
Troy Hart, Vice-President of Asset Management at The Wave, Muscat, said: “This is a significant year for our retail, seeing us welcome a number of regional and international names to The Wave, Muscat.
“Al Marsa Village Centre will offer residents and the Muscat community a full service local retail centre to cater to all their needs. We look forward to welcoming Waitrose and Shakespeare and Co’s first operations in Oman. It’s an exciting time for The Wave, Muscat and for retailers looking to align their brands with the premium lifestyle destination in Oman.”
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The former boss of PC World and Currys will reportedly receive a $56million (£36million) golden hello from Apple after taking charge of its retail arm.
John Browett was awarded the hefty payout from the technology giant following its poaching of him from Dixons Retail in February.
The payment, which will be staggered over five years and paid in shares, is likely to fuel the debate even further over executive pay.
John Browett, former executive at Tesco and Dixons, received the huge payout after joining Apple in February
The decision to set Mr Browett’s salary so high comes after a series of shareholder revolts elsewhere, in which investors have overwhelmingly voted to reject company’s pay reports.
But boards have insisted that they must offer strong incentives in a bid to recruit the best talent and remain competitive.
The generous salary is not the first time Apple has been willing to spend vast sums on retaining or attracting senior staff.
Tim Cook, who replaced Steve Jobs as chief executive last August, is said to be sitting on deferred stock worth more than $500million (£320 million).
It emerged last week, however, that Cook refused roughly $75million in dividends from over one million shares.
In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday, Apple says Mr Cook asked that his restricted stock units not receive dividends.
A recently instituted company program had allowed Apple employees to accumulate dividends on their restricted stock units that are still vesting, according to the company.
Mr Browett, who is now in charge of overseeing Apple’s 361 stores worldwide was formerly a management high-flyer at Tesco’s internet shopping division.
He subsequently joined Dixons at the end of 2007, and overhauled the business after a sustained period of under-performance.
And whilst sales and profits have been under pressure in recent months, Dixons saw off the challenge of US firm Best Buy, which earlier this year shut its 10 ‘big box’ megastores in a joint venture with Carphone Warehouse.
Posted by retail360uk
Ram Garikipati: Korean retail therapy for foreign chains : Two of the Big Three failed in one of Asia’s most dynamic markets. Their experiences hold lessons for foreign retailers.
After a quiet period, intense lobbying for opening up multi-brand retail once again seems to be hotting up. On May 24, Carrefour’s India head, Jean-Noel Bironneau, met Commerce Minister Anand Sharma, and his counterparts from Wal-Mart, Tesco and Costco will no doubt follow soon.
Ever since the government announced its decision to allow foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail trade, and then backtracked, there have been a flurry of articles on the pros and cons of such a move. There is no clear answer and those in favour and against FDI have expressed ample views. So, another attempt to do so would be futile, although it must be stressed that allowing FDI does not mean that the global retail giants will automatically wind up capturing the market.
Take their experience in South Korea, home to one of Asia’s most dynamic and largest retail markets, ranking fourth behind Japan, China and India, with a relatively wealthy population. Wal-Mart and Carrefour have had to beat a retreat after struggling for years to increase market share. Tesco is the only successful foreign retailer, going from strength to strength.
The varying success of these three retail giants in South Korea has become must-read case studies for all potential foreign investors. It also holds lessons for them in the Indian market, given the high complexities in terms of a wide geographic spread and distinct regional consumer preferences.
Historically, South Korea kept its major retailing operations closed to foreign ownership. It was only in 1988 that the government began a series of three-year plans designed to improve the efficiency and productivity of the retail and distribution industry. The first stage of this process occurred in 1989 when regulations on the establishment of foreign companies’ subsidiaries and the inflow of FDI were eased. Then, foreign retailers were permitted to establish stores at a maximum size of 1,000 sq m, as prescribed by the second stage of the open-up policy.
The regulations on the number and size of retail outlets of foreign companies were further relaxed in the third stage of the programme beginning in 1993, when foreign companies were allowed to open up to 20 stores with each store not exceeding 3,000 sq m. It was not until 1996 that FDI in the Korean retail market was completely liberalised and foreign retailing companies began expanding there in earnest.
Sensing huge opportunities, Wal-Mart, Carrefour and Tesco entered the country around the same time, but adopted different strategies.
Wal-Mart attempted to penetrate the Korean market by building stores in distant areas where land prices were low, replicating the US strategy of smaller-city store build-up. It had only 16 stores in all of Korea with just one in the Seoul metropolitan area and could not achieve economies of scale. The company expected the Korean consumers to drive to its stores for price shopping as American consumers do. However, this location strategy did not match well with the Korean consumers’ lifestyle and shopping habits. They prefer to buy smaller units on a more frequent basis and to have accessibility to a store within walking distance.
As a result, Wal-Mart faced serious challenges in implementing its core competence in South Korea. Moreover, it could not enjoy its buyer power in the local vendor market and had no control over its Korean supply chain and procurement. Eventually, it packed its bags in 2006.
Carrefour had a similar story. Despite its experience elsewhere, the company failed to localise its stores to a sufficient extent. Instead, it tried to introduce its global practices and strategies in the country. Its store layout, ambience, products and location failed to attract customers. The company wanted to attract customers by providing them high-quality products in bulk at low prices. Its stores were styled like warehouses and were simple in appearance compared to the stores of its competitors. Initially, customers were enthusiastic, but most of them were not bulk purchasers.
Also, unlike other markets, Korean customers prefer a clean and sophisticated atmosphere along with low prices. At the time of its exit in 2006, Carrefour was the fourth-largest retailer in the country, with 32 hypermarkets. The company had invested $1.5 billion, making it the largest foreign investor in the Korean market, but that was not enough to guarantee it success.
In contrast, Tesco had an effective “localisation” strategy for downstream activities. It entered the market by forming a joint venture with a major local partner, Samsung, leveraging its knowledge and expertise of the local market. Tesco devoted considerable attention to transferring its core capabilities to this new market, but did not attempt to iterate the British version of its retail format. It gradually increased its stake in the company to 95 per cent, but continued to localise its 450 stores, consisting of both large hypermarkets and small Express stores. Also, of Tesco’s 27,000 staff in Korea, only four are expatriates. As a result, it became one of Tesco’s biggest success stories, generating a third of its overseas sales.
One key factor that contributed to Tesco’s success was its ability to create “value” that is suitable for the Korean tastes and preference. While other foreign brands like Wal-Mart and Carrefour have failed, Tesco’s Korean brand, Homeplus, is moving from strength to strength, as it closes the gap with the market leader E-mart. It also has leveraged Korean’s love for high-tech, having just launched innovative virtual stores in subway and bus stops where customers can use their smartphones to buy products that are delivered right to their homes.
These stories contain valuable lessons for the global retail companies who now wish to expand their presence in India, whenever the law permits. Their multi-brand retail strategy has to be different from their wholesale cash and carry stores. Moreover, it is important to heavily localise operations keeping Indian tastes in mind, with or without a domestic partner. Blindly applying western business models for the Indian market will not work.
Posted by retail360uk
Lisney report….
The retail landscape remained very challenging during the first quarter of 2012. Economic uncertainty across Europe together with the on-going absence of funding in Ireland continued to dampen confidence. Cautious consumer sentiment and reduced spending resulted in further consolidation.
Since the peak of consumer spending in January 2008, the amount of money taken in by retailers at the tills is down over 28% with the volume of stock sold down over 22%. In the past 12 months, the areas most affected are department stores (volume -5.6% and value -4.5%), clothing and textiles (volume -2.7% and value -2.4%), and furniture and lighting (volume -6.6% and value -10.2%).
Despite the difficult conditions many retailers, both local and overseas, view the Irish market with enthusiasm as a result of the flexible leasing arrangements that can be obtained on attractive rental terms.
Activity
Demand for prime retail opportunities increased in Q1. This mainly emanated from overseas fashion, discount and restaurant operators, who see the value available when seeking new leases. In spite of this, the first quarter of 2012 did bring some casualties. The UK lingerie retailer La Senza went into liquidation and video game retailer Game went into administration. This resulted in both retailers closing all their stores in the Republic of Ireland. In addition, the landmark Dublin Woollen Mills store on Liffey Street closed their doors after 125 years in business with the freehold property now on the market at a price tag of €1.8m.
The troubled fashion retail chain A-Wear, which was purchased by Hilco in December 2011, has been sold once again to the Flacks Group. Company principal, Michael Flacks, has indicated that he is committed to developing the business and maintains that the company is seeking to open new stores in about 15 locations nationwide.
Dublin City Centre
No new lettings were completed on Grafton Street and Henry Street in the opening three months of the year, however, the number of enquiries has noticeably increased. Indeed, offers have been received for properties on both streets.
There was some positive news announced for Grafton Street in early March with Dublin City Council stating its’ intending to re-pave the street at a cost of €2.5m. Works are due to commence in January 2013 and it is estimated that it will take 12 months to complete due to the phased nature of the task. This should go some way towards assisting with the vacancy issues on the street. Lisney’s Retail Shutter Count shows that there are six units currently unoccupied on the street. In addition to this, there are further occupied units on the market for assignment or sub-let.
The rumoured deal whereby US retailer Banana Republic would take accommodation by combining the Zerep and the former Richard Allan stores on Grafton Street, is reportedly not now progressing. However, we understand that the retailer is continuing to seek representation on the street. Other retailers with requirements for Grafton Street include footwear retailers, Irregular Choice and Sketchers in addition to European jeweller, Thomas Sabo.
Henry Street arguably offers better value and this is reflected in the limited availability. Currently there are no unoccupied units on the street and there are only three shops available by way of assignment or sub-letting.
Dublin Surburban Shopping Centres
The leading suburban shopping centres continued to attract retailers in Q1, thus insuring that vacancy levels remain at manageable and respectable levels.
Dundrum Town Centre has secured a number of new retailers over the opening months of the year. The former bag shop Furla was divided into two 43 sqm stores and are now let to beauty product retailer Keihls and jeweller Pandora. Both retailers are reported to have taken their stores on long leases and have each paid an annual rent of about €130,000 exclusive of service charge and rates. Also secured for the centre was Café du Lart, who took the former Chinese Buffet King unit, a 465 sqm restaurant on a long lease at a reported rent of €200,000 pa.
In Blanchardstown Town Centre, construction has commenced on Boots’ new flagship store, which is due to open in the autumn. The store will extend to approximately 2,050 sqm and has been let to Boots on a long lease subject to a reported rent of €1.3m per annum exclusive of rates and service charge. Also in the centre, Compu B has taken a new lease of the former 130 sqm Monsoon store at a reported rent of €165,000 pa. Argus has closed their unit on first floor level but continue to trade from the adjacent West End Retail Park.
Out of Town Retail
Following a long period of inactivity, the first quarter of 2012 saw an increase in interest and indeed activity in out of town retail parks. Retailers such as DFS, Homestore + More, Easy Living and Maxi Zoo are seeking opportunities mainly in the greater Dublin area. Landlords have had to adopt a much more hands on approach in terms of the asset management of these parks. This includes consideration of alternative uses and the likelihood of obtaining the necessary planning consent for such uses.
In Blanchardstown Retail Park, DFS has taken a new lease on the former Curry’s unit. The accommodation, which extends to approximately 1,950 sqm, was let on a long-term lease subject to a rent reportedly in excess of €400,000 pa.
Outlook
The current level of retailer enquiries is encouraging. We expect a further increase in the number of transactions over the coming months given the excellent opportunities available for retailers seeking to expand or gain representation in Ireland. This will be particularly the case in Dublin city centre. That said, we expect the market to remain challenging, principally for those seeking to dispose of pre-February 2010 leases.
LISNEY RETAIL TEAM
Posted by retail360uk
The UK’s largest home improvement retailer says it is investing £69 million in a series of product revamps across its stores over the next few months.
B&Q, which is owned by FTSE 100 firm Kingfisher, said it would spend £19 million in developing new tiling and flooring shops within shops, which will see it launch £32 million worth of products. An additional £18 million will be invested in more “fashion-driven female friendly” ranges.
The ranges, which fall under the Colours brand, are a part of Kingfisher’s sourcing strategy with around 35% of the new tiling range being common across the group so customers will find the same products in the UK or its Castorama chain in France and Poland.
Martyn Phillips, B&Q UK and Ireland chief executive, said: “Customers from Penzance to Perth can buy products in B&Q knowing they are as stylish as those sold in our sister stores in Paris – globally sourced yet tailored to local trends and at the best possible prices.”
Among the product launches will be 64 new hard wood flooring products.
The announcement comes ahead of a trading update later this week, when the company is expected to reveal that the dismal weather in April left a dent in the sales.
Retail analyst Philip Dorgan expects B&Q’s owner Kingfisher to report an 11% drop in the chain’s like-for-like sales for the first quarter as it also comes up against tough comparisons with strong trading a year earlier.
It will leave B&Q profits down by 11% to £66 million, with the wider UK and Ireland operation, including trade arm Screwfix, off 11% at £76 million.
However there is still cause for optimism at Kingfisher, which has impressed analysts with a four-year turnaround programme that has resulted in full-year profits more than doubling to £807 million.
Posted by retail360uk
H.E. Ahmed Butti Ahmed, Executive Chairman of Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation, Dubai Customs Director General, inaugurated the second Middle East Fragrance Summit (MEFS) 2012 which will last for two days at The Ritz Carlton – DIFC in Dubai.
In the opening speech, H.E. Ahmed Butti Ahmed stressed the important position of the summit as it represents the global platform for industry manufacturers and retailers to discuss, innovate and strategize on how to tap the unlimited potential of the Middle East fragrance retail market.
On his part, Mr. Shahzad Haider, Chairman of Fragrance Foundation Arabia (FFA), said: “Dubai Customs participation will considerably contribute to supporting this summit at the local and global levels.”
In his welcome speech, Haider commended the vigorous efforts of the government organizations in organizing fragrance industry and retail in the UAE. Haider also stressed that the public and private sectors should cooperate to fight counterfeited products and enact a federal law to resist this issue.
Mr. Mohammed Al Fahim, CEO of Paris Gallery Group – UAE, started the first session in the summit and spoke about the evaluation of fragrance market in the UAE, while Ms. Victoria Christian owner of Clive Christian – UK then started a session on the art of fragrance industry and brand creation. Mr. Roja Dove from Roja Dove Fragrances – UK – discussed retail market development.
Eng. Mohammed Badri, Director General of Emirates Standardization and Metrology Authority “ESMA” spoke about the mechanisms of organizing the fragrance market and cosmetics in the UAE. Badri stressed that ESMA will create a specialized national committee during the second half of December 2012 to produce standard federal specifications to control and supervise the fragrance & cosmetics sector.
The final session witnessed a panel discussion about the trends and preferences of consumers. Most interesting part was live polling where industry leaders vote their opinion on the mist crucial aspects of fragrance and its future. Many prominent figures participated in the panel discussion such as Mr. Hussein Adam Ali, Chairman of Swiss Arabian Fragrance, Mr. Mark Lockyer, Managing Director of Sampling Innovations – UK, Mr. Roja Dove from Roja Dove and Mr. Abdul Wahab Al Hawaj.
Posted by retail360uk
A rumor has been flying this afternoon about a potential Facebook acquisition of Norwegian browser company Opera. Pocket-lint broke the news in a post earlier today indicating that it had “heard from one of its trusted sources that the social networking giant is looking to buy Opera Software, the company behind the Opera web browser.”
Opera started in 1994 as a research project at Telenor, the largest Norwegian telecommunications company. In 1995, it branched out into a separate company named Opera Software ASA. The company claims to have around 200 million users across all of its platforms making it one of the top commercial browsers available. The company is also well known for its mobile browser which has particularly good HTML5 support, a growing standard in the mobile application space.
It’s interesting to note that it seems that “web browsers” lately have become the new status symbol for major web companies, with Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Apple and Yahoo all offering it’s own take on them. A mobile browser component would compliment the mythical “Facebook Phone” rumored to be in development completing all the required components needed to launch it’s own phone platform. If the rumor turns out to be true, we may be about to see the emergence of yet another browser war. This time embedded with all your social information. A scary thought for some, but a necessary one.
The browser may very well be the the new OS after all.
Download the full review here…
A decade after the dot-com implosion, traditional retailers are lagging in their embrace of digital technologies.
To survive, they must pursue a strategy of omnichannel retailing—an integrated sales experience that melds the advantages of physical stores with the information-rich experience of online shopping.
Retailers face challenges in reaching this goal. Many traditional retailers arenʼt technology-savvy. Few are adept at test-and-learn methodologies. They will need to recruit new kinds of talent. And theyʼll need to move away from analog metrics like same-store sales and focus on measures such as return on invested capital.
Traditional retailers must also transform the one big feature internet retailers lack—stores—from a liability into an asset. They must turn shopping into an entertaining, exciting, and emotionally engaging experience. Companies like Disney, Apple, and Jordanʼs Furniture are leading the way.
Posted by retail360uk
Facing an uncertain U.S. economy and a flailing Europe, Italian fashion house Prada is planning to open 260 stores in the next three years to capture consumers in emerging markets who are hungry for luxury goods, a report says.
The Milan company, which owns Miu Miu and Church’s in addition to its marquee Prada brand, is planning fresh outlets in countries such as Turkey, China and Brazil, according to Bloomberg.
Prada Chief Executive Patrizio Bertelli (also husband of head designer Miuccia Prada) told Bloomberg that the company will add 100 new stores this year and 160 stores the following two years.
“We are expanding in Morocco, Istanbul, Beirut, Dubai and Qatar,” Bertelli said. “Brazil is also a big market we’re looking at.”
Posted by retail360uk
DUBAI – New Yorker’s new store is placed in the Ibn Battuta Mall in Dubai. The German leading company of young fashion presents its latest collection on about 500 square metres retail space and invited all customers to the opening party on May 23.
With its brands Fishbone, Fishbone Sister, Smog, Amisu and Censored, New Yorker offers a wide range of latest trends. The modern shop concept assures an enjoyable shopping atmosphere while the New Yorker in-store radio provides all visitors with the latest music.
At the opening party, New Yorker had some great offers for its visitors. DJ Lins put on the show during the whole event. Promoters informed in and around the mall about the new store and its special offers.
The New Yorker Summer Collection 2012 is colourful and hot as the upcoming seasons: Fishbone Sister—Sun, sea and summer feeling. Hot summer looks with beach and tropical prints in neon and loud colours on tank tops and t-shirts. Combinations with grey melange, white and light pastels make the colours seem even brighter. Amisu — Pythons, palms and papaya — animal, ikat and tropical all-over prints for hot looks. Ladies become a taste of exotic passion and mix very different patterns for a bold style. Flowers on skinny jeans and fruits on shirts — lively and colourful or in soft pastels. Patterns are a must! Fishbone — Maximum colour blocking with bright and neon colours. Colourful stripes, cool street art and geometric all-over prints combined with denim and unicolours — all in bright and neon colours such as blue, green, orange or turquoise. Smog — Casual sailor and surfer looks. Sporty with polo shirts matched with short chinos and bermuda shorts. Sand, blue melange and coral goes along with the theme of colour.
The 12 ‘Portas pilot’ areas :
Bedford – mentoring support for businesses
Croydon – transforming the Old Town market
Dartford – school for shopkeepers
Greater Bedminster – street art, street theatre
Liskeard – vibrant arts scene, guerrilla gardening
Margate – putting education and enjoyment first
Market Rasen – restoring market town look
Nelson – youth cafe, art and vintage market
Newbiggin-by-the-Sea – transport, pop-up shops
Stockport – Markets and Underbanks revamp
Stockton-on-Tees – Globe Theatre entertainment
Wolverhampton – modern day town criers
Market Rasen wins Mary Portas high street cash
Market Rasen will get cash from a £1.2m government pot and advice from retail expert Mary Portas.
The town’s bid said its community team would “blitz” unkempt areas and work with landlords to fill empty shops.
The money from the Portas Pilot scheme will be used to offer free parking and restore the appearance of the town’s market.
The other successful applicants for the government award were Bedford, Croydon, Dartford, Greater Bedminster, Liskeard, Margate, Nelson, Newbiggin-by-the-Sea, Stockport, Stockton-on-Tees and Wolverhampton.
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Local Government Minister Grant Shapps said he had received more than 370 applications.
The government accepted the 28 recommendations from Ms Portas in her report on how to rejuvenate UK High Streets.
Sara Scott, from the Business Improvement Group in Market Rasen, said: “We’re absolutely over the moon about the news, it’s a brilliant result for the town and the traders.
“We’re hoping to do a regular market on a Saturday, but Market Rasen also has markets on Tuesdays and Fridays.
“So we’re hoping that if we put enough effort into making Saturday a big event then there’ll be some kind of overflow into the other days of the week to keep the town busy.”
Traders in the town believe the redevelopment would not only increase the number of people shopping in the area but also attract more businesses to open.
Posted by retail360uk
Morgan Stanley, the lead investment bank in Facebook’s troubled initial public offering, will compensate retail investors who overpaid when they bought stock in the social network site’s flotation, a person familiar with the matter said.
The source said the firm was reviewing orders its retail clients placed for Facebook stock and would make price adjustments if the clients paid too much. The person did not say what amount constituted overpaying.
Facebook’s IPO (initial public offering) was highly anticipated. But technical problems on the Nasdaq Stock Market delayed the stock’s open last Friday. The stock closed nearly flat on its first trading day at 38.23 dollars (£24.50).
Morgan Stanley and Facebook face at least two lawsuits over the IPO. Both actions claim analysts at the large underwriting investment banks cut their second-quarter and full-year forecasts for Facebook just before the IPO and told only a handful of clients.
Morgan Stanley has declined to comment on the lawsuits and Facebook described them as “without merit”.
On Thursday Facebook’s stock closed up 1.03 dollars, or 3.2%, at 33.03 dollars. This gives the company a market value of 90.4 billion dollars (£57.9 billion), down from 105 billion (£67.3 billion) at the end of trading last Friday.
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Chief commercial officer Steve Gray and supply chain and business efficiency director Philip Streatfield have left Lloydspharmacy, just months after its managing director quit the business after less than a year in the role.
The departures come just a month after the health and pharmaceutical retailer restructured to create a new UK country board to oversee a shared operations strategy with its sister wholesale firm All About Health (AAH). The health and pharmaceutical retailer and AAH are both owned by German parent Celesio.
As a result of the restructure, Gray stepped into the role of chief commercial officer of Celesio. He was previously healthcare services director.
The departure of Philip Streatfield comes just ten months after he joined the company. He was previously European supply chain and IT director at stationery wholesaler Spicers.
It is unclear if both Gray and Streatfield left with jobs to go to.
A Lloydspharmacy spokeswoman said: “Lloydspharmacy can confirm that Steve Gray has decided to resign from the organisation to embark upon new challenges and opportunities.”
She added: “Clearly Steve’s departure leaves a gap in the country board and at Lloydspharmacy, but we expect to move swiftly to identify a suitable replacement.”
It is unclear if Streatfield’s role will be filled.
The departures mark the latest changes at management level for the health and pharmaceutical retailer. Managing director Tony Page left the company in January after less than a year in the role. The company said last month that he would not be replaced after it created the new UK country board.
Through the restructure, former AAH group managing director Mark James became chief executive of the newly formed Celesio UK country board. AAH finance director Thorsten Beer was appointed chief financial officer.
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Fashion retail chain Mr Price hoped to extend trading space by 5% in the coming year and was set to launch an online store to grow market share, it said in its results for the 52-weeks ended March, released yesterday.
The owner of Miladys, Sheet Street and Mr Price Home will open about 70 new stores and expand highly performing stores and reduce the size of poorly performing stores, it said.
The company warned it would need to increase investment in supply chain and information technology to match the complex needs of its growing business.
Last year CEO Stuart Bird said the group would focus on “internationalisation”. The company opened a store in Nigeria during the period and planned to open one in Ghana next month.
Its past financial year consisted of 52 trading weeks, against 53 weeks over the previous period.
Good performances from its apparel divisions combined with a strong performance from its home-ware division grew sales 10,2%. Sales excluding new stores rose 8,2%.
Other revenue grew 23,3% thanks to a 47,8% rise in income from the sale of financial services and a 20,3% increase in interest on trade receivables. Continued focus resulted in costs increasing 8,8%, a rate lower than the sales growth, the company said.
The apparel division, which accounts for more than 70% of group sales and consists of Mr Price, Mr Price Sport and Miladys, increased sales and other revenue by 13,7% to R8,7bn, with comparable sales up 10,6% and retail selling price inflation of 4,6%.
The home division ( Mr Price Home and Sheet Street) increased sales and other revenue by 10,7% to R3,4bn, with comparable sales up by 9,5% and retail selling price inflation of 5,9%.
Nedbank Securities retail analyst Syd Vianello said the company’s results were in line with guidance it had given.
“The home division made a strong recovery and improvements were made in Miladys and Mr Price apparel.” He credited the rationalisation of the store base, but suggested it could be the first sign that there has been a fundamental shift in the market, putting Mr Price in the lead.
Mr Vianello said the company had got its fashion right and reaped the benefits of consumers down-trading. “The numbers are also ahead of Stats SA retail numbers and that of the Retailers Liaison Committee sales growth data,” he said.
Earlier this month, Statistics SA said retail sales fell 1,2% in the first quarter of the year.
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Scottish fashion retailer M&Co, which has almost 300 stores across the UK, has just debuted in the Middle East. First store is now up and running in Dubai and soon will see more outlets across the Gulf.
The store is located in the fashion central of Dubai – The Dubai Mall. M&Co is exclusively distributed in the Middle East by Liwa Trading Enterprises, retail arm of Al Nasser Holdings.
Commenting on the launch of the store, Iain McGeoch, Chairman and CEO of M&Co says, “We are happy to open our first flagship store in this region. Dubai being an ultimate retail paradise, we believe it is a perfect launch pad for our brand in the gulf market. We are confident that our partnership with Liwa will benefit our business as the Group has a strong hold in the retail market. They understand the market and the consumer pulse very well which will be the strength of M&Co in the region.”
“We are pleased to introduce M&Co to this region. As a well-established and recognized fashion brand in the UK, M&Co will certainly enhance our brand portfolio and diversify our business in the UAE and the international markets. As a Group we aim to bring quality and trendy international fashion brands to the region for our customers here to have a complete shopping experience. We hope to take the brand across the UAE in the near future,” added Aniss Baobied, General Manager of Liwa Trading Enterprises LLC.
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By global standards, the e-commerce platform in South Africa is small, but online retail sales have shown a steady increase over the past five years as the one-time timidness of South African shoppers takes a backseat and a growing number of techno-savvy consumers turn to the net for retail therapy and bargain-hunting.
A recent study from MasterCard revealed that online shopping had increased in South Africa and continued to show growth potential.
The company’s Worldwide Online Shopping Survey said the number of South Africans shopping online had steadily increased over the past two years, with 58% of respondents saying they used the internet for shopping.
This was an increase from the 53% in 2010, and 44% in 2009.
According to Arthur Goldstuck, managing director of World Wide Worx, once people are experienced internet users and go online regularly, their propensity to shop online increases dramatically.
“The key is to convert that propensity into shopping behaviour,” Goldstuck said.
He believes that from next year the participation curve will rise significantly and quickly.
Yesterday, Durban-based Mr Price reported a 19% rise in diluted headline earnings per share to 464.5c for the year ended March, from 388.8c a year ago. The current financial year comprised 52 trading weeks, while the prior year included 53 trading weeks, the group noted.
Operating profit grew 21.7% to R1.5-billion, and revenue rose 10% to R12.1-billion.
The company’s success stems from its fast-fashion model, which tracks offshore trends from the likes of Topshop, Mango and H&M, and delivers fashion offerings timeously, at affordable prices.
Mr Price’s return on equity increased from 46.0% to 47.2%.
Posted by retail360uk
The new chief executive of Mothercare has vowed to be “ruthless” in cutting its UK costs, compete more aggressively on price and drive online growth to turn around the calamitous performance of its domestic operation.
Simon Calver, who joined the mother and baby group in April from DVD rental firm Lovefilm, today unveiled his turnaround plan to restore the UK business to “acceptable levels of profitability” in three years.
But the scale of the mountain he has to climb was laid bare by Mothercare posting a full-year loss of £102.9 million, following hefty non-cash write downs on the value of its Early Learning Centre business and property restructuring charges. The retailer, which has 1,339 shops in 59 countries, has “suspended” its dividend until the turnaround plans deliver a “marked improvement” in its results.
In his first public comments since taking the helm, Calver said: “We need to invest in e-commerce, be ruthless with our non-store cost base.”
The retailer, which has 311 UK shops, plans to slash its UK non-store costs by £20 million a year by 2015 in areas including distribution, more efficient contracts with suppliers, payroll and head office.
While it shrinks its UK business, Mothercare will “accelerate” its growth overseas, particularly in India, Brazil, Russia and China, and introduce dedicated websites in all its major international markets.
Mothercare plans to reduce its UK store numbers to 200 shops by March 2015, which Calver said was “absolutely the right number”.
The City appeared to like the overall message as Mothercare’s shares jumped by 24.8p, or 15%, to 189.3p.
Its UK business posted a loss of £24.7 million over the 53 weeks to March 31, dragged down by a 6.2% fall in underlying sales and tumbling margins.
Mothercare will introduce a cheaper “value” range of clothing in July to combat the threat of the supermarkets. But it will also launch a designer range from Jools Oliver, the wife of the TV chef Jamie, a month later.
Mother and baby products retailer Mothercare has reported a pre-tax loss of £103 million for the year to end March as it takes steps to turn its struggling UK business around. This compares with a profit of £8.8 million in the previous year.
Underlying profit before tax fell to £1.6 million from £28.5 million a year ago. The majority of the losses were the result of £55 million writedown on the value of the group’s Early Learning Centre together with charges relating to its store closure programme.
Mothercare currently operates 311 UK stores but plans to reduce store numbers to 200 by March 2015.
Worldwide network sales at the group rose 6.4% to £1,232.4 million with growth coming from the retailer’s stores outside of the UK. While total UK sales fell 4.6% to £560 million, total international sales rose 17.8% to £672.4 million.
Like-for-like sales in the UK dropped 6.2%. In contrast, international like-for-like sales rose 6.1%.
Mothercare said its UK business had suffered due to “a challenging economic backdrop” and an increasingly competitive environment.
Following two profit warnings last year and a subsequent review of the business, Mothercare announced a new strategy for the next three years. Priorities include reducing non-store costs and restoring UK profitability as well as accelerating international growth and developing the retailer’s worldwide multi-channel offering.
Calver added: “We need to invest in e-commerce, be ruthless with our non-store cost base and use our scale and growth worldwide to drive sourcing economies and pass these savings onto the customers to improve our value for money around the world.
“Everything we do will enhance customer value, experience and loyalty in each of our 59 countries. My team and I are up for the challenge and, whilst there is much to do in this difficult economic climate, I look forward to delivering the ‘Transformation and Growth’ plan. As a team, this will be our most important delivery yet.”
Posted by retail360uk
Mall operator Majid Al Futtaim today announced that it plans to open 20 additional outlets at its Mall of the Emirates centre before the end of the year.
New stores at the Dubai-based mall – which is home to the world’s largest indoor ski slope – include high-end designer brands Prada, Longchamps and Kate Spade, which are all set to open in summer.
Eateries including International House of Pancakes, The Cheesecake Factory and the UAE-based fast food outlet Just Falafel will also open at the centre.
“Retail stores and restaurants seeking to expand throughout the world are often choosing the UAE to open their first Middle East location, based on the growing demands for high-fashion and choice across shopping and dining sectors, said Fuad Sharaf, senior asset director, asset management, shopping malls, at MAF.
“Mall of the Emirates is boosting the UAE’s retail landscape by offering international brands with a platform for growth,” he added.
Last month, the company revealed plans to increase rents for retailers this year, as revenues at the shopping hub continue to rise.
Executives at Majid Al Futtaim (MAF) Properties told Arabian Business that rates would go up in 2012 after the mall, home of Ski Dubai, reported a 16 percent rise in sales in Q1.
“Yes, [rents will increase in 2012] because our first quarter of this year is already up 16 percent in sales so that will translate into improved returns for retailers,” Peter Walichnowski, CEO of MAF Properties said.
“We have never dropped rents. Rents are a function of turnover and our turnover is going up. The retailers are always happy to pay more rent if the turnover is going up. In Dubai, our retailers are very happy; we have waiting lists on all our malls, so there is no shortage of retailers wanting to get in.”
Walichnowski added that the company would also boost rates at its Deira City Centre and Mirdif City Centre properties, which he claimed were proving similarly popular with local and international brands.
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Prada, the Italian fashion company that owns the Miu Miu and Church’s brands, plans to add 260 stores in the next three years to tap demand in emerging markets including Brazil, China and Arabian Gulf countries.
“We are expanding in Morocco, Istanbul, Beirut, Dubai and Qatar,” CEO Patrizio Bertelli said in an interview with Bloomberg Television conducted in Italian via a translator. “Brazil is also a big market we’re looking at.”
Demand for Prada’s leather goods and other items is increasing even as China’s economic growth slows and Europe’s debt crisis weighs on consumer spending, according to Bertelli. Chinese tourists are fueling growth in Europe, he said.
Sales of discretionary goods in China will grow by a compounded annual rate of 13.4 percent between 2010 and 2020, as shoppers in the world’s second-largest economy become richer, McKinsey & Company said in a report in March. Chinese urban disposable income rose 14 percent to about RMB21,810 (US$3,450) in 2011.
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A couple of months ago Apple was planning its first retail location in Sweden after job listings were discovered on Apple’s website. There were reports at the time that the store would end up somewhere in Stockholm’s city center, but the exact location was otherwise unknown. Today, local reports from 99mac and others claimed Apple is now confirming to new employees that the store will be located in the NK mall in Stockholm. According to the report, there is also talk that Apple is planning more retail locations for Malmö and Gothenburg, and possibly a second location in Stockholm.
The Stockholm store increases Apple’s retail presence to 13 countries, and it is expected to open sometime in August or September. NK Mall has two locations in Stockholm and Gothenburg, with the Stockholm location alone receiving roughly 12 million visitors annually.
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Facebook, the social networking company that listed last week in one of the largest initial public offerings (IPOs) in US history, will open an office in Dubai in a bid to boost advertising revenues from the oil-rich GCC.
The social network will open up in Dubai Internet City with an initial staff of three, local media reported citing sources familiar with the plans. The official launch date is slated for May 30.
Facebook is one of the most popular social networking sites in the Arab world. More than half of the UAE’s population is signed up to the site, according to a 2011 report by the Dubai School of Government. Arab Facebook users reached 43m April, according to an Arab Social Media report.
Facebook listed its shares on Friday in the third-largest IPO in US history, valuing the eight-year old company at US$104bn.
But the social networking company’s sky-high valuation coupled with trading glitches has left the stock languishing near its offering price.
Shares in New York on Tuesday closed 8.9 percent lower at US$31, following an 11 percent decline on Monday.
The firm has lost more than US$19bn in market capitalisation from its US$38 per share offering price last week.
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Luxury fashion brand Burberry Group has reported a strong set of annual results with both revenue and pre-tax profits up as it continued to open new stores.
In the year to 31 March 2012, profit before tax soared 24 per cent to £366 million from £296 million in 2011, while revenue also jumped 24 per cent to £1.86 billion.
The retailer opened another 23 stores in the period, including its first flagship outlets in Hong Kong, Paris and Taipei.
All regions saw double-digit growth in the year but Asia Pacific now accounts for 37 per cent of both retail and wholesale revenue, making it the company’s largest region.
In China alone Burberry has 63 stores, making up 12 per cent of group retail and wholesale revenue, as it capitalises on the region’s increasing wealth.
The UK and France also performed well, in spite of the tough economic climate in both countries.
Chief executive officer Angela Ahrendts commented, ‘While we remain vigilant about the external environment, we will continue to invest in front-end opportunities within our brand, digital and retail strategies, to drive sustained, profitable growth and enduring customer engagement over the long term.’
In its trading statement, the group revealed that it plans to invest up to £200 million in the coming year, which will see its retail space grow by between 12 per cent to 14 per cent.
It highlighted menswear, which grew 26 per cent and now represents 24 per cent of revenue, as a ‘significant growth opportunity’.
The group’s full-year dividend rose 25 per cent to 25p.
Despite the results, shares in Burberry are trading down 4.04 per cent to 1,330.00p at 09.41am.
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Vodafone Group CEO Vittorio Colao says he expects the number of its UK retail stores to be cut over the next three years
Vodafone Group CEO Vittorio Colao says he expects the number of its UK retail stores to be cut over the next three years.
Vittorio, who was speaking during an event held in London today (May 22) to discuss the operators financial year performance, told Mobile News Vodafone wants its stores to be more focussed on services rather than sales.
He said this will see the size of some stores increased, but the number of locations reduced as part of a strategy to boost customer service and retention levels. He did not discuss how many of Vodafone’s 400 stores would likely be cut however.
Vittorio also confirmed Vodafone will enhance its self-care and online support service by providing additional training to staff so they are better qualified to answer customer queries.
Vittorio said: “I imagine there will be fewer (stores) but they will be bigger and more open with more services in them. There will be fewer walls full of handsets and many more areas for services, and hopefully more people in the shops.”
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UAE-based Splash, a mid-market fashion retailer and a unit of Landmark Group, is planning to enter a number of African markets via franchise agreements, the firm’s CEO told Arabian Business.
The business, which sells a mixture of Western and its own fashion brands, has signed deals to open outlets in Libya and Kenya, as well as Sri Lanka, Raza Beig said.
“In the next 18 months we’ll be in about in another 15 or 16 cities,” he said, adding that the African continent will be the “first concentration”. The retailer’s only presence in Africa at the moment is in Egypt, where it has two outlets.
Beig added that Splash was also eyeing Far Eastern markets. “There’s also a lot of dialogue from the East, but we’ve not yet finalised it,” he said.
When expanding into international markets in the past the firm has typically invested its own cash, Beig said, but is now instead seeking franchise partners to do so.
“In Egypt when we went in we put our own money in, in Lebanon we went in we put our own money in. But now we’ve decided we’re going to take the franchise route,” he said.
“It’s easier and the person on the opposite side understands their markets very well and they can share the risk.”
Beig did not rule out the possibility of Splash at some point in the future expanding into more developed retail markets, such as Western Europe.
“We don’t know what’s going to happen in the West in the next 5-10 years – someone might come up to us and say we want your franchise, and we will give it,” he said.
Splash, established 19 years ago in UAE emirate Sharjah, is part of Micky Jagtiani’s Dubai-based conglomerate Landmark, whose other brands include retailers Homecentre and Babyshop and no frills hotel chain CityMax.
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Trading conditions for Marks & Spencer’s Ireland division “remain difficult”, according to the full year results for the retailer, which indicated an overall fall in profits of 1.2% across its business. Underlying profit to the 31 March 2012 stood at £705.9 million, down from £714.3 million last year.
Group sales at the retailer were up 2% to £9.9 billion, while its international sales were up 5.8%, however, this was mainly driven by growth in India, China and Hong Kong.
While the M&S figures do not go into detail on its Irish performance, the full year statement noted that “trading in the Republic of Ireland and Greece continued to be impacted by weakness in the local economies.” M&S launched a dedicated Ireland website earlier this year for the first time.
“Marks & Spencer performed well in a challenging economic environment, growing group sales by 2% and holding market share,” said chief executive Marc Bolland. “We managed the business prudently with tight control of costs and capital investment, delivering earnings in line with last year, and substantial efficiency savings in our capital investment plans.”
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Set to open April 4 this year, Fujairah City Centre is developed by Majid Al Futtaim and will be the first integrated entertainment and retail centre in the emirate, as well as one of the largest shopping malls in the region. Located on the intersection of the new Fujairah-Dubai highway and the Masafi Highway at the entrance to Fujairah city, the mall will have a 1,000-space car park, 34,000 sqm of retail space, a multi-screen VOX cinema, a Magic Planet family entertainment centre and scores of food and beverage outlets. Anchor retail tenants will include Centrepoint, Paris Gallery, Max Fashion and Carrefour (the largest in the emirate), as well as 105 value and mid-market brands, 85 percent of which will be new to Fujairah. The mall, which is in the final stages of construction, is also on-track to obtain a LEED Gold rating for its environmentally friendly design, making it the first building in the emirate to receive this classification.
Doha Festival City is a QR6bn (US$1.65bn) mega project and is slated for completion in the fourth quarter of 2014. The development, which is a joint venture between Bawabat Al-Shamal Real Estate Company (BASREC), the Al-Futtaim Group, Qatar Islamic Bank and other investors, will fill the gap in Qatar’s retail market and boost the amount of gross leasable area (GLA) for retailers by 260,000 sqm. The mall is being designed with four distinct interior zones: Water Concourse, Garden Promenade, Rainforest Boardwalk and Fashion Galleria. IKEA, which part of the Al-Futtaim Group in the region, will be the first section of the mall to be constructed, with a scheduled opening date of Q4 this year. The 32,000 sq m store will later be accompanied by a mix of other international and local brands such as Toys R Us, Marks & Spencer and Intersport across 400 outlets, and shoppers will have access to some 8,500 car parking spaces and a vehicle management system. The project is located 15km north of downtown Doha on Al Shamal Road, one of the main arterial routes to the city centre, making it an ideal location for a big mall. Linked to the shopping area will be automotive showrooms, two hotels and an entertainment complex, which Al Futtaim says will be “very large”. No further details have been given at this stage.
Abu Dhabi still might not be able to match Dubai on the retail front, but with the new Yas Mall on its way, this will not be the case for long. Despite missing its original scheduled completion date of 2011, the mall has managed to retain the interest of several retail heavyweights, signing deals with firms such as MH Alshaya, the Landmark Group, Dubai Holding Group, Royal Sporting House and Liwa Trading. Developer Aldar Properties says the mall will have more than 235,000 sqm of retail space when it opens in Q4 of next year, 95 percent of which it expects to have leased out to retailers by the end of 2012. Upon completion, the whole development will feature some 700 retail and food units including four major department stores and six hotels, and will be connected to tourist destinations such as Ferrari World Abu Dhabi, the Yas Island water park and the Formula 1 Yas Marina Circuit. Geant is set to be the mall’s anchor tenant, after holding company Retail Arabia signed a long term year lease agreement with Aldar for a hypermarket spread over an area of more than 16,000 sqm and stocking over 65,000 products. According to reports, the mall’s Ikea store will be also the largest in the whole of the MENA region.
Spanning a massive 3m sqm, Cairo Festival City – the mixed-use urban community by Al Futtaim Group – is set to offer a premier indoor and outdoor shopping destination to residents of Greater Cairo named Cairo Festival Centre. Located 15 minutes from Cairo International Airport, the modern retail resort will be the focal point of the wider community, providing 180,000 sqm of retail space, over 300 shops and at least 95 restaurants and cafes. Among its 17 major anchors are Al Futtaim retail partners and brands such as Ikea, Plug-Ins and Marks & Spencer, while a mix of other names like hypermarket chain Carrefour have also signed up for space. As well as shopping, the mall will also provide a 17 screen multiplex cinema complex via Renaissance Cinemas, parking for more than 7,000 and an ‘edutainment centre’ known as KidZania Cairo. Completian of the centre remains unconfirmed following the country’s revolution.
The US$300m Beirut City Centre shopping mall is set to open next year and could create 1,200 retail jobs according to developer Majid Al Futtaim (MAF). The project, located in the capital’s Hazmieh district on the Damascus-Beirut road, will house a total of 200 stores over three levels and 40 international food and beverage outlets, including the first Carrefour hypermarket in Lebanon and an open-air, rooftop dining area. Beirut City Centre is the first shopping destination to be built by mall developer MAF in the country and will also include a VOX Cinemas multiplex and a Magic Planet family entertainment centre. Having commenced construction on the mall in September 2009, MAF has scheduled completion for early 2013. As with some of MAF’s other retail destinations, the mall is aiming for a LEED silver rating by incorporating eco-friendly technologies into the design.
The Pointe is a new AED300m shopping centre planned for the Palm Jumeirah, as developer Nakheel tries to boost its retail offering. Not to be confused with the recently announced Palm Mall, (situated close to the Shoreline apartments,) the 136,000 sqm mall will be located at the tip of the Palm Jumeirah, across the bay from Atlantis Hotel, covering 131,000sqm and including 56,120sqm of high end retail shops. Among its main features will be offshore computer-controlled fountains, a 34,130sqm promenade, and a marina with floating pontoons, not to mention 1,200 car parking spaces, monorail access and boat rides between the centre and the hotel. With a focus on its food and beverage and leisure offering, the mall is expected to have approximately 120 restaurants and cafes, and hoped to add to existing tourist destinations on the Palm, servicing not only residents but also visitors to Dubai. The Pointe should be ready to open at the end of 2013.
Another mall to make an appearance in the coming years is the Mall of Arabia in Dubailand. It is set to house a 15-screen cinema, a bowling alley and state-of-the-art performance stage, as well as a rooftop hotel and access to a Restless Planet theme park. As for the shopping, the resort is expected to have more than 1,000 retail outlets across more than 929,000 sqm of GLA, making it bigger than Dubai Mall, which currently holds the title for the largest shopping centre in the world. Media reports last predicted a revised completion date of 2013 for the US$5bn project, but the developer has since informed Arabian Business that the mall will open at the end of the 2015. A spokesperson said the mall was definitely still in the pipeline, but currently came second on the priority list after the nearby theme park, which is set to open in 2013.
Despite a year of political turbulence, there are plenty of new developments still on the agenda for Egypt’s capital city, Cairo. One such development, the Mall of Egypt, is set to provide 160,000 sqm of GLA, and most intriguingly, a Ski Dubai-type resort, known as Ski Egypt. The AED2.71bn development is being developed by Majid Al Futtaim, the same company that oversaw Ski Dubai. It is hoped to be the dominant super mall serving the western half of the city, with a strong fashion element, 17-screen cinema, family entertainment centre and over 50 food and beverage outlets. It is set for a 2014 opening, giving the developer just enough time to prepare for the tourist influx.
The 200,000 sqm Mall of Syria will be located in the Sabboura Yafour district in Syria’s capital Damascus, and form part of Majid Al Futtaim’s Khams Shamat tourist development. Upon completion in 2015, the mall will take the title of the biggest shopping centre in the Levant region, with as many as 300 shops and a variety of international and local retail brands. Linked to the mall will be hotels, business districts, touristic apartments and modern civic amenities, to provide a fully integrated mixed use development. The site was chosen specifically for its status as the western growth corridor for Damascus, and one which is easily accessible to tourists travelling on the Beirut/Damascus international highway.
With a soft opening taking place in March 2012, Muscat Grand Mall is the most recent of the region’s new shopping centres to be opened and the latest to launch in the Omani capital. Located in the Al Khuwair district, it hopes to attract nearly 20,000 visitors a day when all stores are officially opened. It has a gross floor area of 67,000 sqm divided between 160 new outlets, with top retail names including Sharaf DG, Homes R Us, Tim Horton’s café, Shoe Studio, Garage and Aeropostale, not to mention Carrefour which will be the mall’s anchor tenant. There will also be a multiplex cinema, a food court, a children’s entertainment area and a mix of international restaurants and cafes. The centre is part of the mixed use Al Tilal Complex being developed by Al Madina Real Estate and will later be accompanied by residential and commercial projects.
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Abu Dhabi residents spend an average of nearly US$5bn on retail goods each year, but 20 percent still prefer to travel to Dubai to do their shopping, according to a report by a leading real estate consultancy firm.
Real estate consultants at DTZ estimated that Abu Dhabi’s retail spending is around AED17bn (US$4.6bn). Despite this, the UAE capital “must look to improve the overall standard of retail offer in both its destination mall and luxury goods offer,” the report said, pointing to the fact around a fifth of Abu Dhabi residents regularly opt to travel to Dubai for shopping trips.
“This is mainly due to Abu Dhabi’s inability to match Dubai’s regional malls with their varied fashion offers and adjoining leisure activities,” DTZ said.
The report is hopeful that the opening of new regional malls, such as Yas Mall, and the increase in retail space by 137 percent over the next two years will help stem the flow of shoppers to Dubai.
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Hopes for a recovery in the British economy are set to receive another setback this week when official government data reveals lacklustre retail sales in April, underlined by Marks & Spencer which is expected to say that UK growth continues to slow.
According to the US data group Opera Solutions, the Office of National Statistics will say sales rose just 1pc year-on-year in April, less than a third of the 3.3pc growth recorded in March. The sharp slowdown in sales has in part been caused by the warmer weather in April 2011 compared with this year.
Arnab Gupta, chief executive of Opera Solutions, said the Diamond Jubilee and Olympics could boost sales this summer, but warned of an “Olympic-sized hangover” for retailers in the fourth quarter of 2012.
“We’re going to see a lot of retail spending by consumers brought forward for the Olympics, Euro 2012 and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee,” he said. “Stocking up and extended Sunday opening hours during the whole of July will pull sales forward from August and from September.”
M&S, a bellwether for the UK retail market, is expected to warn this week that its future growth rests on the internet and international sales.
Marc Bolland, the chief executive, will admit that less than £8 in every £10 it takes will come from its shops on Britain’s high streets over the next two years because the company will fail to hit its targets in the UK.
Of all the major British retailers, M&S sells the smallest proportion of its goods online. However it is expected to use its annual results on Tuesday to say that it is catching up, despite losing ground on the high street.
Some analysts are calling on the company to commit to offering its full food range online to help it make up for lost sales momentum in womenswear, which is the most important part of its business but has been hit hard by competition and recession-hit shoppers cutting back. Two years ago, Britain’s biggest clothing retailer set itself an ambitious target to increase its sales by between £1.6bn to £2.5bn a year by 2013/14.
Mr Bolland is expected to announce, alongside the company’s results, that this now looks unachievable. “No one could have envisaged quite how tough the UK consumer economy was going to be,” said one insider. It is unlikely he will scrap the targets altogether, but guide analysts to the very bottom end of the range.
Despite poor sales in the UK, made worse by the failure to stock enough popular products in March and April, Mr Bolland will say plans for a complete roll-out of the company’s re-formatted stores will go ahead.
Mr Bolland also said in 2010 that he wanted M&S’s then relatively tiny online business and its fledgling international business to make up 10pc each of its total sales of between £11.6bn to £12.5bn by 2013/14.
He is likely to say that, despite the disappointing performance in the UK, these two arms are trading ahead of schedule and are likely to represent a far bigger slice of the overall business, while the UK legacy business is likely to make up less than 80pc of the total group sales.
The company is forecast to publish turnover just shy of £10bn, up from £9.74bn the previous year.
Pre-tax profit is forecast to fall to £694m from £714m.
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South Africa’s AVI to acquire Green Cross
South Africa’s AVI has acquired footwear manufacturer and retailer Green Cross, it has been announced.
AVI, whose licenced brands include Lavazza and Douwe Egberts Cafitesse in the food and beverage sector; and fashion names including Kurt Geiger and Lacoste, said the transaction represents a rare opportunity to acquire an established, category-leading brand of relevant scale with a solid record of profitable operations.
AVI said it would work to substantially increase the scale and profitability of Green Cross’ operations through increased brand focus, product innovation, enhanced consumer messaging and greater investment in both the business’ retail and wholesale operations.
Green Cross was founded in 1975 and is a vertically integrated manufacturer, importer and retailer of ladies, men’s and children’s footwear in South Africa and surrounding areas. All sales by the business are made under the Green Cross brand, which is owned by Green Cross in South Africa and several other jurisdictions.
Green Cross has production facilities in Epping, Cape Town, and sells its products through a network of 30 retail outlets situated across South Africa. Wholesale sales are made through a network of third party retailers, distributors and agents, accounting for approximately 48 per cent of consolidated turnover in Green Cross’ last financial year.
For the financial year ending 29 February 2012, Green Cross posted revenues of R300.6 million, with operating profit after tax of R50.4 million.
AVI’s brand portfolio includes more than 53 brands: 33 owned brands and over 20 international brands under licence. Brands span a range of hot and cold beverages, sweet and savoury snacks, fresh and convenience foods, out-of-home ranges, cosmetics, shoes and accessories, and apparel.
With a turnover of R7.6 billion in FY11, AVI’s brands are a household name in South Africa.
RELATED TERMS: Manufacturing Retail and Leisure Africa AVI beverage food Kurt Geiger retail South Africa News
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Apple’s march to world domination continues, this time with a
What’s surprising about this store announcement is that Apple apparently made managers of a successful Zara fashion store at the Drake Circus Shopping Centre (above) in Plymouth “an offer they can’t refuse.”
The Zara store, which fills a 21,045 square-foot space in the mall, has about ten years to go on a fifteen-year lease. Zara is out; Apple will assume the lease for the remainder of the time. ifoAppleStore notes that this space is almost double the size of the standard Apple Store, so Apple may just occupy the ground floor and sublet the upper level.
26 Zara employees are losing their jobs as a result of the announced closing, but there’s a good chance that more jobs than that will be created when the Apple Store opens. The Drake Circus store is about 45 miles from the Princesshay Apple Store in Exeter, and fills in coverage for the Devon and Cornwall region of the country.
#bizitalk
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After 8 months of construction the wait is finally over. There to unveil the plaque was Executive Mayor, Mpho Khunou, Boitekong Mall opened its doors on 26th April 2012.
A VIP function was held the morning of the launch where Peter Manzana, Unit Manager of Communication from the Executive Mayor’s Office and Rustenburg Local Municipality commended the Developers for their efforts in giving the community a place they can call theirs. Fontis Developments, Benhaus Group, Periscopic Property Management and Councillors from the local Municipality were amongst the delegates who attended the function.
The centre was flooded during the launch weekend with shoppers taking advantage of the opening specials. Shoppers also stood a chance to win branded Boitekong Mall merchandise through the in-centre spend to win competition and enjoyed entertainment by live performers and a kids entertainment area.
“The opening of Boitekong Mall not only offered the surrounding community a variety of stores and transport facilities at their doorstop but it also opened opportunities for employment,” says Tom Roodt, from Fontis Developments.
With its modern exterior design and prominent location, Boitekong Mall enjoys extensive visibility from passing vehicles and pedestrians and is perfectly positioned to become a convenient shopping destination for the surrounding community.
For shoppers to the centre, it will become a place to be themselves and have a good time, whilst delivering all their shopping essentials.
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As Facebook floats with a valuation of more than $100bn, Retail Week asks what advantages the social network has created for retailers?
Engagement
Some retailers have adopted tactics, such as an interactive Tesco game on Facebook, to build brand awareness. The retailer’s virtual fitting room – using augmented reality – for its F&F fashion brand has been a hit too. Facebook also allows retailers to engage with customers in a more informal manner and share tips and information – such as recipes – with dedicated shoppers, increasing brand engagement.
Using and integrating data
Facebook’s Open Graph – the footprint of connections that Facebook users produce as they interact with friends and online content – has allowed retailers such as eBay to integrate marketing tailored for a specific audience. Although some users are uncomfortable with such use of their data, Facebook remains a free service which they are paying for with their information.
Retailers can also now integrate their Facebook page users’ data with their existing databases, allowing them to get in touch with customers quickly and effectively.
Driving traffic
A large number of retailers use Facebook simply to drive traffic to their own website.
Targeting new customers
Department store group House of Fraser teamed up with the National Union of Students to offer a 10% student discount to Facebook users who ‘like’ the retailer.
Testing ranges
Retailers including C&A have used Facebook to gauge the popularity of new products and work out volumes to stock in store accordingly. Some retailers have even polled Facebook users to decide which of new stores to open first.
Easy payment
Retailers including Asos have opened Facebook shops using Paypal to transact. This allows Facebook users to navigate to a shop quickly, without having to take a deliberate decision to ‘go shopping’ on the conventional etail site.
Timelines
The new timeline format of Facebook has allowed retailers to take advantage of a more fashionable, design-led profile. It also tracks users’ history, showing what users have done in the past and enabling advertising to be tailored accordingly.
Location-specific deals
Argos and Debenhams are among the retailers who have signed up to the Facebook Deals initiative, which allows retailers to use the Place application to create location-specific deals, tailoring the offer for customers and increasing the likelihood they will make a purchase.
Marketing
The impact of social media is evident at Burberry, one of the most adept users of sites such as Facebook. The luxury goods specialist now has 10m Facebook fans – second only in fashion to Victoria’s Secret. Burberry linked the launch of its Burberry Body fragrance last year to Facebook by giving a sample to people who ‘liked its page.
Instagram
Facebook’s $1bn acquisition of the photo-sharing app may have surprised some, but Instagram has already been used by Ted Baker to send high quality images to its Facebook page and drive traffic from fashion shoppers.
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Who was the first woman to feature on the reverse of a British Banknote?
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Politicians join fight to keep women on British banknotes - Telegraph
Women's Politics
Politicians join fight to keep women on British banknotes
Exclusive: David Cameron has been called upon by 46 female Labour MPs and peers, including Harriet Harman, the party’s deputy leader, and Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, to back a campaign to keep a woman on British banknotes.
Elizabeth Fry is being replaced by Sir Winston Churchill.
By Emma Barnett , Women's Editor
7:00AM BST 21 Jun 2013
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The outgoing Bank of England governor, Sir Mervyn King announced in April 2013 that Sir Winston Churchill will replace social reformer Elizabeth Fry on the face of the new five pound notes from 2016. The decision means that there will be no women represented for their contributions to the country’s history on the British banknote, apart from Her Majesty the Queen.
Now 46 members of Parliament and of the House of Lords have written letters to both the Prime Minister and the Bank of England’s Court of Directors in a bid to reverse the decision.
The letter to the Bank calls for the decision to be reviewed and for the Court, which is made up of the Bank of England’s non executive directors, who scrutinise its decisions, to discuss the issue at its next meeting.
A copy of the document seen by Telegraph Wonder Women says: “We ask that you seek to review the decision about Elizabeth Fry and ensure that the Bank plays its role in celebrating the contribution of women to our country. We are sharing our letter with the Prime Minister to ask him to join us in raising these concerns and recognising the contribution of women across all spheres of public life.
“We would welcome confirmation this correspondence will be discussed at your forthcoming meeting on the July 17 as well as a positive reply to our request.”
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It is understood that the Court of Directors will indeed discuss the issue at their next meeting, after receiving the letter yesterday afternoon.
Stella Creasy, the Labour MP and a shadow home affairs minister, who has led the campaign in Westminster, told The Telegraph that the letter wasn’t intended to deny Sir Winston a much deserved place on a banknote.
“No one is having a pop at Sir Winston. He is a highly respected figure. But we are trying to draw attention to the consequences of taking Fry off. It’s about the message that a total absence of women, bar the Queen, from our banknotes sends to our society. We don’t understand the Bank’s decision,” she explained.
“We want a commitment to the public representation of women in this country, and we believe the Prime Minister should join us.”
Earlier this month the Bank said it would stand by its decision to remove Elizabeth Fry from the current £5 note, after being confronted by Caroline Criado-Perez, a women’s rights campaigner , who has launched an online petition , (with nearly 30,000 signatures at the time of writing) to keep a woman on British banknotes. She has now launched a legal challenge against the Bank of England, accusing them of ignoring the Equality Act.
Yesterday the Women's Engineering Society also wrote to the Bank of England , calling for a female engineer to take her place on banknotes.
Only one other woman has ever featured on a British banknote and that was Florence Nightingale.
The MPs have suggested a number of other prominent women who could take their place on British tender: “There are many wonderful women whose contribution to our national life should be celebrated - for example Mary Seacole, Mary Wollstencraft, Emmeline Pankhurst or Rosalind Franklin.”
Other high profile signatories of the letter include: Dame Tessa Jowell, the former shadow Olympics minister and Baroness Jan Royall, the leader of the House of Lords.
A spokesman for the Bank of England said: “The Bank did consider the representation of women when selecting the next figure to feature on a banknote. The selection decision was made taking into account objectively selected criteria. Four candidates, three men a woman, were considered when Sir Winston Churchill was chosen as the historical character to appear on the next new banknote, and the female candidate was chosen as the contingency candidate.”
The letter to the Court of Directors in full:
Dear Sirs,
We are writing to you as the Court of Directors of the Bank of England to express our concerns following the Bank’s announcement it intends to remove the only woman historical figure to be celebrated on our bank notes.
Like many people across the country we support the celebration of Winston Churchill on our banknotes, given his immense service to our country. However we are very disappointed that the Bank has taken this decision in a way that means for the first time for a decade, all those celebrated on our bank notes will be men. The celebration of our history and the contribution made by great citizens on our legal tender is something of which we are very proud. And the Bank will understand the great symbolism of the faces that appear on our national currency.
That is why it is so deeply disappointing that the Bank should choose not to celebrate the contribution of any women to British history and our national life. The Bank has given no explanation of why Elizabeth Fry is being replaced rather than one of the other figures. The Court will know too that if all the historical figures are being replaced there are many wonderful women whose contribution to our national life should be celebrated - for example Mary Seacole, Mary Wollstencraft, Emmeline Pankhurst or Rosalind Franklin.
Indeed, the fact that Florence Nightingale is the only other woman who has ever been represented alongside Elizabeth Fry also suggests there is a need for the Bank to show stronger leadership in honouring the role of women in our nation’s history.
We would also expect the Bank to consider its leadership role on these issues as part of its duties under the Equality Act. Given these concerns, we ask that you seek to review the decision about Elizabeth Fry and ensure that the Bank plays its role in celebrating the contribution of women to our country. We are sharing our letter with the Prime Minister to ask him to join us in raising these concerns and recognising the contribution of women across all spheres of public life.
We would welcome confirmation this correspondence will be discussed at your forthcoming meeting on the 17th July as well as a positive reply to our request.
We look forward to your response prior to this event.
Yours sincerely,
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Florence Nightingale
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During World War 2, the German Operation Hercules was a plan to invade which island?
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New £5 note replaces Elizabeth Fry with Sir Winston Churchill | Business | The Guardian
New £5 note replaces Elizabeth Fry with Sir Winston Churchill
Departing Bank of England governor chooses wartime leader to replace prison reformer on next fiver
Winston Churchill will feature on the next £5 banknote. Photograph: Bank of England
New £5 note replaces Elizabeth Fry with Sir Winston Churchill
Departing Bank of England governor chooses wartime leader to replace prison reformer on next fiver
Friday 26 April 2013 08.41 EDT
First published on Friday 26 April 2013 08.41 EDT
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This article is 3 years old
Sir Winston Churchill will appear on the next Bank of England banknote, joining a select list of “eminent British personalities” including Florence Nightingale and William Shakespeare.
The wartime leader’s face and famous “blood, toil, tears and sweat” quote on £5 notes will be a lasting legacy for departing Bank governor Sir Mervyn King , who made the final decision on Churchill.
Announcing the choice at Churchill’s former home, Chartwell, King suggested £5 notes may even become known as “Winstons”.
“It seems entirely appropriate to put Sir Winston on what is probably our most popular note,” he said.
“Our banknotes acknowledge the life and work of great Britons. Sir Winston Churchill was a truly great British leader, orator and writer. Above that, he remains a hero of the entire free world. His energy, courage, eloquence, wit and public service are an inspiration to us all.”
Churchill’s portrait from a photograph taken in 1941 will probably appear on £5 notes from 2016 although plans have yet to be finalised, the Bank said. If it is indeed the £5 note he appears on, he will replace social reformer Elizabeth Fry and there will no longer be any female figures celebrated on the back of British banknotes.
Churchill will be pictured alongside a view of Westminster with parliament’s clock showing 3 o’clock – the approximate time on 13 May 1940 when Churchill declared in a speech: “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.”
The Bank has pictured British personalities on the back of its notes since 1970 and the previous 15 eminent figures chosen have included the composer Sir Edward Elgar, scientist Michael Faraday and writer Charles Dickens. Only two, Fry and Nightingale, have been women.
Members of the public can put forward suggestions, although the Bank will only consider figures who have made an “indisputable contribution to their particular field of work”. It considers the list of public suggestions when picking a new picture but the governor of the Bank has the final decision.
The current suggestions list includes Princess Diana, the Beatles, poet William Blake and naturalist Sir David Attenborough. Lady Thatcher is not on the most recently available list of public suggestions.
The new Churchill banknote will be the second time he has appeared on British money, having become the first commoner to be portrayed on a British coin – the 1965 crown or five shilling piece.
King added: “Winston Churchill holds a special place in the affections of our nation. His wartime leadership inspired the British people, not least through the power of his oratory. That leadership served as an example to the free world and helped to ensure the survival of those freedoms, which we continue to enjoy today.”
• This article was amended on 3 June 2016. An earlier version said that Winston Churchill will be the first statesman to feature on British banknotes. The Duke of Wellington appeared on £5 notes from 1971 to 1991.
JMW Turner, Jane Austen and Sir Winston Churchill are the new additions to the Bank of England’s banknotes
Published: 25 Apr 2016
Editorial: Start playing party top trumps with promissory notes, and there will be no end
Published: 26 Apr 2013
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i don't know
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In which event did Chris Brasher win his gold medal in the 1956 Olympics?
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Chris Brasher Bio, Stats, and Results | Olympics at Sports-Reference.com
Medals: 1 Gold (1 Total)
Biography
Before the 1956 Olympics, Chris Brasher, who was educated at Rugby and St John's College, Cambridge, had enjoyed a long track career, winning the 3 miles for Cambridge against Oxford in 1950 and the 5,000 metres in the World Student Games in 1951. It was in 1951 that he made his debut as a steeplechaser and he did well to reach the Olympic final the following year. At the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games he competed for England and was eliminated in the heats of the 1 mile event. In 1955 he represented Britain in three of their five international matches, finishing second to [John Disley] on each occasion, and in 1956 he clinched the place in the Olympic team with a personal best of 8 minutes 47.2 seconds in the match against Czechoslovakia when he was again second to John Disley. With Disley, Brasher, and [Eric Shirley] all qualifying for the Olympic final, British hopes ran high in Melbourne with Brasher perhaps the least fancied of the three. But from 300 metres out, Brasher launched an unanswerable attack and came home the winner with 12 metres to spare in 8 minutes 41.2 seconds, a new British and Olympic record. However, some hours were to pass before he received his gold medal as he had to survive a protest that he had impeded the Norwegian Ernst Larsen.
After the Melbourne Olympics, Chris Brasher retired from athletics and from his job with Mobil Oil to take up the post of Sports Editor of the Observer which had been offered to him before the Games. In 1961 he joined the BBC as a reporter on the Tonight program and in 1969 was appointed head of General Features, Television, but he did not renew his contract in 1972. In later years he was the organizer of the hugely successful London Marathon. Chris married the lawn tennis player Shirley Bloomer, and their daughter was also a successful tournament player.
Personal Best(s): 1500 – 3:53.6 (1954); Mile – 4:06.8 (1955); 3000 – 8:15.4 (1955); 2 miles – 8:45.6 (1956); 3000S – 8:41.2 (1956).
Results
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Steeplechase
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"What is the meaning of the Latin phrase ""Vide Infra""?"
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Chris Brasher - John Bryant - E-bok (9781845136840) | Bokus
Chris Brasher
Spara som favorit
One of the most remarkable and controversial figures sporting figures in British history, Chris Brasher piled unique achievement on unique achievement. It was Chris Brasher who, along with Chris Chataway, paced Roger Bannister to break the 4-minute mile. Then he won his own Olympic Gold Medal in the steeplechase at the 1956 Olympics. Probably best known now for founding the London Marathon, Chris went on to become one of the founders of the modern sports of fell-running and orienteering.. At the Observer, he also effectively invented modern sports feature writing. Plus, he invented the now-ubiquitous Brasher walking boot, with the revolutionary aim of making heavy boots as comfortable as training shoes. Along the way he built up a highly successful sportswear chain, and even, in later life, a stable of racehorses. But Chris Brasher was also a highly controversial individual: irascible, domineering a good friend but a bad enemy and above all a hugely competitive man who had to win in everything he did. Now, John Bryant, who knew Brasher well as a friend, has written the extraordinary story of this impossible and amazing mans life. Whether youre a sports journalist, a Lakeland fell-runner, a weekend rambler or one of the 50,000 competitors in the London Marathon, Chris Brasher changed your life.
(Bookdata)
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i don't know
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Which London Rail station is the terminus of the Midland Main Line?
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London: Railway Stations - TripAdvisor
London: Railway Stations
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London Traveler Article:
London is a city with twelve major railway stations around the central area of the city. Each station has train services to different regions of the country.
Cannon Street: Local stopping services to South East London, and outer suburban services to Kent.
Charing Cross: Services to Kent, and the south coast of England. Local stopping services to Lewisham, Blackheath/Greenwich and south east London.
Euston: Terminus of West Coast Main Line - services to Birmingham (New Street), Manchester, Liverpool, the Lake District and Glasgow. Overnight sleeper trains to Scottish destinations (Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Inverness and Fort William) also depart from Euston. Local stopping services to Watford, Milton Keynes and Northampton.
Fenchurch Street : Local stopping services to East London suburbs and the Essex coast.
Kings Cross: Terminus of East Coast Main Line - services to Peterborough, York, Leeds, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Aberdeen. Local stopping trains to North London suburbs, Hertfordshire and onwards to Cambridge.
London Bridge : Local stopping services to South London suburbs as well as commuter services to Kent.
Liverpool Street : Terminus of Great Eastern Main Line - services to East Anglia (Ipswich, Lowestoft and Norwich), local services to East London suburbs and the Essex coast. Express services to Stansted Airport. Service to Southend Airport
Marylebone: Terminus of Chiltern Line - commuter services to Buckinghamshire towns, Banbury and Birmingham (Snow Hill)
Paddington: Terminus of Great Western Main Line - services to Oxford, Swindon, Bath, Bristol and the South West of England. Also terminus for the Heathrow Express.
St Pancras: Terminus of Midland Main Line and High Speed One - services to Luton (incl. Luton Airport), Nottingham, Derby and Sheffield. Eurostar international services to Paris (Gare du Nord) and Brussels. High Speed services to Kent (from December 2009)
Victoria : Terminus of the Brighton Main Line - services to Brighton, Eastbourne and Hastings. Local stopping services to South London suburbs.
Waterloo : Terminus of the South Western Main line - services to Bournemouth, Southampton and towns along the Dorset coast.
Eurostar trains run frequently to Brussels , Lille (France) & Paris via the Channel Tunnel from St Pancras International Station .
Airports
London City (LCY)
London City is in East London in the old Docklands. There is a DLR (Docklands Light Railway) station which connects to the Jubilee Line Underground at Canning Town and the Central and Northern Lines at Bank.
Heathrow (LHR)
Heathrow is the worst served of all London ’s airports for rail links. A non-stop service call The Heathrow Express runs to Paddington Station, however this service is very expensive (about £16 single) even though the journey is only around 10-15 minutes. There is also a cheaper, less frequent service called The Heathrow Connect which runs the same route, but also stops at intermediate stations. Heathrow is the only London airport with an underground station. The Piccadilly Line runs from Heathrow to central London with stations at Earls Court, Piccadilly Circus and Covent Garden. Average journey time around 50 minutes, but can be quite unpleasant and overcrowded at peak times. There is also an easy change at Hammersmith for the District Line to Westminster.
Gatwick (LGW )
Gatwick is served by the Gatwick Express with frequent departures direct to Victoria . There are also Southern Railway trains to Victoria or Brighton . These are normal trains and may be crowded at peak times. These are cheaper than the Express and some trains are just as quick. First Capital Connect trains also stop at Gatwick and these trains run from Brighton, in the south, to Luton or Bedford , in the north of London . They also stop at London Bridge and the basement level of St Pancras International Station
Stansted (STN )
During the day, trains depart every 15 minutes for the 45 minute journey to Liverpool Street . The train company is Stansted Express . Liverpool Street Station is on the Central line of the Underground, so quite easy to get to from elsewhere in London . Trains also run to Stratford in East London and Birmingham, Cambridge, Peterborough and Leicester .
Luton (LTN)
Luton Airport is served by Luton Airport Parkway station which is a short bus ride from the terminal. First Capital Connect operate regular services via London Bridge and St Pancras Thameslink stations. Certain services bound for Sheffield or Derby from St Pancras International also call at Luton Airport or Luton itself. These are considerably faster than the Thameslink services provided by First Capital Connect, but always check as some trains go through Luton without stopping.
Useful Info:
National Express - Trains and Coaches
National Rail - has timetables and a journey planner.
Seat 61 - excellent website about train travel from the UK to mainland Europe.
thetrainline - information on travelling in and out of london, cheap advance train tickets and train times.
Share your knowledge
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St. Pancras
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Bow Street, Marlborough Street and which other Street make up the orange properties in Monopoly?
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Disused Stations: Manchester Central Station
Date of visit:
14.2.2005
Manchester Central Station was opened by the Cheshire Lines Committee (CLC) railway company on 1st July 1880. The CLC was a partnership of three railway companies that had come together in the 1860s, consisting of the Great Northern Railway (GNR), the Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway (MSLR) and the Midland Railway (MR).
The CLC partners had all gained access to Manchester by the end of the 1860s through a variety of agreements that involved running over the lines of other companies. The MSLR shared a terminus station with the London & North Western Railway (LNWR) at Manchester London Road. The MSLR allowed the MR and the GNR to use their part of the station, but
by the 1870s this situation was becoming a problem as London Road was increasingly congested. Outright hostility to the MR from the LNWR did not help matters.
With the opening of the CLC main line from Liverpool to Manchester in 1873, and its purpose-built terminus station at Liverpool Central on 2nd March 1874, the need for a station in central Manchester became even more pressing. The CLC had to run its trains from Liverpool and from its mid Cheshire line into Manchester London Road, which once again meant that there was a reliance on the LNWR.
The CLC obtained an Act in June 1872, which granted them powers to extend their line from Liverpool into central Manchester and create a terminus station of their own. On 9th July 1877 a station that was known as Manchester Central opened on Windmill Street at the back of the city’s Free Trade Hall. This station was destined to have only a very short life as, at the time of
its opening, work was well under way on its permanent replacement.
The CLC chose its resident engineer Lewis Henry Moorsom, to build the permanent Manchester Central station, and work on the building commenced in 1875. Areas of notorious slum dwellings, which inspired the writings of Frederick Engels, had occupied the land on which the station was built. The city fathers were pleased to see the area cleared, although it is doubtful that any thought have been given to the individuals who lived there. Robert Neill & Sons, at a cost of £124,778, undertook the construction work.
During the construction of the station the MR had found a way of accessing it from its main line to London St Pancras. In January 1876 the MSLR had given the MR notice to quit Manchester London Road station within three years. The MR took over a project that had been proposed by the Manchester South District Railway (MSDR) in 1873, obtained its own
Act to build the line in July 1877, and started work on it in 1878. The line connected the CLC Liverpool - Manchester route just over a mile to the west of Manchester Central near Cornbrook, to the CLC Glazebrook - Woodley route via Stockport Tiviot Dale at Heaton Mersey, thus giving the MR a route into Central Station.
When the station opened it consisted of a magnificent arched single-span roof, constructed by Andrew Handyside & Co. The dimensions of the arch at Manchester Central were 210 feet wide, 550 feet long and 90 feet high at the highest point. The frame itself weighed 2,400 tons and was covered using a combination of slate and glass. Underneath the roof
there were six platform faces, four of which were situated on two island platforms. The platforms were served by nine tracks, the extra lines being used by engines to run around their trains. The running lines and platforms were above street level, and beneath them were huge brick-built caverns that could be used to store goods. The lines exited the station via some very heavily engineered bridges and viaducts that carried the line down to Cornbrook where the Liverpool, Heaton Mersey and Chester lines separated.
For the public the main entrance to the station was at the Windmill Street end. At the time of opening wooden buildings provided all of the usual facilities including the main booking office. These facilities were meant to be a temporary measure, as it was intended that a hotel to be constructed would form a grand frontage to the station. A large clock face was
provided on the inside and on the outside of the station.
When the permanent station opened, its temporary predecessor closed to passengers and was developed as a goods station.
From the opening of Manchester Central trains ran to Liverpool via the CLC main line, to Stockport and beyond via the South District line, and to Northwich and Chester via the CLC’s mid Cheshire route. From Monday 2nd August 1880 the MR began to run express services between Manchester Central and Buxton, Derby and London St Pancras. From October
1891 the GNR introduced express trains between Manchester Central and London Kings Cross. They had opened a new line that ran from Fairfield, on the MSLR main line between Manchester and Sheffield, to Chorlton-cum-Hardy on the South District Line, giving them access to Central Station. At the same time a local all-stations service was introduced between Manchester Central and Guide Bridge.
On 1st July 1897 the MSLR changed its name to the Great Central Railway (GCR), and a couple of years later, on 15th March 1899, they opened their London Extension Railway to London Marylebone. From this date trains also ran between the new GCR London terminus and Manchester Central.
In 1896 the MR purchased land at the front of Manchester Central station on which to build a hotel. By this time, however, it was decided that the hotel would not be built onto the front of the station as originally envisaged; instead it was built a short distance away on the other side of Windmill Street. The hotel was designed by the MR’s architect Charles Trubshaw assisted by William Towle. It was a magnificent structure that was the height of luxury. It opened on 5th September 1903 having taken four years to build. A covered walkway was built between the station entrance and the hotel so that passengers could be protected from wet weather. The station’s so-called temporary wooden buildings were destined to remain in place.
By the time the hotel had opened, passengers were able to travel between Manchester Central and Buxton, Chester Northgate, Derby, Hull, Liverpool Central, London Kings Cross, London Marylebone, London St Pancras, Nottingham and Southport Lord Street. Local services radiated out to the south Manchester suburbs and to such towns as Warrington and Wigan. Because of the intense levels of traffic the station had to be extended.
In 1906 extra platforms were built outside the overall roof on the south east side of the station. The platforms were constructed from wood and were provided with awnings to protect passengers from the elements. Three platform faces were created in all, one of which, platform 7, was effectively a bay at the end of platform six. The new platforms were numbered seven, eight and nine.
During the early years of the 20th century the MR made substantial investments to speed up its services from Manchester to London in direct competition with the LNWR. With the construction of a new direct line between Heaton Mersey and New Mills opening in 1902, MR express trains were reaching London from Manchester Central in 3 hours and 40 minutes, which
which was only 10 minutes slower than the LNWR. The MR also provided levels of comfort, including the introduction of Pullman Coaches, not previously seen in Britain.
In 1923 the GCR and the GNR became part of the London & North Eastern Railway (LNER) while the MR became part of the London Midland & Scottish Railway (LMS). The CLC remained independent, but it now had only two partners, the LMS and the LNER; the LNER had two thirds of the shares and the LMS one third.
After 1923 competition between the former LNWR and MR routes was no longer an issue as they both belonged to the LMS. Express services out of Manchester Central did not suffer, though, because the LMS considered the MR route to be important as it took the strain off the former LNWR line. During the 1930s two of the services between London St Pancras
and Manchester Central were named trains: the ‘Peak Express’ and the ‘Palatine’. The Peak Express covered the journey in 3 hours and 35 minutes.
In 1935 the signalling at Manchester Central was modernised using the latest technology. Colour light signals replaced semaphores that had served the station since its earliest days.
During the Second World War passenger services were reduced both in number and in speed. At the end of hostilities it took many years for timings to reach anything like their pre-war levels.
From 1st January 1948 Manchester Central became part of the nationalised British Railways (London Midland Region) and the CLC was no more. In the early 1950s service patterns from Manchester Central were fairly familiar, but competition from road was having an effect on some of the more local services. The South District services which at this time were
running between Manchester Central and Stockport Tiviot Dale or Cheadle Heath, and which had once built up to a ten minute frequency, were down to twenty-three per weekday by 1954. In 1952 the Southport Lord Street service was cut back to Aintree, and in July 1958 the Guide Bridge service ended.
A regular service between Liverpool Central and Manchester Central continued to run, and from 1958 Manchester Central found itself handling an increase in express services to the south. This was because British Railways had decided to electrify the former LNWR route from Manchester London Road, which was renamed Manchester Piccadilly, to London Euston. As the electrification work would cause delays it was decided to concentrate services at Manchester Central.
From 4th July 1960 a new train that had been developed by British Railways, a diesel Pullman, which became known as the ‘Blue Pullman’, began to operate between Manchester Central and London St Pancras. The train was both modern and luxurious, completed the journey in 3 hours and 13 minutes, and proved very popular with business travellers. Sleeping
car services were also concentrated into Manchester Central at this time, but they were routed over the former GCR main line to London Marylebone. Also in 1960 new four-car Diesel Multiple Units (DMUs) were introduced onto the Liverpool service. In 1961 DMUs also started to operate on the South District line and on services to Chester and Buxton. However, despite the modernisation, steam-hauled services could still be seen at Manchester Central during this period.
The years between 1960 and 1966 were very busy at Manchester Central, but they were to prove to be a swansong. In April 1966 electrification of the LNWR route was completed and services were concentrated onto that route. The Blue Pullman ceased to operate in 1966, and on 1st January 1967 the South District service ended. As early as September 1966 British
British Rail, as it had then become known, was considering how they might close Manchester Central and divert the remaining services. A target date for closure was eventually set for June 1968 with an estimated cost of £539,000. The costs were associated with junction remodelling that was needed to allow Liverpool and Chester trains to run towards Piccadilly.
From the 1st January 1968 express services were diverted to run into Manchester Piccadilly. The last express services had run between Central Station and Nottingham and London St Pancras. From this date the only trains that served Manchester Central were the Liverpool and the Chester services along with a Sundays-only service that ran between Liverpool Lime Street and Sheffield Midland.
The intended closure date of June 1968 was not met, and a new date was set for 5th May 1969. The last trains ran out of the station on Saturday 3rd May 1969. Following its closure the station was sold to the NCP Car Parking empire in 1972. It slowly decayed, acting not only as a symbol of the decline of Britain’s railways but also of the country’s northern industrial towns. It
was purchased by the Greater Manchester Council in 1978. Thankfully, as Manchester began to resurrect itself from its decline in the early 1980s, the city officials focussed their attention on the station. In 1983 it was given Grade II* Listed status, then work began on converting it to an exhibition hall. On 7th March 1986 it re-opened to the public as the GMEX exhibition hall. For over 20 years the GMEX hosted shows, exhibitions and concerts.
In January 2007 the venue was renamed as Manchester Central , once again taking on its historic name.
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i don't know
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Herpetology is the study of what?
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How to be a Herpetologist – Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles
Photo by Todd W. Pierson.
Careers in Herpetology
In reality, herpetology is a sub-field of biology. Jobs in biology traditionally fall into four areas: college and university employment, government work (including state and federal), medical related work, and zoological park or museum staff. More recently, industrial and medical biotechnology have emerged as areas with new and exciting opportunities for biological research. What all of these jobs have in common is training in a biological field. The herpetological emphasis is put there by the worker! For example, a person might be trained in ecology and do environmental impact studies for the government. If that person is also a herpetologist, reptiles and amphibians might be the animals studied to evaluate changes in the environment. A medical research with training in hematology might, if interested in herpetology, study blood of reptiles and amphibians. It is rare to find a job that considers someone to be a herpetologist first!
Years ago it was possible for individuals to study amphibians and reptiles on their own, perhaps by maintaining large collections of animals or by studying them in the wild, and learn enough to get a position at a zoo or museum as a herpetologist. Today, however, techniques for conducting nearly any biological study have become so sophisticated, and competition for jobs has become so intense, that a college degree is a necessity in order to pursue a career in herpetology. Often an advanced degree (masters or doctorate) in biology, anatomy, biochemistry, microbiology, physiology, or some related field is required for almost any specialized job. Many, if not most, herpetologists today are employed at colleges or universities and an advanced degree is usually a condition of employment at such institutions.
The specific training required for a career in herpetology varies according to one’s goals. In virtually all cases a bachelor of arts or a bachelor of science degree with a major in biology is required. Courses in inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry and biochemistry, calculus, physics and/or earth science should be taken. Statistics is now a necessary tool in biological studies and courses in this area are essential. A great deal of herpetological research is conducted in other countries and facility in one or more foreign languages allows one to follow such activities in other nations. As in other branches of science, computer literacy is indispensable and students should enroll in courses that provide training in computer use.
Any college that provides a strong background in the sciences, mathematics and English also provides the basis for a career in herpetology. But if you are seriously interested in pursuing herpetology as a career you might want to attend a college that also offers a course in herpetology (or at least in natural history or vertebrate zoology) and has one or more faculty members conducting herpetological research. “Leads” to such institutions can best be obtained by studying several recent issues of herpetological journals such as Journal of Herpetology, Herpetological Review, Copeia, or Herpetologica, and noting where some particularly interesting research (to you) is being conducted. You can then write to the institutions or authors and ask for further information about their programs. Another reason to look at herpetological journals, which may be found in college or natural history museum libraries, is to give you some idea of the broad scope of herpetological research and to help you narrow down your interest.
Following graduation from college with a bachelor’s degree in biology, you may want to seek employment immediately. However, opportunities for employment with only a bachelor’s degree are limited, both in terms of available positions and level of advancement. Nevertheless, many graduates obtain jobs in museums or zoos working with exhibits and live animals and dealing with the public. Others work in research laboratories assisting investigators with their projects; such positions exist at larger colleges and in certain government agencies. Students with a broad interest in natural history may find jobs in local, state, or national parks (as park naturalists) or certain large companies as environmental specialists; a knowledge of herpetology can be particularly useful in these positions. In addition, there are many fields — veterinary assistant, biomedical salesperson, biology teacher — where positions less herpetologically related are also available.
Students who continue their education through to the masters or doctorate degree usually find employment where they have greater freedom to pursue their own interests, the salary is higher, and the responsibilities are greater. Most individuals with a Ph.D. work at a college or university where they teach and conduct research in their own area of interest. Herpetological research is often conducted in the field, which involves the collection, marking or observation of organisms, or the analysis of environmental conditions associated with particular populations. However, other herpetologists have a strong interest in laboratory research and spend little time in the field. Studies in physiology, immunology, embryology, genetics, anatomy, and biochemistry are usually conducted in a laboratory, while research in ecology, behavior, population biology, systematics, reproductive biology, and biogeography involve significant amounts of field work. In all cases, however, data have to be analyzed, summarized, and eventually published in a scientific journal. The goal of herpetological research, as with other branches of biology, is to learn as much as possible about our special interest and to communicate this knowledge to others. Publication of this research in journals is how scientific knowledge is communicated and most employers look for people who have shown an ability to do research and also to publish it. Developing writing skills should therefore be considered a must in college.
The main thing is — if you want to be a herpetologist, try it! The study of animal biology can be a continuing interest and challenge for the rest of your life, and it will serve you well no matter what career you ultimately choose.
Herpetology as a Career was written in 1985 by a committee composed of:
Henri C. Seibert (Chairman)
Case Western Reserve University
Cleveland, Ohio 44106, USA
This page was initiated on 13 April 1998. Of course, we do not expect that it will answer all your questions, or that it will answer your questions completely. But it should provide many answers, and as always you are encouraged to contact us with additional questions.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Where can I find schools that offer a degree that includes course work in herpetology?
There is a partial [and somewhat outdated] list at http://www.anapsid.org/univ.html that will get you started. But one of the best ways is to use a major search engine and plug in the words herpetology course. You can also add a state name, etc to refine your search. We are in the process of building a database, and will make it available when it gets to a useful size.
Do I absolutely need a graduate degree (Masters or PhD) to do research in herpetology?
To do herpetological research as a university faculty member or museum curator presently requires a PhD and usually a history of successful grant-writing. However, there are a fair number of persons doing high-quality, accepted research in herpetology who have no higher degree. They are scholars in every sense of the word who are self-taught, and who went out and collected animals, made careful observations, read a lot, and talked to others at professional meetings. One of the leading authorities on Mexican herpetology is a pharmaceuticals salesman in Louisiana. One of the leading authorities on Kansas (USA) herps, just now retired, never finished college. And, one of the world’s authorities on the breeding biology of pythons is a young fellow in Oklahoma (USA) who has managed to make a fine living out of breeding them commercially. But note that the emphasis of this section is jobs in herpetology; doing good research does not guarantee a salary for it!
What kind of benefits does a herpetologist get? Do you get medical and dental benefits, and retirement?
These things depend upon your employer and are very variable.
What’s the best way for a high school (or younger) student to begin to prepare to investigate herpetology as a career?
It is important to begin to cultivate contacts through joining any State herpetological society or similar groups. Many have Web sites. Membership typically is a broad cross-section of society — persons with jobs in diverse fields, who share an interest in herpetology. Some members almost surely will be university faculty; others may work in State non-game wildlife programs; some will be students; others will be interested hobbyists with no job-link to herpetology at all.
Also, you should, in high school, take a well-rounded set of courses (emphasizing sciences) that will qualify you for admittance to a good, 4-year college, in which you should major in what generally is called “organismic biology” or some synonym for that which distinguishes it from “cell and molecular.” Your GPA will be important; competition can be fierce! I know of no undergraduate program that offers herpetology as a sole concentration; it simply is too narrow a field, though at many schools a herpetology COURSE or two will be offered. A Bachelor’s of Science degree would be appropriate.
How can a person, who because of young age or lack of formal schooling, learn about reptile and amphibian behavior other than by reading books?
Don’t ignore reading as a source of knowledge! Books and scientific journals contain a wealth of information unavailable on the Web. Keeping herps as pets is an enjoyable way to observe habits and get to know species, but it has its own drawbacks in that care is constantly required, even when on vacation or off to college (some species live a LONG time!). It can be as useful (maybe more), if there is a nearby good-quality zoo, to volunteer some Summer time to help do cleaning or be a “gofer” in the reptile department. Do not expect to be allowed to work with live animals at once; zoo policy or insurance regulations may in fact prohibit non-employees from so doing. But, one can learn a great deal this way, as well as expand one’s contacts. And, sometimes good-quality volunteer work can lead to a paying job. Volunteer work should be planned as a regular part of the week, so supervisors know they can depend upon a volunteer showing up, even if for a couple of hours MWF (or whatever all agree is useful). Volunteering to help a college faculty member with research interests can be a similarly good experience that allows a lot of learning as a benefit.
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Reptile
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Which monarch (1199-1216) preceded Henry III?
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herpetology | zoology | Britannica.com
Herpetology
alligator
Herpetology, scientific study of amphibians and reptiles. Like most other fields of vertebrate biology (e.g., ichthyology , mammalogy), herpetology is composed of a number of cross-disciplines: behaviour, ecology , physiology , anatomy, paleontology, taxonomy , and others. Most students of recent forms are narrow in their interests, working on only one order or suborder (e.g., frogs, salamanders, snakes, lizards). A paleontologist is more likely to work with both amphibians and reptiles or with intermediate forms.
A discussion of the high level of reptile and amphibian biodiversity around Manu National Park, …
Displayed by permission of The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
Herpetology as a unified science apparently stems from the ancient tendency to lump together all creeping (Greek herpetos) animals. Modern herpetology is a truly popular science, in which amateurs have made many valuable contributions in such areas as distribution, behaviour, and even taxonomy. The major part of the more technical research is carried out at universities and museums, as well as in the field.
Research into the biology of different amphibians and reptiles has contributed much to the field of general biology as for example, larval frogs and salamanders in the understanding of embryological concepts, iguanid lizards with the development of the subdiscipline of population ecology, and snake venom in increasing the understanding of human cardiac and neurological disorders.
Learn More in these related articles:
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i don't know
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What was Dennis Skinner's job before he entered Parliament?
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Dennis Skinner explains lack of Queen's speech quip: 'I was fighting Scots Nats' | Politics | The Guardian
Dennis Skinner
Dennis Skinner explains lack of Queen's speech quip: 'I was fighting Scots Nats'
Veteran Labour MP says he was too preoccupied stopping SNP taking over his ‘rebel’s bench’ seat to provide his customary opening-of-parliament joke
Dennis Skinner MP speaks from his usual position in the House of Commons. Photograph: PA
Wednesday 27 May 2015 11.16 EDT
Last modified on Tuesday 19 July 2016 09.37 EDT
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Dennis Skinner , the veteran Labour MP, says he failed to deliver his traditional state opening of parliament quip because he was too busy trying to keep SNP MPs from sitting in his seat to think of anything funny.
After Black Rod, currently Lieutenant General David Leakey, had the Commons door slammed in his face before being allowed entry as is custom, MPs waited for what they thought was to come next.
Yet the Beast Of Bolsover, whose annual caustic one-liner is almost as much part of the pomp and ritual as the Queen’s procession to parliament, remained silent.
“I’ve got bigger fish to fry than uttering something,” he told the Mirror . “I’ve been fighting some other battles, haven’t I? I was fighting the Scot Nats single-handed for a while.”
The Bolsover MP added that he had “a big battle” this morning to sit in his favoured seat in the corner front row of the green benches, which the SNP are trying to prise from him.
The new third-largest party in parliament, which took 56 of Scotland’s 59 seats at the election, seems to have made ousting Skinner from his “rebel’s bench” seat in Commons one of their early priorities.
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Dennis Skinner’s Queen’s speech heckle in 2014.
“Why should they be on that bench?” the former miner said, who has gone to extensive efforts to fight for his seat. “You can’t win unless you’re there at some unearthly hour in the morning,” Skinner added.
“If I’d not been a coal miner in the past, getting up very early, I wouldn’t have been able to have done what I’ve been doing.”
“I’m up at the crack of dawn,” he said.
Skinner, battle-wearied and too preoccupied to heckle, later told the Telegraph : “It is not about me. That bench when I came into the House of Commons in 1970 was inhabited by what they called the awkward squad and by and large it’s had that reputation ever since.”
Queen's speech 2015: Commons debates new government's agenda - Politics live
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Although Skinner has not made a joke every year since he entered parliament, he has done so on the majority of occasions. He said he had not stopped doing the quip altogether, and that he still had four more years left in parliament.
Last year, he had shouted “Coalition’s last stand” as MPs were summoned to hear the Queen’s speech in the House of Lords.
He won widespread laughs from fellow MPs in 2013 when he shouted “Royal Mail for sale. Queen’s head privatised”, in reference to the government’s planned Royal Mail privatisation.
Yet in 2012 he angered Tory MPs by drawing attention to the country’s economic difficulties, saying: “Jubilee year, double dip recession, what a start.”
The best Beast Of Bolsover quips
1988 – “Ay up, Here comes Puss In Boots!” he called out to Black Rod Sir John Gingell.
1992 – “Tell her to pay her tax!” he heckled in reference to calls for the Queen to pay income tax.
1993 – “Back to basics with Black Rod” Skinner said in reference to the Back to Basics campaign of John Major’s government.
1997 – “Do you want to borrow a Queen’s speech?” he joked to Black Rod.
2001 – “You’re nowt but a midget!” he said to Black Rod Michael Willcocks, to much mirth in the chamber.
2006 – “Have you got Helen Mirren on standby?” Skinner said in reference to the portrayal by Helen Mirren of Elizabeth II in the award-winning film The Queen.
2009 – “Royal expenses are on the way” he said, bringing up the parliamentary expenses scandal.
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Miner
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Where (in Scotland) is the most westerly point of the British mainland?
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'Beast of Bolsover' Dennis Skinner takes Ukip MP Mark Reckless to task moments after he is sworn in | The Independent
'Beast of Bolsover' Dennis Skinner takes Ukip MP Mark Reckless to task moments after he is sworn in
Mr Reckless felt the full force of the ‘Beast of Bolsover’
Friday 21 November 2014 15:27 BST
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Indy Politics
Dennis Skinner told the House what he thought about Ukip BBC
Veteran Labour MP Dennis Skinner took Ukip defector Mark Reckless to task in a memorable address shortly after he was sworn in into the House of Commons.
The ‘Beast of Bolsover’ took a moment during a debate on the NHS in the Commons to blast Mr Reckless and fellow Ukip defector Douglas Carswell by accusing them of wanting to deport migrants.
Labour MPs packed the Opposition bench today, which Mr Carswell has used since his return to Parliament last month.
The move ensured Mr Carswell and Mr Reckless sat in the second row of the Opposition benches, behind Mr Skinner.
Earlier this week, Mr Reckless suggested some long-term European immigrants to Britain could be told to leave the country if Ukip wins the next general election and the UK exited the EU.
Today, an impassioned Mr Skinner reeled off the many migrants who took pivotal roles in his successful heart bypass surgery in 2003.
In pictures: Rochester by-election
In pictures: Rochester by-election
1/15 Rochester by-election
Counting gets under way for the Rochester and Strood constituency by-election held at Medway Park, Gillingham, Kent
2/15 Rochester by-election
Nigel Farage and members of the UKIP team celebrate after Mark Reckless won the Rochester and Strood by-election at Medway Park, Gillingham near Rochester, Kent
3/15 Rochester by-election
Howling Laud Hope, leader of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party (R) awaits for the by election results in Medway, Gillingham Rochester, Kent
4/15 Rochester by-election
Kelly Tolhurst, the Conservative Party's candidate in the Rochester's by-election, walks down the town's high street on polling day, in southern England
5/15 Rochester by-election
Gulpreet Baines (18) sets fire to a United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) rosette, on polling day in Rochester's by-election
6/15 Rochester by-election
Naushabah Khan, Labour Candidate for the Rochester and Strood by-election is joined by shadow transport secretary Michael Dugher in Rochester on the final day of campaigning ahead of by-election
7/15 Rochester by-election
UKIP supporter Graham Harper and his dog Roquie carry a electoral poster supporting UK Independence Party (UKIP) parliamentary candidate Mark Reckless in Rochester, Kent ahead of the by-election poll
8/15 Rochester by-election
A customer poll of sweets purchased in favour of the party's contesting the Rochester and Strood by-elecction on display in the Sweet Expectations Sweet Shop in Rochester, Kent, on the final day of campaigning before the by-election later this week
9/15 Rochester by-election
David Cameron and Conservative Party candidate for Rochester and Strood, Kelly Tolhurst, talk to Mick Parks, Workshop Foreman at MCL Mechanical near Rochester, Kent, southern England, during a visit ahead of the by-election
10/15 Rochester by-election
People stand holding placards against the Britain First party who held a march in Rochester, southeastern England
11/15 Rochester by-election
Britain First march through Rochester
Justin Sutcliffe
UKIP parliamentary candidate Mark Reckless campaigns in Rochester on November 4, 2014
Rob Stothard/Getty Images
13/15 Rochester by-election
Ed Miliband campaigns with Yvette Cooper (left) and Naushabah Khan before the Rochester and Strood by-election
Ben A. Pruchnie/Getty Images
The Britain First march was met by vociferous counter protest
Justin Sutcliffe
15/15 Rochester by-election
A UKIP office in Rochester. Rochester and Strood will hold a by-election on November 20th following the defection of Conservative Party Member of Parliament, Mark Reckless to UKIP
Rob Stothard/Getty Images
In a scathing attack, Mr Skinner said: “We dragged the National Health Service in 1997 to 2010 from the depths of degradation that the Tories left it in and hoisted it back to the pinnacles of achievements.”
Pointing at Mr Reckless and Mr Carswell, he continued: “I’ve got a United Nations heart bypass to prove it, and it was done by a Syrian cardiologist, a Malaysian surgeon, a Dutch doctor, a Nigerian registrar, and these two people here talk about sending them back from whence they came.
“If they did that to the hospitals in London I for one would be dead in six months – that’s the facts about Ukip as well.”
The 82-year-old's comments were met by loud cheers and shouts in the House.
The outspoken MP for Bolsover is a former miner who earned his nickname for his plainspoken and forthright approach to politics over the last five decades.
Mr Skinner, a staunch republican, is known for heckling every year seconds before the Queen’s speech, this year shouting “Coalition's last stand” to bursts of laughter from fellow MPs.
His viper-tongue quips have seen him ejected from the House of Commons ten times over the years.
In 2012, he explained his candid, and now legendary, comments to The Guardian as a matter of principle, saying: "If my heart and my head are together on an issue, [then I] write it, say it."
Mr Skinner was recently voted off the Labour Party's governing body by his fellow parliamentarians, prompting outrage from his colleagues who praised him as “a powerful voice for the working classes”.
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i don't know
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How many hurdles are there in a 400 metres hurdle race?
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How many hurdles are there in 400 meter race? : GK
How many hurdles are there in 400 meter race?
How many hurdles are there in 400 meter race? :
QUESTION : There are 100 10 hurdles in a 110 meter hurdles Race. How many hurdles are there in 400 meter race?
ANSWER : 10
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ten
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Which Scottish Dukedom does the monarch's eldest son always hold?
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The Basics of the 300 Intermediate Hurdles Event
The Basics of the 300 Intermediate Hurdles Event
Track & Field Expert
By Mike Rosenbaum
The following article is based on a presentation on the 300 intermediate hurdles given by long-time coach Del Hessel at the 2008 Michigan Interscholastic Track Coaches Association clinic. Hessel coached track and field, and cross country, for more than 30 years, including 17 years at Colorado State University, where he coached four national champions.
The 300-yard (or meter) intermediate hurdles race is one of the key events for youth and high school track and field teams. If you’re going to have a really good team, you need to have good intermediate and high hurdlers because they can do so many other things for the team.
To find intermediate hurdlers, coaches can look in several areas, as volunteer hurdlers are rare on many teams. Coaches can recruit slow high hurdlers, because they already have hurdles technique, as well as 400- or 800-meter runners. All else being equal, taller runners have an edge as intermediate hurdlers. Interestingly, high hurdle competitors often improve in that event after taking up the intermediates, because they become stronger while training for the longer event.
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They also gain confidence because the 100-yard (or meter) high hurdles race seems much shorter.
The main qualities of a good intermediate hurdler include:
Mental toughness in practice.
Endurance.
Hurdle technique.
Coaches and runners should understand that you do not run the 300 intermediates the way you run the open 400. That’s the first mistake most athletes and coaches make. They’re two different events. The stride pattern in the intermediates is a coached, deliberate stride pattern, where in the 400 race it’s a turnover. You have to coach the stride patterns for hurdlers.
Also, the 300 intermediates has absolutely nothing to do with college track, where the intermediate hurdle event is 400 meters long. Other events, from the shot put to the high hurdles translates over to higher levels of track and field competition. But just because someone can run the 300 intermediate hurdles, doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll be able to step up to the 400. It’s possible, but not automatic.
Nevertheless, coaches should occasionally have their 300 intermediate competitors practice the 400 hurdles. In the short run, that practice will make the 300 race seem shorter. It will also give the hurdlers some perspective of what college will be like if they stick with intermediate hurdles.
The 300 intermediate hurdles event is a technical race
The intermediate hurdles event is the second-longest track and field technical race, behind the 3000-meter steeplechase. The runner who wins the intermediate hurdles race is the competitor with the best technique who also has the strength to run the entire race. Nobody can sprint the 300 intermediates. The runner who wins the race is the one that decelerates the least and has the best technique. So if you’re going to run fast you have to have the same strength as a good 800- meter runner. Coaches must train their 300 intermediate hurdlers up, as if they were running a longer race, because intermediate hurdlers need to be strong.
Intermediate hurdlers are probably some of the toughest kids on a track and field team, both mentally and physically. They have to have a real strong mental toughness because in this event, you need a lot of competitive poise. You have to be a real good competitor, but you can’t lose your poise in the race. It’s not like in the 400 or the 200 or even an 800, where the gun goes off and you can run like a bat out of hell. In those events, you can just tough it out if you need to. In the intermediates, you’re running as fast as you can, but then there’s a hurdle. And then there’s another hurdle, and then eight more. You need to run hard, but still be able to see what’s coming up and know what you’re doing in between the hurdles. Too many coaches just say, ‛Okay let’s just run ‛em as fast as we can and see what happens.’ And they kind of let the kid figure out what’s going to happen.
This is an event that coaches can’t leave alone. From the time that you teach the first hurdle, then how to get to the second hurdle, to get in the rhythm of the whole race, to establishing a stride pattern, to being aware of the wind, this is maybe one of the most difficult events to coach. Your brain has to be with your intermediate hurdlers. At a meet, you need to look at your schedule and say, ‛Okay, the intermediates are coming up, I need to go talk to them about the weather conditions, strategy, etc.
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i don't know
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"""We skipped the light fandango and turned cartwheels across the floor"" are the opening words of which song?"
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The words of 'A Whiter Shade of Pale'
We skipped the light fandango
turned cartwheels 'cross the floor
I was feeling kinda seasick
but the crowd called out for more
The room was humming harder
as the ceiling flew away
When we called out for another drink
the waiter brought a tray
And so it was that later
as the miller told his tale
that her face, at first just ghostly,
turned a whiter shade of pale
She said, 'There is no reason
and the truth is plain to see.'
But I wandered through my playing cards
and would not let her be
one of sixteen vestal virgins
who were leaving for the coast
and although my eyes were open
they might have just as well've been closed
She said, 'I'm home on shore leave,'
though in truth we were at sea
so I took her by the looking glass
and forced her to agree
saying, 'You must be the mermaid
who took Neptune for a ride.'
But she smiled at me so sadly
that my anger straightway died
If music be the food of love [see note, left, about this verse + its opening]
then laughter is its queen
and likewise if behind is in front
then dirt in truth is clean
My mouth by then like cardboard
seemed to slip straight through my head
So we crash-dived straightway quickly
and attacked the ocean bed
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A Whiter Shade of Pale
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Who along with John Cleese wrote 'Fawlty Towers'?
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PROCOL HARUM - A WHITER SHADE OF PALE LYRICS
A Whiter Shade Of Pale Lyrics
Procol Harum - A Whiter Shade Of Pale Lyrics
A Whiter Shade Of Pale
We skipped the light fandango
And turned cartwheels across the floor
I was feeling kind of seasick
The crowd called out for more
The room was humming harder
As the ceiling flew away
Whe we called out for another drink
The waiter brought a tray
And so it was that later
As the miller told his tale
That her face at first just ghostly
Turned a whiter shade of pale
She said there is no reason
And the truth is plain to see
But I wandered through my playing cards
Would not let her be
One of sixteen vestal virgins
Who were leaving for the coast
At the moment my eyes were open
They might just as well have been closed
And so it was that later
As the miller told his tale
That her face at first just ghostly
Turned a whiter shade of pale
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<table class="songlyrics" style="width: 100%; table-layout: fixed;"><col width="40" /><col /><tbody><tr><th colspan="2">Procol Harum - Miscellaneous Album Lyrics</th></tr><tr><td class="sl-td-left">1.</td><td class="sl-td-right"><a href="http://www.songlyrics.com/procol-harum/about-to-die-lyrics/" title="About to Die Lyrics Procol Harum">About to Die</a></td></tr><tr><td class="sl-td-left">2.</td><td class="sl-td-right"><a href="http://www.songlyrics.com/procol-harum/a-salty-dog-lyrics/" title="A Salty Dog Lyrics Procol Harum">A Salty Dog</a></td></tr><tr><td class="sl-td-left">3.</td><td class="sl-td-right"><a href="http://www.songlyrics.com/procol-harum/boredom-lyrics/" title="Boredom Lyrics Procol Harum">Boredom</a></td></tr><tr><td class="sl-td-left">4.</td><td class="sl-td-right"><a href="http://www.songlyrics.com/procol-harum/conquistador-lyrics/" title="Conquistador Lyrics Procol Harum">Conquistador</a></td></tr><tr><td class="sl-td-left">5.</td><td class="sl-td-right"><a href="http://www.songlyrics.com/procol-harum/devil-came-from-kansas-lyrics/" title="Devil Came From Kansas Lyrics Procol Harum">Devil Came From Kansas</a></td></tr><tr><td class="sl-td-left">6.</td><td class="sl-td-right"><a href="http://www.songlyrics.com/procol-harum/homburg-lyrics/" title="Homburg Lyrics Procol Harum">Homburg</a></td></tr><tr><td class="sl-td-left">7.</td><td class="sl-td-right"><a href="http://www.songlyrics.com/procol-harum/juicy-john-pink-lyrics/" title="Juicy John Pink Lyrics Procol Harum">Juicy John Pink</a></td></tr><tr><td class="sl-td-left">8.</td><td class="sl-td-right"><a href="http://www.songlyrics.com/procol-harum/nothing-i-didnt-know-lyrics/" title="Nothing I Didnt Know Lyrics Procol Harum">Nothing I Didnt Know</a></td></tr><tr><td class="sl-td-left">9.</td><td class="sl-td-right"><a href="http://www.songlyrics.com/procol-harum/pandoras-box-lyrics/" title="Pandoras Box Lyrics Procol Harum">Pandoras Box</a></td></tr><tr><td class="sl-td-left">10.</td><td class="sl-td-right"><a href="http://www.songlyrics.com/procol-harum/she-wandered-through-the-garden-fence-lyrics/" title="She Wandered Through The Garden Fence Lyrics Procol Harum">She Wandered Through The Garden Fence</a></td></tr><tr><td class="sl-td-left">11.</td><td class="sl-td-right"><a href="http://www.songlyrics.com/procol-harum/the-final-thrust-lyrics/" title="The Final Thrust Lyrics Procol Harum">The Final Thrust</a></td></tr><tr><td class="sl-td-left">12.</td><td class="sl-td-right"><a href="http://www.songlyrics.com/procol-harum/whiter-shade-of-pale-lyrics/" title="Whiter Shade Of Pale Lyrics Procol Harum">Whiter Shade Of Pale</a></td></tr><tr><td class="sl-td-left">13.</td><td class="sl-td-right"><a href="http://www.songlyrics.com/procol-harum/wreck-of-the-hesperus-lyrics/" title="Wreck Of The Hesperus Lyrics Procol Harum">Wreck Of The Hesperus</a></td></tr><tr><td class="sl-td-left">14.</td><td class="sl-td-right"><a href="http://www.songlyrics.com/procol-harum/something-following-me-lyrics/" title="Something Following Me Lyrics Procol Harum">Something Following Me</a></td></tr><tr><td class="sl-td-left">15.</td><td class="sl-td-right"><a href="http://www.songlyrics.com/procol-harum/mabel-lyrics/" title="Mabel Lyrics Procol Harum">Mabel</a></td></tr><tr><td class="sl-td-left">16.</td><td class="sl-td-right"><a href="http://www.songlyrics.com/procol-harum/cerdes-outside-the-gates-of-lyrics/" title="Cerdes (Outside The Gates Of) Lyrics Procol Harum">Cerdes (Outside The Gates Of)</a></td></tr><tr><td class="sl-td-left">17.</td><td class="sl-td-right"><a href="http://www.songlyrics.com/procol-harum/a-christmas-camel-lyrics/" title="A Christmas Camel Lyrics Procol Harum">A Christmas Camel</a></td></tr><tr><td class="sl-td-left">18.</td><td class="sl-td-right"><a href="http://www.songlyrics.com/procol-harum/kaleidoscope-lyrics/" title="Kaleidoscope Lyrics Procol Harum">Kaleidoscope</a></td></tr><tr><td class="sl-td-left">19.</td><td class="sl-td-right"><a href="http://www.songlyrics.com/procol-harum/salad-days-are-here-again-lyrics/" title="Salad Days (Are Here Again) Lyrics Procol Harum">Salad Days (Are Here Again)</a></td></tr><tr><td class="sl-td-left">20.</td><td class="sl-td-right"><a href="http://www.songlyrics.com/procol-harum/good-captain-clack-lyrics/" title="Good Captain Clack Lyrics Procol Harum">Good Captain Clack</a></td></tr><tr><td class="sl-td-left">21.</td><td class="sl-td-right"><a href="http://www.songlyrics.com/procol-harum/rambling-on-lyrics/" title="Rambling On Lyrics Procol Harum">Rambling On</a></td></tr><tr><td class="sl-td-left">22.</td><td class="sl-td-right"><a href="http://www.songlyrics.com/procol-harum/-twas-tea-time-at-the-circus-lyrics/" title="'Twas Tea-time At The Circus Lyrics Procol Harum">'Twas Tea-time At The Circus</a></td></tr><tr><td class="sl-td-left">23.</td><td class="sl-td-right"><a href="http://www.songlyrics.com/procol-harum/in-the-autumn-of-my-madness-lyrics/" title="In the Autumn of My Madness Lyrics Procol Harum">In the Autumn of My Madness</a></td></tr><tr><td class="sl-td-left">24.</td><td class="sl-td-right"><a href="http://www.songlyrics.com/procol-harum/look-to-your-soul-lyrics/" title="Look to Your Soul Lyrics Procol Harum">Look to Your Soul</a></td></tr><tr><td class="sl-td-left">25.</td><td class="sl-td-right"><a href="http://www.songlyrics.com/procol-harum/a-whiter-shade-of-pale-lyrics/" title="A Whiter Shade Of Pale Lyrics Procol Harum">A Whiter Shade Of Pale</a></td></tr><tr><td class="sl-td-left">26.</td><td class="sl-td-right"><a href="http://www.songlyrics.com/procol-harum/nothing-that-i-didn-t-know-lyrics/" title="Nothing that I Didn't Know Lyrics Procol Harum">Nothing that I Didn't Know</a></td></tr><tr><td class="sl-td-left">27.</td><td class="sl-td-right"><a href="http://www.songlyrics.com/procol-harum/the-mark-of-the-claw-lyrics/" title="The Mark of The Claw Lyrics Procol Harum">The Mark of The Claw</a></td></tr><tr><td class="sl-td-left">28.</td><td class="sl-td-right"><a href="http://www.songlyrics.com/procol-harum/skating-on-thin-ice-lyrics/" title="Skating on Thin Ice Lyrics Procol Harum">Skating on Thin Ice</a></td></tr><tr><td class="sl-td-left">29.</td><td class="sl-td-right"><a href="http://www.songlyrics.com/procol-harum/taking-the-time-lyrics/" title="Taking The Time Lyrics Procol Harum">Taking The Time</a></td></tr><tr><td class="sl-td-left">30.</td><td class="sl-td-right"><a href="http://www.songlyrics.com/procol-harum/so-far-behind-lyrics/" title="So Far Behind Lyrics Procol Harum">So Far Behind</a></td></tr></tbody></table><p class="sl-credit"><a href="http://www.songlyrics.com/procol-harum-lyrics/" title="Procol Harum Lyrics">Procol Harum Lyrics</a> provided by <a href="/" title="Lyrics">SongLyrics.com</a></p>
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i don't know
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In food, from which country do 'Tapas' originate?
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The Origin Of Spanish Tapas | Lifescript.com
This article has been written by an outside contributor. It has not been reviewed by the LifeScript editorial staff for accuracy.
The Origin Of Spanish Tapas
An Introduction To Traditional Spanish Tapas
By Marissa Brassfield
A Reality Check
The origin of the word “tapas” is a hotly debated topic. The most widely accepted version holds that tapas originated in Andalusia, a region famous for its sherry wine. Patrons at local bars would cover their glasses with slices of bread between sips in order to prevent intrepid flies from landing in the sweet wine. Bartenders soon put small snacks atop the bread, and tapas, from the Spanish verb tapar meaning to cover, were born. Now tapas restaurants around the world continue the tradition of small, shareable bites to enjoy with wine and friends.
Tapas in Spain
In Spain, tapas are more of a Spanish way of eating rather than a specific type of cuisine. In Andalusia, people gather in bars to drink and socialize rather than at home. Tapas are not actually served at home or in restaurants, only at bars. Tapas are part of the tapeo, the tradition of stimulating the appetite with friends while drinking. The tapeo is very similar to that of eating mezedes in the Mediterranean to combat the effects of alcohol. The idea is the same: the celebration of community in a local establishment, of drinking without getting drunk, and of eating flavorful, high-quality fare.
Eating Tapas
Tapas can be eaten at any time of the day. In Spain, tapas are often enjoyed between the main meals—between breakfast and lunch, between lunch and dinner, and during the bar-hopping that occurs after dinner. To ir de tapas is to visit several different tapas bars to sample the cuisine and drink with friends. Entertaining in the home is quite foreign in Spain, so most socializing between friends happens within local tapas bars. There, people from all ages and classes sit and talk about everything under the sun as they drink wine and eat tapas.
Tapas are generally classified not by their food group, but by how easy they are to eat. Foods that can be easily eaten with the fingers are called cosas de picar, ‘things to nibble.’ Those that require utensils, even if that utensil is as simple as a toothpick, are called pinchos. And tapas that are served in sauce are called cazuelas, or ‘little dishes.’
Cosas de Picar
Smaller finger food items include olives, which are typically marinated in olive oil and fresh herbs, and roasted seasoned nuts like almonds or hazelnuts. According to the Food Lover’s Companion, olives come in three basic colors: green, black and red-brown; all come from the same tree. Green olives are olives that have been harvested when they are ripe, but before they change color. Red-brown olives are picked at the peak of their ripeness. Black olives are overripe olives, darkened by oxidation. All olives are soaked and cured in brine before they are served, which alters their flavor somewhat. In general, olives taste sweeter as they ripen.
Egg-based tapas are also popular in Spain. Deviled eggs, topped with green olives or anchovy fillets, are another commonly eaten tapa in the south of Spain. Called huevos rellenos, these hard-boiled beauties have shrimp, chilies or olives added to the yolk mixture in Spain for tapas. No tapas meal would be complete without a tortilla espanola, a cooked egg-and-potato mixture seasoned with onions, olive oil and parsley.
Cured meats are always served as tapas. Serrano ham is the most popular variety of cured ham in Spain.
Cured in the mountains, this delightful sliced meat goes well with a bit of Manchego cheese or fish and crusty bread. Chorizo, a spicy Spanish pork sausage, is often frequently served. Chorizo accounts for nearly half of Spain’s annual sausage production at 40 percent. The pork is seasoned with garlic and paprika among other herbs and spices. Its color ranges from bright orange to dark brown, and its flavor ranges from mildly spicy to nearly unbearable.
Spanish cheeses also make delightful traditional tapas. Foremost in this category is Manchego, a soft, crumbly sheep’s milk cheese that is also frequently sliced thin and marinated in olive oil. Manchego cheese has its own Denomination of Origin in La Mancha and must be made from Manchego sheep’s milk. Cabrales is another Spanish cheese not to be missed. It is a blue cheese made from a blend of cow, goat and sheep milk. Cabrales is aged in naturally formed limestone caves for six months. For a softer cheese, try garrotxa, a nutty, earthy goat cheese with a green rind. Many of these cheeses are served with membrillo, a thick quince paste whose sweetness complements an acidic cheese perfectly.
Pinchos
A perfect pincho is anything that can be picked up using a toothpick or skewer. Nearly any food can become a pincho, so long as it is easily eaten without conventional utensils. Common pinchos include crab-stuffed tomatoes, cheesy stuffed peppers and fried potatoes with aioli, an oil-based condiment similar to mayonnaise.
Miniature empanadas stuffed with cheese, chorizo or vegetables are also popular tapas; they are fried or baked for a satisfying crunch. Tiny croquettes also frequently make appearances on tapas menus, battered and filled with chicken and ham, seasoned with nutmeg and parsley, and served with aioli for dipping. Sauteed garlic mushrooms, skewered with toothpicks, are also popular tapas.
Cazuelas
With cazuelas, unlimited opportunities abound. The key is to create small dishes using local produce and livestock. Think of cazuelas as a main dish, portioned for sharing. Examples include chicken liver or lamb and calf kidneys topped in a sherry-based sauce, pork and veal meatballs, zucchini or eggplant fritters, and fried calamari. Occasionally a pincho like fried cheese or stuffed peppers will be drizzled in sauce, making utensils necessary.
Since Spain is almost completely surrounded by water, seafood is common at each tapas meal. Fried calamari, grilled scallops, boiled mussels, and skewers of freshly caught fish are frequent seafood offerings. Anchovy fillets and marinated sardines are also commonly served with a fragrant sauce for dipping.
A delicious way to experience fish in Spain is ceviche. This method combines raw fish and an acidic marinade, typically comprised of lime juice, a bit of oil and spices. The acid in the citrus firms the fish and ‘cooks’ it without the flavor changes that occur when fish is cooked at high temperatures. The fish retains almost the same consistency as raw fish.
A newer culinary trend is to serve paella as a tapa. Paella, the Spanish amalgamation of Spanish rice, meat or seafood and vegetables, is more of an entrée than a typical two or three-ounce tapas portion. However, it is now commonly served at tapas restaurants as a shareable dish alongside a more traditional tapas selection.
Wine for Tapas
When selecting wine to drink with Spanish tapas, it’s up to your personal palate; for the most authentic experience, however, choose a Spanish wine. Sherry wine is the original tapas wine, and if you’re in Spain, Manzanilla wine, but both can be too sweet for contemporary palates. Red wine lovers should try something that’s not too heavy, such as tempranillo, rioja or garnacha. For white wine drinkers, try albarino, Spain’s most popular white wine, or cava, Spanish sparkling wine that is made with the Champagne method. Either white or red Spanish wines will complement the tapas you select, so go with what you like.
Traditional Spanish tapas are tasty treats that have evolved into an entire cuisine. Whether you plan to serve tapas at your next party or are planning a trip to Spain, learning how tapas are served and eaten offers a great lesson in culture.
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Spain
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The 'Ounce' is the alternative name for which large feline predator?
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History of Spanish Food - Spanish Culture
Spanish Culture
Food Customs History Tapas Rice Churros Tortilla Recipes International Food
History of Spanish Food
The succession of cultures that one-by-one set foot on the Iberian peninsula have each left a lasting mark on every facet of Spain's culture: language, music, art, architecture and, of course, food. In fact, many people are surprised to learn just how much of a delicious melting pot Spain really is.
Geography of Spanish Food
The basis of the history of Spanish food of course has to do with its geographical situation. First of all, the country is located on the Iberian peninsula and is therefore almost entirely surrounded by the waters. Naturally, due to this fortunate location, seafood forms one of the pillars of Spain's gastronomy and categorizes the country as having a Mediterranean diet. The rest of Spain is a diverse terrain made up of mountain ranges, lush pastures, fertile farmgrounds, extensive coastlines and more, which together provide quite the variety of fresh products. For example, Spain's famous hams are cured high in the mountains, vineyards and olive groves sprawl across expanses of land, and fresh fruits and vegetables hail from throughout the country.
Cultures Throughout the History of Spanish Food
Endless cultures, as they passed through or settled in Spain, have influenced the history of Spanish food. The Phoenicians left their sauces, the Greeks introduced Spain to the wonders of olive oil, and Romans, Carthaginians, and Jews integrated elements of their own cooking into that of Spain. However it was the Moors who, during their centuries of reign, most impacted Spanish gastronomy. They introduced fruits and light seasonings into the Iberian diet, as well as combinations of fruits and nuts with meats and fish. Rice- a genuine staple of Spanish gastronomy- and therefore Spain's vast array of rice dishes, come straight from the Moors, as does the use of saffron, cinnamon, and nutmeg. As you eat gazpacho on a hot summer day, thank this clearly gastronomically talented Moorish culture, as it too comes straight from them. Conclusion? Ironically enough, the foods we consider to be "typically Spanish" would either not exist or would be extremely different without the intervention of so many cultures into the history of Spanish food.
The Americas' Impact on the History of Spanish Food
Along with its obvious historical impact, the discovery of the Americas with Christopher Columbus' famous 1492 voyage resulted in the addition of more important elements to the history of Spanish food. As of 1520, foods from the new lands arrived in Spain and immediately began to integrate themselves into the Spanish diet. Amongst the many products that crossed the Atlantic and arrived on Spanish turf, tomatoes, vanilla, chocolate, various beans, and potatoes - which surprisingly arrived in Spain before arriving in Ireland- are all staples of today's Spanish kitchen.
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i don't know
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In UK politics, who first challenged Margaret Thatcher for leadership of the Conservative Party in 1990?
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BBC ON THIS DAY | 20 | 1990: Thatcher fails to win party mandate
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1990: Thatcher fails to win party mandate
The Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, has failed to win outright victory in her battle against former Defence Minister Michael Heseltine for the leadership of the Conservative Party.
The vote results, announced at 1830 GMT, gave Mrs Thatcher 204 of the 372 votes against 152 for Mr Heseltine, leaving the prime minister four votes short of the 56 majority required. Sixteen MPs abstained.
The contest now goes to a second round, seriously undermining the prime minister's authority within her own party.
Pandemonium
There was pandemonium among Conservative MPs huddled outside the committee room in Westminster to hear the news.
Thatcher supporters reacted with anger that the contest would be prolonged by another week, and strongly criticised the leadership system which allowed the challenge in the first place.
Mr Heseltine's supporters were confident he could pick up enough votes on the second ballot to win.
The leadership contest was triggered by the devastating resignation speech last week of the Deputy Prime Minister, Sir Geoffrey Howe, in which he was highly critical of Mrs Thatcher's methods.
Fighting on
Mrs Thatcher will now face intense pressure to stand down when she returns tomorrow from the European security summit in Paris.
However, within minutes of hearing the result, she addressed reporters and photographers on the steps of the British Embassy to say it was her intention to fight on.
"I am naturally very pleased that I got more than half the parliamentary party and disappointed that it's not quite enough to win on the first ballot. So I confirm that it is my intention to let my name go forward for the second ballot," she said.
Mr Heseltine expressed gratitude for a formidable vote and said he too would press on, ignoring rightwing appeals to him to stand down.
Election call
The Labour opposition leader, Neil Kinnock, has tabled a motion of no confidence in the government and called for an immediate general election.
The Liberal Democrat leader, Paddy Ashdown, said Mrs Thatcher should resign.
It's thought Mr Heseltine's commitment to a review of the deeply unpopular poll tax swung many voters away from Mrs Thatcher.
Senior Tory MPs were speculating openly that the Chancellor, John Major, would emerge as a strong candidate for the leadership if Mrs Thatcher were to step down.
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Michael Heseltine
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In food, what is the more common name for the 'Chinese Gooseberry'?
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Tory leadership battles: a history
Tory leadership battles: a history
Margaret Thatcher and Michael Heseltine
Rozina Sabur
7 July 2016 • 5:06pm
The recent drama during the Conservative leadership contest has increased interest in the machinations of political life – but treachery and devious double talk are nothing new in Westminster.
Indeed, from David Cameron's immediate predecessors, four of the last six have faced leadership challenges. The current contest is between the Home Secretary Theresa May and energy minister Andrea Leadsom.
Boris Johnson, widely tipped as a favourite for the job, chose not to stand after his campaign ally Michael Gove announced he was not made of leadership material - a move that has been described as the worst political treachery since Thatcher's time .
A look back at the history of the Conservative Party's power struggles reveals other instances of political back-stabbing.
1965 (Ted Heath v Reginauld Maudling)
The first formal election by the parliamentary party took place in 1965 when then Prime Minister Alec Douglas-Home resigned. In previous years candidates had emerged through a consultation process, three of which were formally signed off by the Queen. However Douglas-Home's appointment, when he was a hereditary peer, had brought the system under fire.
The plans for how the election would work were published in February 1965, and agreed upon by the parliamentary party thereafter. The contest between Edward Heath, Enoch Powell and Reginauld Maudling saw Heath become the first Conservative leader under the new system. Heath won by an outright majority.
1975 (Ted Heath v Margaret Thatcher)
The 1975 leadership election was called by Heath to strengthen his authority after losing three general elections as leader but was won by Thatcher, considered the underdog candidate.
Many expected Heath to win, with no serious rival, but Thatcher opted to stand and became the champion of unhappy backbenchers. The first, and so far only, female to be elected as leader of a major party and a prime minister, she remained leader for 15 years and in power for 11 of them .
1990 (Margaret Thatcher v Michael Heseltine)
One of the most memorable leadership elections in the history of the Conservative Party. Following a leadership battle the previous December, Thatcher lost a second contest in 1990 after her (and her government's) growing unpopularity over the poll tax.
The relatively unknown Chief Secretary to the Treasury at the time, one John Major, was next in line as both Chancellor Nigel Lawson and Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe had resigned following disputes with Thatcher over economic advisors and Britain's relationship with Europe .
Howe's devastating resignation speech in the Commons was widely regarded as the nail in the coffin for Thatcher's leadership. Describing her position on Britain's interests in Europe, he famously said: "It is rather like sending your opening batsmen to the crease only for them to find, the moment the first balls are bowled, that their bats have been broken before the game by the team captain."
Soon after, pro-European MP Michael Heseltine announced that he would challenge Thatcher for the leadership of the party.
Thatcher stood down after she failed to win outright in the first round of the contest. Douglas Hurd and Major then threw their hats into the ring. Despite Heseltine being regarded the likely successor, Major won more votes, prompting Heseltine and Hurd to withdraw.
1995 (John Major v John Redwood)
After facing heavy criticisms Major resigned as leader, daring critical MPs to “put up or shut up”, only to be re-elected in the subsequent leadership contest.
The party had become deeply divided on the Europe question and there were rumours Major's leadership would be challenged. To put an end to the rumours and speculation, Major called a leadership election, standing against the Eurosceptic John Redwood - the only MP to run against him.
Major won a convincing enough majority that, despite their heavy defeat in the 1997 general election, he did not face another challenge.
However, he chose to resign having presided over disputes within the party over Europe, the Black Wednesday crisis and the image of sleaze that engulfed his government. A young William Hague was then promoted to the Cabinet, filling Redwood's post as Welsh Secretary.
1997 (William Hague v Ken Clarke)
The leadership election triggered by Major's resignation saw Hague, a newcomer to the Cabinet, take on prominent MP Ken Clarke for the leadership .
John Redwood, Peter Lilley and Michael Howard lost out in earlier rounds, and the backing of Howard and Thatcher saw Hague secure the position. Others who might have entered the fray did not either because they had lost their seats in the election, such as Michael Portillo, or as in the case of Heseltine, because of ill health.
In 1998 the leadership election process changed again to the current system whereby Conservative MPs vote to whittle down the hopefuls to two candidates, who the whole party membership then choose between. An incumbent leader can still be ousted by a no-confidence vote of MPs.
2001 (Ken Clarke v Iain Duncan Smith)
Hague resigned after a poor performance from his party in the 2001 general election, triggering a leadership contest. This was the first to be held under the 1998 amended party rules.
Five MPs put themselves forward. They were Michael Ancram, seen as a likely successor to Hague's direction; David Davis , the outside candidate with less experience; Kenneth Clarke, who was more pro-Europe; Iain Duncan Smith, seen as representing the Thatcherites of the party; and the more socially liberal Michael Portillo.
Portillo, initially seen as quite likely to win, in the end lost out to Clarke and Duncan Smith in the final ballot by a single vote. Duncan Smith won the three-month contest with 60 per cent of party members voting for him, despite only gaining around a third of MPs' votes in the early stages.
2003 (Michael Howard v Michael Howard)
After a two relatively unhappy years for the party, a vote of no confidence was passed in Duncan Smith by his MPs. He stood down as leader and Michael Howard was suggested by some Tories as a replacement. As no other MPs came forward, he was elected unopposed. The board of the Conservative Party decided not to have that ratified by the party membership.
2005 (David Cameron v David Davis)
After two years as leader Howard announced he would be stepping down . The ensuing contest between Clarke, Liam Fox, David Davis and a relatively junior David Cameron was whittled down to the latter two.
Davis and Cameron were then selected as the two candidates for the membership to vote on. Davis, was seen as the clear favourite but his speech at that year's party conference shifted the tide of opinion in favour of Cameron, who impressed with his speech and was seen as a younger and more energetic candidate. This coupled with support from previous leaders Hague and Howard saw him scoop 68 per cent of members' votes.
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23 Dec 2016, 9:21pm
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i don't know
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Who resigned in July 2000 as leader of the Scottish National Party?
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Scottish National Party (SNP) | political party, Scotland, United Kingdom | Britannica.com
Scottish National Party (SNP)
political party, Scotland, United Kingdom
Written By:
Scottish National Party (SNP), nationalist political party that has sought to make Scotland an independent state within the European Union (EU).
History
The SNP was formed in 1934 from a union of the National Party of Scotland (founded in 1928) and the Scottish Party (1932). From the beginning, disagreements arose within the SNP over whether to focus on electoral politics or wider cultural aims. There were also deep divisions over its relations with other political parties, primarily the Labour Party . World War II created further controversy concerning the British government’s right to declare war on behalf of the Scottish people. After 1945 the SNP helped to circulate petitions demanding a Scottish Parliament, but until the 1960s the movement for Scottish independence achieved little success and was sustained only by symbolic and insubstantial victories, such as the theft of the Stone of Scone —the ancient stone upon which Scottish kings were crowned—from Westminster Abbey in 1950. In the meantime, the SNP became more pragmatic and disciplined , though the party was still plagued by internal divisions and inexperienced leadership.
In the 1950s and ’60s the SNP’s popularity increased with the spread of criticism of British control of Scottish affairs. During the 1970s and ’80s the party’s nationalist stance was brought more sharply into focus by the production of North Sea oil in Scottish waters, which raised the possibility of Scottish economic autonomy , and by the rule in London of the British Conservative Party (1979–97), which enjoyed the support of only a minority of voters in Scotland .
The SNP’s greatest success came in the general election of October 1974. Managing for once to mobilize a sense of economic grievance and cultural resentment that cut across the traditional class divisions of Scottish politics, the party won more than 30 percent of the Scottish vote and took 11 of the 71 Scottish seats in the British Parliament . In later years the party was supported consistently in opinion polls by 20 to 25 percent of Scottish voters, making it the second most popular party in Scotland after Labour.
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Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
In the late 1990s the SNP ventured into the mainstream of Scottish politics by attempting to attract support from groups such as businesses and trade unions. In addition, the SNP made explicit attempts to modernize its party structure and its public relations strategies. Despite the Labour Party ’s continued popularity in Scotland, the SNP managed to remain a significant presence. After Labour won a landslide victory in the general elections of May 1997—in which the SNP took six seats in Parliament, its best performance in nearly 25 years—the SNP joined Labour and the Liberal Democratic Party to campaign vigorously for a second referendum proposing the creation of a Scottish Parliament (a previous referendum in 1979 was unsuccessful). The referendum passed with more than 74 percent of voters in favour; 64 percent also approved giving the body the power to change tax rates.
Despite the opposition of the Conservative Party and the House of Lords , the government adopted a proportional representation system for elections to the new parliament, which made it possible for the SNP to extend its influence. At the first elections to the Scottish Parliament in May 1999, the SNP established itself as the main opposition to the Labour Party and its governing coalition with the Liberal Democrats, securing 29 percent of the votes and winning 35 of 129 seats. After a decade as the SNP’s “national convener,” the party leader, Alex Salmond , resigned in July 2000 in a dispute over party finances. He was replaced by 36-year-old John Swinney, the party’s deputy leader and a member of the British and Scottish parliaments. In the Scottish elections of 2003, the SNP’s vote share dropped to 21 percent and its seats to 27. Swinney stepped down the following year, and Salmond was once again elected the party’s leader.
British Culture and Politics
The party remained an important political force in Scotland as the main opposition party, and in the 2007 elections the SNP staged a historic upset, winning the most seats in the Scottish Parliament to end some 50 years of Labour Party dominance in Scotland. The SNP, which captured 47 seats to Labour’s 46, subsequently formed a minority administration, and Salmond was elected first minister of Scotland; he became the first Nationalist to hold the post. The SNP’s performance in 2011 was even more impressive, securing the first majority government in the history of the Scottish Parliament. Having secured that majority, Salmond pledged to hold a referendum on independence within five years. In 2012 he signed an agreement with British Prime Minister David Cameron to hold the referendum, which was ultimately scheduled for September 2014, and to pose a single simple question: “Should Scotland be an independent country?”
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Ringling Bros. Folds Its Tent
Vigorous campaigns were mounted on both sides of the question, and, although opinion polls in 2013 indicated clear sustained opposition to independence by margins ranging between three to two and two to one, the “yes” side gained tremendous momentum in the immediate run-up to voting, bringing the outcome very much into doubt. In the event, the measure was convincingly defeated—with about 55 percent voting “no” and about 45 percent voting “yes”—but only after Cameron, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg of the Liberal Democrats, and Labour Party leader Ed Miliband jointly had published an 11th-hour “vow” in the Scottish newspaper Daily Record in which they pledged to provide more powers to Scotland if the referendum failed. Salmond resigned as first minister and party leader following the referendum and was replaced by Nicola Sturgeon , who proved herself to be a dynamic campaigner as she led the SNP to an unprecedented showing in the May 2015 U.K. general election, in which the party jumped from representing 6 Scottish constituencies to representing 56, obliterating Labour’s longtime dominance of Scottish representation in Westminster.
In May 2016 Sturgeon led the SNP to its third straight victory in elections for the Scottish Parliament, though the party lost its outright majority, slipping from 69 seats to 63. Sturgeon eschewed forming a coalition. Instead, she insisted that the results still mandated solo rule by the SNP, albeit as a minority government.
Policy and structure
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The SNP accepts devolution—that is, the legal decentralization of power to the British regions—as one stage on the road to independence for Scotland. Overall, the party describes itself as moderate and left of centre. It tends to be staunchly anti-Conservative in its party politics and interventionist in its economic policies, and it is committed to a non-nuclear defense. These tendencies sometimes made it difficult for the SNP to distinguish itself clearly from the Labour Party. A key change in SNP policy came in 1998, when it reversed its original opposition to membership of an independent Scotland within the EU.
The basic unit of organization is the local branch. Above this level the most important bodies are constituency associations, which propose candidates on the basis of a nationally approved list. At the national level, the annual conference of the party is formally the supreme decision-making authority, though in practice the National Executive Committee (led by the national convener) is the most powerful body. A National Council makes policy decisions between annual conferences.
Although the party does not disclose membership figures, estimates in the late 1990s put the number of members at between 8,000 and 16,000. Party members are heavily involved in fund-raising activities.
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Alex Salmond
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"Which English King's favourite dog had the inscription ""I an Caesar, I belong to Caesar"" on its collar?"
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Video: Alex Salmond resigns: a look back at his political career - Telegraph
Alex Salmond has dramatically fallen on his sword after Scotland voted decisively to reject his dream of independence and to remain part of the United Kingdom.
As David Cameron held out the promise of a "new and fair" constitutional settlement for the entire UK, Mr Salmond said he would be standing down as First Minister and leader of the SNP.
A tired sounding Mr Salmond told a news conference at his official residence at Bute House in Edinburgh it was time for new leadership to hold politicians at Westminster to account for promises they made to Scotland during the course of the campaign.
Salmond was born on New Year's Eve, known in Scotland as Hogmanay, in 1954, to civil servant parents and raised in government-subsidised housing in Linlithgow, near Edinburgh.
He studied history and economics at St Andrews University, where he encountered the perks of privilege. St. Andrews has long been popular with upper-class English students – Prince William studied there much later – and people close to Salmond say the experience made him resent any suggestion of rich southerners trying to direct Scotland.
Salmond joined the SNP in 1974 while at university. The Scottish political landscape was shifting and the North Sea started to produce oil in 1975, giving Scotland a financial footing that would make independence seem credible.
He continued as a party activist while working at the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, where he met his wife, Moira, and later at the Royal Bank of Scotland.
In 1979, the SNP was riven by factionalism after a referendum on Scottish devolution failed. Salmond was able to unite SNP members in opposition to London and he emerged as a modern leader ready to reposition the party as more socially democratic and pro-European.
In 1999 the Scottish Parliament was re-established for the first time since 1707 after a second referendum approved devolution under the Labour government of Tony Blair.
He quit as SNP leader for four years in 2000 to focus on Westminster after a falling out.
He capitalised on growing unhappiness with Labour to beat the national ruling party by a single seat in 2007, becoming First Minister at the head of a minority Scottish government.
In 2011 the SNP won an overall majority even though the electoral system was designed to encourage coalition governments.
Scottish Nationalist Alex Salmond resigned as leader of his party on Friday and will quit as First Minister of his country after losing an independence referendum.
Salmond said he would not accept the nomination as leader of the Scottish National Party at an annual conference in November and that he would then resign as First Minister.
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i don't know
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Which English town is at the head or the Orwell estuary?
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Estuaries
Estuaries
Estuaries
Estuaries
The low-lying landscape of Suffolk's five estuaries allows for beautiful views across saltmarshes, grazing marshes and mudflats. These valuable habitats, formed where the river meets the sea, are important feeding areas for birds and wildlife and provide opportunties for a wide range of activities, including sailing, fishing, walking and cycling.
All of Suffolk's estuaries are remarkable, but the two most southerly - the Stour and Orwell - are wetlands of particular contrasting character. Here, a dramatic tension exists between their beautiful scenery and spectacular wildlife, and in contrast, large-scale human usage - most starkly expressed in the mighty cranes and giant container ships that populate the Port of Felixstowe, one of the largest and busiest ports in England.
Our Five Estuaries
The Blyth estuary is 4 miles (6.5Km) long starting at Blythburgh and finishing at its mouth at Southwold Harbour. You can catch a ferry across the Blyth estuary at Southwold or Walberswick. This ancient ferry has been running since the 13th Century - a truly remarkable achievement! The harbour at Southwold is still an active fishing harbour. Minsmere and Walberswick have a wonderful National Nature Reserve where you can hear Bittern “booming” in spring and see Natterjack Toads.
The Alde and Ore is Suffolk’s longest estuary at nearly 16 miles (25.5Km) long. It is separated from the sea by a narrow shingle spit. The head of the Alde estuary is at Snape, where you can visit Snape Maltings, the music venue made internationally famous by Benjamin Britten. Orford Ness is Europe’s largest vegetated spit –10 miles (16km) long! The spit formed almost entirely of flint deposited by waves through the process of long-shore drift. Orford Ness is an internationally important nature reserve because of the shingle habitat and the birds and seals that live there.
The Deben estuary is 10miles (16km) long. The mouth of the estuary is very interesting as it has moving islands of shingle called the Knolls that change with the weather and tides. The Deben has 40% of Suffolk's saltmarsh. The ancient market town of Woodbridge was once a major ship building town providing ships for the English fleet fighting the Spanish Armada in 1588. Smugglers used to land their stolen goods at Woodbridge to sell. Today there are still many boats in the river, some working, but the majority are used for fun!
Simon Read - local artist and Senior Lecturer in Fine Art at Middlesex University combines his passion for art and working for his local community to monitor environmental impact on this landscape. Read the article and watch the film here .
The Orwell is 11 1/2 miles long starting at Ipswich where the dock has operated since the 17th century. It is a very narrow estuary but is home to the largest port in Britain. Alongside all of this activity the estuary has nationally important habitats for birds. There are nature reserves at Trimley, Levington and Nacton which you can visit. Peregrine Falcons nest on the Orwell Bridge.
The Stour estuary is 10 3/4 miles long. The name Stour comes from the Celtic word sturr meaning "strong". The River Stour was one of the first improved rivers or canals in England. Parliament passed an act in 1705 to make the river easier to use from the town of Manningtree, to Sudbury. Horses pulled boats called lighters carrying cargo of pitch, tar, soap, vinegar, resin, glass, butter and apples.
What can be seen here...
Plants: sea lavender, common reed
Birds: redshank, lapwing, avocet, marsh harrier, bittern, peregrine falcon
Other wildlife: ragworms, seals, otters
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Ipswich
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At the funeral of King Edward VII, which statesman in full dress uniform of a Field Marshall rode on horseback alongside chief mourner King George V?
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Ipswich - definition of Ipswich by The Free Dictionary
Ipswich - definition of Ipswich by The Free Dictionary
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Ipswich
Also found in: Acronyms , Encyclopedia , Wikipedia .
Ips·wich
(ĭp′swĭch′)
A borough of eastern England near the North Sea northeast of London. It was a commercial and pottery-making center from the 7th to the 12th century and was later (16th century) important in the woolen trade.
Ipswich
(ˈɪpswɪtʃ)
n
(Placename) a town in E England, administrative centre of Suffolk, a port at the head of the Orwell estuary: financial services, telecommunications. Pop: 138 718 (2001)
Ips•wich
a city in SE Suffolk, in E England. 116,500.
Translations
Want to thank TFD for its existence? Tell a friend about us , add a link to this page, or visit the webmaster's page for free fun content .
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Winthrop
References in classic literature ?
Lecount wanted a particular kind of tea which the man had not got, and which he believed could not be procured any nearer than Ipswich.
View in context
We came to Ipswich - very late, having had to fight every inch of ground since we were ten miles out of London; and found a cluster of people in the market-place, who had risen from their beds in the night, fearful of falling chimneys.
Then the water is right over the line where we are now, and we can't get any news at all from the other side of Ipswich.
We've just heard that there's a bridge down on the line between Ipswich and Harwich.
We haven't heard anything about the line from Ipswich to Norwich, sir," he replied, "but we can't very well change our course without definite instructions.
View in context
I made off with this little booty to Ipswich, and from thence to Harwich, where I went into an inn, as if I had newly arrived from Holland, not doubting but I should make some purchase among the foreigners that came on shore there; but I found them generally empty of things of value, except what was in their portmanteaux and Dutch hampers, which were generally guarded by footmen; however, I fairly got one of their portmanteaux one evening out of the chamber where the gentleman lay, the footman being fast asleep on the bed, and I suppose very drunk.
I was plagued at Ipswich with the custom-house officers, who stopped my trunk, as I called it, and would open and search it.
I had soon my ends of this old woman, for I only wanted to know which was the London road, and away I walked as fast as I could; not that I intended to go on foot, either to London or to Colchester, but I wanted to get quietly away from Ipswich.
Weller; 'they're at Ipswich, safe enough, them two.
I work an Ipswich coach now and then for a friend o' mine.
Pickwick; 'we may as well see Ipswich as any other place.
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i don't know
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Which artists' works include the 1899 painting, 'Three Tahitians'?
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Three Tahitians (1899) | National Galleries Scotland
Paul Gauguin
Paul Gauguin
Gauguin's highly original paintings profoundly influenced modern art of the twentieth century. Now described as a 'Post-Impressionist', he was inspired to paint by Pissarro, but developed a symbolic style, using colour to express meaning. Traditions in western art and cultures outside Europe influenced his work. Gauguin's taste for travel and new experiences began when, as a child, he left Paris for Peru. In 1883 he abandoned stockbroking to dedicate himself to painting full-time. He painted in Brittany, and in Provence with Van Gogh. Gauguin travelled to Panama and Martinique and settled in Tahiti for several years. He died on the remote Marchese Islands.
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Paul Gauguin
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What was the name of the British Lieutenant Colonel accused by a part-time American Major of mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners of war?
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Gauguin's Nude Tahitians Give The Wrong Impression : NPR
Gauguin's Nude Tahitians Give The Wrong Impression
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Gauguin's Nude Tahitians Give The Wrong Impression
Gauguin's Nude Tahitians Give The Wrong Impression
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'Maker Of Myth': A new exhibit at the National Gallery explores how French post-Impressionist Paul Gauguin didn't let reality stop him from painting the primitive island culture he'd hoped to find in Tahiti — but didn't. Above, Gauguin's 1898 painting, Faa Iheihe, or, To Make Beautiful. Tate, London hide caption
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Tate, London
'Maker Of Myth': A new exhibit at the National Gallery explores how French post-Impressionist Paul Gauguin didn't let reality stop him from painting the primitive island culture he'd hoped to find in Tahiti — but didn't. Above, Gauguin's 1898 painting, Faa Iheihe, or, To Make Beautiful.
Tate, London
A portion of the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., has the look of a tropical paradise these days. A major exhibition of works by 19th century post-Impressionist Paul Gauguin includes oil paintings and other objects he created on the South Seas island of Tahiti. But the real Tahiti bore little resemblance to the one Gauguin depicted on his canvases.
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By the time Gauguin arrived in the late 1800s, Tahiti had been "thoroughly Christianized and colonized" by the French, says National Gallery curator Mary Morton. Women didn't walk around half-nude — but Gauguin painted them that way anyway. Above, an 1899 depiction of Two Tahitian Women. The Metropolitan Museum of Art hide caption
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The Metropolitan Museum of Art
By the time Gauguin arrived in the late 1800s, Tahiti had been "thoroughly Christianized and colonized" by the French, says National Gallery curator Mary Morton. Women didn't walk around half-nude — but Gauguin painted them that way anyway. Above, an 1899 depiction of Two Tahitian Women.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
In the 1870s, Gauguin, married with five children, was working as a stockbroker in Paris. He started collecting art, then began creating art, and thus began to rewrite his narrative.
"By the early 1880s he can no longer abide his life as a bourgeois gentleman, father, husband and Sunday painter. He needs to be an artist," explains Mary Morton, National Gallery curator. And so he travels to Polynesia, where apart from a few trips out, he stays for the rest of his life.
The paintings, wood carvings and ceramics he made in Tahiti are full of bare-breasted, native women — voluptuous, sensuous. Gauguin's 1899 painting Two Tahitian Women "could serve as a pinup in a tourist bureau," Morton says.
It's a glamorous vision, but a false one. The artist had hoped to find such exotic, half-clothed beauties — but did not.
"Tahiti was a French colony," Morton explains. "It had been thoroughly Christianized and colonized. The women were not walking around half-naked. ... They tended to be wearing ... Christian missionary gowns."
Still, on his canvases, Gauguin took off their clothes and bared their undressed beauty. In his 1892 work The Delightful Land, Gauguin depicts Tahitian Eve in the Garden of Eden. An exotic flower takes the place of the apple from the Tree of Knowledge. A lizard with flaming red wings substitutes for for the Bible's serpent.
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Gauguin depicts a Tahitian Garden of Eden in his 1892 painting Te Nave Nave Fenua, or, The Delightful Land. Gauguin paints a strong, stocky Eve — who, if you look carefully , has seven toes on her left foot. Ohara Museum of Art, Okayama hide caption
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Ohara Museum of Art, Okayama
Gauguin depicts a Tahitian Garden of Eden in his 1892 painting Te Nave Nave Fenua, or, The Delightful Land. Gauguin paints a strong, stocky Eve — who, if you look carefully , has seven toes on her left foot.
Ohara Museum of Art, Okayama
Over the centuries, hundreds of artists had rendered images of Eve. But their work reflected Western ideals of beauty — "white, small waist, small little feet, polished skin, no body hair," Morton says. Gauguin's Tahitian Eve, however, was different: "Broad shoulders, strong legs, pubic hair," Morton describes the image. "And then the most extraordinary thing about her — is her feet." Tahitian Eve has enormous feet — with seven toes on the left foot. That's how primitive she is, Gauguin seems to be saying.
It was all too much — the bizarre figures and the sunset oranges and fuchsias — for European tastes. When Gauguin brought 44 canvases back to a Paris gallery, only four of them sold. (Today, Gauguins go for tens of millions.)
"I am a savage," Gauguin wrote. "And civilized people suspect this."
And perhaps they were right to suspect him.
"He's a liar; he's a real liar," says Morton. Gauguin was a great artist. He wasn't Margaret Mead, carefully examining an island and its people.
"Gauguin was not an anthropologist," Morton says with a laugh. "He is using all of this as material for his own imaginative production."
The title of this exhibit at the National Gallery of Art (it was organized by the Tate Modern in London) is Gauguin: Maker of Myth. And that myth is crucial. When Gauguin's dreams of paradise collided with Tahiti's harsh realities, his imagination informed the body of his Tahitian creations.
"This is one of the problems with Gauguin's work," Morton says. "You know that he's making things up, but it's so seductive that you just have to reckon with it."
Gauguin often titled his works in Tahitian — or broken Tahitian. He gave one painting from 1896 the mysterious title No te aha oe riri, or Why Are You Angry? The Art Institute of Chicago hide caption
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The Art Institute of Chicago
Gauguin often titled his works in Tahitian — or broken Tahitian. He gave one painting from 1896 the mysterious title No te aha oe riri, or Why Are You Angry?
The Art Institute of Chicago
It's widely accepted that artists reinterpret reality, but the trouble is that Gauguin insisted that his depictions of island life were true — factual representations of a serene, sensual, primitive place. The French tourist industry was something of a co-conspirator in this; it wanted tourists to travel to the Polynesian colonies. And so it, too, underscored these images of lush, seductive destinations. These mass-marketed myths fed the fantasies of bored Europeans who were longing for something exotic, just out there somewhere, waiting to be discovered.
Eventually, Gauguin got bored with island life; he was poor and fell ill. He wrote to a friend to say that he was thinking of coming back to Paris — but his friend advised against it. You built your reputation as the exotic artist in exile at the edge of the Earth, the friend advised. If you come back old and decrepit, you'll wreck it. And so Gauguin remained on his remote island.
"He dies alone," Morton say, "sacrificing himself to this myth that he's constructed. It's just heartbreaking."
Gauguin: Maker of Myth will be on view at the National Gallery of Art through early June. It's a powerful show about a search for paradise and the revelations — for all of us — that emerge in that journey.
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i don't know
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Which actor went from a bridge in 'The Cruel Sea' to a 'Bridge On The River Kwai'?
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Jack Hawkins - IMDb
IMDb
Actor | Producer
In Britain, special Christmas plays called pantomimes are produced for children. Jack Hawkins made his London theatrical debut at age 12, playing the elf king in "Where The Rainbow Ends". At 17, he got the lead role of St. George in the same play. At 18, he made his debut on Broadway in "Journey's End". At 21, he was back in London playing a young... See full bio »
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Nominated for 1 Primetime Emmy. Another 1 win & 4 nominations. See more awards »
Known For
1974 QB VII (TV Mini-Series)
Justice Gilroy
1966 Mystery and Imagination (TV Series)
Colonel Mortimer
1965 Armchair Theatre (TV Series)
Len Driver
1963 ITV Television Playhouse (TV Series)
Adam Hilderson
1949 The Will (TV Movie)
Philip Ross
1965 The Party's Over (executive producer - uncredited)
Hide
1972 Film Night (TV Series)
Himself
1961 Here's Hollywood (TV Series)
Himself
1957 Hancock's Half Hour (TV Series)
Himself
1955 Stage by Stage (TV Series)
Himself - Introduction
1953 This Little Ship (Documentary short)
Narrator (voice)
2007 A Real Summer (TV Movie)
Himself (uncredited)
1999 Best of British (TV Series)
Himself
1995 Northern Exposure (TV Series)
Quintus Arrius
1980 The British Greats (TV Series)
Himself
Personal Details
Other Works:
He acted in William Shakespeare 's play, "The Tempest", at the Old Vic Theatre in London, England with John Gielgud , Jessica Tandy , Alec Guinness , Lewis Casson , Andrew Cruickshank , Marius Goring , John McCallum and Renée Asherson in the cast. George Devine and Marius Goring were the directors. See more »
Publicity Listings:
48 Articles | 14 Pictorials | 20 Magazine Cover Photos | See more »
Alternate Names:
Did You Know?
Personal Quote:
[replying to criticism of his portrayal of Gen. Sir Edmund Allenby in Lawrence of Arabia (1962)] I agree that the character has been slanted slightly, but Lady Allenby must remember that this is a film about Lawrence - not the Field Marshall. See more »
Trivia:
His memorial service took place on what would have been his sixty-third birthday on 14 September 1973 at St. Martin-in-the-Fields, London. The address was read by Kenneth More and Richard Attenborough read the lesson. See more »
Trademark:
Often played friendly World War II officers
Star Sign:
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Jack Hawkins
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Who painted the 1866 work 'Monna Vanna'?
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Jack Hawkins - Biography - IMDb
Jack Hawkins
Biography
Showing all 33 items
Jump to: Overview (4) | Mini Bio (1) | Spouse (2) | Trade Mark (1) | Trivia (14) | Personal Quotes (8) | Salary (3)
Overview (4)
5' 11" (1.81 m)
Mini Bio (1)
In Britain, special Christmas plays called pantomimes are produced for children. Jack Hawkins made his London theatrical debut at age 12, playing the elf king in "Where The Rainbow Ends". At 17, he got the lead role of St. George in the same play. At 18, he made his debut on Broadway in "Journey's End". At 21, he was back in London playing a young lover in "Autumn Crocus". He married his leading lady, Jessica Tandy . That year he also played his first real film role in the 1931 sound version of Alfred Hitchcock 's The Phantom Fiend (1932). During the 30s, he took his roles in plays more seriously than the films he made. In 1940, Jessica accepted a role in America and Jack volunteered to serve in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers. He spent most of his military career arranging entertainment for the British forces in India. One of the actresses who came out to India was Doreen Lawrence who became his second wife after the war. Alexander Korda advised Jack to go into films and offered him a three-year contract. In his autobiography, Jack recalled: "Eight years later I was voted the number one box office draw of 1954. I was even credited with irresistible sex appeal, which is another quality I had not imagined I possessed." A late 1940s film, The Black Rose (1950), where he played a secondary role to Tyrone Power , would be one of his most fortunate choices of roles. The director was Henry Hathaway who Jack said was "probably the most feared, yet respected director in America, for he had a sharp tongue and fired people at the drop of a hat. Years later, after my operation when I lost my voice, he went out of his way to help me get back into films. What I did not know was that during the filming of 'The Black Rose' he was himself suffering from cancer." In the 1950s came the film that made Hawkins a star, The Cruel Sea (1953). Suffering from life long real life sea sickness, he played the captain of the Compass Rose. After surgery for throat cancer in 1966, requiring the removal of his larynx, Jack continued to make films. He mimed his lines and the voice was dubbed by either Charles Gray or Robert Rietty . His motto during those last years came from Milton's "Comus", a verse play in which he acted early in his career in Regent's Park. The lines: "Yet where an equal poise of hope and fear does arbitrate the event, my nature is that I incline to hope, rather than to fear."
- IMDb Mini Biography By: Dale O'Connor <[email protected]>
Spouse (2)
Often played friendly World War II officers
Trivia (14)
He died three months after an operation to insert an artificial voice box in April 1973.
Underwent cobalt treatment for a secondary condition of the larynx in 1959 after making The League of Gentlemen (1960). Afterwards he took voice coaching and reduced the number of cigarettes he smoked each day from about sixty to five. However, while filming Guns at Batasi (1964) five years later his voice began to fail. It was not until Christmas 1965 that he was diagnosed with throat cancer, by which time the only possible treatment was a total laryngectomy in January of the following year. Ever since, with his approval, his performances were dubbed, often by Robert Rietty or Charles Gray . Hawkins continued to smoke after losing his voice. In the completely restored edition of Lawrence of Arabia (1962) in 1989, Gray also dubbed Hawkins's voice for the sound restoration in scenes which had been deleted from previous editions of the film. In the same film, Retry had also dubbed Gamil Ratib 's voice at first place.
He was voted Number 1 star at the British Box Office in 1954.
Initially sought for the role of Melville Farr in Victim (1961), Hawkins turned the role down because he thought the part might compromise his masculine screen image. Dirk Bogarde , who eventually played Farr, opined that Hawkins feared the role of a gay barrister would "prejudice his chances of a knighthood.".
Resented the idea that he was typecast in war movies, pointing out in his 1973 autobiography "Anything for a Quiet Life" that he had in fact played fewer military roles than John Mills , Trevor Howard and Richard Attenborough .
Made Guns at Batasi (1964), Judith (1966), Masquerade (1965) and The Poppy Is Also a Flower (1966) while suffering from cancer of the larynx. By the time he started filming The Wednesday Play: The Trial and Torture of Sir John Rampayne (1965), Hawkins had begun to cough up blood. His final role using his own voice was in a few episodes of Dr. Kildare (1961), where he managed to give a very accurate performance as a man who had just suffered a heart attack.
Hawkins joined the Royal Welch Fusiliers in 1940, was commissioned and served with the Second British Division in India. In 1944 he was seconded to GHQ India and soon afterwards succeeded to the command, as a colonel, of ENSA administration in India and South East Asia. He was demobilized in 1946.
He was awarded the CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 1958 Queen's Birthday Honours List for his services to drama.
In his will published on September 20 1973 he left just £13,019 gross but the net amount was shown as nil. This was a result of high UK taxes and a reduction in his income following the surgery in 1966 which resulted in the loss of his voice. The family home at 34 Ennismore Gardens, South Kensington was left to his wife and his three children were provided for through a trust fund.
His memorial service took place on what would have been his sixty-third birthday on 14 September 1973 at St. Martin-in-the-Fields, London. The address was read by Kenneth More and Richard Attenborough read the lesson.
He had a daughter, Susan with Jessica Tandy and two sons, Nicholas & Andrew, with Doreen Lawrence .
He was a student at the Italia Conti Drama School in London, England.
Provided the official celebrity opening of the Aldersley Municipal Sports Stadium, Wolverhampton on 9 June 1956. The stadium now forms part of Aldersley Leisure Village.
He appeared in three Best Picture Academy Award winners: The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Ben-Hur (1959) and Lawrence of Arabia (1962). Alec Guinness also appeared in both The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) and Lawrence of Arabia (1962).
Personal Quotes (8)
I adored it from the first moment. The excitement, the thrill, the smell of the theatre went right down to one's toes.
Above all, I was taught to love and respect words. Each word had to be the right word; and each had to be spoken in a way that its weight and importance demanded.
I think that no actor should take Hollywood too seriously; but at the same time it would be wrong to underestimate its professionalism. Really, Hollywood is a caricature of itself, and in particular this is true of the front-office types at the studios. Their enthusiasm towards you is measured precisely to match the success of your last film.
Every time an army, navy or air force part comes up they throw it at me. There is nothing left now but the women's services! (1956)
All of us in the film were sure that we were making something quite unusual, and a long way removed from the Errol Flynn -taking-Burma-single-handed syndrome. This was the period of some very indifferent American war movies, whereas The Cruel Sea (1953) contained no false heroics. That is why we all felt that we were making a genuine example of the way in which a group of men went to war.
[on Lafayette (1961)] A totally forgettable film . . . the only bit of acting I have ever done solely for the money.
[replying to criticism of his portrayal of Gen. Sir Edmund Allenby in Lawrence of Arabia (1962)] I agree that the character has been slanted slightly, but Lady Allenby must remember that this is a film about Lawrence - not the Field Marshall.
[asked why he risked his reputation on the TV series The Four Just Men (1959)] I risk my reputation every time, why not on TV?
Salary (3)
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i don't know
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Which regiment did Lieutenant Colonel Tim Collins command during the recent Iraqi conflict?
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'Disillusioned' Col Collins to quit Army in summer - Telegraph
'Disillusioned' Col Collins to quit Army in summer
By Sean Rayment, Defence Correspondent
12:01AM GMT 11 Jan 2004
Colonel Tim Collins, the officer who won worldwide renown for his rousing speech on the eve of the Iraq war , has dramatically quit the Army.
Col Collins, who commanded the 1st Battalion the Royal Irish Regiment during the conflict, is reported to have resigned and will leave in August because he has become disillusioned with the Army.
Although the colonel has made no official statement, his wife, Caroline, was quoted yesterday as saying: "Tim is worried that the Army is being crippled by political correctness, petty bureaucracy and the refusal of politicians who send soldiers to war to give them enough money to do their job.
"Tim is no longer convinced that the Army reflects the country with the fourth largest economy in the world. He fears it has become a cottage industry."
Mrs Collins said that an important factor in her husband's decision was the Army's failure to support him when he was wrongly accused of mistreating Iraqi prisoners.
Related Articles
'Mock execution' staged
23 May 2003
A friend of the colonel confirmed that he had quit. He told the Telegraph: "Tim has resigned. It is a very early stage of the long process of leaving the Army. He has put his papers in.
"It is not because he thinks the Army has gone soft. He has considered his options and decided that his future lies outside the Army.
"You have to remember that Tim won public relations communicator of the year in 2003 and is a very attractive option for a lot of large companies, who may offer him a very attractive deal.
"Every officer considers their future in their 30s, 40s and 50s and whether the appropriate time to leave the Army has arrived. Tim has decided that this is the appropriate time."
As Lt Col Collins - he was later promoted to full colonel - his inspirational address to the troops, delivered shortly before they crossed the border from Kuwait into Iraq, achieved international recognition.
He told them: "If you are ferocious in battle, remember to be magnanimous in victory... You will be shunned unless your conduct is of the highest, for your deeds will follow you down through history. We will bring shame on neither our uniform nor our nation."
President George W. Bush was reported to have had a copy of the speech pinned up on his wall in the Oval Office, and the Prince of Wales wrote to the officer praising it.
He returned home to face a military investigation, however, after an American officer accused him of mistreating Iraqi civilians and prisoners of war. His accuser was Major Re Biastre, a reservist with the US Army's 402nd Civil Affairs Battalion.
The major was involved in a clash with Col Collins after the American handed out sweets to Iraqi children in defiance of orders, it was said. Col Collins strenuously denied the claims that he had abused captured Iraqis, and he was later cleared by the Ministry of Defence after a full inquiry.
A separate inquiry was held into conditions in the 1st Battalion the Royal Irish Regiment after the suicide of an 18-year-old soldier, Pte Paul Cochrane, in 2001, when Col Collins was in command.
The MoD found no fault with the officer. The private's family, however, rejected the findings and have called for an independent inquiry.
Col Collins, 43, a father of five known as "Nails" to his troops, was promoted on his return from the Gulf, and has been working on Balkan issues at the Defence Academy at Shrivenham in Oxfordshire.
An MoD spokesman said: "It is not official policy to discuss the careers of Army officers."
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Royal Irish Regiment
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At which venue in the USA did Malcolm Campbell break the land speed record in 1935?
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'Disillusioned' Col Collins to quit Army in summer - Telegraph
'Disillusioned' Col Collins to quit Army in summer
By Sean Rayment, Defence Correspondent
12:01AM GMT 11 Jan 2004
Colonel Tim Collins, the officer who won worldwide renown for his rousing speech on the eve of the Iraq war , has dramatically quit the Army.
Col Collins, who commanded the 1st Battalion the Royal Irish Regiment during the conflict, is reported to have resigned and will leave in August because he has become disillusioned with the Army.
Although the colonel has made no official statement, his wife, Caroline, was quoted yesterday as saying: "Tim is worried that the Army is being crippled by political correctness, petty bureaucracy and the refusal of politicians who send soldiers to war to give them enough money to do their job.
"Tim is no longer convinced that the Army reflects the country with the fourth largest economy in the world. He fears it has become a cottage industry."
Mrs Collins said that an important factor in her husband's decision was the Army's failure to support him when he was wrongly accused of mistreating Iraqi prisoners.
Related Articles
'Mock execution' staged
23 May 2003
A friend of the colonel confirmed that he had quit. He told the Telegraph: "Tim has resigned. It is a very early stage of the long process of leaving the Army. He has put his papers in.
"It is not because he thinks the Army has gone soft. He has considered his options and decided that his future lies outside the Army.
"You have to remember that Tim won public relations communicator of the year in 2003 and is a very attractive option for a lot of large companies, who may offer him a very attractive deal.
"Every officer considers their future in their 30s, 40s and 50s and whether the appropriate time to leave the Army has arrived. Tim has decided that this is the appropriate time."
As Lt Col Collins - he was later promoted to full colonel - his inspirational address to the troops, delivered shortly before they crossed the border from Kuwait into Iraq, achieved international recognition.
He told them: "If you are ferocious in battle, remember to be magnanimous in victory... You will be shunned unless your conduct is of the highest, for your deeds will follow you down through history. We will bring shame on neither our uniform nor our nation."
President George W. Bush was reported to have had a copy of the speech pinned up on his wall in the Oval Office, and the Prince of Wales wrote to the officer praising it.
He returned home to face a military investigation, however, after an American officer accused him of mistreating Iraqi civilians and prisoners of war. His accuser was Major Re Biastre, a reservist with the US Army's 402nd Civil Affairs Battalion.
The major was involved in a clash with Col Collins after the American handed out sweets to Iraqi children in defiance of orders, it was said. Col Collins strenuously denied the claims that he had abused captured Iraqis, and he was later cleared by the Ministry of Defence after a full inquiry.
A separate inquiry was held into conditions in the 1st Battalion the Royal Irish Regiment after the suicide of an 18-year-old soldier, Pte Paul Cochrane, in 2001, when Col Collins was in command.
The MoD found no fault with the officer. The private's family, however, rejected the findings and have called for an independent inquiry.
Col Collins, 43, a father of five known as "Nails" to his troops, was promoted on his return from the Gulf, and has been working on Balkan issues at the Defence Academy at Shrivenham in Oxfordshire.
An MoD spokesman said: "It is not official policy to discuss the careers of Army officers."
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i don't know
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In nature, 'Reeves', 'Lady Amherst's', 'Hume's bar-tailed' and 'Cheer', are all varieties of which bird?
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frankStrade : Lives, Pet Accessories, Electronics and more
http://www.frankstrade.com/1199/lab-puppies-coming-soon
Message:
ryguy5 is expecting their 2 year old Chocoalte Lab whom they bred with a Black Lab (father was on the cover of Cabela's Magazine). $700 will be the price of the puppies, so stay tuned for photos as the pups arrive. These will be AKC registered puppies from champion blood lines. If you would like to leave a deposit and have the next pick in the litter, please contact ryguy5.
LATEST : White Indian Fantail Pigeon, Yellow Golden Pheasant, North American Pintail duck hatching eggs, India Blue Peafowl pair and Hatching Eggs, pair of Narrgansett Turkeys, Goffin Cockatoos, French Black Copper Maran Chicks
Date:
Friday 11, May 2012 12:18 AM
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Pheasant
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Which actor pursued 'Dr. Richard Kimble' in the TV series 'The Fugitive'?
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Full text of "Pheasants : their natural history and practical management"
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THE PEINCE OF WALES' S PHEASANT (Phasianus principalis). PHEASANTS THEIE ilatural Itstorg an& practical Management BY W. B. TEGETMEIER (Member of the British Ornithologists' Union), AUTHOR OF "THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE CRANES," "TABLE AND MARKET POULTRY," ETC., ETC. THIRD EDITION, ENLARGED. ILLUSTRATED FEOM LIFE BY MESSES. J. G. MILLAIS, T. W. WOOD, P. SMIT, AND F. W. FEOHAWK, ETC. LONDON : HORACE COX, ; THE FIELD" OFFICE, BEEAM'S BUILDINGS, E.G. 1897. (All rights reserved.) LONDON : PRINTED BY HORACE COX, " THE FIELD" OFFICE, BREAM'S BUILDINGS, B.C. PREFACE. DETAILED ACCOUNT of the natural history, habits, food, and treatment of the various species of Pheasants had long been a desideratum; this book was projected with a view to supply the want in a more complete and comprehensive form than had hitherto been attempted. The extremely favour- able reception which the previous editions met with, not only from the reviewers, but also from the general public, showed that the demand for such information was not over-estimated, whilst the opinions expressed by many of our highest authorities have led me to believe that the endeavour to combine ornithological research with practical experience in the management of this group of birds was not unattended with success. In the following work I have given the natural history and general practical management, not only of the pheasants strictly adapted for the covert, but also of the allied species, which are the best adapted to our aviaries. The progress of scientific exploration is continually bringing to light species of pheasants hitherto unknown ; M696928 iv PREFACE. some of these are well suited to our coverts, whilst others are regarded as ornamental birds. A few years since the only pheasant bred wild in England was the common species (Phasianus colcMcus) ; our coverts now possess the Chinese (P. torquatus) and the Japanese (P. versicolor) species ; whilst the Keeves's pheasant (P. reevesii), still more beautiful, and equally well adapted both for sporting and culinary pur- poses, has been recently introduced. In the same manner, our aviaries have recently been enriched by the addition of the Amherst pheasant (Thaumalea amherstise) and others, which, by their exquisite beauty, eclipse even the gorgeous coloration and elegant markings of the comparatively well- known Gold and Silver pheasants. To indicate and illustrate these various species, to give as far as is known their natural history, to describe the best methods of rearing them in preserves and inclosed pheasantries, to enter into the numerous details respecting their food, management, protection, rearing, diseases, &c., is the object at which I have aimed in the preparation of this work. In the following chapters I first treat of the natural history of the pheasants generally their food, habits, nesting, &c. Then follows the consideration of their management in preserves, the details of the different methods of feeding the birds, their protection from their numerous enemies, the formation of coverts, &c. This is succeeded by an account of their treatment in inclosed pheasantries, the hatching of the eggs, rearing and feeding the young birds, and the prevention and cure of their diseases. PREFACE. A detailed description of all the different species adapted for turning out, and of the various hybrids and crosses between them, is then given; and the work concludes with accounts of the ornamental species, such as the Gold, Silver, and Amherst pheasants, and the best methods of their management in aviaries. Of the admirable engravings which illustrate the volume I may remark, in the words of Izaak Walton, ' f Next let me add this, that he that likes not the book should like the excellent pictures . . . . which I may take a liberty to commend, because they concern not myself." W. B. TEGETMEIER. NORTH FINCHLEY, N. CONTENTS. NATURAL HISTORY OF THE PHEASANTS, CHAPTER I. Habits, Food, Structure, &c. ... ... ... page 1 CHAPTER II. Introduction, Distribution, &c. ... ... 21 MANAGEMENT IN PRESERVES. CHAPTER III. Formation of Coverts ... ... ... ... ... 41 CHAPTER IV. Feeding in Coverts ... ... ... ... ... ... 51 CHAPTER V. Rearing and Protection ... ... ... ... ... 58 MANAGEMENT IN CONFINEMENT, CHAPTER VI. Formation of Pens and Aviaries 77 CONTENTS. CHAPTER VII. Laying and Hatching ... ... ... ... page 95 CHAPTER VIII. Eearing the Young Birds ... ... ... ... ... 109 DISEASES OF PHEASANTS. CHAPTER IX. The Gapes, Cramp, &c. ... '.,.' 125 PHEASANTS ADAPTED TO THE COVERT. CHAPTER X. The Common Pheasant ... ... ... ... ... 143 CHAPTER XI. The Prince of Wales's Pheasant ... ... 152 CHAPTER XII. The Chinese Pheasant ;;; ... 155 CHAPTER XIII. The Japanese Pheasant ..-.- ... ... ... ... 161 CHAPTER XIV. Soenimer ring's Pheasant "... ... "... ' ... ... 169 CHAPTER XV. Reeves's Pheasant . 177 PHEASANTS ADAPTED TO THE AVIARY. CHAPTER XVI. The Golden Pheasant . 188 CONTENTS. ix CHAPTER XVII. The Amherst Pheasant ... ... ... ... page 199 CHAPTER XVIII. The Silver Pheasant 206 CHAPTER XIX. The Eared Pheasant ... '..' ... 212 CHAPTER XX. The Impeyan Pheasant ... ... ... ... ... 215 CHAPTER XXI. The Argus Pheasant 220 APPENDIX. TRANSPORT OP PHEASANTS 227 LIST OF PLATES. Prince of Wales' s Pheasant (P. principalis) Frontispiece Common Pheasant (P. colchicus) To face 143 Bohemian Pheasant (P. colchicus variety)") Hybrid Pheasant (Reeves's and Bohemian) ^ Chinese Pheasant (P. torquaius) } , 155 Japanese Pheasant (P. versicolor) 161 Scemmer ring's Pheasant (P. scemmerringii) ' 169 Reeves' s Pheasant (P. reevesii) ,, 177 Reeves' s Pheasant in Flight 185 Reeves's Pheasant (P. reevesii) 183 Golden Pheasant (Thaumalea picta) 189 Amherst Pheasant (Thaumalea amherstioi) ,, 199 Silver Pheasant (Euplocqmus nycthemerus) 207 Eared Pheasant (Crossoptilon mantchuricum) Impeyaii Pheasant (Lopliophorus impeyanus) ... Argus Pheasant (Argun- giganteus] Argus Pheasant Displaying its plumage 22i> PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. CHAPTEE I. NATURAL HISTORY OF THE PHEASANTS. HABITS, FOOD, STRUCTURE, ETC. HE PHEASANTS, properly so called (as dis- tinguished from the allied but perfectly distinct groups which include the Gold and Silver pheasants, the Kaleege, the Monaul, &c.) constitute the genus or group known to naturalists under the title Phasianus. Of the true pheasants no less than thirteen distinct species have been described by Mr. D. Gr. Elliott, in his magnificent monograph on the Phasianidas. Of these several are known only by rare specimens of their skins brought from scarcely explored Asiatic countries, and others cannot be regarded as anything more than mere local or geographical varieties of well known species. Since the publication of Elliott's Phasianidse several additional species have been described. Without including, however, such birds as have, from their rarity or other causes, no practical interest to English game preservers, there remain several well known species that will require our careful consideration. Such are : The common pheasant (Phasianus colchicus), now generally diffused B 2 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. throughout southern and central Europe ; the Chinese (P. torquatus) ; the Japanese (P. versicolor) ; the Eeeves (P. reevesii) ; and the Soemmerring (P. soemmerringii). These, however, are so closely related in their structure, form, and habits, that their natural history and general management may be given once for all, and their distinctive peculiarities pointed out subsequently. The pheasants constituting the genus Phasianus. are readily distinguished by their extremely elongated tail feathers, which attain their maximum development in the Reeves pheasant, reaching in that species to a length exceeding five or six feet. They are all destitute of feathered crests or fleshy combs, but are furnished with small tufts of feathers behind the eyes. In their native state they are essentially forest birds, frequenting the margins of woods, coming into the open tracts in search of food, and retreating into the thick underwood at the slightest cause for alarm. The common pheasant, which has been introduced from its native country, Asia Minor, for upwards of a thousand years, though spread over the greater part of Europe, and more recently introduced into America, Australia, and New Zealand, still retains its primitive habits. " It is," says Naumann, in his work on the " Birds of Germany," " certainly a forest bird, but not in the truest sense of the term; for neither does it inhabit the densely wooded districts, nor the depths of the mixed forest, unless driven to do so. Small pieces of grove, where deep under- bush and high grass grow between the trees, where thorn hedges, berry-growing bushes, and water overgrown with reeds, and here and there pastures and fields are found, are its chosen places of abode. Nor must well-cultivated and grain-growing fields be wanting where this bird is to do well. It neither likes the bleak mountain country nor dry sandy places; nor does it frequent the pine woods unless for protection against its enemies, or during bad weather, or at night." FOOD OF THE PHEASANT. "In. our own country/' says Macgillivray, "its favourite places of resort are thick plantations, or tangled woods by streams, where, among the long grass, brambles, and other shrubs, it passes the night, sleeping on the ground in summer and autumn, but commonly roosting in the trees in the winter." Like the domestic fowl, which it closely resembles in its internal structure and its habits, the pheasant is an omnivorous feeder ; grain, herbage, roots, berries, and other small fruits, insects, acorns, beech mast, are alike acceptable to it. Naumann gives the following detailed description of its dietary on the Continent. "Its food consists of grain, seeds, fruits, and berries, with green herbs, insects, and worms, varying with the time of year. Ants, and particularly their larvae, are a favourite food, the latter forming the chief support of the young. It also eats many green weeds, the tender shoots of grass, cabbage, young clover, wild cress, pimpernel, young peas, &c., &c. Of berries : the wild mezereum (Daphne mezereum), wild strawberries (Fragaria), currants, elderberries from the species Sambucus racemosa, S. nigra, and S. ebulus ; blackberries (Rubus cdesius, B. idseus, and R. fruiticosus) ; mistletoe (Viscum album) ; hawthorn (Oratsbgus torminalis). Plums, apples, and pears it eats readily, and cherries, mulberries, and grapes it also takes when it can get them. In the autumn, ripe seeds are its chief food, it eats those of many of the sedges and grasses, and of several species of Polygonum, as P. dumetorum black bindweed (P. convolvulus) ; knot grass (P. aviculare) ; and also those of the cow- wheat (Melampyrum) ; and acorns, beech mast, &c., form a large portion of its food in the latter months of the year. Amongst forest plants, it likes the seeds of the hemp-nettle (Galeopsis), and it also feeds on almost all the seeds that the farmer sows." To this long catalogue of its continental fare may be added the roots of the common silver weed (Potentilla anserina), and those of the pig-nut or earth-nut (Bunium B 2 4 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. fiexuosum, and the tubers of the common buttercups (Ranunculus bulbosus and R. ficaria) , which are often scratched out of the soil and eaten. Macgillivray states that " One of the most remarkable facts relative to this bird that has come under my observation, was the presence of a very large quantity of the fronds of the common polypody (Polypodium vulgare) in the crop of one which I opened in the winter of 1835. I am not aware that any species of fern has ever been found constituting part of the food of a ruminating quadruped or gallinaceous bird ; and if it should be found by experiment that the pheasant thrives on such substances, advantage might be taken of the circumstance." Thompson, in his ' ' Natural History of Ireland," recounts the different varieties of food he observed in opening the crops of ten pheasants from November to April inclusive. In seven he discovered the fruit of the hawthorn, with grain, small seeds, and peas. In one no less than thirty-seven acorns. Another had its crop nearly filled with grass ; only one contained any insects, the period of examination being the colder months of the year; in summer the pheasant is decidedly insectivorous; all contained numerous fragments of stone. He also records that in the spring the yellow flowers of the pilewort (Ranunculus ficaria) are always eaten in large quantity, as are the tuberous roots of the common silver weed (Potentilla anserina], when they are turned up by cultivation. Mr. Thompson adds: "While spending the month of January, 1849, at the sporting quarters of Ardimersy Cottage, Island of Islay, where pheasants are abundant, and attain a very large size the ring-necked variety, too, being common I observed that these birds, in the outer or wilder coverts, feed, during mild as well as severe weather, almost wholly on hazel nuts. In the first bird that was remarked to contain them, they were reckoned, and found to be twenty-four in number, all of full size and perfect ; in addition were many large insect larvae. Either oats or Indian corn being thrown out every morning before FOOD OF THE PHEASANT. the windows of the cottage for pheasants, I had an oppor- tunity of observing their great preference of the former to the latter. I remarked a pheasant one day in Islay taking the sparrow's place, by picking at horsedung on the road for undigested oats." Among the more singular articles of food that form part of the pheasant's very varied dietary may be mentioned the spangles of the oak so common in the autumn on the under side of the leaves. These are galls caused by the presence of the eggs of a species of gall-fly (Neuropterus) which may be reared from the spangles if they are collected in the autumn, and kept in a cool and rather moist atmos- phere during the winter. About the fall of the leaf these spangles begin to lose their flat mushroom-like form and red hirsute appearance, and become by degrees raised or bossed towards the middle, in consequence of the growth of the enclosed grub, which now becomes visible when the spangle is cut open. The perfect insect makes its appearance in April and May. Some few years since Mr. R. Carr Ellison published the following account of their being eagerly sought after and devoured by pheasants in a wild state : {C Just before the fall of the oak-leaf these spangles (or the greater part of them) become detached from it, and are scattered upon the ground under the trees in great profusion. Our pheasants delight in picking them up, especially from the surface of walks and roads, where they are most easily found. But, as they are quite visible even to human eyes, among the wet but undecayed leaves beneath the oaks, wherever pheasants have been turning them up, a store of winter food is evidently provided by these minute and dormant insects with their vegetable incasement, in addition to the earth- worms, slugs, &c., which induce the pheasants to forage so industriously, by scratching up the layers of damp leaves in incipient decay which cover the woodland soil in winter. Not only have we found the spangles plentifully in the crops of pheasants that have been shot, but, on presenting leaves 6 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. covered with them to the common and to the gold pheasants in confinement, we observed the birds to pick them up without a moment's hesitation, and to look eagerly for more." The value of pheasants to the agriculturist is scarcely sufficiently appreciated ; the birds destroy enormous numbers of injurious insects upwards of twelve hundred wireworms have been taken out of the crop of a pheasant ; if this number was consumed at a single meal, the total destroyed must be almost incredible. There is no doubt that insects are pre- ferred to grain, one pheasant shot at the close of the shooting season had in its crop 726 wireworms, one acorn, one snail, nine berries, and three grains of wheat. Mr. F. Bond states that he took out of the crop of a pheasant 440 grubs of the crane fly or daddy longlegs these Iarva3 are exceedingly destructive to the roots of the grass on lawns and pastures. As another instance of their insectivorous character may be mentioned the complaint of Waterton, that they had extir- pated the grasshoppers from Walton Park. They also occasionally eat molluscous animals. Mr. John Bishop, of Llandovery, records that he killed a pheasant on the coast of Islay whose crop was filled with the coloured snails abounding on the bents or grass stems on the coast. Lord Lilford, in his magnificent volumes on the ft Birds of Northamptonshire," writes : " The pheasant, where not preserved in unreasonable numbers, is a good friend to the farmer, from the enormous number of wireworms and other noxious insects which it devours, to say nothing of its liking for the roots of various weeds; but it would be absurd to deny that grain forms its favourite food, and a field of standing beans will, as is well known, draw pheasants for miles. It is very much the fashion to feed the birds with maize ; but, in our own opinion, the flesh of pheasants which have been principally fed upon this corn is very far inferior in flavour to that of those who have found their own living upon what the land may offer them." Like their allies, the domestic fowls, pheasants are occa- FOOD OF THE PHEASANT. sionally carnivorous in their appetite. A correspondent writes : " This morning my keeper brought me a pied cock pheasant, found dead (but still warm) in some standing barley. The bird was in finest condition, and showed no marks what- ever, when plucked, of a violent death. On searching the gullet I extracted a short-tailed field mouse, which had doubtless caused death by strangulation." And a similar instance was recorded by Mr. Hutton, of Northallerton. The Hon. and Rev. C. Bathurst, in a letter published in London's Magazine of Natural History, vol. vii., p. 153, relates that Sir John Ogilvy saw a pheasant flying off with a common slow- worm (Anguis fragilis) ; that this reptile does sometimes form part of the food of the pheasant is confirmed by Mr. J. E. Harting, who recounts, in his work on " The Birds of Middle- sex," that " on examining the crop of a pied pheasant, shot in October, 1864, I was surprised to find in it a common slow- worm (Anguis fragilis) which measured eight inches in length. It was not quite perfect, having lost the tip of the tail ; other- wise, if whole, it would probably have measured nine inches." In October, 1888, Mr. J. B. Footner, of Tunbridge Wells, forwarded me a bottle containing three young vipers that were found with five others of equal size in the crop of a three parts grown hen pheasant, which he himself shot as a wild bird. Their length was slightly in excess of 7in., and the weight of the largest was exactly ^-oz. They were apparently young of the same brood. In his letter Mr. Footner recalled the fact that Sir Kenelm Digby, who lived in the time of Charles I., and married a lady of great beauty, used to feed his wife on capons fatted on young adders, which were believed to preserve beauty. Sir Kenelm Digby, whose portrait may be seen in Vandyke's Icono- graphy, was remarkable as a charlatan, who proposed to cure wounds by applying a sympathetic powder to the weapons they were caused by, and who published a treatise on " Secrets pour la Beaute des Dames/' from which the viper treatment is extracted. 8 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIALIES. The structure of the digestive organs of the pheasant is perfectly adapted to the assimilation of the food on which it feeds. The sharp edge of the upper mandible of the bill is admirably fitted for cutting off portions of the vegetables on which it partly subsists, and the whole organ is equally well adapted for securing the various articles of its extensive dietary. The food, when swallowed, passes into a very capacious membranous crop, situated under the skin at the fore part of the breast. From this organ portions gradually pass into the true digestive stomach, or proventiculus ; this is a short tube, an inch and a half long, connecting the crop with the gizzard. Small as this organ may be, it is one of extreme importance, as the numerous small glands of which it mainly consists secrete the acid digestive or gastric fluid necessary to the digestion of the food ; and in cases in which pheasants or fowls are fed on too great an abundance of animal food, or any highly-stimulating diet, this organ becomes inflamed, and death is frequently the result. From the pro- venticulus the food passes into the gizzard, which is lined with a dense thick skin ; in its cavity the food is ground down to a pulp, the process being assisted by the presence of the numerous small stones and angular pieces of gravel, &c., swallowed by the bird. The food, thus ground to a pulp, passes on into the intestines, which are no less than six feet in length ; in the upper part of this long canal it is mingled with the bile formed in the liver, the pancreatic fluid, &c., and, as it passes from one extremity to the other, the nourish- ment for the support of the animal is extracted ; this being greatly aided by the operation of the two caeca, or blind intestines, which are very large in all the birds of this group. The flight of the pheasant is strong, and is performed by rapid and frequent beats of the wing, the tail at the same time being expanded. The force with which the bird flies may be inferred from the result which has not unfrequently occurred when it has come into contact with thick plate-glass FLIGHT OF THE PHEASANT. 9 ID windows. A correspondent states : " A few days ago, a cock pheasant rose about three hundred yards from my house and flew against the centre of a plate glass window, smashing it into a thousand fragments. The glass was 3ft. Sin. by 3ft. 4in., and -Jin. thick ; and such was the force of the concussion that not a single piece remained six inches square.. A slight snow on the ground rendered the window more than usually a mirror reflecting the outer landscape. It is needless to say the bird was killed instantaneously. Two hen pheasants had on previous occasions been killed in the same way, but the glass was not damaged/' Mr. G. A. Hackett, of Pailton House, Eugby, also wrote as follows : "I was much astonished to-day, at about two o'clock, by hearing a loud crash of glass in my smoking-room, and on going there I found a cock pheasant dead on the floor close to the window, and the plate of glass, which is 4ft. by 3ft. 6in., and ^in. thick, in thousands of fragments. I am certain no blow from a man could have in like manner demolished the glass. The pheasant was a ring-necked, last year's bird, and weighed nearly 31b." These instances occured in the day-time. Sometimes the birds are attracted by a light, as in the following cases : " On a very rough night in January, a hen pheasant flew through the hall window at Merthyr Manor, Bridgend, attracted by a light inside." And the following incident is related as occurring in a village not far from Bangor, on the banks of a river on the opposite side of which is a plantation well stocked with pheasants : " One stormy night there sat in a room of a small public, which had a window facing the plantation, six or seven men enjoying their pipes and beer, when all of a sudden crash went the window, out went the candle, and out rushed the men in great consternation. On examining the room a splendid cock pheasant was found under the table/' The wings, considered with reference to the size and weight of the bird, are short and small; from the secondary quills being nearly as long as the primary, they are very rounded in form, the third and fourth primary feathers being 10 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. the longest. The wings are not adapted to a very prolonged flight, although the denizens of the wilder districts in the country fly with a speed and cover distances that are un- known to the over-fattened birds in our preserves. Long flights are, however, not altogether beyond the powers of the bird. One of unusual length was recorded by Mr. J. Cordeaux, of Great Cotes, Ulceby, who states that "when shooting in the marshes on the Lincolnshire side of the Humber, near Grimsby, a man who works on the sea em- bankment came to say that two pheasants had just flown over from the Yorkshire side, alighting within a few feet of where he was working among the rough grass on the bank. On going to the spot indicated, I at once found and shot them ; they were both hens, and in very good condition. The Humber at this place from shore to shore is nearly four miles across. There was a strong northerly breeze blowing at the time, so that they would cross before the wind, or with the wind a little aslant. I have occasionally found pheasants in the marshes, and near the embankment, which I was sure must have come across, but had no direct evidence of the fact." The comparatively small size of the wings necessitates their being moved with great force and velocity, and conse- quently the moving powers or muscles of the breast are very large and well developed, taking their origin from the deep keel on the breast bone. The tail is long, and tapers to a point ; it is composed of eighteen straight pointed feathers. The pheasant, like most of its congeners, is a terrestrial bird, seeking its food, making its nest, and rearing its young upon the surface of the ground. Its legs, like those of all true rasorial or scratching birds, are strong and muscular, consequently it is capable of running with great speed. The strong blunt claws are admirably adapted for scratching seeds and tuberous roots from the ground, or worms and larvae from beneath fallen leaves. Though seldom taking voluntarily to the water, the SWIMMING OF PHEASANTS. pheasant is quite capable of swimming, as is proved by the following instances. A well-known game preserver writes : " When out walking to-day with my keeper, near the end of a long pond running under one of my woods, we fancied that we heard some young pheasants calling in the high grass. On going up to the place where we had heard the noise, an old hen pheasant got up and flew over the pond, which is about eighteen or nineteen feet wide at this place and about four feet deep. To our astonishment one of the young birds ran down to the water, went into it, and swam safely to the other side after its mother. The young birds could not have been more than fourteen days old." Old birds will also voluntarily swim across rivers, as in the following instance : " While flogging the waters of the Usk, I saw a sight that struck me with astonishment. A fine cock pheasant was walking about on the bank of the river, here quite thirty yards broad and running at the rate of four knots an hour. On our approach he quietly took to the water like a duck, and, after floating down stream a few yards, boldly struck across, and, swimming high and with great ease, reached the bank nearly opposite to the spot whence he set out." And other similar cases are on record, thus Mr. Donald Campbell, of Dunstafforage, Oban, states : " Six pheasants, five cocks and a hen, attempted to fly across Loch Etive from one of the Ardchattan coverts on the north side of the loch, which near that spot varies from half a mile to a mile in width. When about half-way across one of them was seen either to fall or alight on the water, and its example was immediately followed by the other five. Fortunately, the son of the Ardchattan gamekeeper, who was in a boat on the loch at the time, observed the occurrence, and rowed to the spot ; but as he had some distance to go, by the time he reached the birds they were very much exhausted and half drowned, and were drift- ing helplessly with the tide. He got them into the boat and took them ashore, and, after being well dried and placed in warm boxes near a good fire, they all eventually recovered. 12 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. The day was cold and frosty, and there was a slight fog on the water." When wounded and dropped into the water, pheasants swim with facility, and some instances are on record of their diving beneath the surface and rising at some distance. As the breeding season approaches, the crow of the male, resembling the imperfect attempts of a young fowl, may be heard distinctly. It is followed, and not preceded as in the game cock, by the clapping of the wings ; the pheasant and the domestic cock invariably reversing the order of the succession of these two actions. Like the domestic fowl, pheasants will also answer any loud noise, occurring either by day or night ; they have been noticed replying regularly to the signal gun at Shorncliffe, which is fired at sunrise and sunset, and this in coverts situated some miles distant; and the practice with the heavy guns at the various military stations will often cause a chorus of " cucketing " in all the coverts for a great distance round. The display of the plumage during courtship by the males varies in almost every species of gallinaceous birds. That of the pheasant was carefully described by the late Mr. T. W. Wood, in an interesting article on the (f Courtship of Birds." Pheasants seem to possess no other mode of display than the lateral or one-sided method. In this the males disport them- selves so as to exhibit to the females a greater number of their beautiful feathers than could otherwise be seen at one view. The peculiar attitude assumed by the male of the common species is correctly shown in the vignette on page 20 at the end of this chapter ; the wing of the side nearest the female is partly opened and depressed, precisely in the same manner as performed by the male of the common fowl, and, in addition, the tail is expanded, and the upper surface turned towarHs the same side, whilst the bright vermilion skin around the eye is greatly extended, and the little purple aigrettes erected. Singular modifications of this sexual display of the plumage occur in the Argus and Grolden NESTING OF THE PHEASANT. 13 Pheasant and other species, which will be noticed in the chapters relating to those birds. In a state of nature there is little doubt that the pheasant is polygamous. The males are armed with spurs, with which they fight, the stronger driving away the weaker, and the most vigorous propagate their kind. The nest of the female is usually a simple hollow scraped in the ground. After depositing her eggs (usually about eight or nine in number) she is deserted by the male, and the task of incubation and rearing the young depends on her alone. The eggs vary in colour from a greenish brown to a greyish green ; in size they are, on the average, an inch and five-sixths in length, by an inch and five-twelfths in width. The period of incubation is twenty-four days. Hen pheasants, like common fowls, not unfrequently have nests in common, in which case as many as eighteen or twenty eggs will be found together. Sometimes three hens will take to the same nest, and as many as thirty eggs have been seen resulting from their copartnership. It is still more singular that the pheasant and the partridge often share the same nest. Mr Walter Yate, of Pemberton, Shropshire, stated, " About a week ago one of my workmen informed me that he had found a nest containing both partridge's and pheasant's eggs. I accompanied him to the place, and there saw the pheasant and partridge seated side by side with the utmost amity. I then had the birds driven off, and saw fifteen partridge's and sixteen pheasant's eggs laid indiscriminately together. The eggs were placed as though the nest had been common to both." Another correspondent writes : ' ' About three weeks ago, when walking round a small wood belonging to me, and in which I usually breed a good sprinkle of pheasants, I discovered a partridge sitting on the edge of the bank of the wood ; and when she went off to feed I was much astonished to find that she was sitting on nine pheasant's eggs and thirteen of her own, and, after sitting the usual time, hatched them all out." Mr. R. Bagnall-Wild 14 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. records that "in June his keeper noticed three partridge nests, with thirteen, eleven, and eleven partridges' eggs, and four, two, and two pheasants' eggs, respectively in them. He carefully watched, and in all three cases found that the pheasants were hatched with the young partridges; and ID September the young pheasants still kept with their respective coveys of partridges/' Sometimes the hen pheasant, and not the partridge, is the foster parent. In the neighbourhood of Ohesham, on the 6th of May, 1873, three pheasants' nests were observed to contain the following eggs : the first, on which the hen was sitting, twenty-two pheasant's and two French partridge's eggs; the second, eleven pheasant's and five French partridge's eggs ; and the third, six pheasant's and seven French partridge's eggs. Mr. W. D. Collins, of Cuckfield, records the fact that he found a grey partridge sitting on twelve of her own eggs, nine eggs of the red-legged partridge, and nine pheasant's eggs, all the three species having layed in the same nest. Mr. Higgins, of Hambledon, states that ec A pheasant hatched out, in a piece of vetches of mine, seven partridges and five pheasants on July 6th. She sat on nine of her own eggs and eight partridge eggs." In some cases the nest is even of a more composite character, and the eggs of the common fowl, and those of partridges and pheasants, have all been found together ; and instances have been recorded of wild hen pheasants laying in the nests of tame and also of wild ducks, and in the nest of the corncrake. Although there is usually some attempt at concealment under covert, pheasants' nests are not unfrequently placed, even by perfectly wild birds, in very exposed situations. Mr. John Walton, of Sholton Hall, Durham, related the following account of the singular tameness of a wild bred bird : " A hen pheasant a perfectly wild one so far as rearing is con- cerned, for we have no artificial processes here selected as the site for her nest a hedge by a private cart road, where she was exposed to tbe constant traffic of carts, farm servants, and others, passing and repassing her quarters, all of which she NESTING OF THE PHEASANT. 15 took with infinite composure. She was very soon discovered on her nest, and actually suffered herself when sitting to be stroked down her plumage by the children and others who visited her, and this without budging an inch. In fact, she seemed rather to like it. Perhaps she became a pet with the neighbours from this unusual docility, and her brood (fourteen in number) was thereby saved; for every egg was hatched, and the young birds have all got safely away." Habitually a nester on the ground, the hen pheasant will sometimes select the deserted nest of an owl or squirrel as a place for the disposition and incubation of her eggs. Several examples of this occurrence are on record, but the following may suffice to prove that the circumstance is not so unfrequent as may have been supposed. One correspondent writes as follows : {f Our head keeper told me that one of his watchers had found a pheasant's nest up a spruce fir tree. I was incredulous, so I went with him, and had the under-man there to show us. The bird was sitting on the nest an old squirrel's. The man said she had twelve eggs. He also told us that he knew of another in a similar situation in the same plantation. The nest 1 saw was about twelve feet from the ground. The watchers found it in looking for nests of flying vermin, as some had escaped the traps." Another states : ' ' A keeper on the Culhorn estate, when on his rounds in search of vermin, observed a nest, which he took to be that of a hawk, on a Scotch fir tree, about fifteen feet from the ground. On throwing up a stone out flew a fine hen pheasant. The keeper then ascended the tree, and found, to his astonishment, eight pheasants' eggs in an old owl's nest. He removed the eggs, and placed them under a hen, and at the expiration of three d-ays he had eight fine lively pheasant birds." A third states that "at Chaddlewood, near Plympton, Devon, a pheasant has built its nest (twelve feet from the ground) in a fork of an ash tree close to the house, and has now laid eight eggs." 16 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. It is difficult to ascertain whether or not in the instances in which the young are hatched in these elevated situations, they fall out of the nest and survive or are killed and carried away by predatory animals, or whether they are safely removed by the parent birds, and if so, by what means ; even the following accounts do not throw much light upon the subject. A correspondent of The Field stated that " A hen pheasant made her nest in an oak tree, about nine feet from the ground. The young were hatched, and she succeeded in taking seven young ones safely to the ground, leaving five dead in the nest, and one bad egg." A second stated that in the park at Fillingham, Lincoln, a pheasant deposited eight eggs in the nest of a woodpigeon in a fir tree upwards of six- teen feet from the ground ; she hatched out seven of them, but was unfortunate, as four were killed ; they were supposed to have fallen from the nest. And a third reported that on the estate of the Marquis of Hertford, at Sudborne Hall, Suffolk, a pheasant had taken possession of a nest deserted by a sparrow-hawk, in a spruce fir, twenty -five feet from the ground, and hatched eight young ones, seven of which she succeeded in brin ging safely down, but in what manner was not stated. Although as a rule the male pheasant takes no heed of the eggs laid by the female, or of the offspring when hatched, there are some well ascertained exceptions. Wild cock pheasants have been seen sitting in nests in the coverts by perfectly credible witnesses ; and, although it has been suggested that the birds might have been hens that had assumed the male plumage, such an occurrence is even more unlikely than that a cock should sit, for these hens are always perfectly barren, and must have assumed the male plumage at the previous autumnal moult ; in this condition they have never been known to manifest the slightest desire to incubate. Cocks have also been known to protect the young birds, as in the following instance, which occurred in Aberdeenshire : " I have for the last fortnight almost daily watched a cock DATE OF LAYING. 17 pheasant leading about a brood of young ones, whose mother has evidently come to grief. A more attentive and careful nurse could not be than this cock. He boldly follows his young charge on the lawns and to other places where he never ventured before,, finds them food, and stands sentry over them with untiring perseverance. They are thriving so well under his care and growing so fast, that they will soon be able to shift for themselves." The same singular occurrence has also taken place in an aviary. Lord Willoughby de Broke some time since published the following letter : "I have an aviary in which there is a cock pheasant and four or five hens of the Chinese breed ; at the beginning of the laying season the cock scraped a hole in the sand, in which the hens laid four eggs ; he then collected a quantity of loose sticks, formed a perfect nest and began to sit ; he sat most patiently, seldom leaving the nest till the eggs were chipped, when the keeper, afraid of his killing them, took them from him, and placed them under a hen pheasant who was sitting on bad eggs ; they were hatched the next day, and the young birds are now doing well." Pheasants usually commence to lay in this country in April or May, the date varying somewhat with the season and the latitude ; but, in consequence of the artificial state in which they are kept in preserves, and the superabundance of food with which they are supplied, the production of eggs, as in domesticated fowls often takes place at most irregular periods. Many instances are recorded of perfect eggs being found in the oviducts of pheasants shot during the months of December and January. For example, Sir D. W. Legard, writing from Ganton, Yorkshire, on the 27th of December, 1 864, said : " At the conclusion of a day's covert shooting last Tuesday, a hen pheasant, which had been killed, was discovered by a keeper to have a lump of some hard sub- stance in her ; he opened her in my presence, when, to my astonishment, he extracted an egg perfectly formed, shelled, and apparently ready to be laid; it was of the usual size, c 18 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. but the colour, instead of being olive, was a greyish- white." A nest containing an egg has been noticed as early as the 12th of March, and many cases are recorded of strong nests of young during the first few days of May. Lord Warwick's keeper, J. Edwards, in May, 1868, wrote as follows: "Yesterday (the 6th inst.), whilst searching for pheasant eggs in Grayfield Wood, I came upon a nest of thirteen pheasant eggs, twelve just hatched and run, and one left cheeping in the shell. The bird must have begun to lay in the middle of March, as they sit twenty -five days, and they do not very often lay (only every other day, at leasfc at the commencement)." Other cases earlier by three or four days than this instance have been recorded. The Eev. Gr. C. Green, of Modbury, Devon, writes: cc On Sunday, April 18, 1875, as my curate was returning from taking the duty in a neighbouring church, a hen pheasant started from the road- side hedge close to the town, and fluttered before him. While watching her movements he saw eleven young pheasants, apparently newly hatched, fluttering in the hedge, and at the edge of a pond close by. They soon scrambled into some cover, and the mother bird flew off to rejoin them from another quarter. I understand, from inquiry, that this is not a solitary instance of such an early brood of pheasants in South Devon." On the other hand, examples of nests deferred until very late in the year are not unknown. Mr. W. W. Blest, of Biddenden, near Staplehurst, writes : ' ' Whilst partridge shooting on the 3rd of September, 1874, we disturbed a sitting pheasant, the nest containing twelve eggs. We often hear of the early nesting of game birds, but rarely so late in the season." In October, 1869, Mr. Walter E." Tyrell, of Plashwood, near Stowmarket, forwarded to me a young pheasant, with the following letter : ' ' When pheasant shooting with some friends yesterday, the 15th inst., in this neighbourhood, one of the beaters picked up dead, in a path WEIGHT OF PHEASANTS. 19 in the wood we were in, a very young chick pheasant ; it could not have been hatched more than a week. My keeper tells me he has found them (but very rarely) as young in September. I forward the young chick to you, in order that you may inspect it." I carefully examined the young bird, which was not more than two or three days old. These late-hatched birds were in all probability the produce of a second laying during the season. The artificial state in which these birds exist, as supplied with nutritive food and protected in our coverts and preserves, leads to other departures from their natural conditions. Thus variations of plumage and size are much more frequent and more marked than would occur in the case of birds in a perfectly wild state. In some instances the size is very greatly increased. Hen pheasants usually weigh from two pounds to two pounds and a quarter, whilst the usual weight of cock pheasants is from about three pounds to three pounds and a half. Mr. Yarrell, in his " History of British Birds," mentions two unusually large; he says "The lighter bird of the two just turned the scale against four and a half pounds ; the other took the scale down at once. The weights were accurately ascertained, in the presence of several friends, to decide a wager of which I was myself the loser." One of five pounds and half an ounce was sent me by Mr. Carr, of the Strand; this was a last year's bird of the common species. And in 1859 one bird, of the enormous weight of five pounds and three-quarters, was sent by Mr. Akroyd, of Boddington Park, Nantwich, to Mr. Shaw, of Shrewsbury, for preservation. Mr. Akroyd stated that "the bird was picked up with broken leg and wing forty-eight hours after the covert was shot, so had probably lost weight to some extent." In reply to the suggestion that it might possibly have been a large hybrid between the pheasant and the domestic fowl, Mr. Akroyd further stated "that the bird looked all its weight, and was as distinguished amongst its fellows as a turkey would be amongst fowls; yet it had no c 2 20 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. hybrid appearance whatever ; " and Mr. Shaw stated that he weighed it several times. Moreover, he said, " the bird, had it been picked up when shot, would, I have little doubt, have weighed six pounds, there being nothing in its craw but two single grains of Indian corn ; and when the length of time it remained wounded on the ground, with a broken thigh and wing, is taken into consideration, there can be little doubt of the fact." But the largest on record was described in vol. xlvi., p. 179, of The Field. G. C. G. writes: "I have received the following from Mr. Kelly in consequence of a discussion in The Field about the weight of a pheasant : ' Some few years since, while Admiral Sir Houston Stewart was residing at Ganton, he sent me a pheasant that weighed 61b. wanting loz. He was an old bird, and the most splendid in form and plumage that I ever beheld. A few days after- wards being at Ganton, I told Sir Houston that I had weighed the bird, but I thought my weights must be incorrect, and asked him whether he knew its weight. He said, " You are quite right. I weighed it before I sent it to you, and that is my weight." In these cases of exception- ally large birds, it is usually found that the extreme weight is owing to the fattening influence of the maize on which they have been fed. COCK PHEASANT DISPLAYING ITS PLUMAGE. CHAPTEE II. NATURAL HISTORY OF THE PHEASANTS (CONTINUED). NGN- DOMESTICITY INTRODUCTION INTO BRITAIN DISTRIBUTION. !rT IS sometimes suggested by persons ignorant of the true nature of the pheasant, that it might be domesticated and reared like our ordinary farm- yard fowl. Such persons are apparently not aware |IC that the instinct of domestication is one of the rarest possessed by animals. Man has been for some thou- sands of years capturing, subduing, and taming hundreds of different species of animals of all classes : but of these the number that he has succeeded in really domesticating does not amount to fifty. A very large proportion of animals are capable of being tamed, and rendered perfectly familiar with man; but this is a totally distinct state from one of domestication. The common pheasant is a good example of this distinction. Individual examples may be rendered so tame as to become even troublesome from their courage and familiarity ; but although others have been bred in aviaries for many generations, their offspring still retain their original wildness, and when let out at large betake themselves to the woods and coverts as soon as able to shift for themselves. On the other hand, the allied species, the jungle fowl (Gallua ferugineus), the original of our domestic breeds of poultry, 22 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. if reared in confinement, becomes immediately domesticated, the young returning home at night with a regularity that has given rise to the proverbial saying that " Curses, like chickens, come home to roost." Examples of the tameness of individual pheasants are not rare ; to the fearless nature of a sitting hen I have already alluded. The males become even more familiar, and even at times aggressive; one of the most amusing examples was recorded some time since by a correspondent, who wrote as follows : " Having recently been on a visit to a friend of mine living in Kent, I had an opportunity of there witnessing the effect of an extraordinary antipathy to crinoline exemplified in a fine cock pheasant which inhabited, or rather infested the grounds and shrubbery. He had been originally, I believe, reared on the premises, but had become as wild as any of his fellows, and, after having been lord of a harem of some seven or eight ladies last spring, who had all reared their families and gone off with them, had been left in loneliness, with his temper soured against the female sex at large. His beat was for about a quarter of a mile between the house and the entrance-gate, and on the approach of anything in the shape of crinoline his temper was roused to such a degree that he attacked it with all his might and main, flying up at the unnatural appendage, pecking fiercely with his bill, and striking out at it with his spurs like any game-cock. I witnessed all this with my own eyes, and was not surprised at the terror he had created among the females by whom he was positively dreaded, and not without reason. One lady had attempted to protect herself by taking a terrier as her guardian, who at first offered fight in her defence, but was soon compelled to show the white feather, and at the very sight of his antagonist ran off with his tail between his legs. At length, however, he met with his master in the shape of a gipsy-woman, who being of course uncrinolined, and there- fore considering herself unjustly attacked, set upon him, and not only pulled out his tail, but crushed him with her foot, TAMENESS OF PHEASANTS. 23 and left him on his back apparently in the agonies of death. The domestics, however, went to his assistance, and by their kind attentions he was restored. Still his old antipathy r evived with his returning strength, and in a day or two the sight of crinoline again roused his wrath. Therefore, for fear of his meeting with an untimely end from some other strong-minded woman, it was decided that he should have his wing clipped, and be kept prisoner within the walls of the kitchen-garden." The wife of Mr. Barnes (formerly head keeper to Mr. D. Wynham, of Denton Hall, near Salisbury) carefully nursed a very young hen pheasant with a broken leg. She got well, and in course of time was turned out with the rest of the brood into the adjacent woods. For several seasons after- wards this hen brought her own brood to the keeper's lodge. Mr. T. B. Johnson, in his " Gamekeeper's Directory," mentions one he had reared from the nest that became uncommonly familiar : " It will follow me," he writes, " into the garden or homestead, where it will feed on insects and grass, and I occasionally observed it swallow large worms. Of all things, however, flies appear to be its favourite food. Before he was able to fly, I frequently lifted him into the window, and it was truly amusing to witness his dexterity in fly catching. He had been named Dick, to which he answers as well as possible. Dick is a very social being, who cannot endure being left alone; and if it so happen (as it occasionally does) that the bird finds every person has quitted the room, he immediately goes in search of some of the family ; if the door be shut, and his egress thus denied, he utters the most plaintive noise, evidently testifying every symptom of uneasiness and fear in being separated from his friends and protectors. Dick is a great favourite, and on this account is suffered to take many liberties. When breakfast is brought in he jumps on the table, and very unceremoniously helps himself to bread, or to whatever he takes a fancy; but, different from the magpie or jackdaw 24 PHEASANTS FOE COVERTS AND AVIARIES. under similar circumstances, Dick is easily checked. He is fond of stretching himself in the sunbeams : and if this be not attainable, before the kitchen fire. On being taken into the house he was presented to the view of the cat, the latter at the same time given to understand that the bird was privileged, and that she must not disturb him. The cat is evidently not fond of Dick as an inmate, but she abstains from violence. I have seen her, it is true, give him a blow with her paw, but this only occurs when the bird attempts to take bread, &c., from her; and not always then, as she frequently suffers herself to be robbed by him. Dick has also made friends with my pointers. He sleeps in my bed- room, but is by no means so early a riser as his fraternity in a state of nature ; however, when he comes forth his antics are amusing enough ; he shakes himself, jumps and flies about the room for several minutes, and then descends into the breakfast-room." Whether this bird would or would nut have continued tarne and domesticated during the following breeding season was unfortunately never ascertained, as it partook of the fate of most pets, and was killed accidentally by the opening of a door. The incapacity of pheasants for domestication has been remarked by all those who have tried in vain to rear them as domestic birds. The late Mr. Charles Water-ton, of Walton Hall, made the attempt under the most advantageous circum- stances, and thus recounts the result of his experiments : " Notwithstanding the proximity of the pheasant to the nature of the barndoor fowl, still it has that within it which baffles every attempt on our part to render its domestication complete. What I allude to is, a most singular innate timidity, which never fails to show itself on the sudden and abrupt appearance of an object. I spent some months in trying to overcome this timorous propensity in the pheasant, but I failed completely in the attempt. The young birds, which had been hatched under a domestic hen, soon became very tame, and would even receive food from the hand when it was DATE OF INTRODUCTION. 25 offered cautiously to them. They would fly up to the window, and would feed in company with the common poultry, but if anybody approached them unawares, off they went to the nearest covert with surprising velocity ; they remained in it- till all was quiet, and then returned with their usual con- lidence. Two of them lost their lives in the water by the unexpected appearance of a pointer, while the barndoor fowls seemed scarcely to notice the presence of the intruder ; the rest took finally to the woods at the commencement of the breeding season. This particular kind of timidity, which does not appear in our domestic fowls, seems to me to oppose the only, though at the same time an unsurmountable, bar to our final triumph over the pheasant. After attentive observation, I can perceive nothing else in the habits of the bird to serve as a clue by which we may be enabled to trace the cause of failure in the many attempts which have been made to invite it to breed in our yards, and retire to rest with the barndoor fowl and turkey." With regard to the date of the introduction of the pheasant into England, Mr. Thompson, writing in 1866, says he knows of no records which afford any clue to the period when it was first brought into this country ; and that though probably its acclimatisation does not date back further than fche Norman Conquest, yet it is possible that our Roman invaders may have imported it at a much earlier period, with other imperial luxuries. Lord Lilford considers its introduction by the Romans as conclusively proved. In his "Notes on the Birds of North- amptonshire," he writes : " There appears to be no reason to doubt that the pheasant was introduced into England by the Romans, and the bird has now become so spread over most parts of Europe that it is almost impossible to say where it is really indigenous." This suggestion is possibly near the truth, for the pheasant has been shown by Mr. W. Boyd Dawkins to have been naturalised in this country upwards of eight hundred years. 26 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. Writing to The Ibis for 1869 (page 358), that gentleman says: " It may interest your readers to know that the most ancient record of the occurrence of the pheasant in Great Britain is to be found in the tract ' De inventione Sanctae Crucis nostrae in Monte Acuto et de ductione ejusdem apud Waltham/ edited from manuscripts in the British Museum by Professor Stubbs, and published in 1861. The bill of fare drawn up by Harold for the Canons' households of from six to seven persons, A.D. 1059, and preserved in a manuscript of the date of circa 1177, was as follows (p. 16) : Erant autem tales pitantise unicuique canonico : a f esto Sancti Michaelis usque ad captit jejunii [Ash "Wednesday] aut xii merulae, aut ii agansese [Agace, a magpie (?), Ducange'], aut ii perdices, aut unus phasianus, reliquis teinporibus aut ancse [Geese, Ducange] aut gallinse. " Now the point of this passage is that it shows that Phasianus colchicus had become naturalised in England before the Norman invasion; and as the English and Danes were not the introducers of strange animals in any well authenticated case, it offers fair presumptive evidence that it was introduced by the Roman conquerors, who naturalised the fallow deer in Britain." " The eating of magpies at Waltham, though singular, was not as remarkable as the eating of horse by tlie monks of St. Galle in the time of Charles the Great and the return- ing thanks to God for it : Sit f eralis equi caro dulcis sub cruce Christi ! The bird was not so unclean as the horse the emblem of paganism was unholy." But the conclusion that the pheasant was introduced into England before the Norman Conquest is not regarded as proved by those authorities who consider the tract " De inventione Crucis " as a miracle-mongering work that no cautious antiquary would accept as conclusive evidence. In Dugdale's " Monasticon Anglicanum " is a reference MEDIEVAL HISTORY OF PHEASANTS. 27 by which it appears that the Abbot of Amesbury obtained a licence to kill hares and pheasants in the first years of the reign of King Henry the First, which commenced on the second of August, 1100; and DanielL, in his " Rural Sports/' quotes " Echard's History of England " to the effect that in the year 1299 (the twenty-seventh of Edward I.) the price of a pheasant was fourpence, a couple of woodcocks three- halfpence, a mallard three-halfpence, and a plover one penny. " To these notices/' writes the Rev. James Davies in the Saturday Review, " might have been added another which seems to set the pheasant at a higher premium to wit, that in 1170 Thomas a Becket, on the day of his martyrdom, dined on a pheasant, and enjoyed it, as it would seem from the remark of one of his monks, that ' he dined more heartily and cheerfully that day than usual.' " Those who are interested in the subject will find a most interesting series of extracts respecting the mediaeval history of this bird in Mr. Harting's te Ornithology of Shakespeare," from which we quote the following: " Leland, in his account of the feast given at the inthronisa- tion of George Nevell, Archbishop of York, in the reign of Edward IV., tells us that, amongst other good things, two hundred ' f esauntes ' were provided for the guests. "In the 'Privy Purse Expenses of Elizabeth of York/ under date ' the xiiij th day of Novembre/ the following entry occurs : " ' Itin. The same day to Richard Mylner of Byndfeld for bringing a present of f esauntes cokkes to the Queen to Westminster ... ... vs. ' " In the ' Household Book ' of Henry Percy, fifth Earl of Northumberland, which was commenced in 1512, the pheasant is thus referred to : " ' Item, FESATJNTES to be hade for my Lordes own Mees at Principall Eeestes and to be at xijd. a pece.' 28 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. 11 1 Item, FESSATJNTIS for my Lordes owne Meas to be hadde at Principalle Feistis ande to be at xijd. a pece.'* "In the year 1536, Henry VIII. issned a proclamation in order to preserve the partridges, pheasants, and herons 'from his palace at Westminster to St. Giles-in-the-Fields, and from thence to Islington, Hampstead, Highgate, and Hornsey Park/' Any person, of whatever rank, who should presume to kill, or in any wise molest these birds, was to be thrown into prison, and visited by such other punishments as to the King should seem meet. " Some interesting particulars in regard to pheasants are * "As a copy of the ' Northumberland Household Book ' is not readily accessible, we give the following interesting extract, showing the price, at that date, of various birds for the table : Capons at iid. a pece leyn (lean). Perttryges at iid. a pece. Ghickeyns at ^d. a pece. Redeshaukes ijd. FTennys at iid. a pece. Bytters (i.e. Bittens) xiicl. Swannys (no price stated). Fesauntes xiid. Geysse iiid. or iiiid. at the moste. Reys (i.e. Ruffs and Reeves) iid. Pluvers id. or i^d. at moste. a pece. Cranys xvid. a pece. Sholardes vid. a pece. Hearonsewys (i.e. Heronshaws or Kyrlewes xiicl. a pece. Herons) xiicl. a pece. Pacokes xiid. a pece. Mallardes iid. a pece. See-Pyes (no price). Woodcokes id. or l^d. at the Wegions at i^d. the pece. moste. Kuottes id. a pece. Teylles id. a pece. Dottrells id. a pece. Wypes (i.e. Lapwings) id. a pece. Bustardes (no price). Seegulles id. or i|d. at the moste. Ternes after iii. a id. Styntes after vi. a id. Great byrdes after iiii. a id. Quaylles iid. a pece at moste. Small byrdes after xii. for iid. Snypes after iii. a id. Larkys after xii. for iid." This extract is especially interesting as throwing light incidentally on the condition of the country ; the unreclaimed state of the land is shown by the abunda-nce and cheapness of the wading birds. Woodcocks at a penny, and snipes at three a penny, contrast strongly with partridges at twopence and pheasants and peacocks at twelvepence each. Nor is the change in the degree of estimation in which the birds are now held less remarkable. Curlews, herons, and bitterns, which are now scarcely valued as edible, ranked equal to pheasants and peacocks, and were three or four times the value of a grouse, whilst a fishy sea-gull was worth two or three chicken or one woodcock. MEDIEVAL HISTORY OF PHEASANTS. 29 furnished by the ' Privy Purse Expenses of King Henry VIII.' For example, under date xvj th Nov. 1 532, we have : " * Itm the same daye paied to the fesaunt breder in rewarde ... ixs. iiijd. " ' Itm the xxv daye paied to the preste the fesaunt breder at Elthm in rewarde ij corons ... ... ... ... ... ixs. iiijd.' 11 And in December of the same year : " ' Itin the xxijd. daye paied to the french Preste the fesaunt breder for to bye him a gowne and other necesarys ... xls.' " From these entries it would appear that even at this date some trouble and expense was incurred in rearing pheasants. No allusion, however, is made to their being shot. They must have been taken in a net or snare, or killed with a hawk. The last-named mode is indicated from another source : * " ' Item, a Fesant kylled with the Goshawke. " ' A notice, two Fesant s and two Partridges killed with the hawks.' " As a rule they are only referred to as being f brought in/ the bearer receiving a gratuity for his trouble. "'Jany- 1536-7. Itm. geuen to Hunte yeoman of the pultry, bringing to hir gee two qwicke (i.e. live) phesants ... vijs. vjd. "'Ap 1 - 1537. Itin. geuen to Grene the ptrich taker bringing a cowple of Phesaunts to my lady's grace iijs. ixd. "'Jan. 1537-8. Itm. geuen to my lady Carow's s'unt bringing a quick Phesaunt ... ... ... ... ijs. " ' Jan. 1543-4. Itm. geuen to Hawkyn, s'uiite of Hertford bringing a phesant and ptrichesf ... ... ... ... iijs. iiijd.' * " ' Extracts from the Household and Privy Purse Accounts of the L'estranges of Huiistanton, 15191578.' (Trans. Roy. Soc. Antiq. 1833.) f'The Privy Purse Expenses of the Princess Mary, 15361544.' (Edited by Sir F. Madden, 1831.) " 30 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. " In a survey of the possessions of the Abbey of Grlaston- bury made in 1539, mention is made of a 'game' of sixteen pheasants in the woods at Meare, a manor near G-lastonbury belonging to the Abbey. " The value set upon pheasants and partridges at various periods, as shown by the laws fixing penalties for their destruction, seems to have fluctuated considerably. " By a statute passed in the eleventh year of the reign of Henry VIII. it was forbidden 'to take pheasants or partridges with engines in another's ground without licence in pain of ten pound, to be divided between the owner of the ground and the prosecutor/ By 23 Eliz. c. 10, 'None should kill or take pheasants or partridges by night in pain of 20s. a pheasant, and 10s. a partridge, or one month's imprisonment, and bound with sureties not to offend again in the like kind/ By 1 Jac. I. c. 27, ' No person shall kill or take any pheasant, partridge (&c.), or take or destroy the eggs of pheasants, partridges (&c.), in pain of 20s., or imprisonment for every fowl or egg, and to find sureties in 20 not to offend in the like kind/ Under the same statute, no person was permitted ' to buy or sell any pheasant or partridge, upon pain or forfeit of 20s. for every pheasant, and 10s for every partridge/ By 7 Jac. I c. 11, ' Every person having hawked at or destroyed any pheasant or partridge between the 1st of July and last of August, forfeited 40s. for every time so hawking, and 20s. for every pheasant or partridge so destroyed or taken/ Lords of manors and their servants might take pheasants and partridges in their own grounds or precincts in the daytime between Michaelmas and Christmas. But every person of a mean condition having killed or taken any pheasant or partridge, forfeited 20s. for each one so killed, and had to find surety in 20 not to offend so again/' For an early notice of the pheasant in Suffolk, namely in 1467, Mr. Harting has referred me to the household expenses of Sir John Howard, Knight, afterwards Duke of Norfolk, INTRODUCTION INTO IRELAND AND SCOTLAND. 31 edited by Beriah Botfield for the Roxburgh Club, wherein (at p. 399) under date of April, 1467, at Ipswich, there is the entry: "Item xii. fesawntes pryse xii s ." He adds that there is apparently no earlier mention of the pheasants in Norfolk than some references in the accounts of the I/Estranges at Hunstanton in 1519, and the entry above quoted is the earliest for Suffolk. In Essex, the pheasant is mentioned in a bill of fare, A.D. 1059 (as already noticed) and this is apparently the earliest allusion to the bird to be found in any part of England. Mr. Harting further informs me that he has seen an ancient Psalter belonging to Lord Aldenham, in which there is a very fair coloured portrait of a cock pheasant, date A.D. 1260. In Ireland, writes Mr. W . Thompson, in his natural history of that country, ff The period of its introduction is unknown to me, but in the year 1589 it was remarked to be common ." Fynes Moryson, who was in Ireland from 1599 to 1603, observes that there are " such plenty of pheasants as I have known sixty served up at one feast, and abound much more with rails, but partridges are somewhat scarce/' In Scotland the pheasant does not appear to have been preserved at a very early period. Mr. E. Gray, in his work on " The Birds of the West of Scotland," says : " The first mention of the pheasant in old Scotch Acts is in one dated 8th June, 1594, in which year a keen sportsman occupied the Scottish throne." He might have been called "James the protector " of all kinds of game, as in the aforesaid year he " ordained that quhatsumever person or persoues at ony time hereafter sail happen to slay deir, harts, pheasants, foulls, par tricks, or other wyld foule quhatsumever, ather with gun, croce bow, dogges, halks, or girnes, or be uther ingine quhatsumever, or that beis found schutting with ony gun therein," &c., &c., shall pay the usual " hundreth punds," &c. The distribution of the pheasant over Great Britain and 32 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. Ireland at the present time is very general, it being found in all parts of the kingdom where there is congenial shelter and some slight attempt at preservation and protection, without which it would soon be extirpated by poachers and its numerous natural enemies. It is abundant even in the most populous counties, and is not at all uncommon in the immediate neighbourhood of the metropolis ; but it is in the well-wooded and highly preserved districts of England that these birds most abound, and where they are excessively numerous. " The pheasant/' writes Mr. Sterland, in his " Birds of Sherwood Forest/' "abounds on all the estates in the forest district, and to such an extent that few would credit the immense numbers. They are almost as tame as barndoor fowls, and may be seen on the skirts of the various plantations. Carefully tended and fed, and all their natural enemies destroyed, they become so accustomed to the presence of man that in many parts they will hardly take the trouble to get out of the way, and are scarcely entitled to the appellation of wild. Under circumstances so favourable they multiply rapidly, but a natural limit seems to be set to their increase, and frequently, where they are most abundant, large numbers are found dead without apparent cause ; these are always exceedingly fat and their plumage in the glossiest condition ; they seem to drop down and die without a struggle. I have had them brought to me in this state, and have found their flesh plump and of good colour, and every feather smooth and perfect." I should rather incline to attribute the death in these cases to apoplexy, arising from over-feed- ing on maize and stimulating artificial food, than to any epidemic disease arising from overcrowding, as this attacks the young and destroys them long before they arrive at maturity. " In Norfolk/' writes Mr. Stevenson, in his admirable work on the birds of that country, " there are many portions where the pheasant exists in a perfectly wild state, and thrives well under the protection of the game laws, both soil THE PHEASANT IN SCOTLAND. 33 and climate being alike favourable. It is in such districts, almost exclusively, that one still meets with the pure Phasianus colcliicus, free from any trace of the ring-necked or Chinese cross in its plumage, but offering at the same time a poor contrast to those hybrid birds both in size and weight. Besides the thick undergrowth in woods and plantations, pheasants are particularly partial to low damp situations, such as alder and osier carrs, by the river side. In this country, also, stragglers from some neighbouring coverts are not unfrequently found on the snipe marshes surrounding the broads, where the sportsman, following up his dog at a ' running point/ is suddenly startled by the whirr of a noble ' long tail/ when never dreaming of any larger game than rails or water-hens." In Scotland it is now very generally distributed in the western counties, from Wigtown in the south to Sutherland in the north. Mr. K. Gray writes : " In the neighbourhood of Loch Lomond, it may occasionally be noticed on the mountain sides, at a considerable elevation, sometimes as far up as twelve hundred feet. In Shemore Grlen, I have seen male birds rise from the heath among the rocks, and, wheeling round, direct their flight down the valley with extraordinary speed. Very different indeed is the flight of these strong-winged natives of the glen from that of over-fed birds in wooded preserves ; and as one bird after another shoots past in high air, one can hardly resist the impression that, if left to its own selection, the pheasant would adapt itself wonderfully to the drawbacks of its adopted country. Mr. Elwes informs me that he has frequently seen pheasants in Islay get up in the most unlikely places, such as an open moor, miles away from any covert or corn-field, and sometimes in a wet bog, where one would be more likely to find a snipe. On that island, where it was introduced about thirty years ago by Mr. Campbell, the pheasant is now not uncommon, and appears to be on the increase. In the Outer Hebrides it has likewise been D 34 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. introduced into Lewis by Sir James Matheson, who has obligingly informed me that, since its introduction twelve or fifteen years ago, it has become fairly established, although it has not increased to the extent that might have been expected in a more favourable locality. ' The deep drains in the peat moss/ writes Sir James, ' are supposed to be the cause of the death of the young chicks by their falling into them. For some years at first there was a want of covert for pheasants, but they are now better off in this respect, and are increasing gradually. Some of the first brood wandered about sixteen miles to the west side of the island, it is supposed in quest of covert/ " The introduction of the pheasant into the northern districts of Scotland is, however, of comparatively recent date, for in the sixth edition of Moubray's " Domestic Poultry/' 1830, it is stated: "In 1826, a solitary cock pheasant made his appearance as far north as a valley of the Grampians, being the first that had been seen in that northern region; " and my old friend, Andrew Halliday, told me that he remembered perfectly the introduction of the birds into the coverts near Banff belonging to the Earl of Fife, in which locality, Thomas Edwards, the Scottish naturalist, whose life has been so graphically written by Mr. Smiles, tells us it now seems to thrive very well, and is a beautiful ornament to parks and woods . Messrs. Buckley and Harvie-Brown, in the " Fauna of the Orkney Islands," relate several unsuccessful attempts to in- troduce pheasants as wild birds into Orkney. In Ireland it is also abundant, the common species being, according to Mr. Thompson, the well-known natural historian of the island, frequent in the various wooded parts, at least where it has been protected and preserved. " In the counties of Antrim and Down," remarks this writer, " the ring-necked variety considered to have originally proceeded from a cross between the common and true ring-necked pheasant (P. torquatus) is not uncommon." THE PHEASANT IN SWEDEN. 35 On the continent of Europe the pheasant is widely diffused throughout almost all the congenial localities in the south and central portions, where any effort is made in favour of its pro- tection. In Scandinavia it has been successfully introduced j in 1867 we were informed by Mr. L. Lloyd, in his " Game Birds of Sweden and Norway," that it is not found, although attempts on a large scale were made to introduce it by the late King Oscar ; but from the severity of the climate, and from the country swarming with vermin and birds of prey of all sorts, the experiment, in Mr. Lloyd's opinion, was not likely to be attended with success. Since that date the attempt has been successfully made by Baron Oscar Dickson, who, in 1873, reared seven or eight hundred birds. These have done well, for, in the Morgenblad of November 10, 1877, it is recorded that "Mr. (now Baron) Oscar Dickson and party shot in one day, on his property Bokedal, in Sweden, ninety pheasants, one deer, one hare, and one woodcock. There were five guns." And the same journal mentions that a brace of pheasants lived at full liberty on an estate in the neighbourhood of Christiania during the winter of 1876-7 without being fed or taken care of, and that they hatched in the summer of 1877, and reared four full-grown young ones. A brace more were let loose early in the spring of the same year, and also hatched and reared in the open. The first brace escaped from a pen, and nobody knew what had become of them. It was supposed that they were either frozen to death during the severe winter, had died of starvation, or had fallen an easy prey to foxes, cats, or hawks. But they survived, and found both shelter and food for themselves. Since that date they have increased rapidly, and on November 14 and 15, 1893, the Crown Prince shot over the Baron's preserves on the Island Wisingso, in the Wetter Lakes, when 1548 pheasants were killed by six guns. In New Zealand, the Great Britain of the southern hemisphere, the introduction of the pheasant has been a great success ; so much so, that in a single season, that of 1871, D 2 36 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. six thousand birds were bagged in the immediate neighbour- hood of the city of Auckland. Pheasants were first introduced into the province of Auckland about twenty years since, seven males and two females, the only survivors of two dozen shipped in China, comprising the original stock of the Chinese species. At the same time a number of the common species were liberated in another part of the colony. These were supplemented by six more Chinese birds in 1856. Both species have multiplied exceedingly, but their multiplication has in many places been lessened by the employment of phosphorised oats laid down to poison the rabbits. The pheasant has also been introduced into several of the islands of the Pacific. By the kindness of Lieut. Ch. de Crespigny, of H.M.S. Curagoa, I have received a specimen of the pheasants which are now breeding in the Samoan Islands. This pheasant is undoubtedly of the Chinese ring-necked species, the neck being nearly surrounded by the distinguishing white collar, but there is a considerable difference in the colour of the neck at the base and the scapular feathers, which are much lighter than in our ordinary species. The Chinese pheasant was introduced by the Portuguese into the island of St. Helena in the year 1513, and has increased in numbers to a very considerable extent ; but the present representatives of the original stock' differ somewhat from their ancestors, both in the colour and markings of the plumage, as is described in the chapter on that species. Yery successful attempts have been made to introduce the different species of pheasants into North America as game birds, where in some parts they have become thoroughly acclimatised. The original stocks from whence the pheasants in the Western States were descended were imported direct from China, consequently the ring-necked pheasant (P. torquatus) is common in localities where the old English pheasant (P. colchicus) is almost unknown, although the latter has been introduced into the Eastern States on the Atlantic sea board. THE PHEASANT IN NORTH AMERICA. 37 In Oregon, where they were set at liberty in 1881, they have now become common, and they have spread and multiplied so well that complaints are made of their depredations in the grain fields. The reports of the residents to the official inquiries are very interesting. Mr. Tyler, of Forest Grove, Oregon, writing in January, 1889, states : " The females produce fifteen to eighteen eggs each litter, and hatch them all. . . . The old ones have lots of nerve, and will fight a hawk or anything that comes near them. The cocks will go into a barn yard and whip the best fowls we have, and run things according to their own notion. . Their favourite haunts are low grounds near the fields of grain, on which they depredate. . . . The golden pheasants have become numerous. Occasionally one is seen in our vicinity, about ninety miles from where they were turned loose four years ago ; they are hardy, easily domesti- cated, but not so prolific as the ring-necks. Their flesh is white and tender." A very good idea of the manner in which these species have succeeded in their new abode may be gathered from the circumstance that the farmers are shooting them as a nuisance, as they destroy the wheat. An interesting fact is that the gold pheasant (Thaumalea picta) kept in England only as an ornamental aviary bird has become wild in Oregon, and the Americans have found its flesh white and tender. I have eaten gold pheasants that had run wild in this country, and can fully indorse the statement. I have often wondered that some landed proprietor, living in a suitable locality bordering on woods and coverts, to whom beauty was of the first consideration, had not attempted to rear the gold pheasant in the open. The birds can be bred in a wild state, and yet remain so fearless as to come and feed from the hand ; and it would be difficult to imagine any more gorgeous ornament to a country house than would be afforded by these birds. 38 PHEASANTS FOB COVERTS AND AVIARIES. Nevertheless, there is a much more beautiful bird than even the golden pheasant, and that is the cross between it and the Amherst pheasant (T. amherstice] . This is not a sterile hybrid, but is perfectly fertile, either inter se, or with either of the parent races. For breeding in the open, it would be found hardier than either of the pure breeds from which it is descended, and, as it is larger than the golden pheasant, would make a better bird for the table, should anyone think of killing and eating an object of such surpassing beauty. In the Eastern States the pheasants are in certain localities doing very well; as many as a thousand birds have been reared and turned out by a single keeper, and the pheasant is generally regarded as the future game bird of the country, as it can stand not only the severe heat of summer, but the cold and blizzards of the winter. A number of game clubs have been formed for their protection, and large numbers are raised in the Long Island preserves. They are also extending in several parts of New Jersey, New York, and Vermont. The Game Commissioners of Ohio are encouraging their breeding, and, to quote the words of the Boston Herald, " the outlook for the handsomest and most delicious game bird in the world is quite rosy in this country." In the countries nearest to the locality from whence the common pheasant is supposed to have been derived, it is not, strange to say, abundant; thus the Rev. H. B. Tristram informs us that it does not appear to be known in Syria. In Greece, the Hon. T. L. Powys, writing in The Ibis, informs us that " The only localities in which I have seen pheasants in these parts were once on the Luro river, near Prevesa, in March, 1857, on which occasion I only saw one, the bird having never previously been met with in that part of the country; and again in December of the same year, in the forests near the mouth of the river Drin, in Albania, where it is comparatively common, and where several fell to our guns. In this latter locality, the pheasant's habitat seems to be confined to a radius of from twenty to thirty miles to the THE PHEASANT IN ASIA MINOR. 39 north, east, and south of the town of Alessio a district for the most part densely wooded and well watered, with occasional tracts of cultivated ground, Indian corn being apparently the principal produce, and forming, with the berries of the privet (which abounds throughout Albania) , the chief food of the present species. We heard many more pheasants than we saw, as the woods were thick and of great extent, our dogs wild, and we lost a great deal of time in m aking circuits to cross or avoid the numerous small but deep streams which intersect the country in every direction. This species is particularly abundant on the shores of the Gulf of Salonica, about the mouth of the river Yardar ; and I have been informed, on good authority, that pheasants are also to be found in the woods of Yhrakori, in ^tolia, about midway between the gulfs of Lepanto and Arta." With regard to the present distribution of the species, Mr. Gould, in his " Birds of Asia," states that the late Mr. G. T. Yigne shot it in a wild state at the Lake of Apollonia, thirty-five miles from Broussa, to the south of the sea of Marmora, and that the late Mr. Atkinson found it on the Kezzil-a-Gatch and the country to the west of the river Ilia. Mr. C. G. Danford, in his notes on the ornithology of Asia Minor, writes : " The English Consul, Mr. Gilbertson, informed us that pheasants, though generally becoming scarce, were still common near Lake Apollonia, where a couple of guns had last year killed over sixty head in two or three days shooting." (Ibis, 1880, p. 98.) Lord Lilford, writing in 1895, states : " The only country in which we have personally met with it in an unpreserved and perfectly wild state is on the shores of the Adriatic, near Alessio, in Albania, where it is, or was, by no means un- common in the low-lying forest country near the mouth of the river Drin; it is also to be found in considerable numbers near Salonica and in certain other localities in European Turkey. But the best authorities seem to agree that the true home and headquarters of the species are the shores of the 40 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. Caspian, the valleys of the Caucasus, and Northern Asia Minor. Very closely allied forms, however, are to be met with from the Caspian, through Asia, to the shores and islands of China." Professor H. H. Giglioli, writing of Corsica, states : " I was repeatedly assured of the presence in the island, among the hills of Aleria on the eastern coast, of the pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) in a perfectly wild condition. I see that Mr. Jesse reports the same thing. ... I am still making inquiries on the subject ; but, as far as I can see, no record of its introduction by man is forthcoming." (Ibis, April, 1881.) The vignette represents the head of a hen pheasant with a singular beak, the upper mandible having passed between the sides of the lower jaw. The bird was found dead from starvation. It is evident that the deformity was caused by the bird flying against a branch, the blow bending the upper mandible and causing it to pass between the rami of the lower. CHAPTEE III. MANAGEMENT OF PHEASANTS IN PRESERVES. FORMATION OF COVERTS. EFORB any satisfactory progress can be made in the preservation of pheasants, the existence of good and well-protected coverts is indispensable ; and where these do not naturally exist, the very first action of the game preserver must be to effect their plantation on a scale commensurate with his desires. This necessarily cannot be done without expense, but a large stock of pheasants cannot be secured, save under the most exceptional circumstances, without a very considerable outlay. Some years since the subject of the formation of coverts for pheasants was discussed in a very exhaustive manner in the columns of The Field, and some admirable practical letters, detailing the experiences of the writers, appeared in that paper : these are worthy of the most attentive consideration, and I have great pleasure in availing myself of the opportunity of quoting from them. One of the most practical of the writers, the late Mr. R. Carr Ellison, of Dunston Hill, Durham, strongly advocated the formation of pheasant roosts of spruce and silver firs, as affording the birds absolute security against the attacks of night poachers. He writes : " A number of country gentlemen who do not consider field sports of primary importance, feel it right to abstain from the preserving of 42 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. pheasants. They see that the temptation which these birds offer, when perched upon naked larches and other trees, at night, is too strong to be resisted by many a lad or working man in the vicinity, who, but for this particular allurement to evil, might go on respectably and quietly enough. They know that their duty towards their own sons is to keep them out of needless temptations, and they are unwilling to expose the sons of other and poorer men to trials which experience shows they too often cannot resist. Some have forbidden all night watching of these birds, trusting them entirely to the protection of the pines and firs scattered in their plantations, in the branches of which it is impossible for any one to see the pheasants which happen to select them as a roosting- place. Now, I have for twenty-two years preserved these birds in very considerable numbers without any night watch- ing, and in a country where all my neighbours have been repeatedly visited by gangs of poachers coming sometimes from considerable distances, as well as by occasional depre- dators of the vicinity. I resolved to reject all night watching, and one of the first things that I did, as a very young man, was to plant ten acres of spruce fir and Scotch pine in a central and sheltered part of the estate, which might serve as an impregnable roosting-place for pheasants. This was thirty years ago and more. At ten years of age, the plantation was already of great service, and at fifteen was invaluable. As it has been regularly thinned, it is now as good as ever. A number of birch-trees were intermixed, which were very useful in drawing up and hastening the growth of the spruces without exhausting the soil, as too great a multitude of firs would have done. Nor do the pheasants resort to the birch at night as they do to some other trees, larch especially, because they find that its branches are not sufficiently horizontal to afford commodious perches. " Ten years later I formed a second pheasant-roost of two acres in extent, very near my house, and of this I have had the full benefit for many years past. It is generally full of COVERTS FOR PHEASANTS. 43 pheasants, and not one of them is visible to the keenest eye in the clearest moonlight. It consists of spruce and silver fir, regularly and unsparingly thinned to keep the trees in health and vigour. We never think of night watching, even though guns be heard on adjoining estates, and the poachers have long given us up in despair. This lesser stronghold is kept sacred from the guns of sportsmen, who are sure to find the cock pheasants dispersed through all the other plantations during the daytime. The first thing the birds do on a winter's morning, after pecking up a few beans near their roost, is to wander in search of their natural wild food in the woodlands, of which food the tuberous root of the celandine, or wood- ranunculus, forms here a principal part. But, besides the remains of acorns and beech-nuts, they feed, I believe, much on the fallen keys of the ash and sycamore, on hips and haws, and on tender blades of grass, besides innumerable worms, eggs of slugs, and larvae of insects. Tempted by these dainties, and in frosty weather even by the crisp green leaves of the holly, the cock pheasant will leave his beans and barley, and betake himself to freer haunts every fine day, and there the sportsman will find him ; but, if his life be spared, he seldom fails to return at night to his warm roost among the spruces, only with the advance of spring will he quit it; for habit has made him luxurious as to his nights' quarters, and more sensitive of cold than less lucky pheasants. " The Scotch pine is not nearly so tempting to the pheasant at night as the spruce and silver firs, because its branches are not sufficiently horizontal ; yet, on dry hungry soils, it must be largely intermixed, since the firs are not to be depended on to flourish on such ground. In some cases, a stronghold may be formed entirely of hollies, Portugal laurels, and yews. For hen pheasants it will be excellent ; but the cocks, which prefer to roost higher, should have a few firs or pines close at hand for their accommodation. All food should be given in or near to these secure nocturnal retreats." 44 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. Kespecting the conversion of existing mixed plantations into night coverts for pheasants, the same gentleman remarks that " any plantation containing a due proportion of pines, or of spruce and silver fir, can be readily made a secure roosting- place for pheasants, if conveniently situated for the purpose, and not too much exposed to violent winds. All that is necessary is to cut out the larches as rapidly as can be done without letting in the wind too suddenly. The oaks, ashes, beeches, &c., may be allowed to stand wherever they do not injure a thriving pine or fir. The larches only are a dangerous temptation to the pheasants at roosting time. Their perfectly horizontal branches, and the considerable amount of shelter which their numerous twigs and regular head afford to the birds, induce many to perch in them; whereas young oaks, ashes, &c., attract very few indeed. If the plantation consisted entirely of resinous trees, so that none of the last-mentioned hardwood trees are present, then we have to consider what is to be done to fill up the vacancies. If the soil be tolerably moist and fertile, I would recommend that all the larger openings be filled with the best and strongest plants of silver fir that can be procured say from two to three feet in height. Let a cluster of three or more of these be planted in pits, carefully prepared with spade and pickaxe, about five feet asunder, in the centre of every opening; for it is a pity to waste such plants in closer proximity to tall pines and spruces. If there be room for only one silver fir, let only one be planted. This species is not very liable to be nibbled by hares and rabbits if protected for the first year. Let the branches of the felled larches, with which the ground must still be half covered, be drawn around these young plants without delay, for very little will suffice to turn the enemy aside. " Silver firs are very preferable to spruces or pines for filling up vacancies, for these latter, when drawn up slender by shade and shelter, are sure to be ruined by hares and rabbits, whereas the silver fir is of a different habit, and will COVERTS FOR PHEASANTS. 45 not be drawn up in the same manner, nor is its taste so attractive to the marauders. It also bears being removed large from the nursery, with very little injury or check to its growth. Consequently, large plants of it, with earth adhering, though somewhat costly, are well worth their price to the planter who knows where and how to use them. Around these, and nearer to the tall pines and spruces, may be tried plants of the holly-leaved berberis and common laurel, which may not improbably succeed. Immediately under the pines and spruces it is useless to plant anything. The only covert to be obtained there is from heaps of branches left upon the ground as often as the trees are thinned. And this should be done almost annually, to ensure plenty of room to the best and most thriving amongst them, whose side branches will then gradually become more or less pendulous, and so will afford far more shelter than could be obtained from a larger number of trees standing too thick. Pheasants in a covert like this need no great quantity of shelter upon the ground, for they sit, even during the daytime, chiefly in the tree-tops. They bask there, on the south side of the summit of a spruce or pine, in the sun's rays, with great delight ; and in heavy snow-storms whole days will often pass when they never descend to feed, but prefer to sit quiet, eating the green spines of these resinous trees (in the manner of the black grouse and capercailzie) when crispened by the frost, and depending upon snow by way of beverage. I have strongly advocated the spruce and silver firs as affording the most tempting perch to the birds at nightfall; still, be it under- stood, that the Scotch pine, pinaster, Weymouth pine (P. laricio) and others are all excellent. All that is needed is a little generalship and foresight in pheasant preservers, and a determination to confide in these resources, rather than in the expensive, dangerous, and inefficient practice of employing night watchers." Commenting on these suggestions, another correspondent writes : " I am not aware that the practical advantages and 46 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. excellence of the plan of planting large clumps or squares of spruce, either alone or blended with silver firs, and mixing, or not, a few deciduous trees with them, for the special purpose of forming pheasant roosts, have ever been so fully and perspicuously set forth as explained in the previous article. I could quote an instance of extensive coverts having been planted on a similar principle, save that oaks were planted in lieu of birch, with the ultimate view of affording these birds the opportunity of preening their plumes whilst perched on the topmost boughs, and enjoying themselves in this secluded retreat during bright weather, to which luxury, under such circumstances, they are very partial. In these cases the Spanish chesnut tree might sometimes perhaps be found an eligible substitute for either the birch or the oak. The larch undoubtedly is a favourite roosting tree with the pheasant, so much so indeed that I have seen odd ones roosting in larches growing within a few yards only of the impenetrable spruce grove. Besides being horizontal, the branches of the larch are rough, affording good foothold, and when the tree is properly grown are but at short distances one above the other, whilst, the collaterals being numerous, the tree in reality affords far more shelter than it appears capable of yielding, though, of course, far too little to conceal the bird from the prying eye of the night poacher. Pheasants are remarkably fond of ( hips ; ' and if the wild rose tree which produces them be kept low by a proper attention to pruning, not only can the birds reach the fruit easily, but the branches stool out and afford admirable covert. Cock pheasants are naturally of a vagrant turn, and at times will ' leave their beans and barley/ in order to indulge in this their favourite propensity to rove in search of their natural wild food in the woodlands, hedgerows, &c. Early in December last I received a brace of remarkably fine young cock pheasants shot on a manor where the best artificial food is abundantly provided, yet the crop of one of them contained ten full-sized acorns. Apart, too, from their utility as being by far the warmest, COVERTS FOR PHEASANTS. 47 most sheltered, and the only thoroughly poacher-proof night coverts for these timid birds, which at roosting time usually court the densest sylvan shade these evergreen groves possess the signal advantage of harmonising well with, and adding singular beauty to, the surrounding scenery; whilst the internal gloom lucus a non lucendo pervading them, has also its own peculiar charms, though it be of a sombre character." It may be remarked that evergreen night coverts are not so essential south of the Trent, owing to the vigorous growth of underwood in the southern counties, which renders it almost impossible for poachers to traverse the coverts by night, even during bright moonlight ; so that pheasants roosting on deciduous trees are much safer than they would be in the north, where underwood is comparatively feeble and scanty. Writing to me on this subject, Mr. Carr Ellison added: " In the extreme north of England, and in Scotland, under- wood of bramble grows feebly, except along warm southerly slopes. Nevertheless nature introduces another covert plant of great value, which fears neither cold shade, nor open and windy exposure namely, the native tussock grass of moor- edges and upland pastures, Air a ccespitosa, popularly called "bull-fronts," of which most of our exposed woodlands are full. It is easily transplanted, or propagated by seed, on which latter both pheasants and black game feed. It is a favourite covert for hares, affording perfect protection from the cold winds that sweep through plantations destitute of underwood, like too many in the north. "Yet these apparently unpromising strips or clumps of bare stems are often frequented by fine broods of self -reared pheasants, thanks to the bull-fronts and bracken." If it be desired to see the pheasants in the neighbourhood of the mansion, it should be borne in mind that the shrub- beries of rhododendron so frequently seen skirting lawns and pleasure grounds are not frequented by pheasants like those 48 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. of yew, holly, and privet, chiefly because no fallen berries are to be found underneath them. But if a handful of barley, peas, or beans be thrown from time to time among the more open and taller rhododendrons, the pheasants will soon learn to resort to them, after which some of the same fare may be cast into the thicker parts, where the birds will soon find it. In this way our beautiful rhododendron thickets near the garden and mansion may be utilised for pheasants more than heretofore. The late Mr. Charles Waterton, who protected every bird in his domain, published the following details of his method of preserving the pheasants at Walton Hall : tf This bird has a capacious stomach, and requires much nutriment, while its timidity soon causes it to abandon those places which are disturbed. It is fond of acorns, beech mast, the berries of the hawthorn, the seeds of the wild rose, and the tubers of the Jerusalem artichoke. As long as these, and the corn dropped in the harvest, can be procured, the pheasant will do very well. In the spring it finds abundance of nourish- ment in the sprouting leaves of young clover ; but from the commencement of the new year till the vernal period, their wild food affords a very scanty supply, and the bird will be exposed to all the evils of the Vagrant Act, unless you can contrive to keep it at home by an artificial supply of food. Boiled potatoes (which the pheasant prefers much to those in the raw state) and beans are, perhaps, the two most nourishing things that can be offered in the depth of winter. Beans in the end are cheaper than all the smaller kinds of grain, because the little birds, which usually swarm at the place where pheasants are fed, cannot swallow them; and, if you conceal the beans under yew or holly bushes, or under the lower branches of the spruce fir tree, they will be out of the way of the rooks and ringdoves. About two roods of the thousand-headed cabbage are a most valuable acquisition to the pheasant preserve. You sow a few ounces of seed in April, and transplant the young plants 2ft. asunder, in the FORMATION OF COVERTS. 49 month of June. By the time that the harvest is all in, these cabbages will afford a most excellent aliment to the pheasant, and are particularly serviceable when the ground is deeply covered with snow. I often think that pheasants are unintentionally destroyed by farmers during the autumnal seed-time. They have a custom of steeping the wheat in arsenic water. This must be injurious to birds which pick up the corn remaining on the surface of the mould. I some- times find pheasants, at this period, dead in the plantations, and now and then take them up weak and languid, and quite unable to fly. I will mention here a little robbery by the pheasants, which has entirely deprived me of a gratification I used formerly to experience in an evening's saunter down the vale. They have completely exterminated the grass- hoppers. For the last fourteen years I have not once heard the voice of this merry summer charmer in the party. In order to render useless all attempts of the nocturnal poacher to destroy the pheasants, it is absolutely necessary that a place of security should be formed. I know of no position more appropriate than a piece of level ground at the bottom of the hill, bordered by a gentle stream. About three acres o this, sowed with whins, and surrounded by a holly fence to keep the cattle out, would be the very thing. In the centre of it, for the space of one acre, there ought to be planted spruce fir trees, about 14ft. asunder. Next to the larch, this species of tree is generally preferred by the pheasants for their roosting-place ; and it is quite impossible that the poachers can shoot them in these trees. Moreover, magpies and jays will always resort to them at nightfall ; and they never fail to give the alarm on the first appearance of an enemy. Six or seven dozen of wooden pheasants, nailed on the branches of trees in the surrounding woods, cause unutterable vexation and loss of ammunition to these amateurs of nocturnal plunder. Small clumps of hollies and yew trees, with holly hedges round them, are of infinite service, when planted at intervals of one hundred and fifty E 50 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. yards. To these the pheasants fly on the sudden approach of danger during the day, and skulk there till the alarm is over." It is sometimes desirable to supply the want of ground covert for young birds in fir plantations where there is only short grass. The readiest mode of doing this is to use the trimmings of hedges, boughs, and tops of trees ; the latter should be cut about a yard long and stuck in holes made with a crowbar. The high grass soon grows in amongst the sticks, and makes very good ground covert, which will last some years; or the roots of young spruce trees may be cut on one side, when the trees may be pulled down into a nearly horizontal position, and kept so by filling up the hole with the earth dug out. The vignette represents the head of a pheasant in which the upper mandible had been shot away; nevertheless, the bird when killed was in good condition. CHAPTEE IV. MANAGEMENT OE PHEASANTS IN PRESERVES (CONTINUED). FEEDING IN COVERTS. HE FOOD necessary to keep together a large stock of pheasants during the winter months, and prevent them straying to adjoining preserves, may be supplied in various modes. The birds may either be hand-fed day by day in the same manner as domestic fowls j or from troughs which are so constructed as to prevent the food being accessible to smaller birds ; or they may be supplied with small stacks of unthrashed corn, from which to help themselves. " If fed by hand, a fixed place is necessary, to which the pheasants must be accustomed to resort at a particular hour, otherwise the sparrows and other small birds will have far more than their fair share of the grain, particularly in severe weather when the ground is frozen hard. Fed in this manner, the birds become almost as tame as farm-yard fowls. In order to accustom them to one spot, at the end of September or earlier, according to the season, carry a few bundles of beans and barley, in the straw, to the spots in the coverts which are selected for feeding places ; by watching these bundles it will be soon found when they have attracted the notice of the birds, and when it is observed that they have been attacking them, the better plan is to pull them apart, so E 2 52 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. as to enable the corn to be found more readily. When the corn is beginning to decrease, feed from the hand, daily ; and, in order to ensure regularity, allow one man to distribute at the feeding-place, among the decaying barley-straw and beanhaulm, a small bagful of beans and barley, as early as he can find his way to the spot in the morning, concealing the corn as well as he is able; later in the day, say towards three or four in the afternoon, again deposit a mixture of barley and white peas, concealing the corn as before. In this way scarcely a grain of corn is lost. Woodpigeons and jays will sometimes intrude ; but, with attention in concealing the corn, and punctuality in feeding, any waste worth notice may be prevented, and by observing how many birds come up to their food, it is easy to discover when anything is going wrong, as the least disturbance will make pheasants shy, and will be enough to put the keeper on the alert to discover the cause." When fed by hand in this manner, a great variety of food may be used. Maize is certainly one of the best ; weight for weight it is usually much cheaper than barley, is better relished by the pheasants, is far more fattening, and it possesses the great recommendation of not being so readily devoured by the sparrows, especially if the large coarse and cheaper varieties are purchased. A correspondent, who has kept pheasants for many years, and taken much trouble to- ascertain their preference for different kinds of food, states, as the result of his experience, that ee they prefer maize or Indian corn to any other food that can be given to them. I have frequently given the pheasants that come regularly to my window to be fed equal parts of Indian corn, peas, small horse-beans, wheat, barley, and oats, and they invariably take them in the order in which I have written them. I have also frequently done the same with those I keep shut up for laying, and always with the same results. Pheasants that I have had from elsewhere to put with them in confinement, and that have never seen maize, take to it in a couple of days, FEEDING IN COVERTS. 53 and then, like the others, will eat nothing else so long as they can get it ; and if I try them with the mixture above named I find all the other grain neglected. The young pheasants at the coops begin to eat it before they are as large as partridges, and then entirely neglect the barley, &c. I never see pheasants that are kept up in better condition than my own, and they have nothing but Indian corn, a few turnip leaves, and clods of turf to pull to pieces. Another great advantage of maize is that small birds cannot steal it, with the exception of the tomtit, and though almost the smallest he holds the corn with one foot and hammers away like a miniature woodpecker, commencing at the part of the grain that is attached to the stalk, finding that the only road in. It is but a very small part of each corn that he is able to eat, but it seems to possess great attraction for him. There are six or eight of these little birds live constantly near my house at this season; and though chaffinches, blackbirds, and thrushes all try their best at the maize, they soon give it up hopelessly. Rooks take it greedily, and were it not for an occasional ball from the air gun they would rob the pheasants of every grain." In feeding pheasants in this manner, care should be taken to change the ground frequently, for if they are fed on the same place for a continuance the ground becomes tainted, the food is necessarily soiled by the excrements of the birds, and disease is the invariable result. Feeding troughs, which open with the weight of the pheasant when standing on an attached bar in front of the corn, are not extensively used. The objections to them are, in the first place, their expense, some fifteen shillings to thirty shillings each, which becomes a serious item when many are required ; their liability to get out of order ; and, lastly, the unlimited supply they afford to the feeding bird, which crams itself to repletion without any exercise, and is disinclined to seek food on its own account. Unquestionably, the best mode of feeding pheasants is by 54 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. the use of small stacks of imthreshed grain or beans; but even this may be done in a wrong as well as a right manner. The late Mr. W. Lort, an enthusiastic practical sportsman, made the following suggestions: "Pheasants may be easily fed from small thatched stacks made with bundles of different kinds of grain. The only operation then required pulling a bundle or two from the stack and cutting the bands may be performed every two or three days ; though, by the way, I must say I like someone to see my pheasants every day ; and those who want game will find it to their interest to have it well attended to. If weight and bulk are objects, a foot or two of the straw can be cut from each sheaf or bundle of corn before it is taken to the stacks. The ears should be put inside, or half the corn will be taken by small birds ; and the bottom of the stack should stand at least a foot from the ground. I use as food in winter peas, beans, barley, buck- wheat, wheat, and a few oats, and many other little delicacies, such as boiled potatoes, ground artichokes, decayed apples, damaged raisins, &c. ; and, with all these dainties, they will stray twice in the year when the acorns fall, and at or just before breeding-time." The following most complete series of suggestions on feeding pheasants in coverts is from the pen of Mr. James Barnes, of Exmouth. It is specially valuable as giving practical directions for the formation of catchpools for water, without which no amount of feeding will keep pheasants from straying in dry weather ; and it also contains suggestions for the formation of huts, which are worthy of the careful con- sideration of every preserver on a large scale. Mr. Barnes writes : " Pheasants are well-known to require assistance with food of some kind in winter to keep them in good condition, and to have a propensity to ramble away and expose themselves to the depredations of trespassers. Buck- wheat should be sown adjacent to their coverts, cut when ripe and intermixed with barley, also in straw, and placed in little stacks in or near their coverts, and spread or shaken FEEDING IN COVERTS. 55 about at intervals throughout the winter. What is still better to my mind, is to place their food in huts. A pheasant hut is an open shed, with the roof fixed on four posts, with a pole all round for rafter plate, the rafters of rough poles tied on with withies, thatched first with long faggots tied up with three or four withies of brushwood with all the leaves on, and allowed to hang down or over the rafter plate two feet or thereabouts. The thatch used should be small brushwood, reeds, or straw. An open trellis floor of poles should be raised two feet from the ground, and on this the corn in straw should be laid for the pheasants to help themselves. In these huts the pheasants find shelter, comfort, and cover in rough, wintry, and severe weather. Care should be taken to have plenty of dry dust on the floor underneath for the pheasants to bask in. This is a most essential provision quite as much so for pheasants as for our poultry for it is quite as natural for them to dust to clean themselves. It is a fact within easy observation how the pheasant searches out the base of an old dry, dusty pollard tree or hedge bank to bask in the dust. Besides, every grain of corn that falls through the open feeding floor is searched for and found in this dust. Underneath and on the dusty floor is a safe and convenient place, sheltered from severe frost, &c., to receive any other kind of food, such as refuse potatoes, Jerusalem artichokes, mangolds, swede turnips, cabbage, Spanish chesnuts, acorns,- beechnuts, a few raisins, Indian corn, or anything else you wish the pheasants to have. Such changes of food cast about their feeding sheds are sure to secure them keeping pretty well to covert, particularly if they have water at hand. I have seen large expenditures for well digging or for the conveyance of water by ram and pipes from some stream at a distance; but the best and simplest plan to keep up a general supply of water for the season the pheasant is in covert, is certainly the shallow catch- pool system. In my humble opinion, it is the most 56 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. natural, convenient, and inexpensive plan of all I have seen or had anything to do with in my time. I will explain what I mean by catchpools : Choose any little slope or valley in high and dry coverts where some command may be had of the surrounding surface water after rain ; scoop out a hole in the earth's surface in the shape of a spoon or bowl, sloping gradually all round to the centre and deepest part, which need not be deeper than from eighteen inches to three feet, according to width and length; the edges, to admit the water running into it freely, must be kept a little under the earth's natural surface. Then puddle the whole of its face with six inches of well- wrought clay, paving it with bricks laid flat, and giving it all over a little coat of Portland cement. Thus you have a first-class and lasting catchpit to hold water most of the year, indeed, the whole season. Pheasants are expected to remain in covert for food and safety from September to February, and then there is certainly always plenty of water. After February the pheasant likes to go further away, and, soon after the gun is withdrawn, is pretty sure to get distributed about in search of insects and various roots. Pheasants rove about quietly during their breeding season, but little is seen or heard of them after April till corn harvest, as they live a quiet, secluded life through summer. I have made catchpools by casing them only with puddled clay. One disadvantage of this is, in a long dry time the water gets low, and the clay sides becoming exposed, contract, crack, and allow the water to run to waste if they are not looked to when rain does come. There is also another way in which I have had catch- pools made where natural gravel abounds, namely, to make it into concrete and case the bottom and sides with this only. It answers well, and saves the labour and expense of getting bricks from a distance. Every feeder knows that dry barley and buckwheat in sheaf, and stacked in the vicinity of the preserves, and some pulled out and shaken about occasionally, with a change of maize, will keep the pheasants in good FEEDING IN COVERTS. 57 condition; but it does not occur to everyone that a good supply of water near their feeding ground has a considerable influence on their habits. After feeding heartily on dry food, they will stray for water if there be none handy, and will stay away afterwards till hungry again, thus running the risk of being shot during their wanderings. To keep pheasants in their own coverts, take means of making them fond of them, even though there be no water near I have found Jerusalem artichokes the best means of attraction. They are so fond of these tubers that they will hunt them by sight or smell from any obscure corner. Give them also potatoes (small and large), mangold wurtzel, carrots, white- hearted cabbage, and savoys, all of which they will readily eat, and which not only prevent their straying for water, but afford a change of food that is genial and natural to their taste and well-doing, besides economising their dry corn food. Where the coverts abound with acorns, beechmast, Spanish chesnuts, and groundnuts, the pheasant requires but little feeding till the middle of December." The planting of Jerusalem artichokes on waste spots and coverts will be found to be an exceeding advantageous mode of feeding pheasants and preventing their straying from their own coverts. When once established, these plants readily reproduce themselves and afford a continual amount of food to the birds. For preventing pheasants straying, the use of raisins scattered in the coverts is particularly advantageous. They will attract birds even from distant coverts to so great an extent that the owners of these latter may have to employ them in their own defence. So attractive are raisins to pheasants that the birds are not unfrequently captured by poachers by means of a fish hook baited with a raisin and suspended about the height of a running bird's head from the ground. CHAPTEE Y. MANAGEMENT OF PHEASANTS IN PRESERVES (CONTINUED). BEARING AND PROTECTION. ITH regard to the rearing of pheasants in preserves but little need be said; the less they are interfered with the better. No good can possibly come from disturbing the sitting hens, but, on the other hand, a great amount of mischief may accrue. When leaving the nest quietly in order to seek food, the hen does so such a manner as not to attract the attention of the numerous enemies, as crows, magpies, jays, &c., that are on the watch to discover and devour her eggs ; but driven off by the prying intrusion of a visitor, she departs without caution, and makes known the situation of her concealed nest. The only circumstance warranting any interference with the nests of the wild birds is the occurrence of a greater number of eggs than the parent hen is capable of rearing as young birds, should the whole of them be hatched. A hen pheasant is rarely seen with more than six or seven young, at least when they have arrived at any size ; and as she not unfrequently lays a larger number of eggs, it is an advan- tageous plan to remove all beyond eight or nine for the purpose of hatching them under common farmyard hens. Mr. J. Baily, in his " Pheasants and Pheasantries/' says that if "a keeper knows of forty nests, seven eggs may PROPORTION OF SEXES IN COVERTS. 59 be safely spared from each. ; this will give two hundred and eighty eggs for tame rearing " ; but such a degree of prolificacy in wild pheasants is a higher average than has ever come under my notice. Another point of very considerable importance with regard to the breeding of pheasants in preserves is the number of cocks that should be left in the spring in proportion to the number of hens. There is no doubt whatever that in a state of nature pheasants are polygamous, the stronger males driving away the weaker, and taking possession of several hens to constitute their seraglios ; hence the custom to shoot down most of the cocks, and leave all the hens, even the oldest, to breed. It is probable that this procedure is frequently carried too far, and in confirmation of this view I have much pleasure in quoting Mr. J. D. Dougall, who, in his " Shooting Simplified," says : " It is customary to shoot cock pheasants only, and to impose a fine upon the sportsmen who break this rule, the money being escheated to the head keeper, or applied to defray the expenses of a dinner at the end of the season, when shootings are rented by a party of gentlemen. This rule is very frequently overstretched. It should not be forgotten that the desired end may be frustrated by having too many hens, as well as by having too few, and in whatever way the disproportion of sexes is caused, the result reduction in increase is the same. If the cocks are continually killed down, few male birds will arrive at that complete maturity so essential to producing a healthy stock. On the other hand, if the hens are continually spared, they will not only grow out of proportion to the number of cocks, but the aged hens will beat off the two and three year old birds. Very old hens should certainly, be destroyed. The most prolific are the two and three year old birds." A correspondent who supports this view writes : "It is very certain that in many instances too few cocks are frequently left in preserved coverts at the end of the season ; 60 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. it is also notorious that in the neighbourhood of many preserves a nide of above fourteen birds (and I have known eighteen) is not unfrequently produced from an outlying cock and hen occupying some detached covert, and yields the best birds of the season when the 1st of October arrives. With respect to the proportion of cocks to be left much may be written about it, depending upon all circumstances con- nected with the ground under the entire control of the individual seeking to preserve a given stock of pheasants. In all cases, in my opinion, too much forbearance is shown to hens early in the season, and much too little towards cocks at the end. The safe plan, in all cases, is to adapt one or two small coverts, as much in the centre of your ground as possible, as your feeding places for your stock birds, and before the middle of December the exact number of birds which by judicious management you have collected there may be ascertained by a few days' careful observation. With attention and the greatest forbearance towards these (no old cocks being left among their number), you may kill freely elsewhere, and insure to your friends and yourself plenty of sport the following season from them and their progeny." With regard to the exact proportion of sexes left in the coverts, it is difficult to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion. One writer states : " It would be to the advantage of preservers of pheasants if they would, before it is too late, refrain from shooting the cock birds too close, as most game preservers, I presume, wish to have as good and numerous a stock of pheasants as they can for breeding ; and the reason why so many are disappointed in this respect is for want of more cock birds. There should be left at least one cock for every three hens, as eggs then would be more plentiful, the chicks stronger, and better able to contend with a wet season and the numerous enemies they have to battle with/' The frequent occurrence of old barren hens that have assumed either wholly or in part the plumage of the male is PROTECTION FROM ENEMIES. 61 a proof, if one were wanting, that in many coverts the old worn out hens are left longer than is desirable or profitable. The chapters on the Management of Pheasants in Preserves would be very incomplete without the consideration of the best means of protecting them against their numerous enemies. The chief four-footed depredators are cats, foxes, hedgehogs, and polecats. Their other enemies are feathered and unfeathered. Amongst the former may be included crows, magpies, and jays, which are great destroyers of eggs. But the unfeathered bipeds, known as poachers, are perhaps the most destructive. By far the greater number of pheasants purloined by the poacher are shot at night ; this destruction may be prevented in great part, without the necessity for night watching, by having suitable coverts, as has been already fully explained in the preceding chapter. Where larches and other trees with exposed horizontal branches abound, recourse should be had to mock pheasants, which are excessively annoying to poachers, as they cause them to expend ammunition uselessly and alarm the neigh- bouring keepers, without any profitable result. Mock pheasants, quite incapable of being distinguished from the real birds at night, may be made of hay bands, rushes, or fern, bound with tarred twine or wire on a stick about two feet long. Capt. Darwin, in his " Game Preserver's Manual," writing of mock pheasants, states "they are very easily made, but their situations should be often varied. Some keepers make them of board cut into the shape of a pheasant. These are of little use, for a poacher gets under them and sees at once what they are. Others make the body of wood, roughly turned in a lathe, and nail a strip of wood on it for a tail, or with real tail feathers stuck in. The best mode of making mock pheasants after all is as follows : Get a bunch of long hay and roll it round a stick till it is the size of a pheasant's body, leaving enough for a tail ; wrap it with thin copper wire down to the end of the tail ; cut a peg about six inches long and as thick as a lead-pencil ; wind a bit of hay 62 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. round the end to make a head, and run the peg into the body. Tie these imitations on the branches of larch trees here and there. Pheasants prefer this kind of tree to others, in con- sequence of the boughs coming out straight, and so allowing them a flat surface to sit on. In woods where there are no foxes, and where the ground vermin has been well killed down, it is a good plan (especially if you think it a likely night for poachers) to unroost the pheasants in the evening. They will not fly up again that night. If you begin by unroosting the pheasants when they are young, and have only flown up a few nights, they will take to roosting on the ground altogether, and never fly up at all. Pheasants that have not been accustomed to be driven down at all are made rather shy by the frequent repetition of this performance, and it may drive them away. They are very easily frightened. If you begin shooting rabbits, &c., they will take the alarm. They can't stand guns going off constantly in the coverts where they are." Imitation pheasants thus made will only last a single season ; should anything more permanent be desired, recourse must be had to those made of wood, which may be cheaply and efficiently constructed on the following plan, the sugges- tion of a- correspondent, who states : " Six years since I had V^^T >\ r~+~^~ XN^ W , WlM^fTUV;;!',}* a number of wooden ones made and set up, and hundreds remain to this day. The manufacture was simple. Take a fir pole, saw it through at an angle of 45 ; this cut, when rounded off, forms the breast of the bird ; a cut at 22J forms the tail-end. So, by making alternate cuts at 45 and 22 J, you may cut up the pole without waste, as shown in the plan sent herewith. A lath cut through in like manner at a very acute angle forms a capital tail, which should be put on, but nearer the perpendicular than shown ,in the engraving, as pheasants roost with the tail hanging nearly straight down, MOCK PHEASANTS. 63 the head is easily made out of the upper end of the pole, where too small for the body. Daub over with some oil paint (burnt umber), bore a hole through the body for the nail, and nail on the tree with a chisel- ended nail, that you may not split the branch. What the cost is you may judge, as a 12ft. pole costs fourpence, or less. Place them pretty thick where pheasants roost. By boring a hole lin. diameter from the underneath to within half an inch of the back, they will, if placed on a nail, move with the wind. My experience of them is that the deception is perfect enough, as they are difficult to distinguish from a pheasant, even in daylight. Whatever kind of mock pheasant is employed, they should not be placed too near public roads or footpaths, and in those cases in which they are liable to observation during the day, they should be moved frequently." Alarm guns set in coverts with wires leading in different directions are most valuable as alarming poachers, and indicating the locality in which they are pursuing their depredations. One of the best, and certainly the cheapest, alarm guns with which I am acquainted, is that devised by Captain Darwin, and described in his useful manual on Game Preserving, which has been too long out of print. The author writes: "I have constructed an alarm gun which combines the desiderata of cheapness and simplicity more completely than any I have yet seen. I do not lay claim to the invention of this gun, but I certainly find I can adopt materials in its construction that will come to a tenth part of the money usually charged ; in fact, any tolerable mechanic 64 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. ought to make it in an hour. It is formed as follows : get a piece of iron gas -pipe, three inches long and three-quarters bore. At the threaded end make a plug of iron a quarter of an inch thick, and tapped in the centre for a nipple. Drive this plug into the barrel, and braze it. The nipple is then screwed in. Then get a corresponding piece of the gas-pipe, from two feet six inches to three feet long, also threaded at the end. Screw the collar (that always goes along with this sort of gas-pipe) on to the long piece as tight as it will go. The gun is now complete with the exception of the hammer, which is a piece of round iron about a foot long, and slipping easily down the barrel. To set the gun you must tie the long barrel fast to the stem of a tree in the plantation, with the short barrel downwards. Unscrew the latter and load it with a couple of charges of powder, and put on the cap, which you should cover with some beeswax and suet mixed. Then screw the short barrel into the long one. Drill a small hole through the loose piece of iron about four inches from one end, and put it in the barrel with a nail or peg in the small hole, and a string from the nail going down the side of the tree in the direction you may choose. Mind and not have the wire so low that a dog can let it off. When the wire is touched it draws the nail, and the hammer, falling down on the barrel, lets the cap off. Being fastened up in a tree, and close to the stem, it can catch the eye of no one, and merely has to be shifted occasionally, though of course there is no need to do- this until after it has been fired. After all, nothing daunts poachers so much as pit-falls made in the woods. They should be about seven feet deep, and made with the sides slanting, so that the chamber is larger at the bottom than at the top. Unless boarded all round, the soil will fall in. Tha opening should be four feet square, and be covered with sticks and sods, or anything resembling the surrounding ground. Poachers are very shy of venturing into woods where you have these pit-falls." Alarm guns discharging wooden or other plugs upwards ROOKS IN PHEASANT COVERTS. 65 or horizontally should never be used, as danger to human life always accompanies their employment. It is almost unnecessary to remark that alarm guns of various forms can be purchased at any gunmakers. The destruction effected in preserves during the nesting season by crows, jackdaws, magpies, jays, and other egg- eating birds, is well known, and can only be remedied by the trapping or shooting of the culprits. The question as to the influence of the rook in pheasant coverts is one of those respecting which there is much to be said on both sides. The rook is so very valuable an ally to the agriculturist, by destroying an enormous number of grubs, wire worms, &c., that its case claims our most attentive consideration. In reply to the accusation that rooks occasionally destroy the eggs of the pheasant, Mr. James Barnes writes : " According to my own observations of above fifty years, the rook will eat eggs if placed about in open country pastures, &c., but I believe never goes on foraging excursions for eggs or young game, as the carrion crow does. Rooks will not only knock eggs to pieces openly placed in sight of their feeding grounds, but they will also, in hard frosty weather, devour many other things, such as slaughter-house garbage, or dead poultry, game, or fish that may lie about decomposing within their reach. My own observation is, that the rook is a real friend to the pheasant, and provides it with a deal of food at an acceptable season. In the years 1816 and J 817, I went with others to see the young rooks shot in Lord Middleton's park, Peper Harrow, Godalmiiig, Surrey. The trees were high in an inclosure, but not at that time very thick on the ground, for there was some scrubby undergrowth and a rare crop of rank weeds the open spaces were splashed as if whitewashed, as the under- growth of all rookeries is during the first two or three weeks of May. Amongst this undergrowth there were two or three pheasants' nests, protected with boughs; and strict orders were given that no one should disturb the pheasants 5 nests. I thought but little of this at the time; but afterwards I 66 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. observed that where pheasants were preserved near a rookery, pheasants were to be seen there through March, April, and May. I did not observe the real cause of their foraging and running about the rookeries till about 1844, when I saw a cock pheasant pick up a piece of potato on a gravel walk, and run away with it into t\e shrubbery, and remembered that I had often seen pieces of potato lying about, and had seen the rooks drop them and their pellets likewise. The latter were frequently full of half-digested grains, as if dropped through fright. I had seen from the middle of February to the middle of May bushels of pellets underneath the trees scratched over by the pheasants of course for the food to be found therein ; and there were always pheasants' nests close at hand, eveu in or under the rookery. Where the potato is much cultivated, as in South Devon, a good many small potatoes would be turned up in ploughing the land, which the rook and jackdaw seemed to claim as their perquisites and carry off home. I have seen five or six fall of a morning on walking under the trees, but the birds never came down to pick one up. I have seen fall large brown grubs, the fern beetle, whole ears and loose grains of corn, pellets or quids half chewed or sucked over, and have seen the pheasants run and pick them up. There is fine living in variety for pheasants under a rookery, pro- vided neither party is disturbed by strangers. Respecting the rooks' pellets, from the middle of February to the middle of March, in a corn-growing district, while the spring corn is sowing the rook hurries over the new-sown land, and picks up all stray grains that comes under his observation, as well as worms, grubs, slugs, bits of potatoes, pieces of half -decayed scales of oyster shells, little pieces of lime, sand, and gravel all together hoarded under the lower mandible, which looks like a big full pouch as he arrives home to his mate in charge of the nest. Here his load is delivered to the mate, who, with great ado, chews it over, and ejects the pellet or quid in due course. This business is continued till late at night. Many times, passing under the trees at various hours, from 10 p.m. BOOKS IX PHEASANT COVERTS. 67 till 3 a.m., I have heard the pellet drop, and have had them fall on my head and shoulders, and picked them up by the light of the moon or lantern. The rook^s excreta are at this time pretty solid. As the month of March is nearly ended this alters; and in April, when the corn is sprouted and growing, the ejecta are like sloppy mud, and contain the husks of a few grains of corn, wings of beetles, pieces of snail shells, lime, and grit. From this time till June no pellets or quids are to be seen ; the droppings are loose, and like whitewash over the vegetation underneath. Insect food _ - so various and abundant that they and their broods seem to entirely subsist on it for six or eight weeks, and the young thrive and grow fat wonderfully quick in showery, growing weather of April and beginning of May. The young that are spared from the gunners, as soon as they can fly, are enticed away early in the morning by their parents, at first by short flights, to the fields then preparing for turnip sowing, or the pasture that produces cockchafers, fern beetles, and other insects, and for a few nights roost on trees near their work. After they get strong on the win or, and good flyers, they all come back to their native home, the rookery. As soon as a field of early podded peas is pretty full, the rook, if not looked after, will take toll ; also of wheat or barley they will certainly, if an opportunity is afforded them, filch a portion, particularly such as is near trees or has been laid by wind or wet. Then, again, commences the real pellet-ejecting season. The rook then hurries to the unguarded field to filch corn, which he stores in his pouch as quickly as possible, picking up also on the pasture and turnip fields, &c., quantities of grubs, snails, slugs, beetles, earwigs, grass- hoppers, crickets, fern flies, various other insects, and their Iarva3. It is truly astonishing to see, as I have done for years, on examining those ejected pellets, what variety at times they contain besides remains of every kind of creeping, running, or flying insect that may chance to come in their way, in the season of ripening of seeds on the pastures a 68 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. number of grass and weed seeds, the husk of corn wheat and barley many kinds of weed and coarse grass seeds. After harvest and gleaning season is over, no more pellets are to be seen. In the wheat-sowing season they filch some loose grains and dig out the young plants, and, through its being wet at this season, and collected with much dirt, the food is ejected in a loose manner like mud. However, in all my long experience, I never saw under the trees an eggshell of any game, poultry, or other birds, except the shells of their own which had been hatched out, or tumbled out by stormy winds. I have, however, yearly seen a pair of carrion crows attend to the early rooks' nest, and carry off the new-laid eggs, as they did also with pheasants 7 eggs, the shells of which I have found lying about by scores. It is a curious fact that, numerous as the rooks are, they are such cowards as to allow the crow to rob them, and only fly round and round, cawing, while the robbery is going on." I have known many cases where pheasants have sat, and reared their young safely almost immediately under a rookery. On the other hand, there is no doubt but that in seasons of scarcity, when very hard pressed for food, rooks will destroy pheasants' eggs. Colonel J. Whyte, Newtown Manor, Sligo, in reply to Mr. Barnes, writes as follows : " There appears some doubt whether rooks suck pheasants' eggs, or whether the carrion crow is not the real depredator. Perhaps what follows may set the question at rest. About four years since, Lord Clonbrock asked me if I had ever known rooks eat the eggs of pheasants. My idea was that they might do so occasionally, but not as a custom. His lordship replied: ' The rooks about me have within the last year or two taken to hunt up and destroy the eggs as regularly as if they were so many magpies. I did not believe my keeper at first, but, going" my self to look out, I saw them regularly beating up and down a piece of rough ground where the pheasants nest, and when they found one they would rise up a few yards in the air and then pounce ROOKS IN PHEASANT COVERTS. 69 down on it/ Lord Dunsandle's place is within fifteen or sixteen miles of Lord Clonbrock ; there are three rookeries in it, and the first question I asked the keeper on my arrival there to shoot was, ' Do the rooks suck or damage the pheasants' eggs ? ' The answer was, ' No ; ' nor did they do so till this year. But about a week ago I received from Lord Dunsandle a letter, in which he said, ' This year the rooks have taken to destroying my pheasants' eggs, and the mischief they have done is incredible ; the fields are strewn with broken eggs/ It would therefore appear that not only do rooks destroy eggs, but that they take to it in a sudden and unaccountable manner. There can be no question here about the work being done by carrion crows, for the only carrion crow in Ireland is the Eoyston or hooded crow.* The reason that Mr. Barnes had no shells under the trees in the rookery is, that the rook breaks and eats the eggs on the spot. Jackdaws will eat eggs whenever they can find them, and my keeper assures me that a short time since he saw one take a little rabbit up in his claws several yards, and then drop it on his approach. This colony of jackdaws is situated in some high cliffs, and is increasing in numbers every year/' Mr. Leno, a very extensive pheasant breeder, states the case still more forcibly : t( My experience is, that rooks will destroy pheasants' eggs whenever they happen to find them out. In one week a rook came twice and settled down in my pheasantry, and took an egg away each time : and where rooks abound, if perchance a pheasant's or partridge's nest is left by the mowers, the rooks may be seen crowding around the patch of grass left for shelter, and the eggs are finished in quick time. It is useless to leave a nest exposed in the neighbourhood of rooks, as they are sure to eat them." Mr. Harman, of Kiverstown, co. Sligo, writes : " I am unwilling to bring in a case against that useful bird the rook, * It is now ascertained that the Carrion and the Royston crows are merely varieties of one and the same species, and that they breed together with great freedom. Both varieties occur in Ireland. 70 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. but I can confirm the destruction of pheasants 5 eggs. A few years ago, in a dry spring, with a north-east wind for many weeks, when the rooks could not bore for their accustomed food, about one hundred and fifty pheasants' eggs i.e., the shells were found under the rookery near the house, having been taken by the rooks to feed their young, other food failing them. I have caught them when baiting traps with eggs for magpies ; but still I consider the rook (barring these serious misdemeanours) a most useful bird/' Mr. J. E. Harting informs me that on one occasion, in the month of April, about the 14th or 15th, he saw a rook in the act of carrying off a pheasant's egg from a copse. The bird was carrying the egg upon the point of the bill, and on being fired at he dropped it, and when picked up it was found to be empty, although still wet inside. There was a large and irregularly shaped hole towards the larger end. On the very ground where this occurred, my informant had heard the keeper say that he had on more than one occasion shot rooks in the act of carrying off pheasants' eggs. The balance of the evidence for and against the rook in respect of its conduct regarding the eggs of pheasants, appears to show that, saving in seasons of an exceptional character, or in cases where the eggs are left exposed by mowing, the influence of the bird is not seriously antagonistic to the rearing of pheasants ; but when hard pressed for food, rooks will even destroy the young birds. A correspondent writes as follows : " On June 13 my keeper observed about half a dozen rooks engaged amongst the coops of young pheasants, and, suspecting their object, drove them off. The next morning, having fed and watered the young birds, he went to his cottage, and, looking out about six o'clock, saw a strong detachment of rooks from a neighbouring colony in great excitement amongst the coops. He ran down, a distance of two hundred yards, as fast as possible, but before he arrived they had succeeded in killing, and for the most part carrying off, from forty to fifty birds, two or three weeks MOORHENS AND PHEASANTS. 71 old. As lie came amongst them they flew up in all directions, their beaks full of the spoil. The dead birds not carried away had all of their heads pulled off, and most of their legs and wings torn from the body. I have long known that rooks destroy partridges' nests and eat the eggs when short of other food, but have never known a raid of this descrip- tion. I attribute it to the excessive drought, which has so starved the birds by depriving them of their natural insect food that they are driven to depredation. It will be necessary to be on guard for some time ; bad habits once acquired (as with man-eating tigers) may last even more than one season. Probably the half-dozen rooks first seen amongst the coops tasted two or three, and, finding them eatable, brought their friends in numbers the next morning." The Moorhen, Waterhen, or common Gallinule, is occasionally destructive to young pheasants. Mr. Grould recounted the evidence in " The Birds of Great Britain," and Mr. H. J. Partridge, of Hockham Hall, Thetford, writing to the Zoologist, stated that " At the beginning of July, the keeper having lost several pheasants about three weeks old from a copse, and having set traps in vain for winged and four-footed vermin, determined to keep watch for the aggressor, when, after some time, a Moorhen was seen walking about near the copse ; the keeper, supposing it only came to eat the young pheasants' food, did not shoot it, until he saw the Moorhen strike a young pheasant, which it killed immediately, and devoured, except the leg and wing bones. The remains agreed exactly with eight found before." Lord Lilford, writing in " Dresser's Birds of Europe/' says : " I look upon the Waterhen as an enemy to the game- preserver, not only from the quantity of pheasant food which it devours, but from the fact that it will attack, kill, and eat young birds of all sorts. The bird is a great favourite of mine, and I should be sorry to encourage its destruction, but I am persuaded that it is a dangerous neighbour to young game birds"; and in his "Birds of Northamptonshire/' he 72 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. adds, "We caniiot acquit them of the charge of a very pugnacious and destructive tendency amongst their own and other species of birds, and they are most certainly bad neigh- bours for young pheasants and partridges, as they not only consume a good deal of the food intended for game birds, but will now and then capture and devour the birds themselves." The common Kestrel, or Windhover, so well known as a destroyer of field mice and rats, has also been accused of attacking young pheasants. Mr. J. H. Gurney, of Northrepps, one of the highest authorities on accipitrine birds, writes as follows : " Mr. Stevenson, in his article on the Kestrel in the 'Birds of Norfolk/ remarks: 'That some kestrels carry off young partridges as well as other small birds during the nesting season, is too well authenticated as a fact for even their warmest advocates to gainsay. 3 For many years I have endeavoured to collect reliable information on this point, and I am convinced of the correctness of Mr. Stevenson's opinion above quoted ; but there is this difference between the sparrowhawk and the kestrel in their habits of preying on young partridges and pheasants viz., that the kestrel only destroys them when very young, and the sparrowhawk continues to attack them long after they have grown too large to be prey for the kestrel. To particularise two instances : Many years ago, a very young partridge was brought to me which had been taken out of a kestrel's nest at Easton, in Norfolk ; and a gamekeeper in this parish, who is as trust- worthy an observer of such matters as any man I know, saw a hen kestrel take up a very young pheasant in its talons and rise with it about eight feet from the ground ; my informant then fired at the depredator with a small pistol, when it dropped its prey, which, though somewhat injured, ultimately recovered ; and an instance of a young pheasant found in the nest of a kestrel was recorded in The Field of May 13, 1868." Mr. Booth, in his {( Rough Notes/ 7 has carefully investi- gated the accusations against the kestrel, and he maintains PHEASANTS SCENTLESS WHEN SITTING. 73 that it is one of our most useful birds, and a decided ally to the game preserver, more especially as a destroyer of rats, of which it kills large numbers. He says he has never known the kestrel to carry off young broods of either pheasants or partridges, but that the damage done by the sparrowhawk is often attributed to the Kestrel. The pheasant, from nesting on the ground, is peculiarly exposed to the attacks of four-footed or ground vermin, and the escape of any of the sitting birds and their eggs from foxes, polecats, hedgehogs, &c., appears at first sight almost impossible. This escape is attributed by many, possibly by the majority, of sportsmen to the alleged fact that in the birds when sitting the scent which is given out by the animal at other times is suppressed ; in proof of this statement is adduced the fact that dogs, even those of the keenest powers of smell, will pass within a few feet, or even a less distance, of a sitting pheasant without evincing the slightest cognizance of her proximity provided she is concealed from sight. By others this circumstance is denied, they reason cu priori that it is impossible for an animal to suppress the secretions and exhalations natural to it secretion not being a voluntary act. I believe, however, that the peculiar specific odour of the bird is suppressed during incubation, not, however, as a voluntary act, but in a manner which is capable of being accounted for physiologically. The suppression of the scent during incuba- tion is necessary to the safety of the birds, and essential to the continuance of the species. I believe this suppression is due to what may be termed vicarious secretion. In other words, the odoriferous particles which are usually exhaled by the skin are, during such time as the bird is sitting, excreted into the intestinal canal, most probably into the ca3cum or the cloaca. The proof of this is accessible to every one ; the excrement of a common fowl or pheasant, when the bird is not sitting, has, when first discharged, no odour akin to the smell of the bird itself. On the other hand, the excrement of a sitting hen has a most remarkable odour of the fowl, 74 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. but highly intensified. We are all acquainted with this smell as increased by heat during roasting ; and practical poultry keepers must have remarked that the excrement discharged by a hen on leaving the nest has an odour totally unlike that discharged at any other time, involuntarily recalling the smell of a roasted fowl, highly and disagreeably intensified. I believe the explanation of the whole matter to be as follows : the suppression of the natural scent is essential to the safety of the bird during incubation ; that at such time vicarious secretion of the odoriferous particles takes place into the intestinal canal, so that the bird becomes scentless, and in this manner her safety and that of her eggs is secured. This explanation would probably apply equally to partridges and other birds nesting on the ground. The absence of scent in the sitting pheasant is most probably the explanation of the fact that foxes and pheasants are capable of being reared in the same preserves ; at the same time the keepers are usually desirous of making assurance doubly sure, by scaring the foxes from the neighbourhood of the nests by some strong and offensive substance. A very practical gamekeeper writes as follows : " If any keeper will find his nests and sprinkle a little gas tar anywhere about them, he will find the foxes will not take the birds. I should, as a keeper, find every nest possible, and dress the bushes, stumps of trees, &c., near the place of such nest, and then keep away entirely till I thought the bird had hatched, as constantly haunting a bird's nest is the most foolish thing that can be. When such nests are once found and dressed, let the keeper look out and trap all kinds of vermin, such as the cat, stoat, fitch et, weasel, hedgehog, or rat, or magpie, jay, hawk, crow, rook, or jackdaw. These are all enemies to the birds, as well as the fox. I am satisfied, as a gamekeeper, that with good vermin trapping, dressing near the nests, and good bushing and pegging of land, anyone will have plenty of game, and may still keep plenty of foxes/' Another equally efficacious plan, the value of which has CATS IN PHEASANT COVERTS. 75 been repeatedly proved, is to fill a number of phials with the so-called " oil of animal " (also known as oil of hartshorn and Dippers oil), and suspend them uncorked to sticks about eighteen inches long, and stick two or three round each nest, about a foot from it. The smell of the oil will keep the foxes from approaching. In the vicinity of dwellings, there is no more dangerous enemy to pheasants than the common cat. Captain Darwin, in his " Game Preserver's Manual," writes as follows : " There is no species of vermin more destructive to game than the domestic cat. People not aware of her predatory habits would never for a moment suppose that the household favourite that appears to be dozing so innocently by the fire is most probably under the influence of fatigue caused by a hard night's hunting in the plantations. How different also in her manner is a cat when at home and when detected prowling after the game. In the first of the two cases she is tame and accessible to any little attentions ; in the latter she seems to know she is doing wrong, and scampers off home as hard as she can go. Luckily there is no animal more easily taken in a trap, if common care be used in setting." Laying poisoned meat is now illegal, and the sale of arsenic to private persons interdicted by statute ; nevertheless I would caution any one against the use of that drug, as the employment of it is attended with much cruelty, as it is immediately rejected by vomiting, but not before it has laid the foundation of a violent and painful inflammation of the stomach, from which the animal suffers for weeks, but rarely dies. If it is absolutely necessary to use poison for cats, a little carbonate of baryta, mixed up with the soft roe of a red herring, is the most certain and speedy that can be employed, but a good keeper should know how to keep his preserves clear of vermin without the aid of poison. Hedgehogs are undoubtedly destructive to eggs as well as to the young birds, and should be trapped in coverts in which pheasants are reared. 76 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. Among the other enemies to young pheas ants that attack them occasionally may be mentioned adders, and even tame farmyard ducks that have gained access to the coops. The following vignette shows the extraordinary manner in which wounded and malformed pheasants adapt themselves to new conditions of life. It represents most accurately the head of a ring-necked pheasant that was killed by Mr. Godwin on Lord Torrington's estate. The bird was in very fair condition, weighing 21b. 5oz., and had thirty-three beech nuts in its crop. Both mandibles had been cut off in front of the nostrils, most probably by a strong steel trap, the -tongue, however, had escaped, and protruded from the mouth. It is difficult to imagine that the bird had the power of taking up small grains, and it is not surprising that it fed mainly on beech nuts, which it could readily take into its mouth . CHAPTEE VI. MANAGEMENT OF PHEASANTS IN CONFINEMENT. FOKMATION OF PENS AND AVIAKIES. .AVING treated of pheasants as wild birds, their rearing and management in enclosed pens and aviaries have next to be considered. When pheasants are bred for turning out into the coverts, and not as merely ornamental aviary birds, the system of movable enclosures, constructed of rough hurdles, will be found far superior to any more elaborate contrivances, for, when the breeding birds are kept in the same place year after year, the ground becomes, in spite of all the care that may be bestowed on it, foul and tainted, disease breaks out even amongst the old birds, and the successful rearing of young ones is hopeless. The pens should be situated in a dry situation, sandy or chalky if possible, but any soil not retentive of wet will answer. If the surface is sloping it is to be preferred, as the rain is less likely to render the ground permanently damp. Although cold is not injurious to the mature birds, and they require no special shelter, the south side of a hill or rising ground is to be chosen in preference, as the young stock are delicate. Common wattled hurdles, made seven feet long, and set up on end, make as good pens as can be desired; they should be supported by posts or fir poles driven firmly into the ground, with a horizontal pole at the top, to which the 78 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. hurdles are bound by tarred cord, or, still better, very stout flexible binding wire, which should also be used to secure them together at top and bottom. The posts should be inside the pen, as better calculated to resist any pressure from without. The hurdles should rest on the ground without any opening below, and if they are sunk three or four inches below the surface, the pens will be more secure against dogs and foxes or any animals likely to scratch their way under. The size of these pens should be as large as convenient; for a cock and three to five hens the utmost number that should be placed together as many hurdles should be employed as will form a pen twenty-five to thirty-five feet square, the smaller containing 625 square or superficial feet of surface ; the larger, which will require less than half as many more hurdles, containing nearly double the interior space, namely, 1225 square feet. If the birds are full winged, these enclosures must be netted over at the top; for this purpose old tanned herring netting, which can be bought very cheaply, will be found much better than wire-work, as the pheasants are apt, when frightened, to fly up against the top of the enclosure, and, if it be of wire, to break their necks or seriously injure themselves. Should netting be employed, several upright poles, with cross pieces at the top, are required to be placed at equal distances to support the netting, and prevent it hanging down into the interior of the pen. A much better plan is to leave the pen quite open at the top, and to clip one of the wings of each bird, cutting off twelve or fourteen of the flight feathers close but not into the quills. When the birds cannot fly they become much tamer, are more productive, and are not so apt to injure themselves by dashing about wildly, especially if there be, as is desirable, brushwood cover or faggots in the pen, under which they can run and conceal themselves. Some persons are in the habit of pinioning the birds by cutting off the last joint of the wing, thus removing permanently the ten primary FORMATION OF PENS. 79 quills, but the plan is not to be recommended, as the pinioned birds are quite incapable of taking due care of themselves when turned out into the open, and are liable to fall a prey to ground vermin. As illustrative of the mode in which a large number of birds can be successfully kept in one locality, I will describe the arrangements which I saw at the pheasantries belonging to Mr, Leno, a very successful rearer. The birds are kept in runs enclosed by hurdles between six and seven feet high. These are formed of stout straight larch laths nailed to cross pieces of oak or other strong wood, and are fastened to stout posts securely driven into the ground. As the posts are capable of being easily withdrawn and replaced, there is no difficulty in moving the pens year after year a most important consideration for the preservation of the health of the birds. Moreover, by employing a greater or smaller number of hurdles and posts, pens of any required size may be constructed, so as to accommodate a larger or smaller number of birds. On my visit, the runs had recently been shifted on to new ground, which consisted of young hazel coppice, which had been partly cleared. The surface was covered with the dead leaves of last year's growth and with short underwood, affording ample opportunity for the birds to amuse themselves by scratching for insects and by seeking food amongst the leaves. The amount of undergrowth afforded another important advantage, that the birds, on the entrance of a stranger, could run under shelter, and so conceal themselves, instead of dashing about wildly, as they would otherwise have done. No roof or shelter of any kind was afforded them, had such been erected the birds would only have used it for roosting upon, and not for sleeping under. In each pen was a horizontal pole, supported about four feet from the ground by a post at each end. Across this was laid a number of stout branches and long faggots, forming a kind of shelter to which the birds could have recourse, and under which the hens would occasionally lay; but the 80 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. chief advantage it affords is that of a roosting-place, elevated from the ground, and so keeping the birds away from the cold damp soil during the night. The sloping arrangement of these branches is advantageous to the birds, as all of them have the flight feathers of one wing (not both) cut short; they are thus destitute of the power of flight, and consequently inclined branches, up which they can walk and down which they can descend without violence, are exceedingly useful. These runs, open as they are, afford all the shelter required, provided they are not placed on the north or east side of a hill or rising ground. Their .advantage over permanent buildings is great ; in the latter pheasants cannot be success- fully reared, as the ground becomes tainted, epidemic disease breaks out, and the ground also becomes charged with the ova of the Sclerostoma syngamus, or gapewoim, which often causes great havoc amongst the young poults. Both of these evils may be in great measure avoided by shifting the runs as frequently as may be convenient. The runs may be made of any size, so as to accommodate one cock and three or four hens, or a larger number of birds. Care must be taken not to have them too small, as the birds when closely confined, often take to pecking one another's feathers an evil which is occasionally carried on until the persecuted bird is killed. When runs are made small, the ground very rapidly becomes tainted, and the birds consequently diseased. The vigorous, healthy aspect of the numerous birds I saw at these pheasantries was evidently owing, in great part at least, to the large size of the inclosures, and the fresh ground on to which they are so frequently shifted. No nest-places are made or required ; the hens generally drop their eggs about at random, and they should be looked for and collected at least twice a day. This is most important, as, if any eggs are chipped or broken the birds may acquire the bad habit of pecking them, which is quickly acquired by all others in the run, and will be found exceedingly difficult to eradicate. The food employed is good sound barley, with a certain proportion FORMATION OF PENS. 81 of buckwheat. This is varied by soft food consisting of meal, with which, at times, a small proportion of greaves is mixed to supply the place of the animal food the pheasants would obtain in a state of nature. Acorns are occasionally employed, but the birds prefer grain. The food is strewed broadcast on the ground ; and it is needless to say that a constant supply of clean fresh water is provided for the birds. The young are hatched under common barnyard fowls, and are reared on custard, biscuit, meal, rice, and millet, with occasionally a little hempseed ants' eggs, though exceedingly advantageous, not being found in the locality. The arrangements recommended by Mr. F. Crook vary somewhat in detail from those described, but are equally practical and effective. He writes : " An order should be given to the ordinary wattled-hurdle makers to make a given quantity of six feet by six feet open hurdles, with well- pointed ends, twenty-four of these hurdles, when placed in position, will make a convenient-sized run, thirty-six feet every way ; but preparation must be made for a doorway, and for covering over the whole of the hurdles inside the run with one and a half inch wire netting round the sides, and string netting for the top. For the size run specified there must be four posts, made with four-way "[" piece tops, to carry the netting ; the posts to be placed equi- distant from each other, to properly divide off the interior centre space ; from each upright should branch out movable perches about eighteen inches long, at different heights from the ground. The next and most important point is the arrangement of nesting- places. At the most retired portion of the run faggots should be placed, in bundles of three or more, arranged conical fashion, or piled as soldiers do their arms, leaving a good space open at the bottom ; but before setting the faggots in their places, the earth must be dug out six inches deep, and filled in with dry loose sand or fine dry mould, and then place the faggots over the sand. There should be as many of these nesting-places as the space will afford, taking care that G 82 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. sufficient space is left between each to admit of easy access by the birds and their keeper." Some writers recommend pens made of eight hurdles, each six feet long, giving a square of twelve feet in each side, and having an interior space of only 144 superficial feet ; but these pens are too small for the health or comfort of the birds, that are far more apt to fall into the evil habits of egg eating and feather plucking than when confined in larger runs. With regard to the food of the old birds in the pens, the more varied it is the better. Good sound grain, such as maize, barley, buckwheat, malt, tail wheat, and oats, &c., may all be used. But maize should be used sparingly, as it is too fatten- ing for laying pheasants or hens. Mr. Baily recommends strongly an occasional feed of boiled potatoes, of which the birds are exceedingly fond. He writes : " For bringing pheasants home, or for keeping them there, we know of nothing equal to boiled potatoes. Let them be boiled with the skins whole, and in that state taken to the place where they are to be used. Before they are put down, cut out of each skin a piece the size of a shilling, showing the meal within. Place them at moderate distances from each other, and the pheasants will follow them anywhere." Eice and damaged currants and raisins are very well for an occasional change, but should be sparingly used. A few acorns may be given from time to time, but their use in excess is apt to prove injurious. Mr. J. Fairfax Muckley, of Audnam, writes on their employment as follows : " Three seasons ago I laid in a stock of acorns, and instructed the feeder to give the pheasants a few every day. They preferred them to other food. In one week I had ten dead birds. They were fat and healthy in every respect, with the exception of inflammation of the intestines. My conclusion is, that if allowed to have free access to acorns they eat more than they should, and consequently many die. Keepers frequently depend too much upon acorns." With regard to the employment of animal food, such as FEEDING IN PENS. 83 horseflesh, greaves, &c., I believe its use, except in the very smallest quantity, to be exceedingly injurious; nor do I approve of the spiced condiments so strongly recommended by the makers. The bodies of dead domestic animals can, however, be most advantageously utilized by allowing them to become thoroughly fly-blown, and then burying them under about a foot of soil in the pens, where the maggots go through the regular stages of growth, after which they work their way to the surface in order to effect their change into chrysalids. They furnish an admirable supply of insect food for the birds, and give them constant occupation and exercise in scratching in the ground. Utilized in this manner, the bodies of dead fowls, or any small domestic animals, are perfectly inoffensive, and the result is most advantageous to the birds. The employment of crushed bones, as a substitute for the varied animal substances the pheasant feeds upon when in a wild state, is highly advantageous. Mr. F. Crook writes : " We have seen many instances of game being perfectly cured of both eating their eggs and plucking each other, by the continual practice of giving a portion of well-smashed bones every day. These remarks apply more specially to the home pheasantries, in consequence of the absence of the natural shell stuff they pick up when at liberty, but we would recommend some to be thrown about the feeding grounds of the preserves, as the highly nutritious nature of the elements of smashed fresh bones conduces remarkably to keep the birds together, particularly in very wet seasons, when the condition of tho land renders it impossible for them to scratch about to the same extent." Should the aviary be situated on soil in which small stones are absent, these must be supplied ; this is most conveniently done by throwing in some fresh gravel once or twice a week. There is one point on which almost all the works treating* on the management of pheasants are lamentably deficient, namely, enforcing the absolute necessity for a constant supply of fresh green vegetable food. The tender grasses in an G 2 84 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. aviary are soon eaten, and the birds, pining for fresh vege- table diet, become irritable, feverish, and take to plucking each other's feathers. To prevent this, cabbages, turnip leaves still better, waste lettuces from the garden, when going to seed should be supplied as fast as they are eaten ; the smaller the pen th e greater the necessity for this supply. The late Dr. Jerdon, the distinguished author of " The Birds of India," when visiting the pheasantries in the Zoological Gardens, said, in his emphatic manner, " You are not giving these birds enough vegetable food. Lettuce ! Lettuce ! ! Lettuce ! ! ! " From my long experience in breeding galli- naceous birds of different species, I can fully indorse his recommendation . Should these cultivated vegetables be not readily obtained, a good supply of freshly cut turves, with abundance of young grass and plenty of clover, should be furnished daily. Instead of placing a cock and three to five hens in a pen, as recommended, some persons advocate putting cut-winged hens only in enclosures open at the top, so that they may be visited by the wild males. Of necessity, this method can only be followed in the immediate vicinity of coverts well stocked with pheasants, and even under these conditions it is not always successful, the eggs frequently not being fertilised. " It is sometimes recommended to put pheasant hens into small enclosures open at the top, so that the wild cocks might get to them. I suppose generally that plan is successful, but in my own case it has failed entirely. I had plenty of eggs, but no chickens. My keeper gathered the eggs regularly and carefully, and they were duly set under common hens ; but not one single egg came off. I know the wild cocks came close to the enclosure, but I never actually found one inside. I followed Baily's instructions implicitly; my own impression was, I must say, that the wild cocks had not visited the hens." This appears an exceptional case, and may probably be due to some local conditions. On the other hand, a second authority states : " On an OPEN PENS FOR HENS ONLY. 85 estate with which I am well acquainted, the whole of the young birds, some 400, were reared from eggs produced by hens whose mates were wild birds. The pheasantry was constructed with an open top, and the wild cock birds regularly visited it. The tameness of these birds was remark- able, and I have frequently seen six or eight cock birds walking fearlessly about within a few yards of me while inspecting the birds. As an instance of the audacity of the wild bird, I may mention that a few years ago I kept five hen pheasants and one cock pheasant in a temporary covered pheasantry, the lower part being covered up to the height of two or three feet, and the upper part being constructed of wire stretched on poles. I noticed shortly after the birds had been put in that the wire was bulged inwards in several places, and could not imagine how it had been done. On watching, however, I found a wild cock pheasant was in the habit of regularly fighting with the confined male bird by fiying up against the wire, the bird inside being by no means loth to accept the challenge. One morning, however, the wild bird was found inside, a nail having given way in one of his flights against the wire netting, being the cause of his unexpected capture. When discovered he had nearly killed the imprisoned cock bird, who was removed, and his adversary substituted. I may remark that those who have tried breeding from wild cocks will hardly, I fancy, return to the old system of keeping the cocks in confinement, as I have lound that the birds bred from wild cocks are invariably stronger, and consequently easier to rear than those bred in the ordinary way." There is no absolute necessity, however, for having recourse to the use of open pens, as the eggs of cut-winged birds, kept in. pheasant ries of sufficient size, well fed, with a good variety of fresh vegetable food, and supplied daily with fresh clear water, usually hatch quite as well as eggs gathered out of nests in the open covert. The construction of more ornamental and permanent 86 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. aviaries has now to be spoken of, but will not require much consideration. Fixed aviaries are far inferior, as regards the health of the birds, to those that are movable, therefore, if possible, they should always be constructed so as to admit of their being shifted on to new ground as often as is convenient. The great cause of the comparatively small success that attends the rearing of pheasants in our Zoological collections arises from the fact that the birds are kept on the same spot year after year, and in aviaries that are not one- fourth of the size required for the health and comfort of the birds. The plan of an ornamental aviary necessarily depends on the desires of the owner, and hardly comes within the scope of this work. Mr. Crook, who had much experience in erecting ornamental aviaries, writes as follows respecting their construction : " A neatly constructed lean-to building may be employed, facing south or south-west ; ten feet wide or long, six feet deep from back to front, and six feet high at front of the highest part of the roof ; the roof should project over the side eighteen inches to throw off the wet. The ground must be dug out under the house, and dry earth or sand be filled in. Faggots may be placed here as before directed, or slanting against the back wall; every precaution being taken to induce seclusion for the nests. For those pheasantries desired for strictly ornamental purposes the run may be made to any size agreeable to the wishes of the owner and the conveniences of the ground at command ; or of any design in character with some buildings near at hand. These ornamental aviaries may be carried out to any extent, but cannot be made to move about ; therefore the greatest attention must be paid to any minute detail in construction to ensure the health and contentedness of the inmates. When it is possible, the pens or runs should be placed where there are some low-growing shrubs, or even currant or gooseberry bushes, as they afford good sheltering places, and it is quite possible that the hens will make their laying nests at the roots of some of them, which will be a benefit to the birds." CATCHING BIRDS IN PENS. 87 When tlie birds are left full winged in wire aviaries, and are wild, it will be found very advantageous to have a cord netting stretched some inches below the wire top, as otherwise the birds are very apt to injure themselves severely when they dash upwards on being alarmed. When it is required to handle the pheasants, precautions must be employed that are not needful in the case of fowls, for their extreme timidity causes them to struggle so wildly as often to denude themselves of a great portion of their plumage, or even to break or dislocate their limbs. They are best caught by the aid of a large landing-net, with which they can be secured when driven into an angle, formed by setting a large hurdle against the side or in the corner of the pen. Mr. JBaily, in his practical little treatise, writes : " The best way of catching them is with a net made of hazel rod, seven or eight feet long, forked at top. This fork is bent round, or rather oval shaped, forming a hoop long enough to take in the bird without injuring its plumage. It is then covered with netting loose enough to allow of its being placed on the bird without pressing it down to injure it, and tight enough to prevent it from turning round in the net to the detriment of its plumage. Where many birds have to be caught, it is expedited by the adoption of an expedient I will describe ; and the plan is good, because it is always bad for the birds to be driven about, which they must be before they can be caught, if they are in a large pen. An extra hurdle should be made, to which a door should be joined on hinges. It .hould be three feet long. This should be placed by the side of one of those forming the pen, and the door being open the birds should be gently driven into it ; then the door should be closed. They may then be taken with the hand or not. A pheasant should be caught with one hand, taking at the same time a wing and thigh, the other hand should be brought into play directly to prevent its struggling, and it may then be easily and safely held in one, taking both thighs and the tips of both wings in the hand at the same 88 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. time. It takes two persons to cut the wings. They should always be held with their heads towards the person holding them." Since the first publication of this work the plans advocated in it have been very generally tested and discussed. The remarks of one of the writers contain so many useful details that I am glad to reproduce the more practical portion of his letters. " The advice offered with reference to pheasant pens or aviaries is as easy and inexpensive of adoption as it is good. By carefully following the excellent instructions fully set forth in the work upon pheasants by Mr. Tegetmeier to whom the thanks of all lovers of the bird are due I succeeded during the spring of 1875 in securing from thirty- five hens one thousand eggs. Forty birds similarly treated produced the following season 1500 ; last year forty-one hens presented us 1600 ; while this so far as it has yet passed offers promise of a still better return. <f The fertility of our eggs is most satisfactory, very nearly all proving fruitful, the few failing to hatch containing chicks, which through accident merely had not reached maturity. Here again I must gratefully acknowledge the excellent practical instructions proffered by Mr. Tegetmeier relating to feeding specially and management generally. We take all the pheasants with which our pens are supplied from early hatchings, care being observed that a due admixture of wild birds eggs are placed in these first sittings, thus securing a thorough change of blood. " On or about Sept. 1 the young birds are caught up, the strongest selected, one cock to five hens, and, with a wing cut, placed in their future home. They require no further attention beyond the frequent supplying of fresh food and water twice or thrice a day, reclipping the cut wing excepted. " Our aviary here being within easy flight of natural coverts, we adopt clipping in preference to pinioning, since, SITUATION OF PENS. 89 when the egg harvest closes, by extracting the crippled feathers, a gradual recovery of power enables the birds one by one to effect escape ; the exodus thus permitted being generally fully accomplished in sufficient time for a thorough cleaning and preparation of the aviary in readiness for its proposed future young occupants. One of the great secrets of success lies in variety of dry and liberality of green food, together with a generous supply of frequently changed water, gravel or road grit, ashes, chalk, and pounded bones. " I now propose offering a few suggestions touching more particularly the position, construction, and general manage- ment of the pheasant pens or aviaries. It may, however, be premised that their size and the numbers of birds pro- posed to be kept, greatly modifies many minor matters of detail, with reference not only to the health, but also to the comfort of the prisoners. On the all-important question of site fair contiguity to the keeper's cottage should be observed ; for if placed at too great a distance, a laxity, in winter more especially, of that solicitude so essential to their welfare, is likely to be engendered; while on the other hand close proximity, above all should there be many children, may, with all their custodian's care, prove the cause of great and irrevocable mischief. Total isolation, again, in the recesses of a deep, secluded covert, renders the birds so nervously sensitive that they are apt, upon the slightest unexpected excitement, to lose all self-control, dash about, and thus risk eggs, limbs, and even life. ft Our pens are placed within five yards of, and parallel to, a leading carriage drive, a thoroughfare daily in use. From earliest youth, therefore, the birds are more or less inured to the ever-changing sights and sounds incidental to ordinary traffic. Their thus seeing and hearing all going on around gradually enables them to acquire such an amount of courage, that curiosity usurps the place of fright ; the cocks crowing joyously yet defiantly, while the hens peer inquisi- tively, yet fearlessly, through the lattice of their harems. 90 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. The pens should be sufficiently shielded by trees, so as to insure in very sunny weather a grateful shade ; nevertheless, too much leafy shelter is apt to prove provocative of damp and cold. They should also, while enjoying a southern aspect, be well protected from the east wind. Thus placed the birds are better left without any well meant but fanciful attempts at further increasing their comfort. The little matters above enumerated excepted, the more they are exposed to the elements and permitted to rough it, the healthier and more robust will they become. "As in our present case here, so it frequently occurs that insufficient space militates against that annual shifting of aviaries on to new ground, so often recommended, and upon which, so far as my experience serves me, where the utmost attention to scrupulous cleanliness has been observed, unnecessary stress is laid. " After the laying season, when our birds have availed themselves of the liberty accorded them, the pens are com- pletely denuded of their contents. The ground is trenched spade deep, thickly sown with unslacked lime, then covered with from two to three inches of fresh clean dry loam, and finally freely moistened with water through an ordinary garden-rosed watering-pofc, when any floating lime dust is effectually disposed of, and the young birds may with safety be introduced. " Our aviary, in its entirety, measures in width about 27ft., and length 108ft., there being, however, three transverse divisions, four square compartments are thus formed. A small trench, one foot in depth, is dug around the whole structure. A piece of stout wire netting, one foot six inches in width, placed with one edge in the bottom of the trench, has its other laced with wire to the hurdles, up the outside of which it extends nine inches, when the earth is filled in, and rammed. The inclosure is thus rendered fox, cat, and rabbit- proof ; it has further attached to it ' gorse bavins/ thus securing warmth and privacy. The whole of the other MANAGEMENT OF PENS. 91 portions have now strained over them stout IJin. mesh galvanised wire netting, the top only carefully left free, for ingress and egress of wild birds. Inside each compartment, and parallel with the divisions, is now placed a row of bush bavins, one against the other, tightly pressed together, forming an inverted letter Y. On the apex of these faggots the birds love to perch, preen, and doze, while a secure retreat in case of sudden fright is offered by the little tunnel left at the base. A few faggots may also for a similar purpose be placed leaning against the sides and corners of the inclosure, those angles where the doors are hung excepted. " We have also two smaller pens, alike in all respects, and attached to those already described, but in measurement only 10ft. by 7ft. These are used for the temporary confinement of any quarrelsome egg-destroying or otherwise refractorv bird, who can thus, until its wing is sufficiently strong for flight, remain. One of the hurdles dividing these small pens from their neighbours as, indeed, in each of the interior divisions should be easily removable to the end, that the birds can at pleasure be driven right through into the smaller pens for the purpose of capture, wing-clipping, &c. " The introduction and placing about occasionally of freshly-cut fir tree branches is judicious. With reference to aliment, the greater the variety offered the better; and for a thoroughly trustworthy detail upon this vital point, again I gratefully add, vide ' Tegetmeier.' Eegularity in the hours of feeding, however, is as essential as is the quality of food administered three times diurnally, any unfinished debris of the previous meal having first been carefully removed, should the repasts be neatly and delicately served, not forgetting that, while all required is offered with no niggard hand, over- lavish generosity, only too often the mere promptings of laziness, ought most carefully to be avoided. " Powerless are the prisoners to escape those fatal mias- matic vapours speedily generated by decaying vegetable and animal matter, which, when permitted to daily be trampled 92 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. iato the floors of the dwelling, are ever within a few inches, be it recollected, of their respiratory organs. In connection with this matter also, it is wise to have duplicate shallow circular galvanised iron water pans of about eighteen inches in diameter. They are light, and consequently more likely to undergo that thorough and frequent cleansing so necessary." Coverts may be stocked either with wild birds or with those hatched in pens that have never been at liberty. Wild birds caught at the commencement of the year, not later than the middle of January, are healthier and more prolific than young birds that have never been allowed to fly. When caught, they should at once be put into large pens on fresh ground, Laving had the flight feathers of one wing cut off, when, if they are properly fed, they will become fairly tame before the breeding season. However tame they may become they should not be kept more than one, or at the most two seasons, when their wings should be allowed to grow and other birds captured to supply their place. Other modes are adopted for capturing the wild birds. The above very simple form of trap is described by Mr. J. E. Harting, which is perfectly efficacious for the purpose required. It is merely a modifica- tion of the old-fashioned sieve trap, so arranged as to be self- acting, or, in other words, to require no watching. The accompanying sketch will make all clear. A is a hoop off a large cask, covered with slack netting. At the point where it touches the ground a peg is driven in, to which the hoop is tied, or, as it were, hinged. Another short peg is driven in at D, on the top of which rests a cross-piece C, above which TRAPPING BIRDS FOR PENS. 93 again comes the long upright which supports the hoop. From each end of the cross-piece C, a piece of twine is carried to D, the twine being only a very little way off the ground. This acts as a trigger, and the moment a bird feeding under the hoop comes in contact with the twine, the cross-piece C is jerked away, and the trap falls. Some breeders prefer large baskets six feet square by one foot deep, made of strong willow covered with canvas, to the sieve. This is propped up securely, and the pheasants feed under it for several days before they are caught. It is then raised by a single stick, from which a long wire or cord proceeds to a tree or shelter many yards distant. This is for the purpose of pulling away the stick and catching the birds that are feeding underneath it. Open crates are sometimes FlC.I. Fic.2. recommended to be used in the same way, but they are not advantageous, as the birds injure themselves in the endeavour to escape. Another plan of a somewhat similar character, which hr.s proved most successful in use, is the catcher represented in the above figure. It is made of deal, to be as light as possible, and can be painted brown. The size at the bottom should be about 2ft. 4in. square, and at the top about 1ft. square, covered with a lid (Fig. 2), to enable the bird to be removed. To set it, as shown in the sketch, a bender is placed round from A to B, care being taken that it does not quite reach the front. Two sticks, C and D, are used, a notch should be cut in C about Gin. from the bottom, to 94 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVAIRIES. admit the top of stick D ; the lower end of C resting against the bender; and when the catcher is placed on the top of stick C the whole is held up by D, the bender being about Sin. from the ground. When the bird steps on the bender the trap falls and secures it. If the size described is used, the birds will hardly ever damage themselves. Where pheasants are to be caught, the catcher may be placed on the ground some time before using, propped up with one stick only, and some white peas strewn under- neath, and nowhere else. With this trap it is no trouble to catch nearly every bird in the covert, however mild the season. The best baskets for the transport of pheasants for short distances are those made of close brown wicker ; in shape they should resemble a basin turned upside down, the part corresponding to the foot of the basin being uppermost, and forming the only opening into the basket. Before being used this opening should be covered with canvas, which is to be closely stitched down half way round, previously to the birds being placed inside, and firmly secured afterwards. In these baskets they are free from observation and molestation when travelling by rail or carrier, and from the baskets being close and circular they are much less liable to injure their plumage than when sent in more open and angular packages. In forwarding live birds care should always be taken to attach a stout and somewhat loose cord across the top of the basket, in order to serve as a convenient handle by which it can be lifted with one hand, otherwise, irt the hurry of transit, the railway porters, who cannot be expected to use both hands in lifting every package, are certain to catch it up suddenly by one side, and the birds are often severely injured by being suddenly and violently thrown against the opposite one. The consideration of the best means of arranging for the transport of birds over long distances and by shipboard, is given at length in the Appendix. CHAPTER VII. MANAGEMENT OF PHEASANTS IN CONFINEMENT (CONTINUED). LAYING AND HATCHING. 24< III? F the laying in aviaries there is but little to be said. JE The birds usually drop their eggs about at random, consequently they should be looked after, and collected frequently, so as to prevent as far as possible their being broken, which is almost certain to establish the destructive habit of egg eating. Sometimes, however, hen pheasants will take to concealed nests, and instances are not unknown of their sitting and hatching successfully in confinement. A correspondent states : {< In 1852 I had a cock and three hens in a small place (I will not dignify it by the name of an aviary, for it is open at the top, and the birds are pinioned or have their wings cut) ; one of the hens made a nest, and sat and hatched five young ones. These, unfortunately, the other pheasants killed directly they came from under the mother. In 1853, the same hen sat again on eleven eggs, and hatched seven, when I let her out into my small garden, and a better mother I never saw ; she would allow no strangers to come near her without flying at them. At the end of seven weeks the gapes killed them all. It was a curious sight to see the old pheasant make her nest of ivy -leaves and hay, the former of which she always used to cover her eggs with when she left her nest, doing so by 96 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. standing on the edge, and throwing the leaves over her back. The same hen sat again in 1854." Mr. G. F. Woodrow (Keeper to the Earl of Denbigh, Newnham Paddox, Lutterworth), writing on the subject stated : " I have half an acre of young plantation inclosed for a pheasantry and open at the top, so that the wild cock birds can go in and out. I had over thirty hen pheasants and three cocks, all with their wings cut. About ten weeks ago a hen pheasant wanted to sit on the last egg that she laid; I took it from her, and disturbed her every day, but she persisted in sitting without an egg for more than a week; at last I took pity on her. One evening when I had gathered the eggs I put sixteen under her, and she sat and hatched thirteen birds. She allowed me to lift her off the nest, and I took her and her young and put them in a hen coop, and she has reared them well, and, quite as tame as any of my hens that I have rearing pheasants, allows me to drag the coop on to fresh ground, and never nutters. As soon as I throw the food in front of the coop she commences calling her young. They are now about the size of landrails, and the whole of them living." To prevent the fatal habit of eating the eggs, no care should be spared, as it is entirely subversive of any hope of success in rearing. As before stated, it may be in great part prevented by the frequent collection of the eggs. Mr. F. Crook truly remarks : " The male bird in confinement frequently takes to pecking the eggs, at first only for want of something more natural to do. Having no space, no fields and copses to roam about and amuse himself in, he pecks and pushes the egg about. At last it gets chipped, and he tastes of its contents, and he will not then leave it until consumed, and the abominable habit is confirmed in him. As it is usually the male bird that commits these vexing faults, a loose hurdle forming a corner pen, into which he can be driven, will be found most useful, as he should only be allowed amongst the hens after they have laid their eggs for PREVENTION OF EGG EATING. 97 the day ; and all having been removed,, a wooden egg may be exchanged for the real one, which will soon tire him out; nnd the bad habit may be cured, and no loss of time occur in the breeding season. But whether the birds are troublesome or not in this respect, the attendants must make periodical visits to the breeding pens for the purpose of collecting the eggs, as they should never be allowed to remain about. " There is no doubt that bad management and improper feeding tend to promote this serious evil. The frequent disturbance of the birds by the inquisitiveness of visitors, bad and improper stimulating food, without a sufficiency of green vegetable diet, want of cleanliness in the pen, an insufficient or dirty supply of water, and want of grit to assist digestion, all aid in developing the habit. Mr. J. F. Dougall, in his " Shooting Simplified," suggests the following mode of preventing the practice when once established : " In pheasantries means should be taken to prevent the eggs being destroyed by the male bird ; and as it is impossible to keep continual watch, the hen should be induced to seek a dark secluded corner by forming for her an artificial nest covered thinly with straw.* Under this straw have a net of mesh exactly wide enough to allow the egg to drop through into a box below, filled with soft seeds or shellings, leaving only a few inches between ; the cock bird cannot then reach the egg, which falls uninjured on the soft seeds below, and is safely removed." Mr. Leno writes : " I have invariably found the cocks to be the culprits. As soon as a pecked egg is found, the cock bird should be removed, and the hens left by themselves for a few days, to see whether he is or is not the guilty one; before putting in another cock with the hens, fill up the shell of the broken egg with soft soap, which the fresh bird may try his hand at. In. case the first cock has been at mischief long enough to teach the hens, there is no saving the eggs, unless they are watched and the eggs picked up immediately they are laid, or by partitioning part of the pen 98 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. off,, and straining some galvanised wire netting across the inclosure six inches off the ground, the mesh being of a sufficient size to allow the eggs to drop through as soon as laid on to some moss or chaff ; the hens should be driven into the wired inclosure early in the morning, and let out again late in the evening food and water, of course, must be placed in a small trough for them." Mr. Fairfax Muckley, of Audnam, Stourbridge, says : " My pheasantries are large, and of considerable extent. My method is this : In the beginning of April I have a bundle of larch bushes placed on each corner of the pheasantries, leaving only room behind for one bird, and a little hole in the bushes for the hens to creep into ; then make a place on the ground behind the bushes and put two or three sham ground glass eggs, and also place a few anywhere about the pheasantries ; they then become accustomed to see these sham eggs and try to break them, but finding they cannot do so, they leave the real ones alone. The hens are also induced to go into the corners of the pheasantries and lay to the sham eggs. The great thing is to have these in every way like real ones. Those generally used are useless, being either too heavy or too light, and wrong in appearance. I may add that the of tener the eggs are collected the better ; but care should be taken not to disturb the hens when behind the bushes. I had two very fine cock birds sent me ; they ate the eggs in the beginning, but by continually having perfectly-made sham eggs before them they are quite cured, and over one hundred eggs have been collected out of their pens. It is a good plan, when a hen has just laid, to take the egg away and put a sham one in the place, particularly when you know they eat them. At the end of the season have the sham eggs collected for other seasons." The glass eggs manufactured by Mr. Muckley are most efficacious in preventing this destructive habit. In consequence of the removal of the eggs as soon as deposited, and the birds not sitting, the number laid by the JEFFRIES ON PHEASANT REARING. 99 hens in confinement is greatly in excess of that produced by them in a wild state, sometimes as many as twenty-five or thirty being laid by one hen. This extreme prolificacy tends to exhaust the birds, and it will be found most advantageous to turn them out when they have finished laying, and to supply their places by young poults. It not unfrequently happens that a greater number of eggs are required for hatching under farmyard hens than are pro- duced by the birds in the pheasantries ; in such cases the surplus eggs in the nests of the wild birds may be ad- vantageously collected. This, however, may be done in a right or a wrong way. They should be taken before the hen pheasant begins to sit ; and if removed one at a time every other day as the bird is laying, they are certain not to have been partly hatched. Richard Jeffries, in a most graphic article on the pleasures of pheasant rearing, describing the gathering of the eggs, truly says : " Unfortunately nothing is more easy to find than a pheasant's nest. Like a cockney looking for a home in the suburbs, the hen pheasant seems to prefer a lively situation near a thoroughfare, with a good view of anything that may be going on. It needs no great practice to catch the glance of the bright beady eye among the roots of the roadside hedgerow, or to distinguish the grey mottled plumage among the grass and nettles in the ditch below. Look under that heap of fallen boughs, and as likely as not there are the green-grey eggs dropped under the very outermost, where there is scarcely a pretence at cover, although, had she taken the trouble to force her way one half -yard further, the hen might have laid them safe out of sight of all but ground vermin. So by dint of poking about among the grass and the branches and brambles, by looking under furze bushes and in hedgerows, and in the cavities formed at the foot of tree trunks, you may come upon a good number of nests in the afternoon, should birds be tolerably plentiful. Very likely indeed you have found too many eggs to be accommo- H 2 100 PHEASANTS FQR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. dated under the sitting hens at your disposal. Some must be left, while other brood .mothers are sought. Whether on your second visit you find those you left, as you left them, depends greatly upon circumstances. If you have a profusion of rooks about your place, the chances are much against it.. For those omnivorous gluttons have as decided a partiality for pheasant eggs as any ball-going gourmand for those of the plover. They have overrun your woods. They sit swing- ing and cawing on each projecting bough that commands a prospect. They walk the slopes of your fields, one eye closely scanning the soil for insects, the other sweeping all the points of the compass. Nothing escapes their observation. When they see you out for an object they follow you and mark each movement. We have very little doubt they speedily learn to suspect your intention, and when they see you stoop in a likely spot, they fly down to institute an investigation when- ever your back is turned. In no other way can we possibly account for the wholesale wreck of eggs that had been spared and sat upon until you visited them in your walk. And if you doubt who are the culprits, try the ordeal by taste, and strych- nine a nestful of eggs. You will find the bodies of the black delinquents strewed round the fragments of the shells. " Nothing can be prettier than the broods of young pheasants as they are hatched off, tame as chickens although more graceful and active running from the shell, and be- ginning forthwith to peck about for a living. Unfortunately there are other members of the animated creation who watch their growth and their movements with even keener and more immediate interest than yourself. For some four months to come you mean neither to shoot nor eat your confiding proteges; but they are surrounded by sharp-set carnivora who propose themselves that pleasure on the earliest possible opportunity. We do not assert that those nuisances the rooks are dangerous in this stage of the pheasant breeding,, although we should deem it imprudent to trust them too far. And there a weasel is watching, popping his head at intervals JEFFRIES ON PHEASANT REARING. 101 out of different holes in the neighbouring bank, undeterred by the fate of several of his family, who have already been trapped there and gibbeted. Bat more dangerous than hawk or weasel are the jackdaws. For, as these vociferous birds bear comparatively respectable characters, they are more likely to be indulged with a licence they abuse. We know' them to be bavards : we cannot deny the family tendency to* kleptomania. But we are in the way of believing chattering to be the sign of a frank, shallow nature, and we are apt to condone the thefts that are perpetrated with no view to profit. In reality, the jackdaw is a deep hypocrite a robber and a bloody-beaked murderer. He chatters his way from branch to branch above the coops with the most unconcerned air in the world just as a human thief walks, whistling, with his hands in his pockets, towards the prey he means to make a snatch at. Then, when he sees himself unnoticed, the jackdaw stills his chatter and makes his stealthy swoop ; and in this way, watching while your watcher's back is turned, he massacres a whole family of your innocents, and the hawks and weasels get the credit of the crime. But, after all, a gun kept upon the spot generally inspires a salutary dread. " Many of your young birds survive the perils of their cheeperhood ; then the long grass in the neighbouring bits of covert becomes alive with them, and once in that stage they are comparatively safe. Thenceforward till the autumn they feed and thrive, strengthen and fatten . And, sport, sale, and the autumn game course out of the question, what can be pleasanter or prettier in the way of sounds or sights than the young birds learning to crow in your coverts as you saunter out before breakfast, or scattered about your lawn as you dine, with open windows, of a summer evening ? Pace Mr. Tegetmeier, and other gallinaceous authorities, we must say that in the way of pets we prefer pheasants to poultry." Many pheasant rearers are so short-sighted as to recruit their stock of eggs by purchase, forgetting that in the great 102 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. majority of cases these eggs are stolen, either from their own or from other preserves. In some cases the keepers them- selves purloin the eggs and sell them to the dealers, from whom they are perhaps repurchased by the owner of the very estate from whence they were abstracted. As an example of the mode in which these frauds are perpetrated, I may adduce the following example, furnished by a correspondent : "On a small estate in Sussex there was a pheasantry with about seventy-five birds, and when the laying commenced, the eggs were taken up carefully two or three times a day ; the keeper had these eggs out as he got the hens ready to sit, which was three or four times a week, as a very large number of hens were kept. A book was kept, in which were entered the eggs laid each day, the eggs given out being also entered in a second column, and the number of birds hatched in a third ; and the keeper was directed to preserve all the eggs not hatched or bad, so that they might be added to the number of birds, and the total of birds hatched and bad eggs compared with the eggs laid. The first ten or twelve hens brought out good broods of from thirteen to seventeen birds each. Afterwards they decreased, and in many cases there were only three, and even as low as one bird in a brood. The eggs were never more than a day or two old when first sat upon, we had often hens waiting for the eggs, and everything was most favourable for a large return of birds. At this time some suspicion was entertained, and for a time the keeper was more closely looked after, when the broods at once came up to twelve and fourteen birds. But, unfortunately, the same watchful care was not continued, and at the end of the season it was found that he was short upwards of seven hundred eggs, and that he had sold upwards of thirty-five pounds worth. The sitting- house was a first-rate one for the purpose large, roomy, and dry. The keeper's plan was to keep back a portion of good eggs out of each setting, and substitute bad ones in their place. I am very far indeed from saying that this is a SELECTION OF HENS FOR HATCHING. 103 common occurrence ; for I am glad to say that most keepers are as anxious about their charges as their employers, and take a pride in showing a large head of game." From the indisposition shown by the pheasant to incubate in confinement, it is necessary in all cases to have recourse to the hens of the domestic fowl as foster parents. Various opinions are offered as to the breed of fowls most suitable for the purpose. There can, however, be no doubt that it should be one of a moderate size, and not too prolific in egg producing, as it is essential that the mother hen should keep with the poults as long as possible, which she is not likely to do after she commences laying. Silky fowls are strongly recommended by some, and they unquestionably constitute admirable mothers. M. Vekemans, of the Antwerp Zoo- logical Gardens, where rare pheasants are reared more successfully than in any similar establishment in Europe, employs half-bred silkies ; and the late Mr. Stone, of Scyborwen, fully indorsed his opinion. These half-bred silkies are good sitters, admirable mothers, and keep a long time with the young. The ordinary bantams sometimes recommended are undoubtedly too small, not being able to cover the poults when of any size. The employment of pure bred game hens is strongly recommended by many breeders of pheasants, as they will defend their chicks against any enemies that may attack them, though their natural wildness renders their management somewhat difficult at times ; any small, tame, ordinary hens will answer if known as good nurses, and none others should be employed. Hens with feathered legs are not desirable, as they are very frequently afflicted with what is known as " scurfy legs/' a very obnoxious disease, which is caused by minute parasites that breed under the scales, causing rough swellings. These parasites extend to the young pheasants, and many coverts are infested with scurfy-legged pheasants in consequence. It is the common custom to set the hens in close boxes, with little or no ventilation, crowded together in sitting 104 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. houses. Under these conditions the nests swarm with vermin, the sitting hens become irritable and break their eggs; and when the young pheasants conae out they are infested with fleas and lice,, and are nearly devoured alive. Moreover, the dry, stifling air of these places is destructive to the vitality of the unhatched birds, numbers of which die in the shell either before or at the period of hatching. Every poultry keeper knows that no nests are so prolific of strong healthy chickens as those that the hens " steal " under hedges or in copses or concealed places, from whence they emerge with strong flourishing broods that put to shame the delicate, sickly youngsters reared in the close air and dry over-heated nests of a hatching-house. The nearer we can imitate Nature the better and if the hens hatching pheasants' eggs can be set on the ground, covered over with a ventilated HATCHING BOX. BOX AND RUN COMPLETE. warmth and this sur- coop more for concealment thau rounded by a wire run, into which the hen can come out, feed, drink, and, above all, dust herself, at her will, the eggs will be found to hatch out much more abundantly than when they are set in the vermin-infested, crowded pigeon holes adopted by many keepers. Such nesting boxes may be a cheaply con- structed box, as shown in the woodcut. The nest should be on the ground, there being no bottom to the box ; and if the sides and the wire work are sunk into the earth, and the latter is sparrow and rat proof, the hen may be supplied once daily with food and water without entailing any further- trouble. But some dry ashes should be given in which she can dust herself, and it is needless to say that the larger the wire inclosure can be made the better. CROOK ON HATCHING PHEASANTS. 105 In confirmation of my views 011 the subject of hatching, I have much pleasure in quoting the following practical observations of Mr. F. Crook, who states : ft The fault usually existiug is, that an over-careful, pampering system is adopted, and miserable broods are the result. I have experimented in a manner which leaves DO doubt upon the subject. Upon one occasion I was anxious to test the fertility of certain pheasants' eggs, and continued to remove the eggs from a nest in the woods until I found the hen desirous of sitting. I left twelve eggs in the nest, and 1 sat thirteen at home under a hen ; the pheasant brought out twelve birds, while at home I only had three miserable birds. Similar results have many times occurred since. As a rule, the home hatching places are too confined in area, the hens are fed too near the nests, and are not compelled to remain off the eggs long enough, and no amount of wetting or sprinkling with water, either hot or cold, recommended by some writers, will compensate for a due supply of fresh air. Birds in the woods select a dry spot, sheltered from the rains as much as possible. Sometimes they will carry dry leaves, soft, short straw, hay, and feathers ; at other times the nest is made in a hollow at the root of a, tree, and the eggs are laid on the loose mould ; or under thick bushes, and covered with coarse grass ; but in every case the nest is never stifled, having the freest circula- tion of air surrounding it. If such natural precautions alone are used, greater success may be looked for at home than when the nests are made up in quiet, warm, small places, where the birds have but little room to move, and the eggs get nothing but a foetid atmosphere to destroy the life that lies beneath the shell. The 'term of incubation of pheasants' eggs varies considerably. I have hatched them at home at all times from twenty-two to twenty-seven days, but in the woods they invariably turn out about the twenty-fourth day. Those which hatch at the most natural time of twenty-four days turn out to be the finest and healthiest birds. There is some care required in marking the dates and number of eggs 106 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. set in each nest for hatching, as by a little forethought in this respect, great advantages may be obtained by saving time, and retaining the services of the sitting hen. Over each nest the date should be distinctly pencilled, thus ^^ which means fourteen eggs were set on the 1 6th of April, 1896. About the ninth day the eggs should be examined, and all those which appear perfectly clear, as when first set, should be laid on one side as useless for hatching, but as perfectly good for feeding the poults." This examination of the eggs after they have been sat on for a few days is exceedingly desirable, as those that are unfertilised may be removed, when they serve as food for the poults, and leave more room for such as contain live birds. Many instruments dignified by the title of ovascopes and egg- testers have been devised for this purpose, some with lenses, others with reflectors, &c. I have tried the whole of them, and find them far inferior to the following simple contrivance, the description and engraving of which is re- produced from my work on " Table and Market Poultry " : " The most simple egg-tester is made out of a piece of cardboard ; the cover of an old book answers very well. An oval hole should be cut in it, not quite large enough to allow an egg to pass through, and if the cardboard is white, one side should be inked or painted black. The eggs are more conveniently removed from the hen at night, or if in day they should be taken into a room from which daylight is excluded. A single lamp only should be used. The card- board, with the darkened side towards the observer, should be held near the chimney of the lamp, and the eggs one after another, should be held against the hole. Those that con- tain chickens will be observed to be quite dark and opaque, except at the larger end, where the air-space exists. These should be replaced under the hen. Those that have not been fertilised, and are consequently sterile, are sufficiently transparent to allow the light to pass through, and look as fresh eggs would if examined in the same manner. Such TESTING INCUBATED EGGS. 10T eggs are usually termed ( clear/ These clear eggs are perfectly good to eat ; but it is preferable to save them for the food of the chickens when hatched. Throwing them away is a wasteful proceeding/' It is evident that setting two or more hens on the same day is advantageous, as the " clear " eggs may be removed from the whole of the nests, and the number in those that are deficient made up from the other nests, a fresh batch being METHOD OF TESTING EGGS. placed under the hen the whole of whose eggs have been removed. The conveyance of eggs for the purpose of hatching is tolerably well understood by the most experienced breeders. There is nothing equal to a good-sized basket in which they can be placed, surrounded with and separated from one another by hay. Boxes with bran, sawdust, cut chaff, &c., are very inferior, as these materials shake into smaller 108 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. compass by the jolting of the journey, and the eggs fre- quently come into contact and are broken. Sometimes circumstances may occur in which it is desir- able to exchange the eggs of fowls and pheasants temporarily; there is no difficulty in so doing. Pheasants' and partridges' eggs may be taken from their nests, and others substituted. The exchanged eggs may be placed under common hens. As soon as the pheasants' eggs show appearance of hatching, they are removed back again to those nests which have not been forsaken, with very good results. The exchange is much more likely to succeed with pheasants than partridges ; with the former it is almost a certainty. The advantages are many, and all on the keeper's side, as he may turn out with the old birds larger broods than they otherwise would have hatched. In those cases in which the nest of the pheasant is in a situation likely to be disturbed, the plan may be advan- tageous ; but, under ordinary circumstances, the eggs had better be left unmolested, as the hen pheasant is almost certain to bring off a larger number of chicks than would result if the eggs were shifted under a farmyard hen. In some parts of Germany turkey hens are employed to hatch pheasants ; the eggs are collected and placed under the hens, who make excellent mothers, and are capable of hatching and rearing twice the number of poults that a barn- door hen can raise. From the great success that has attended the introduction into England of the American plan of allowing turkey hens to lay, sit, and rear their young in the open, I should strongly ' advise the placing of pheasants eggs in the nest of a turkey hen that has sat herself in some hedgerow or covert, and letting her rear the young pheasants, uncooped, and at perfect liberty. CHAPTER VIII MANAGEMENT OF PHEASANTS IN CONFINEMENT (CONTINUED). REARING THE YOUNG BIRDS. UCCESS in the rearing of young birds, it cannot be too strongly impressed on the inexperienced pheasant rearer, is never the reward of those who practise perpetual intermeddling with the sitting hens. All interference at the time the eggs are hatching is injurious ; nevertheless, there are fussy people who cannot imagine that anything can progress rightly without their assistance ; when the eggs are chipping they disturb the fowl to see how many are billed; this is generally resented by the hen, who sinks down on her eggs, and most probably crushes one or two of them, and thus renders the escape of the young birds almost impossible. It is perfectly true that sometimes an unhatched bird that would otherwise be unable to extricate itself, may be assisted out of the shell and survive, but it is no less certain that for one whose life is preserved in this manner a score are sacrificed to the meddling curiosity of the interferer. The chicks should be 10ft under the hen till they are twenty-four hours old without being disturbed ; by this time the yolk which is absorbed into the intestines at the period, of hatching will have been digested, and the young birds become strong enough to run from under the parent hen. 110 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. If the fowl is set in one of the coops with a wire run, such as I have recommended,, she had better be left alone, and will leave the nest herself as soon as the chicks are strong enough to follow her. The ridiculous practice of taking the young birds as soon as hatched, dipping their bills in water or milk to teach them to drink, and forcing down their delicate throats whole pepper corns or grains of barley, is so opposed to common sense that it does not need to be refuted. When young pheasants and fowls are hatched in a state of nature, they are much stronger and more vigorous than those reared under the care of man (unless, indeed, the season be so wet as to be injurious to the wild birds), although they are not -crammed with pepper corns, highly spiced artificial foods, and other nostrums, but have to seek their first food for themselves. Nature is far cleverer than man, but, un- fortunately, the latter has not always the sense to perceive the fact. The nearer we can imitate her in our arrangements, the more successful we shall be. With regard to the first food of the young chicks, there is nothing superior to a supply of fresh ants' eggs (as they .are generally termed, although, strictly speaking, they are the pupae, and not the eggs of the insects). For grain, I am anxious to recommend, as the first food, a good proportion of canary seed in preference to grits and meal. Grain when once crushed or bruised has its vitality destroyed, and it then undergoes changes when exposed to the air : the difference between sweet, new oatmeal and the pungent, biting, rancid meal that is often found in the fusty drawers of the corn- chandler, is known to all persons accustomed to use oatmeal as food. This change, however, does not occur in the entire grain as long as its vitality exists, and hence the whole canary seed, which is readily devoured by the young pheasants, is almost certain to be fresh and sweet. More- over, the husk contains a larger proportion of phosphate of lime, or bone-making material, than the centre of the grain, -and is, therefore, better adapted to supply the wants of the FEEDING YOUNG PHEASANTS. Ill growing birds. The first food preferred by young partridges is the seed of the crested dog's tail grass (Gynosurus cristatus), with which their crops will often be found quite full, and there is no doubt it would be an equally advantageous food for young pheasants, but is not as readily obtained as canary To afford a supply of artificially prepared animal food, most of the books recommend hard boiled eggs, grated or chopped small, to be mixed with bread crumbs, meal, vegetables, &c. Nothing, however, can be less attractive to the young birds than the food they are frequently condemned to exist upon. I have often seen pieces of the chopped white of hard boiled egg, dried by the sun into horny angular particles, refused by the young birds, although on these, with bread crumbs also dried to brittle fragments in the sun, many persons attempt to rear young pheasants and fail. The best substitute for ants' eggs is custard, made by beating an egg with a tablespoonf ul of milk, and " setting " the whole by a gentle heat, either in the oven or by the side of the fire. The clear eggs that have been sat on for a week answer perfectly well. No artificially prepared animal food can surpass this mixture. The egg supplies albumen, oil, phosphorus, sulphur, &c. ; whilst the milk affords caseine, sugar of milk, and the requisite phosphate of lime and other mineral ingredients; moreover, these are all prepared and mixed in Nature's laboratory for the express purpose of supporting the life and growth of young animals, and combined as custard form a most soft, sapid, attractive food, that is eagerly devoured by the poults. From my own long experience in rearing many species of gallinaceous birds, I am confident that a very much larger proportion can be reared if custard forms a con- siderable proportion of their food for the first few weeks, than on any other dietary whatever. Many rearers of pheasants are strongly in favour of using curd, made from fresh, sweet milk put on the fire, and when warm turned or curdled with alum, and then put into a 112 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. coarse cloth, which is to be twisted or pressed until the curd is a hard mass. There are several objections to curd as food. The alum is a powerful astringent, and is not a natural diet for young birds. The curd so made only contains two of the constituents of the milk, namely, the caseine and the cream. The whey, containing the sugar of milk, the saline ingredients, and, above all, the bone-making materials, is rejected, whereas, when the milk is made into custard, the whole of the constituents are retained, and to them is added the no less valuable ingredients of the egg. There is, in fact, no comparison to be made between the nutritive values of curd and custard. Gentles or the maggots of the bluebottle or flesh fly are used by some keepers. They are generally obtained by hanging up in the woods, at a distance from a human habitation, some horseflesh, or the bodies of vermin that have been killed, and the gentles are allowed to drop into a tub of bran. The plan is necessarily offensive. A much better plan in situations where it can be employed, is to allow the dead bodies of any animals to become thoroughly fly- blown, and then to bury them a few inches in the soil, as described at page 83. Jt is obvious, however, that this plan cannot be pursued where the pheasauts are reared under hens confined in coops. Maggots can also be procured in the neighbourhood of the sea coast ~by adopting the following plan, recommended in Cornwall Simeons' " Stray Notes on Fishing and Natural History : " " It is not, I think, generally known that maggots admirably adapted for feeding young pheasants and par- tridges can be procured from common sea- weed. This should be taken up as near low water mark as possible, placed in a heap, and allowed to rot about a fortnight, after which it will be found swarming with maggots, rather smaller than those bred in flesh. The keeper from whom I learnt this dodge, a man of considerable experience in his vocation, tells me that he considers them, as food for young BARTLETT ON REARING YOUNG BIRDS. 113 birds, superior to flesh maggots, inasmuch as they may be given in any quantity, without fear of causing surfeit/' When the hens are cooped, as is necessary where numbers of pheasants are reared, a good supply of fresh vegetable food is absolutely necessary ; and I believe that nothing surpasses chopped lettuce, which should be running to seed, and con- sequently milky, as the pheasants take to it much more readily than they do to onions, watercress, &c., or other green food. The greater the variety of food the better ; therefore, in addition to the articles before spoken of, a little crushed hempseed, millet, dari, and coarse Indian corn meal, if fresh, &c., may be added. As the mode of treating pheasant chicks by different breeders varies considerably, it is desirable that I should indicate the management which has been found successful in other hands. I will first quote the practical directions of Mr. Bartlett, the superintendent of the gardens of the Zoological Society, Regent's Park. This paper was written for Mr. D. G. Elliot's "Monograph on the Phasianidse," and I beg to return my thanks to these gentlemen for permission to quote it in extenso. Mr. Bartlett writes : " At first the chicks require rather soft food, but not very moist. One of the best things to give them is hard-boiled egg grated fine, and mixed with good sweet meal, a little bruised hempseed, and finely chopped green food, such as lettuce, cabbage, water- cress, or mustard and cress. Meal mixed with boiled milk until it is like a tough dough, sufficiently dry to crumble easily, together with a small quantity of millet and canary seed, is also excellent for them. A baked custard pudding, made of well beaten eggs and milk, is likewise of great service to the young ; and if the season is wet and cold, a little pepper, and sufficient dry meal to render it stiff enough to crumble, should be added before baking. Ants' eggs, meal worms, and grasshoppers are also very useful. The first of these are easily obtained in a dry state, in which con- dition they can. be kept many months, and are invaluable. r 114 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. Care should be taken that fresh and finely-chopped green food should be given daily. Many persons are in the habit of giving gentles to young birds ; there is great danger in these ; and I merely mention them, without recommending their use ; for, unless the person who gives them will take the trouble to keep them for some time in moist sand or damp earth until they have become thoroughly cleansed, they are apt to cause purging. Many valuable birds have been lost by the incautious use of gentles freshly taken from the carcase of some dead animal ; but, if well cleansed by keeping ten or twelve days after being removed from the ftesh, a few, very few, may be given in case no better kind of insect food is at hand. The treatment of the young birds, such as change of food, &c., must greatly depend upon the judgment and skill of the person who has, charge of them. Much also depends upon the locality, the state of the atmo- sphere, the temperature, the dryness or wetness of the season, the abundance or scarcity of insect food, and other con- siderations which must serve to guide those in whose care the chicks are placed." The mode of management pursued by the late Mr. Douglas is somewhat different. He truly remarks: "Although food has a great deal to do in the rearing of pheasants, attention has almost an equal share ; and without the attention re- quired being given, food would be of little avail. I will commence with the hatching. Never remove your hens until the chicks are well nested, guarding the nest to keep any that may be hatched before the last chick is strong enough to leave the nest. Never take the first hatched from the hen it is wrong nothing is so beneficial in strengthening a chick as the heat of the hen's body. Let feeding alone for the first twenty-four hours after the first chick is hatched ; the large quantity of yolk that is drawn into the chick within the last twenty-four hours of its confinement in the shell is sufficient for its wants during the time specified. Next, have your coops set on dry turf two or three days previous to DOUGLAS ON REARING YOUNG BIRDS. 115 your pheasants being hatched ; it will save a little hurry when wanted ; also it will keep the spot dry, that being so necessary on the first shift from the nest. If your turf is not of a sandy nature, sprinkle a handful of sand on where you intend to shift your coops. The coops being shifted daily is very beneficial to the chicks. Take care they are not let out in the morning until such time as the sun is well up, if there is a heavy dew on the grass, and the grass has got a little dry. I have no doubt but the continual letting out on wet grass, previous to the sun having power to counteract the bad effects -of the cold wet dew, is the cause of many of the ills they are subject to. Feed twice or thrice, if necessary, previous to letting out. The principle food I give for the first fortnight is composed of eggs and new milk, made as follows : In proportions, one dozen of eggs, beaten up in a basin, added to half a pint of new milk ; when the milk boils add the eggs, stirring over a slow fire for a short period to thicken, when it will form a nice thick custard. This I give for the first three days ; then I commence to add a little of the best oatmeal, and any greens the garden can produce, finely chopped, for the next three or four days ; after seven days I add to their diet a little kibbled wheat being kiln- dried previous to kibbling also split groats and bruised hempseed, occasionally a handful of millet seed ; taking care :all their food is of the very best, and that the feeding dishes are scalded in boiling water daily. The above food I use until about three weeks old, when I add minced meat mixed with oat or barley-meal, with the broth from the meat, the meat being composed of sheep's heads and plucks, taken from the bone and finely minced, and just sufficient of the broth to form a dry crumbly paste. At five weeks old I consider a feed of good wheat and barley alternately, the last thing at night, quite necessary, not forgetting, at this age, to add a little tonic solution of sulphate of iron to their water daily. At this time the growth of their feathers requires a great deal of support, .and if the bodily strength is not supported by a strengthening i 2 116 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. diet, they must give way. Continue the custard up to eight weeks old, but adding more meal to it, with the green food. Give one sort of food at a time (just so much that they eat it clean up), and attendance every hour from the time you commence to feed until shut up for the night. Change the- water repeatedly during the day." With regard to the coops employed for the hens with young pheasants, a form much recommended is one made like a box, 3ft. long, 2ft. wide, and 2ft. high in front, sloping off to 1ft. high at the back, and having a movable boarded floor that may be employed if the ground be wet. The birds ought to have a further space of about two yards square to run in, fenced in by sparrow-proof wire netting. A good coop of this kind is shown in the cut. The inclosed run,. which is proof against rats and sparrows, &c., affords a sufficient space for the exercise of the young birds a day or two after hatching, after which the coops should be placed without the wire runs in the spot where the young birds are to be reared, the grass, if high, having been mown around some short time previously, so that the young shoots and tender clover may be growing for the use of the birds. Mr. Reynolds, of Old Compton-street, has some admirable coops of a similar kind. The advantages of these arrangements have been very ably set forth by Mr. T. C. Cade, of Spondon, Derby. He writes : " There is a great saving of food, as small birds are excluded, by the wire netting ; and it is also practicable to put down a good supply of food at night, so that the young pheasants may be able to feed as soon as they TETHERING HENS. wake, and not be kept waiting, according to the usual plan, for two or three hours during the long summer mornings before they are let out. My birds are never shut in the coop -at night, the wire netting being sufficient protection against vermin and cats. I do not know whether any of your readers have ever accompanied their keeper on a hot summer morning when he is letting the young birds out of the coops. If not, let them do so, and but put their noses within a foot of the coop, and I will venture to say that they will never allow such cruelty again. More than a dozen birds confined, perhaps, for ten hours in a dirty, ill-ventilated box, con- taining less than half a cubic yard of air. No wonder that they look languid and drooping, and that it takes them half the day to recover. I am far from insisting that the birds should at all times be kept in these small yards. When they are more than a week old I would, in fine weather, raise one of the sides and let them roam at their will, of course, re- placing the board at night. But in wet weather and in the mornings before the dew is gone, I would keep them up, and not run the risk of their getting draggled and chilled with running on the wet grass." When shut in at night, which is often necessary to avoid loss by weasels or rats, &c., they should be let out at daybreak in the morning. Many keepers prefer rearing the young pheasants under hens that are tethered by a cord to a peg driven into the ground, with an open shelter coop into which they can retreat, and if necessary be shut in, at night and during rain. The following directions for tethering hens with young pheasants or chickens are taken from my work on " Table and Market Poultry." " The hen should be fastened by a piece of string to a peg driven into the ground, and an open,, sheltered coop should be placed near her, under which she can retreat at night and during rain. The coop should not) be put so close to the peg to which the hen is attached that she can walk round it, but near the limit of her cord, so that she can pass 118 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. in and out, but not round the back. Under these circum- stances she will be able to scratch the surface of the ground and supply her young with the seeds, grubs, worms, and natural food, which is so much more advantageous to them than any artificial substitute that can be given. The little chickens, even when two or three days old, will be observed scratching for themselves, and the progress that they make when reared under these conditions is out of all proportion to that made when the hen is kept cooped up, and the birds are fed on the hard, soiled, dirty ground. ee But there is a right way and a wrong way of doing every- thing. If the hen is simply secured by a piece of string tied round her leg, she will pull against it, and the leg or upper part of the foot may be injured. She should be secured by a proper jess, such as is used by falconers. A piece of thin, flexible leather, about eight inches long, by something less than lin. broad, should be taken, and three openings cut in it, as shown in the diagram, which is one-half the required size. The part between A and B should be placed round the leg of the hen, the slit A being brought over B, then the end C should be passed through both slits, care being taken that it goes through A first. It should be pulled right through, when it will be found to make a secure loop round the leg of the hen, which she can neither undo by picking nor tighten by pulling. The cord of the requisite length is then tied to C, and fastened to a peg driven in the ground, which, as I have said before, should be put a sufficient distance from the coop to allow the hen to take shelter in it in case of need. A hen pegged down in this manner will become perfectly accustomed to the circumstances, and will proceed to scratch for her chickens in a very few minutes. YOUNG PHEASANTS IN GARDENS. 119 The advantages to the young birds from being on fresh, sweet ground, and obtaining natural food cannot be over- stated. The hen commands a sufficient space of ground to prevent it becoming soiled, and she can be shifted day after day as often as required." In situations where such a convenience is available, there is 110 more advantageous situation for newly hatched pheasants than a garden surrounded with high walls. A very practical correspondent, writing from Kildare, says : "There can be no better place to put young birds when newly reared than a large walled-in vegetable garden. I always place mine, hencoop and all, near a plot of cabbages, gooseberries, or raspberries, where they have good covert and feeding, and, above all, are protected from any injury at night during the period of their jugging on the ground, which they do for some time before they fly up to roost. By feeding them at the coops four or five times a day, they will stay in the garden until fully feathered, and able to fly over the wall to the adjacent coverts. I have had hen pheasants that nested in the garden and hatched under gooseberry bushes, coming to my whistle to feed regularly every morning. If the young birds are put out into the covert, the hen and coop (as in the garden) should be brought with them, and laid in a ride close to some very thick covert ; they should be. fed there about four times a day, beginning early in the morning, and diminishing as the birds grow strong. I feed them at this period on crushed wheat and barley, boiled potatoes chopped fine, some boiled rice and curds, all mixed together." A very vexed question with regard to rearing of the young* birds is the supply of water. Some very practical keepers give no water whatever; others give a very little; whilst a third set keep up an abundant supply. I am strongly of opinion that in this, as in all other respects, we cannot possibly do better than take nature for our guide. When hatched out naturally, there is no doubt that the birds obtain 120 PHEASANTS FOB COVERTS AND AVIARIES. a plentiful supply of water. Even when there is no rain, the cloudless skies are productive of heavy dews, and the young birds may be seen drinking the glistening drops off the grass in the early morning. Some persons maintain that the ova of the gape worm are taken in with the water gathered from dewdrops on the grass ; others suggest that they occur in rain-water, but there is no foundation for either of these theories, as tho disease is strictly local, which would not be the case if it were disseminated by a flying insect, by dew or rain water, or by any animals inhabiting running water. Much evil is produced by allowing the young pheasants to drink water contaminated with their own excrement, which is always the case if the water vessels are so constructed that the young can run into them; where such water is used, there can be 110 doubt of its injurious quality, but I cannot imagine that fresh, clear water can be otherwise than beneficial to the birds. A correspondent, who is a most successful breeder of pheasants on a large scale, and whose young stock are in splendid order, writes : " I may give as my opinion that it is perfectly necessary to their health to have fresh spring water. Indeed, my man last year used to go to one particular spring to supply his birds, as it was better water. In their wild state, immediately they are out of the nest, the hen conducts them to the water, and in our wild Devonshire hills, where a streamlet runs in every valley, you can always see the well-defined paths of the broods to and from the water. I have just asked my man, and he tells me that so well are their water-loving propensities known, that poachers in large breeding places always net in dry weather any springs within reach of the coops, and often with success/' Another Authority says : " I am strongly opposed to attempting to rear pheasants without water, as against all nature ; but my keeper adheres to his own opinion that for at least somo weeks they should have it only once a day, bringing forward cases of broods hatched in dry fields where no water flows. WATER FOR YOUNG BIRDS. 121 My idea is that in a wild state they can wander in search of dew, and also feed upon more moist and natural food than the egg, meat, and herbs that are chopped for them when reared under hens. I am aware that it is quite a common practice amongst keepers to deprive the little birds of water, and I cannot but feel it to be a cruel as well as a mistaken one. I believe that dry food wants water to aid digestion ; and when birds are kept all day in small wired inclosures in the full blaze of the sun, it seems to me that they must require water to keep them healthy ; and I also think that if they have a little always in the pen, they will drink less than when only given to them once a day. I saw a brood last week that had only had water once, quite early in the morning ; they were being fed again in the evening, but would eat nothing. I then ordered some water to see what they would do, and the little birds and the old hen went to it at once, and seemed as if they could never have enough/' And a third, writing to me on the same object, states : " I have been a rearer of pheasants for nearly thirty years. I give mine an unlimited .supply of water at all stages of their growth, and I consider that it would be great cruelty to withhold it from them. I do not consider broods brought up by their mothers in dry fields where no water is to be found at all to the point. How can our poor artificial food compare with the thousand and one varieties they find in nature, full both of nourishment and moisture, with which it is impossible for us to supply them in confinement. I quite endorse your suggestion as regards the great value of lettuce for pheasants. I have fed them for some years with it, and they are very fond of it." On the other hand, many successful keepers do not give water, or only in very small quantity. One correspondent says : " I know a keeper who rears a great number of pheasants each year, and he does not give them water till they are seven or eight weeks old, at which age they begin to eat barley and corn, and require water to assist digestion. He says that pheasants in their wild state take the dew in 122 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. the mornings, and only in very dry weather do the old hens take their broods to water. In very dry weather, when there is little or no dew, he sprinkles water twice a day on the grass, but never puts any down for them until the time before stated, and when he waters the hens he does not allow the pheasants to drink." The writer of the following letter holds the balance very fairly between the opposing views : " Much depends on the nature of the food upon which the chicks are fed as to whether they should have water or not ; if they are fed on dry food, and the weather is warm and dry, they will require water, but it must be very clean, and given only once a day, and must not remain before them longer than to allow each bird to have a little. If the birds are fed on moist scalded food, they will not require any water unless the weather is very hot, when a little may be given as before stated. The water must be spring or steam water, and I should advise it being given at noon. It must also be remembered that birds reared on heavy clay land will require less water than those reared on sandy or gravel soil ; atten- tion must also be paid to the amount of dew which falls, supposing the birds are set at liberty before the dew has time to evaporate. Those who argue that nature should be the guide on this point must recollect that the rearing of pheasants by hand is altogether an artificial process, and that therefore nature cannot be strictly followed with regard to water any more than with regard to food." A well-known game preserver writes on the subject as follows : " My keeper is a very successful breeder and rearer of pheasants. It seems to me (for I watched his proceedings very closely) that he gives the birds the very smallest supply of water. He carries a bottle in his pocket when he feeds, and puts about a wineglassful into each hen's saucer. The hens seem thirsty enough, and leave but little for the young birds. He feeds very sparingly but frequently, throwing the food wide. The food for a long time was. rice with chopped boiled egg, ants' eggs, and a very few gentles. He has brought up a great COST OF PHEASANT REARING. 123 many pheasants and birds for me. One year, strange to say, out of 211 he did not lose one. Certainly the season was favourable. Little water, and food thrown wide round the coops, seems to be his system." The scattering the food on clean soil being the most probable source of his success. Inquiry is frequently made as to the cost of rearing* pheasants in numbers. It is very difficult to state even an approximate sum, so much depends on the conditions under which they are raised. For food only until they are ready to go into the coverts, an average amount of from Is. to Is. 6d. per head may be stated. Mr. T. C. Cade writes : " The result of my own observations in two years (1870 and 1878) is as follows In 1870 my keeper's bill for four hundred birds was, eggs, 5 6s. 6d.; bread, 1 12s. 4^d. ; milk, 2 Us. 8d. ; suet, 13*. 6d.; ' secrets/ 7s. Qd.llO Us. 6$d. To this must be added Indian corn, meal, and rabbits j but I cannot give the exact quantity of each, as dogs were fed from the meal barrel, and the rabbits were not counted ; 9 8s. is, I consider, a fair estimate of the cost of what was used for the birds making a total of 20 for four hundred, or Is. each. About the ' secrets ' I can say nothing, except that none are required. t( In 1878, for three hundred under my supervision, the cost was : Very coarse Scotch meal, 9 15s. Qd. ; milk, 3 ; eggs, 1 156-. ; rennet, 2s. 8d. ; wheat, 8*. 8d. ; bread, 5s. HicZ. ; sheep's paunches (two hundred), 1 5s.; a horse, 10s. ; a cow, 5s. ; a sheep, 5s. The last three for producing maggots. Total 17 12s. 9Jd. No rabbits were used. With this supply of food, at the cost of a little more than Is. a head, not only were 97 per cent, of the birds reared, but I think they were as fine as possible." The cost of labour, protection, &c., varies so much in different localities and under different circumstances that it is impracticable to draw up even a rough average of general application. Under very favourable conditions, as Mr. Cade 124 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. demonstrates, pheasants may be reared at as small a cost as Ls-. a head, and in others the cost rises to 14s. or even IDS. The vignette at the end of this chapter represents the head of a partridge with a perfectly formed claw growing from the loose skin in the centre of the lower jaw; owing to the kindness of Mr. A. H. Stokes-Roberts I had the oppor- tunity of examining the bird shortly after it had been shot. The drawing was made from the specimen in a recent state. CHAPTEE IX. THE DISEASES OF PHEASANTS. | HE AS ANTS in a state of nature are particularly hardy. Being bred, as they generally are, from strong healthy parents, the few weakly chickens that are produced die under that benevolent arrange- ment which has been so justly termed the survival of the fittest in the struggle for life. Consequently the most vigorous remain as brood stock, and propagate a healthy offspring. Nevertheless, in some seasons, particularly during those that are wet, the young birds are affected by certain epidemic diseases that are difficult either to prevent or cure ; amongst the first of these may be mentioned cold or catarrh, which is generally caused by an undue amount of wet weather acting on birds enfeebled by too close interbreeding, or by errors in the dietary and general management, such as undue exposure to cold winds. All that can be recommended in case of the young birds being thus afflicted is warm, dry shelter, and the addition of a little stimulating food, as bread soaked in ale, and spiced with any ordinary condiment, such as cayenne or common pepper, and the moistening of the oatmeal, or other soft food, with a solution of a quarter of an ounce of sulphate of iron in a quart of water, using enough to give the meal an inky taste. Cold often runs on to roup, in which the discharge from the nostrils becomes purulent and infectious ; in this case, 126 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. the best mode of treatment is to endeavour to stamp out the disease by removing and destroying the affected birds instantly,, and so preventing their affecting others. In all cases in which birds are destroyed to prevent the spread of any infectious disease, the greatest care should be taken not to leave the dead bodies exposed. If this be done, the disease is almost certain to extend; it has been proved to do so in the case of birds dying with tuberculous livers, " gapes/' and other diseases. The bodies should, if possible, always be burned. If that is impracticable, they should be buried deeply in some part of the ground where there are no fowls or pheasants. Hanging the dead bodies of diseased birds in trees to produce a supply of gentles is exceedingly objectionable. Scrofulous diseases, such as tubercles in the lungs and liver, are the result of breeding from weak stock, from over- crowding on the same ground, and from close interbreeding. The remedies suggest themselves ; all that is required is the employment of strong, healthy stock birds, the removal to fresh untainted ground, and, if necessary, an introduction of fresh blood into the aviary or preserves. The most troublesome and fatal disease is that known as the " gapes," which is caused by the presence of small red worms in the trachea or windpipe. For the first careful demonstration of the cause of this disease we are indebted to the late Dr. Spencer Cobbold, who contributed the account of its history and treatment to the Linnsean Society, from which the following abstract is taken : " This parasite," writes Dr. Cobbold, " has been found in the trachea of the following birds, namely, the turkey, domestic fowl, pheasant, partridge, duck, lapwing, black .stork, magpie, hooded crow, green woodpecker, starling, sparrow, martin, linnet, crow, rook, and swift. " My attention was recently directed to a small, almost featherless chicken suffering from the ' gapes. 7 The bird belonged to a brood between six and seven weeks old. The GAPE WORM IN PHEASANTS. 127 healthy birds had attained considerable size, and averaged 9J ounces ; the infested chicken weighed only 4 ounces ; but, as if to make up for its defective assimilating powers, greedily devoured everything which came in its way, consuming two or three times as much as any other member of the brood." Fig. I. Syngamustrachealis, male ajid female. Natural size. Fig. 2. Upper part of the same, showing more especially the six lobed circular lip of the female, and the mode of union. Enlarged. Fig. 3. Lower end of the body of the female, with its mucronate caudal appendage. En- larged. Fig. 4. Lower end of the body of the male, showing the cup-shaped bursa, hard rays, lateral muscles, digestive tube, and round tail. Magnified 30 diameters. Fig. 5. Mature egg. Magnified 220 dia- meters. Fig. 6. Egg, with contained embryo. Mag- nified 220 diameters. " The female worms extracted from the trachea have an average length of fths of an inch, the males scarcely exceeding Jth of an inch. In both sexes the bodies are tolerably uniform in breadth throughout. The mouth of the female is furnished with six prominent chitinous lips (Fig. 2). The male is usually found fixed by means of a 128 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. strong membranous sucker (Fig. 4). The eggs of Syngamw are comparatively large, measuring, longitudinally, as much as the 1 -250th of an inch (Fig. 5). Many of the ova contain fully-formed embryos. By whatever mode the young make their exit from the shell, it is manifest that prior to their expulsion they are sufficiently developed to undertake an active migration. Their next habitation may occur within the body of certain insect larvae or even small land mollusks ; but I think it more likely that they either enter the sub- stance of vegetable matters or bury themselves in the soil at a short distance from the surface." Since the publication of this paper, the history of the gapeworm has been very carefully studied by other observers, whose investigations have been recapitulated in Theobald's " Parasitic Diseases of Poultry." Mr. Theobald describes the ova and embryos as escaping by the rupturing of the female's body, which takes place, as a rule, after the worm has been expectorated by the fowl or pheasant. Both eggs and embryos, as suggested by Dr. Cobbold, take up their abode in damp ground, that around the drinking vessels of the fowls being a favourite locality. The eggs hatch in from seven to forty days, according as to whether the surroundings are favourable or not. These ova and embryos get taken up by the young birds either off the ground or in the water; they then develop into the worms in the tracheal region of the fowl. The small embryo worms grow rapidly, soon become mature, and the females unite permanently to the males. They are often spread by one bird devouring the worms coughed up by another, and they are conveyed from one area to another by being carried by such wild birds as the starling and magpie, which are both very largely infested with Syngamus trachealis. The theory that an intermediate host is necessary for the hatching of the ova has now been entirely disproved. Young fowls and pheasants quickly contract the disease when fed TREATMENT OF GAPES. 129 on contaminated soil in which the ova are present. Breeding pheasants on the same ground,, as most gamekeepers know, constantly leads to " gapes/' and direct experiment has shown that the disease may be introduced in healthy chickens by feeding them with the worms or ova. The theory of Dr. Walker that was published at length in Nature of August 2nd,, 1888, by Lord Walsingham, that the eggs were hatched in the bodies of earthworms which are eaten by the young pheasants or fowls, has been entirely disproved by more carefully conducted experiments, as " gapes" appear in fowls on land where earthworms do not exist, and birds, such as the woodpecker, martin, and others, suffer from this disease though they do not eat earthworms. With regard to the treatment of this disease, the plan of giving remedies internally to remove the worms is objec- tionable, as the medicine has to be absorbed, pass into the blood, and act powerfully upon the body of the bird before its purpose can be accomplished ; its direct application to the worms is therefore preferable. This may be accom- plished by stripping the vane from a small quill feather, except half an inch at its extremity; this should then be dipped in a mixture of one part of oil of turpentine and two of olive oil ; and the chick being securely held by an assistant, the tongue may be drawn forward by catching the barbs at its base in a lock of cotton wool, and then pulling it forward so as to expose the small opening of the windpipe, down which the feather is to be passed sufficiently far to come into contact with the worms, and then turned round between the thumb and finger. The application at once kills the parasites, and its appli- cation excites a fit of coughing, during which they are expelled : this mode of application requires some manual dexterity, and at times the irritation proves fatal; olive oil in the place of turpentine is sometimes employed. Eemoving the worms by a feather is troublesome, and the operation is not always successful. Fumigation with 130 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. tobacco smoke- is rarely of much avail. The administration of turpentine or camphor is attended with danger to the chickens, and opening the windpipe and extracting the worms whilst the bird is under the influence of chloroform requires surgical skill. Knowing the active influence of carbolic acid on the lower forms of animal life, I determined to try the effect of the inhalation of its vapour in the cases of " gapes" that came under my notice. I have operated several times on chickens and turkeys that were suffering severely from " gapes/' being almost choked by the worms. Each bird was placed in a small deal box, the open top being covered with a cloth. I then took a carbolic acid fumigator, consisting of a small metal saucer, heated by a spirit lamp. On the saucer I placed about a dozen drops of carbolic acid, lit the lamp, and put the apparatus in the interior of the box. Dense white fumes soon filled the box, and, being of necessity respired by the bird, came at once into contact with the worms. The operation was continued in every case until the birds were in some danger of suffocation. They soon, however, recovered on exposure to the air, and on the day following the treatment were running about perfectly free from any symptom of disease. No special apparatus is required, as any arrangement which will serve to volatilise a few drops of the acid will answer ; the vapour of carbolic acid may be used by putting a hot brick into the box, and pouring a few drops of the acid upon it, or it may be volatilised by putting three or four drops in a spoon, holding the latter over the flame of a lamp, and placing the head of the bird in the cloud of rising vapour. I have had a good deal of experience with birds afflicted with " gapes," but have never found any treat- ment equal to that of fumigation with carbolic acid vapour. In very urgent cases, when the disease has so far advanced that immediate suffocation becomes inevitable, the opening of the windpipe, as adopted by Dr. Cobbold, may be advan- CRAMP IN YOUNG PHEASANTS. 181 tageously .had recourse to ; or it may be resorted to when other methods have failed. In the most far-gone cases, instant relief will follow this operation, since the trachea may with certainty be cleared of all obstructions, but unfor- tunately it requires some amount of medical and surgical skill to administer the chloroform and perform the operation. The most essential thing in view ot: putting a check upon the prevalence of the disease is the total destruction of the parasites. If the infected birds be thrown away, say upon the ground, the mature eggs in the gapeworms will not have sustained any injury. Decomposition having set in, the young embryos will sooner or later escape, migrate into the soil or elsewhere, and ultimately find their way into the air- passages of birds in the same manner as their parents did before them. The diseased birds ought to be burnt, and the dead bodies of any chickens, young partridges, or other birds infested with these parasites must be treated in the same manner if we wish to avoid the spread of the disease. Since the publication of the last edition of this book, some exceedingly important investigations into the nature of the diseases of young pheasants have been made by Dr. E. Klein. The first of these diseases is that known to keepers under the name of tf the cramps/ 1 This occasionally causes great mortality amongst young birds, attacking them usually during the second or third week. It is described by Dr. Klein as commencing with lameness in one leg. The next day the other becomes lame, and the bird sits motionless, and when made to move drags both limbs along the ground. Death generally occurs on the third day. On examination after death, the thigh-bone (the femur), or that of the leg (the tibia), or both, will be found soft, and in advanced cases broken, sometimes with great extravasation of blood into the surrounding tissues. This fracture generally occurs near the ends of the bone, whether that of the thigh or the leg. Microscopic examination shows that the interior of the bone is highly inflamed, the result of the presence of bacilli, which, K 2 132 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. as in other infectious diseases, can be spread from one bird to another. The treatment of this disease is very simple. The moment it is recognised the young birds should be destroyed and burned. When this is acted on, at the beginning of the epidemic, it may prevent its further infection ; but it is possible that the microbe may exist in the ground, from which it finds an entrance into the system of the birds. This view is very possibly the case, as experienced keepers know that " cramps " occur when the coops are kept on damp soil, and that when removed to higher dry ground the disease dies out. In a subsequent communication to the Field in the following year, Dr. Klein says : " I still attribute the cramp disease to a bacilliary infection of the system of the bird leading to corrosion and fracture of the bones. " Other epidemic infectious diseases affect young pheasants, carrying them off at times in large numbers. The most important of these is one, the origin of which is generally unsuspected amongst pheasant rearers, it arising from the farmyard hens which are used as hatchers and foster-mothers. Dr. Klein gave a very careful account of this disease in the columns of the Field. He wrote as follows : " I had the opportunity of investigating the disease in one of the eastern counties, where on one estate several hundreds of young pheasants became affected and died. The symptoms are these : The young birds, generally less than six weeks old, show either at one or both the angles of the mouth, on one or both eyelids, on the feet, sometimes also on the abdomen, some patches of various sizes and outlines, at first red and slightly elevated or swollen, then becoming yellowish- grey and dry and necrotic. When the eyelids are involved (which is the case in a large percentage) the birds appear blind, owing to the lids being more or less closed ; where the feet are also affected (which in a large percentage is the case) the birds are weak and slow in walking, they limp also. When the mouth is affected they cannot feed, and therefore waste and soon die ; the same result occurs when the eyelids SKIN DISEASE IN YOUNG PHEASANTS, 133 become closed by the disease. In the large majority of fatal cases the affection involves one or both eyelids and the mouth ; but in these cases also one or both legs show the disease in numerous necrotic patches of the skin. The disease is a cutaneous affection, and does not involve the deeper parts ; on the legs the bones are unaltered, and there is no distinct visceral disease anywhere to be discovered by the naked eye inspection. Under the microscope in the earlier stages, the true skin is much inflamed,, its vessels much congested, and the blood in them in stasis; the tissue of the skin is much infiltrated with inflammatory cells. Soon the whole inflamed parts begin to break down into a necrotic debris ; the area of necrosis gradually enlarges, but is always surrounded by primary inflammatory change. This affection is therefore a true progressive necrosis of the skin. " From a careful investigation, there can be no doubt that the disease is contagious, and further, that the first cases of disease amongst the young pheasants are due to infection by the same necrotic disease of the hens used for rearing. It ought to be stated that hens fowls in general are subject to, and not unfrequently affected with, an infectious disease, which shows itself as necrotic degeneration of the mucous membrane of the mouth and throat, and also of the skin around the mouth occasionally, but not often, also of the abdomen and chest. From inquiries which I instituted among the keepers, I feel convinced that in this particular locality of Suffolk the disease amongst the young pheasants was thus introduced, viz., by some diseased hens used for the rearing. It is obvious that if one hen is affected with the disease, the little pheasants that she is rearing are sure to contract it also, and these when affected, soon, in their turn, scatter the contagium over different parts of the field. When a hen is affected on the skin of the abdomen and chest, or when she has the disease in the mouth, sufficient of the contagium becomes available for the infection of the whole of her brood, which during the first weeks she is habitually covering with 134 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. her body. From this it follows that the means to be adopted in order to exclude the disease from the pheasants at the outset are very simple, viz., carefully select the hens for rearing. They must be thoroughly examined before the hatching of the pheasants commences. The mouth and throat particularly, the skin of the abdomen and chest, must be healthy ; where there is a sign of cutaneous necrotic disease, easily distinguishable as thick dry greyish-yellow friable deposits, the hen must be rejected. I know from inquiry that nothing in the shape of a careful selection actually occurs. Keepers take the hens wherever they can get them; they borrow them, buy them anywhere, or breed them. Sometimes they have the disease amongst their own poultry stock; but there is no attention paid to the healthy condition of the hens selected for rearing purposes. Apart from the losses amongst the pheasants by the disease, the fact that this disease is not uncommon amongst fowls, causes in some farms, considerable losses amongst the poultry itself. There is only one way of getting rid of the disease that is, stamping out. "When once an animal be it fowl or pheasant shows signs of the disease, it ought to be safely removed. When in any field where pheasants are reared the disease has made its appearance amongst the young birds, the hens ought to be carefully inspected, and the diseased hens and diseased pheasants removed. Those that are not affected ought to be placed on new ground. A field where the disease has been rife should not be used again for a year or two, and care should be taken that some disinfection be undertaken e.g., quicklime scattered over the field. But I feel sure that, if at the outset no diseased hen is admitted for the rearing, the disease will not make its appearance amongst the pheasants ; for the hens seem to me to be the prime cause." We are also indebted to Dr. Klein for the first accurate description of a very fatal epidemic disease which attacks fowls in overcrowded poultry-runs, and from them is apt to ENTERITIS IN PHEASANTS. 135 extend to pheasant coverts. This disease is termed by Dr. Klein fowl enteritis, or the " Orpington disease/' inasmuch as "one well-known dealer had on his poultry farm, then at Orpington, in Kent, in about two acres of land, a fatal epidemic of fowls, by which he lost, between March, 1888, and March, 1889, over 400 birds." He further states the disease to be highly infectious, as the evacuations of the diseased fowls are scattered about on the ground, contaminating the food which is picked up by the others, and rapidly spreads amongst the entire flock. The symptoms are severe purging of yellow evacuations, and the fowl is found dead in one or two days. The disease can only be checked by the immediate removal of the un- infected birds from the tainted ground, which should be disinfected with quicklime, or still better, gaslime, and well turned over. Every infected fowl should be at once taken away and destroyed, and the body burnt, not thrown on the ground, where the germs of the disease (bacilli) can spread. There should be no attempt at treatment even of the most valuable birds, and no chickens should be reared nor fresh stock placed on the tainted soil. Some time since I received with a dead pheasant the following letter, showing how readily this fatal epidemic may spread from an overcrowded poultry-run into the coverts. The writer says : tc I am sending you with this a young pheasant which has been attacked with a disease that has unfortunately destroyed a large number of birds which were placed in the woods in a perfectly healthy condition. It is the general opinion that the birds have been affected by a poultry farm which is on the estate, as the fowls were known to be dying in large quantities from a similar disease." On examination I found this bird affected with every symptom of fowl enteritis. The intestines showed redness in the mucous membrane, in the caecal appendages there was a great amount of mucus, the spleen and liver were enlarged, 136 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. and there is no doubt that the bacteria, or microbes causing the disease, could have been cultivated if it had been thought necessary to do so. There cannot be the slightest doubt that the disease affecting these pheasants was contracted from the fowls on the poultry farm on the estate, where they were dying in large quantities. The writer asks for a remedy. The researches of Dr. Klein, and the experience of those *who have endeavoured to rear large numbers of pheasants or poultry on tainted ground, point to but one remedy, the destruction of the affected birds ; and as it would be im- possible to destroy the bacilli in the tainted ground over a large extent of covert, the rearing of pheasants should only take place on fresh and untainted ground the following year. It is important to note that this fowl enteritis infects other gallinaceous birds, and that, as in the present case, pheasants in overcrowded pens and those reared in the neighbourhood of crowded poultry farms are liable to be attacked with the disease. The moral to be drawn from these valuable researches of Dr. Klein is obvious. These infectious diseases are spread by the endeavour to rear pheasants and fowls on overcrowded and consequently tainted ground. The remedy is the destruction by cremation of all the infected stock, the removal of those that are not diseased, and above all, the rearing of the poults and fresh pure ground. Pheasants hatched under farmyard hens are not un- frequently liable to what are known as scurfy legs. The description of this objectionable disorder I may quote from my volume on "Table Poultry" : " Scurfy legs depend on the presence of minute parasites (Sar copies mutans], which live under the scales of the legs and upper part of the toes, where they set up an irritation, causing the formation of a white, powdery matter, that raises the scales and forms rough crusts, which sometimes become very large. When these crusts are broken off and examined with a microscope, or even a good hand lens, they will be SCURFY LEGS IN PHEASANTS. 137 found to be filled with the female parasites, generally distended with eggs. The crust itself may be compared to the crumb of dry bread ; but the parasites are to be found only in those parts which are kept moist by the skin. They appear to cause great irritation to the bird. " This disease is propagated by infection. It is seen in fanciers' yards where the poultry are closely confined together. The disease has been found affecting turkeys, pheasants, p irtridges, and even small birds in aviaries. " The treatment in fowls is very simple. The legs may be soaked in warm water, and the crusts removed, and the legs washed with carbolic soft soap, as made for dogs ; and the SCURFY LEG PARASITE (Sarcoptes mutans) . Magnified 100 diameters. Male. Female, distended with eggs. coops, nesting-places, perches, all cleansed with limewash, scented with carbolic acid. Great care should be taken not to employ as mothers any hens affected with the disease. If a Cochin or other hen in the slightest degree affected with scabies is employed, it is obvious that, as young birds are covered by her, the parasites can readily pass from her to the chicken, and the disease becomes disseminated." The late Mr. Home, of Hereford, a most practical pheasant rearer, wrote a letter to me on the subject, in which he states : "There is no doubt that birds hatched under Asiatic 138 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. mothers are most prone to these insects. I have tried sulphur ointment,, vaseline, glycerine, &c., but none were certain cures. At last I was told that common paraffin would speedily effect a cure. At that time I had a young bird (six months old) a perfect cripple knots on his joints like nuts. I at once applied the paraffin, pouring it well over the legs ; in a week there was a great improvement, and after two or three applications the bird became perfectly well. Since that time I have cured many. I generally apply it once in a week or ten days. 1 find the Yersicolors and Reeves are the most liable to the disease, and do not remember having ever seen a case of it on the Gold." Disease of the ovary, attended by the assumption of male plumage by the female pheasant, is a phenomenon that has long attracted the attention of naturalists. It was described by John Hunter in his " Animal Economy," and in the " Philosophical Transactions/' vol. Ixx., p. 527, and also by the late Mr. Yarrell. Although gamekeepers frequently speak of the hens thus changed in attire under the title of mule birds, it is now perfectly well known that the assump- tion of male plumage is invariably caused by disease of the ovary, and the birds exhibiting this change are, without any exception, always barren and useless females, not, how- ever, necessarily old birds, as the change of. plumage may result from ovarian disease in a hen that has not laid. The change takes place to a varying extent, usually beginning with a slight alteration of the neck feathers. In some cases it is absolutely entire ; the hen being clothed in perfect masculine plumage, not a single feather of the body remaining unchanged. This singular modification is not confined to the common pheasant, but extends doubtless to the whole group. It is recorded as occurring in the Silver Pheasant (Euplocamus nycthemerus) in the Field of Nov. 13, 1869, and, thanks to the kindness of Mr. Leno, I had in my possession a Golden Pheasant hen (Thaumalea picta) in which the meta- morphosis was complete. Mr. Leno had had this bird in POISONING BY YEW LEAVES. 139 his possession for some years, and had noticed the alteration increasing at each annual moult. A corresponding alteration has been frequently observed in the female of the domestic fowl, and it is not even confined to gallinaceous birds, being not unfrequent in the domestic duck. That disease of the ovary should cause the formation of feathers totally distinct, not only in colour, but in form, from those previously pro- duced (as is most conspicuously the case of the tippet of the Golden, or tail of the Silver Pheasant) is a very remarkable circumstance, and one that has not yet received a satisfactory physiological explanation. It not unfrequently happens that large numbers of young pheasants die of mysterious ailments, the causes of which are very difficult to determine. When they have been ascertained, they have not unfrequently been traced to some injurious substances that have been taken as food. In one case that came under my notice, the destructive agent was sheep's wool. A correspondent wrote, stating that during six weeks he lost upwards of 300 young pheasants from no apparent cause, but that subsequently he received a letter from his gamekeeper, who wrote : " I have found out the cause of the pheasants dying. The farmer kept his sheep so long upon that piece of ground before I had the use of it, that the sheep lost a lot of wool, and my young birds have swallowed it. I have opened forty or fifty young* birds, and found the gizzards quite full of wool, and the passage stopped up, so that food could not pass. I send you four pieces of wool, which I have taken from the gizzards of four different birds. I never had a better lot of young birds. They hatched off strong and well, and now I have lost nearly all of them." It is probable that the sheep might have been dressed with some arsenical or other poisonous "dip" or "wash," which would remain on the wool and prove fatal to the young birds. The arsenical solution known as " weed-killer " is not unfrequently fatal to pheasants in pleasure grounds ; it 140 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. kills the worms and grubs that are near the surface of the paths, and these are eaten by the pheasants with fatal effect. With regard to injurious substances taken as food, it is unquestionable that pheasants are sometimes destroyed by eating yew ; but it is singular that the precise conditions under which they are poisoned have not been ascertained. The poisoning of animals from eating these leaves is so well known that damages have been claimed and obtained^ after an appeal to the higher courts, by persons who have lost cattle, horses, or sheep, in consequence of the branches of yew trees being allowed to hang over fences, or the cutting of hedges being thrown upon the ground. In conjunction with the late Professor Tuson, of the Veterinary College, I investigated the poisoning of pheasants by yew leaves several years ago. The action of the poisonous leaves in producing inflammation of the intestines was so well marked that there could be no possible doubt of the cause of death ; but the circumstances that lead well-fed pheasants to eat yew leaves on some occasions, and not to touch them on others, are difficult of explanation. The poisoned birds that I have examined have always been highly nourished, extremely fat, and in good condition, and, so far from being hungry, their crops in many instances have been tilled with maize. I have recently received one of several pheasants that had been picked up dead in the coverts of Mr. Ryde, of Chiddingfold. This pheasant was in the most splendid con- dition ; the crop contained about a dozen leaves of yew and a few grains of small maize. There were also comminuted leaves in the gizzard, and distinct evidence of their existence in the intestines, and there could be no doubt of the cause of death. Some few years ago Lieut. F. Stuart Wortley, then working at the Agricultural College, Downton, wrote a letter to the Times in which he described a number of experiments performed with a view of ascertaining the amount of the poisonous principle known as taxine in the leaves of the POISONING BY LEAD SHOT. 141 male and female yew respectively. His experiments definitely proved that taxine exists in a much larger quantity in the leaves of the male than in those of the female yew. If this taxine is the active principle, his experiments tend to prove that only the male yew is poisonous, but I am not aware whether any further experiments have been since made on the subject. It would be very desirable that some observer who has the opportunity should ascertain by actual experiments whether there is any difference in the action of the leaves of the male and those of the female yew when given to pheasants or other animals. This could be readily accom- plished by mixing the leaves of the two trees with ground meal, and administering it to pheasants in captivity. The information thus obtained would be very valuable, inasmuch as if it were found that the leaves of the female yew were not poisonous, it would lead to their being safely planted in coverts and places accessible to animals. A great deal of the doubt and uncertainty which prevails respecting the poisoning of animals by yew may possibly depend upon the relative amount of poison contained in the leaves of the two sexes of this plant. It is well known that children often gather and eat the waxy covering of the berries of the yew without injury, consequently in that part of the plant there can be no amount of this bitter principle known as taxine. The whole matter requires a little more careful investigation, and offers a very interesting subject of experiment to any person with the means at his disposal. Another frequently unsuspected cause of death in pheasants is the habit they acquire of picking up and swallowing shot when in coverts that are much shot over. Mr. J. Hindle Calvert, F.C.S., made the following communication to the Field in 1876, and his inferences have been since amply confirmed by myself and others who have made post-mortem examinations in similar cases. Mr. Calvert wrote: "The following cases of lead poisoning in pheasants may be of interest to those who have large pheasant preserves. A 142 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. gamekeeper brought me for inspection a hen pheasant which was partially, paralysed in the legs, and low in condition. On killing the same and opening the gizzard I found thirteen leaden pellets of various sizes; the grinding action of the gizzard had disseminated the lead with the food, and the bird was surely but safely undergoing the slow process of lead-poisoning. This was very evident on applying the usual chemical tests, as I readily detected lead dissolved in the" food, and also traces in the blood taken from the region of the heart. Two days after this the gamekeeper brought another live bird. This one had been in a sickly condition for two or three weeks, and was quite emaciated. The legs were paralysed, and the feet drawn in a similar manner to the drop-hand, when lead has been the cause of poisoning in the human subject. On opening the gizzard I found four pellets, so that there is little doubt that this bird would soon have died from the effects of lead-poisoning. " I understand last year some score of pheasants died in the same preserve, all of them showing symptoms same as above related. Both years the poisoning happened after the coverts had been shot through. No doubt the birds pick up the pellets under the delusion of being either food or grains of sand ; perhaps the latter. When the birds died last year the cause of death was attributed to there being too many left for breeding purposes ; rather a strange reason, seeing that the birds had been decimated on the shooting day. " Others may have experienced something similar to the above, without being able to give a satisfactory reason for the birds dying ; but where you have paralysed limbs and a gradual falling off in condition, and should this happen some weeks after the covert has been shot through, then they may suspect that lead-poisoning is a probable cause." CHAPTEE X. PHEASANTS ADAPTED TO THE CQVERT. THE COMMON PHEASANT (PHASIANUS OOLGHICUS). HE pheasants which are best adapted to the coverts in England, the United States of America, Australia, and other temperate climates, are undoubtedly those which belong to the restricted genus Phasianus, or, as so many term them, the true pheasants. Formerly there was but one distinct species or race known in Europe, that which is named the P. colchicus, from its having being received from the banks of the River Colchis in Asia Minor. This was followed by the ring-necked P. torquatus from China, and subsequently by the P. versicolor from Japan. These were originally regarded by naturalists as perfectly distinct species, but it is now known that they breed freely with one another, and that the offspring are perfectly fertile, however intimately they are interbred. The late Henry Seebohm, who paid great attention to the birds of this group, writing in the Ibis for 1887, said : " The fact that all true pheasants interbreed freely with each other and produce fertile offspring, may be accepted as absolute proof that they are only subspecifically distinct from each other. Like all other subspecies, they only exist upon sufferance. The local races appear to be distinct enough, but they only retain their distinctive character as 144 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. long as they are isolated from each, other. The moment they are brought into contact they begin to interbreed ; crosses of every kind rapidly appear, and in a comparatively short time the swamping effects of interbreeding reduce the two or more local races which have been brought into contact to a single and uniform intermediate race. Such swamping effects of interbreeding have practically stamped out in the British Islands the two very different looking races of pheasants which were introduced into them Phasianus colchicus from Asia Minor, and Phasianus torquatus from China. The pheasant of the British Islands is, with very rare exceptions, only a mongrel between these two races, but, it must be admitted, a very healthy and fertile one." The intermingling of the several races in the course of ages, and the isolation of the different breeds in the valleys and river systems of Asia, have given rise to numerous sub- species which are found spread over that vast continent. The spread of scientific investigation is continually disclosing new pheasants, which it pleases the discoverers to regard as distinct species, but which are obviously only mixed races. Mr. D. G-. Elliot, writing in 1872, enumerated about a dozen. Mr. Seebohm, in the Ibis for 1887, described six as sub- species of P, colchicus (three of which were not recognised by Mr. Elliot). These are P. principalis from North Afghanistan ; P. persicus, which Mr. Elliot regards as the same as P. shaivi ; and P. clirysomelas, which he regards as identical with P. insignis. In the following volume (1888) Mr. Seebohm enumerates seven races, of which the Chinese P. torquatus may be regarded as the type ; of these two, P. vlangali and P. strauchi, are not described by Elliot. Of the others, the most strongly marked is the Japanese P. versi- color, which appears to me to be the most distinct and typical of all the true pheasants. It would be but a tedious and most unprofitable waste of time to enter into all the fifty so-called breeds of pheasants which the species-mongers have raised to the dignity of THE COMMON PHEASANT. 145 distinct species; suffice to say they are all perfectly fertile, inter se, as are their progeny to any extent. It may please closet naturalists to classify them, not knowing how easily they may be bred, and to give them specific names after their friends, which has been done in a dozen or more instances. But the naming a variety as a new species because it has a few feathers on the neck or wing whiter or darker than those of another, has little interest for practical men. In the following pages the more typical species will be described, and their numerous varieties treated as allies. In commencing the description of the different pheasants adapted to the covert, the common species (Phasianus col- chicus) claims the first place, as it is more generally distributed and better known than any of the more recent introductions. Although not equalling some of them in size, or gorgeousness of plumage, it is by many sportsmen pre- ferred in consequence of its rapid flight and active habits. It is, however, only in the remote districts of the country that it is now to be found in a state of purity, as the intro- duction of the Chinese and Japanese races has given rise to so many cross-bred varieties that in many places a purely bred P. colchicus is a rarity. Lord Lilford, in "The Birds of Northamptonshire," writing of the common pheasant, says : f< Although it is now difficult to find pure-bred specimens of this species, on account of the frequent crossings with the Chinese Eing-necked Pheasant (Phasianus torquatus) and other species, we do occasionally meet with birds, especially in the large woodlands of the northern division of Northamptonshire, which, by their small size, the absence of any trace of the white collar, which is so conspicuous in the Chinese bird, and the intense blackness of the plumage of the lower belly, present the characteristics of the true unadulterated species." In the district of the Humber we are informed by Mr. John Cordeaux that "the pure old breed untainted by any cross is now seldom to be met with, excepting in a few L 146 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. localities furthest removed from the great centres of game preserving. With these few exceptions, our resident birds are a mixed race, exhibiting in a greater or less degree the cross between the old English bird and the Ring-neck (P. torquatus)." This statement is equally true of all the well-preserved districts of England, in many of which the varieties are still more complex in consequence of the intro- duction of the Japanese species (P. versicolor) . Under these circumstances, I have thought it desirable to quote the description of the common pheasant from the first volume of Macgillivray's " British Birds/' 1837, inas- much as the author' s descriptions are admirable for their accuracy and attention to detail, and at the date at which it was published the common species had not in Scotland been crossed with any of the more recent importations. The following is Macgillivray's description of the two sexes of Phasianus colchicus : " Male. The legs are stronger ; the tarsi, which are stout and a little compressed, have about seventeen plates in each of their anterior series. The first toe, which is very small, has five, the second twelve, the third twenty-two, the fourth nineteen scutella. The spur on the back of the tarsus is conical, blunt, and about a quarter of an inch long. "The feathers of the upper part of the head are oblong and blended, of the rest of the head and the upper part of the neck imbricated and rounded, of the fore-neck and breast broad, slightly emarginate or abruptly rounded ; of the back broad and rounded, of the rump elongated, with loose filaments ; of the sides very long, of the abdomen downy, of the legs soft and rather short. Directly over the aperture of the ear is a small erectile tuft of feathers. The wings are short, very broad, curved, rounded, of twenty-four quills ; the primaries attenuated from near the base, rounded, the third and fourth longest, the first equal to the seventh ; the secondaries broad, rounded, and little shorter than the primaries. The tail is very long, slightly arched, remarkably THE COMMON PHEASANT. 147 cuneate or tapering, of eighteen tapering f eathers, of which the lateral are incurved, the central straight. Four pairs of the longest tail feathers are concave above towards the end, or channelled. ' ' The bill is pale greenish-yellow, the nasal membrane light brown or flesh-coloured. The bare papillar patch on the side of the head is scarlet, in parts approaching to arterial blood-red, or at some seasons crimson. The eyelids are flesh-coloured, the iris yellow. The feet are light grey tinged with brown, the claws light chocolate brown. "The feathers of the upper part of the head are deep brownish-green, with yellowish marginal filaments. The upper part of the neck is deep green behind, laterally and anteriorly greenish-blue and purplish blue. The lower part of the neck is reddish-orange, anteriorly tinged with purple ; the breast and sides brownish-yellow ; each feather terminally margined with purplish-blue, the dark margin indented in the middle, but the indentation gradually diminishing on the breast. The middle of the lower part of the breast is blackish-brown, glossed with green, the margins of the feathers being of the latter colour. The fore part of the back is yellowish-red, each feather slightly margined with black, and having a central oblong spot of the same. The scapulars are redder, with a slight black tip, the central part dull yellow mottled with dusky, margined with a black band. On the middle of the back the feathers are some- what similarly variegated, with additional spots of light blue and purple. Those on the rump are of a deep red, with green and greyish tints. The inner wing-coverts are similar to the scapulars, but edged externally with dark red, the outer yellowish-grey, variegated with whitish and dusky. The quills are light brownish -grey, variegated with pale greyish-yellow; the secondaries more tinged with brown on the outer edges. The tail is dull greenish -yellow, variegated with yellowish-grey, the feathers with narrow transverse bars of black, a broad longitudinal band of dull red on each L 2 148 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. side, the loose margins red, glossed with green and purple. On the abdomen and legs the feathers are dull greyish- brown ; under the tail variegated with reddish. The lower surface of the wing is yellowish-grey. " Length to end of tail 34 inches ; extent of wings 32 ; wing from flexure 10 ; tail 18J ; bill along the back 1^, along the edge of upper mandible IfV; tarsus 3 T v; first toe T V, its claw -^ - y second toe 1^, its claw -^ ; third toe 2^, its claw T 8 T ; fourth toe 1 T %-, its claw 4^- twelfths. " Of three other individuals, the length 34, 35, 36 inches. "Female. The female is similar in form to the male, but with the tail much shorter. The bill and feet require no particular description. The anterior scutella of the tarsus are about seventeen in each row ; the first toe has five, the second fifteen, the third twenty-two, the fourth eighteen. As in the male, there is a bare space under the eye, but scarcely papillar, and more feathered. The feathers of the upper part of the head are somewhat elongated ; those of the rest of the head short ; of the neck and body oblong and rounded ; of the rump not elongated as in the male. " The general colour of the upper parts is greyish-yellow, variegated with black and yellowish-brown ; the top of the head and the hind-neck tinged with red. The wing-coverts are lighter ; the quills pale greyish-brown, mottled with greyish-yellow, as in the male. The tail is yellowish- grey, minutely mottled with black, and having in place of transverse bars, oblique irregular spots of black, centered with a pale yellow line. The lower parts are lighter and less mottled, the throat whitish, and without spots. The bill is horn- coloured, tinged with green ; the tarsi wood-brown, the toes darker, the claws of the same tint. " Length 26 inches ; extent of wings 30 ; wing from flexure 9^-; tail 11-g-; bill along the back 1^; tnrsus 2^-; first toe ^, its claw ^ ; second toe 1 T 2 T , its claw T G ir ; third toe li-, its claw T V ; fourth toe l-pr^ its claw fV-"" Several well-marked and perfectly permanent varieties of V THE COMMON PHEASANT. 149 this species are not uncommon. One of the best known is the so-called Bohemian pheasant, in which the entire plumage is much less glossy, the general ground-colour being of a creamy tint; the head, neck, and spanglings on the breast and tail showing the dark markings in varying degrees of intensity in different specimens. The appearance of this variety is admirably given in the engraving. The Bohemian pheasant is occasionally produced from the common form in different localities, the variation is hereditary, and may be propagated by careful selection of brood stock. Thus Mr. Stevenson, in his " Birds of Norfolk," informs us that in that county, like certain light varieties of the common partridge, they are confined to particular localities : " They have been found in different seasons in some coverts at Cranmer; and in the autumn of 1861, I saw three fine examples killed, I believe, in Mrs. Hardcastle's preserves at Han worth, near Cromer, one of which, even in its abnormal plumage, showed a decided relationship to the Ring-necked cross, by the white mark on either side of the neck " a circumstance also noticed by Macgillivray. A purely white variety of the common pheasant occa- sionally occurs in the coverts without any apparent cause. A correspondent, who has been a pheasant rearer for thirty years, writes : " Four years ago a nest of thirteen eggs was brought in by the mowers. All the eggs were hatched; eleven were perfectly white birds, the other two the common colour. Nine of the white birds were reared six cocks and three hens ; three cocks were turned out, the others were kept in the pheasantry, pinioned. The white pheasants proved very bad layers very delicate, their eggs very bad ; and those that were hatched very dim cult to rear, and there never was a white bird bred. The extraordinary thing is, that where the nest was taken up the keepers had never before or since seen a white pheasant. The three cocks turned out never (to my knowledge or the keeper's) were the cause of white pheasants or pied pheasants being bred, and 150 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. the three all disappeared in the second year. On another part of my estate a white cock pheasant was bred; he was considered a sacred bird, and lived seven years, when he disappeared. In the covert he resorted to I killed one pied pheasant, and I believe that one bird was the only pied pheasant (if bred through him) that ever was seen/' By careful breeding there is no doubt that a permanent white race might be established if such a proceeding were thought desirable, which I much doubt, as white varieries are generally very deficient in hardihood. Left to them- selves, the white cocks are doubtless driven away from the hens by the stronger and more vigorous dark birds, and rarely increase their kind. When mated in pheasantries the natural colour has a strong tendency to reproduce itself ; but white, or even pied or parti-coloured birds, are not always to be produced from white parents, as the following letters will show : " On the manor of a friend in Yorkshire are a cock and hen pheasant entirely and purely white. They inhabit different woods, and are strenuously protected by the head keeper, who considers their presence a proof of the integrity of his coverts^ and invariably requests strangers to spare them. There are also a few ring-necks in the coverts, which have bred so freely with the common sort that hardly a cock pheasant is killed but shows some marks of white about his neck, while pied birds are so rare that the few that have been shot have been preserved. If, then, white pheasants breeding with ring-necks and other birds produced, as a rule, pied birds, why should there not have been every year at least one brood of pied pheasants in these woods in the same proportion as the half-bred ring-necks ? " Another correspondent writes : " A white hen was confined in the pheasantry here for some years with a common pheasant, but of the progeny there was not one pied bird. A pied cock was then confined with a common hen pheasant, and there were a few of the chicks pied. Lastly, a pied cock and a pied hen were confined together, and invariably every one of the THE COMMON PHEASANT. 151 chicks was pied. I have tried the experiment frequently with the same results." And a third states : " I deny that the cross between the white and common pheasant will produce pied, when both are pure bred. I have tried the cross in confinement for years, and never produced one pied bird from it; and before the pied breed were introduced into the preserves here, we had an abundance of white cocks and white hens, and, believing at that time that^the pied was the result of a cross between the white and common pheasant, I used to watch the nides of every white hen, and was surprised that in no instance was there one pied chick, though some were white." The explanation of the difficulty of breeding pied birds from a white and a coloured parent, and the ease with which ring-necks are produced and perpetuated, is soon given. Ring-necks are derived more or less directly from the P. torquatus, a permanent race, that has a strong tendency to reproduce its like ; but white and pied birds are merely accidental variations, and not even a thoroughly established breed, and therefore are not prepotent in propagating their like, but have a strong tendency to throw back to the original stock from which they were derived. CHAPTER XI. PHEASANTS ADAPTED TO THE COVERT (CONTINUED). THE PRINCE OF WALES'S PHEASANT (PHASIANUS PRINCIPAL!). HE pheasant most recently introduced in a living- state into this country is that named after H.R.H. the Prince of Wales ; the account of its introduction is soon told : In April, 1885, Mr. Sclater exhibited at the Zoo- logical Society skins of a pair of pheasants brought from Bala Murghab, North Afghanistan, belonging to the Prince of Wales, and read extracts relating to the specimens from a letter addressed by Mr. Condie Stephen to Sir Dighton Probyn. " These pheasants," writes Mr. Stephen, tf abound in the reeds fringing this river, rising in places in far larger numbers than I have seen at any battue in England. You can imagine what a quantity there must be from the fact that we killed more than four hundred on our march of thirty miles up the river, mostly cocks." The living specimens, which were subsequently received in the gardens, and from which the engraving was taken, were obtained by Major Peacock from the Afghan frontier, but in consequence of their being received in very poor condition, they all died without having produced any young. THE PRINCE OF WALES'S PHEASANT. 153 The most important characteristic of this line bird, and one that distinguishes it from all those pheasants naturalised in this country, is that the wing coverts are white, a character which it has in common with the two pheasants named Phasianus insignia and P. mongolicus. It differs somewhat in the markings and arrangement of the colours from either of these birds, and has consequently been regarded as a distinct species, and named Phasianus principalis, in commemoration of the fact that the skins were received from H.R.H. the Prince of Wales. If it should be successfully introduced and there is no reason why it should not be it will be a welcome addition to our coverts, giving size and hardihood to our native birds. The plumage is beautifully spangled with bright purplish black on a rich golden red ground, the white shoulders and dark flight feathers standing out in strong contrast ; but there is 110 ring around the neck, as in the Chinese pheasant. In its habits it differs somewhat from our common species in frequenting swampy ground covered with reeds, returning to the covert to roost at night. In its native habitat it is most abundant. At Masuchak, on the Upper Murghab, in Northern Afghanistan, Major Durand and Major Yate, as recorded in the latter officer's letters from the Afghan Boundary Commission," brought in a bag of nearly fifty pheasants (Phasianus principalis) killed during the afternoon. " It is extraordinary," Major Yate remarks, " what a number of pheasants there are in the reed swamps of this valley, and this year they seem to be even more numerous than last. I know of no country in the world where one can get such good real wild-pheasant shooting as this. On the 21st we also brought in a bag of seventy-two pheasants, but, as on the first day, lost a good many wounded birds. The reeds are so thick, and the birds, especially the old cocks, so strong, that it is very hard to bag one's bird even after it is shot." Dr. Aitchison, writing of this pheasant in the transactions 154 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. of the Linnean Society, says: "The specimens of this pheasant were all got on the banks of the Bala Murghab, where it occurs in considerable numbers in the tamarisk and grass jungle growing in the bed of the river. More than four hundred were killed in the inarch of thirty miles up this river. It not only wades through the water in trying to make from one point of vantage to another, but swims, and seems to be quite at home in these thickets, where there is always water to the depth of two or three feet. These swampy localities afford good shelter. In the mornings and evenings the pheasants leave it for the more open and dry country, where they pick up their food. I believe the same species is found on the Hari-rud river, but I have seen no specimens from that locality." It is not without interest to note that, though not yet bred in Europe, the Prince of Wales' pheasant has made its appearance in considerable numbers in the London markets, having been imported through Eussia in a frozen state, and it is recorded that the late Mr. Seebohm, after having given 10 for one of the original skins received from Afghanistan, supplemented it the following year by a couple selected from a batch of birds in Leadenhall Market and bought for a few shillings. The introduction of this pheasant into our coverts would be advantageous, not only on account of its size and plumage, but still more so from the fact that, having been reared on swampy ground, it would be a very desirable addition to our coverts in many localities. CHAPTER XII. PHEASANTS ADAPTED TO THE COVERT (CONTINUED). THE CHINESE PHEASANT (PHASIANUS TORQUATUS). ONSUL SWINHOE, Mr. Dudley E. Saurin, Pere David, Prjevalski, and other naturalists, who have investigated the fauna of the Chinese empire, unite in confirming the belief that this pheasant (P. torquatus) is the most common species in China, abounding in vast numbers in the hill coverts and cotton fields. Mr. Saurin states : " The common Chinese pheasant is found everywhere in the north of China. I am not aware how much further south they are 'found than Shanghai ; but in that neighbourhood, since the devastation of the country by the Tai-pings, they are shot by hundreds. Thousands are brought down to the Pekiii market in a frozen state by the Mongols, from as far north as the Amour. At the new Russian port of Poussiet, conterminous with the Corea, the same pheasant abounds. I myself have seen them wild in the Imperial hunting grounds north of Jehol, and in the mountains near Ku-peh-kow." Consul Swinhoe says that it is very common near Hankow, and at all the places that have been visited by Europeans north of the Yangtze. Formosa swarms with these birds ; the specimens found there, however, differ from those of the 156 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. typical race by having the ochreous feathers on the flanks exceedingly pale, and by some writers this local variety has been described as a distinct species under the name of P. formosanus. The characters of the pure-bred Chinese P. torquatus were given in minute detail by the late Mr. Gould, in his mag- nificent folio, " The Birds of Asia." They are as follows : " The male has the forehead deep green ; crown of the head fawn colour, glossed with green; over each eye a conspicuous streak of buffy white ; the naked papillated skin of the orbits and sides of the face deep scarlet or blood red, interspersed beneath the eye with a series of very minute black feathers ; horn-like tufts on each side of the head ; throat and neck rich deep, shining green, with violet reflections ; near the base of the neck a conspicuous collar of shining white feathers, narrow before and behind, and broadly dilated at the sides; the feathers of the back of the neck black, with a narrow mark of white down the centre of the back portion, and a large lengthened mark of ocbreous yellow within the edge of each web near the tip ; the feathers of back and scapu- laries black at the base, with a streak of white in the middle, then buff surrounded with a distinct narrow band of black, to which succeeds an outer fringe of chesnut ; feathers of* the back black, with numerous zigzag arid crescentic marks of buffy white ; lower part of the back, rump, and upper tail coverts light green of various shades, passing into bluish-grey at the sides, below which is a mark of rufous ; breast feathers indented at the tip, of a rich reddish chesnut, with purple reflections, and each bordered with black ; flanks fine buff, with a large angular spot of beautiful violet at the tip ; centre of the abdomen black, with violet reflections ; under tail coverts reddish chesnut ; wing coverts silvery -grey ; wings brown, the primaries with light shafts, and crossed with narrow bars of light buff; the secondaries similar, but not so regularly marked as the primaries ; tail feathers olive, fringed with THE CHINESE PHEASANT. 157 different shades of reddish, violet, and crossed at regular intervals with broad, conspicuous black bands, passing into reddish-brown on the sides of the basal portion of the six central feathers ; bill yellowish-horn colour ; irides yellow ; feet greyish- white. The female has the whole of the upper surface brownish-black, with a margin of buff to every feather ; the throat whitish, and the central portion of the under surface fawn colour ; flanks mottled with brown ; tail buff, barred with dark brown, between which are other interrupted bars of the same hue. These marks are broader on the two central feathers than on the others, and, moreover, do not reveal the edge on either side." The specific name torquatus is derived from torquis, a chain or collar worn around the neck. This species was introduced into England a great many years since, long before the time of Latham, who described it as having been turned out in preserves on many estates. No birds could be better adapted for our coverts ; being natives of a cold part of China, they are very hardy a character which they display by laying early in the season, and by producing an abundant supply of eggs. The pure Chinese is a bird of bold flight, rising through the covert with great quickness, and then pursuing a swift, straight course. It is unquestionably a most ornamental addition to our game birds, being valuable not only for the beauty of its plumage, but also for the delicacy of its flesh. The breed is, however, kept in a state of absolute purity with some difficulty, as the males are apt to wander to "fresh woods and pastures new." Hence crosses between it and the common species are very prevalent ; these constitute what are usually called the ring-necked pheasants. These cross-bred birds are perfectly fertile, not only with either pure race, but also inter se. They are, however, variable in plumage, the amount of white in the neck varying from four or five feathers to a nearly complete circle, and the feathers on the flanks being intermediate between the beautiful spotted buff of the pure Chinese and the dark colour of the common bird. 158 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. These ring-necks are now common in most parts of the country where pheasants are preserved. The good points of the Chinese are largely shared by their half-bred progeny; hence the cross between the common and the Chinese is a valuable introduction to our preserves, retaining as it does to so great a degree the beauty and early fertility of the pure Chinese race, to which it adds great hardihood and larger size, but the birds are generally regarded as more apt to stray, and some gourmets maintain they are not quite so good a bird on the table as the pure-bred P. colchicus. The extent to which the interbreeding of the two species has taken place is well shown in the following interesting account taken from Mr. Stevenson's " Birds of Norfolk " : " In its semi-domesticated state, like our pigeons and poultry, the common pheasant crosses readily with its kindred species, and to so great an extent has this been carried in Norfolk that, except in the wholly unpreserved districts, it is difficult at the present time to find a perfect specimen of the old English type (P. colchicus) without some traces, however slight, of the ring-neck, and other marked features of the Chinese pheasant (P. torquatus), and in many localities of the Japanese (P. versicolor). In looking over a large number of pheasants from different coverts, as I have frequently done of late years in our fish market, I have noticed every shade of difference from the nearly pure-bred ring-neck, with its buff- coloured flanks and rich tints of lavender, and green on the wing and tail-coverts, to the common pheasant in its brilliant but less varied plumage, with but one feather in its glossy neck just tipped with a speck of white. Some birds of the first cross are scarcely distinguishable from the true P. torquatus, and are most gorgeous objects when flushed in the sunlight on open ground ; but as the ' strain ' gradually dies out, the green and lavender tints on the back begin to fade, and the rich orange flanks are toned down by degrees ; though still the most marked feature of all, the white ring on the neck, descends from one generation to another, and the THE CHINESE PHEASANT. 159 hybrid origin of the bird is thus apparent long after every other trace of its mixed parentage has entirely passed away." The Chinese pheasant has been introduced into several parts of the globe with success. The rapidity of its increase in New Zealand has already been noticed. As long since as the year 1513 it was acclimatised in the island of St. Helena under very peculiar circumstances, as related by Brookes in his history of the island. Fernandez Lopez, having deserted from the army of A. Albuquerque at Goa, was exiled, along with a number of negroes, and banished to St. Helena, being supplied with roots, seeds, poultry, and pheasants for turning out. These were of the species now under consideration. Berries and seeds being abundant in the island, the birds became wild, throve amazingly, and on the visit of Captain Cavendish in 1588 he found them in great abundance and admirable condition. In 1875 we are informed, in Melliss's " St. Helena," " that they still exist abundantly, and quite maintain the characteristics mentioned by Cavendish. They are protected by game laws, which permit them to be killed, on payment of the licences, for six weeks in the summer or autumn of each year, and hundreds of them are generally killed during one shooting season. They find plenty of covert, and generally make their nests in the long tufty fields of cow-grass (Paspalum scrobiculatum)." There can be no doubt that the Chinese or ring-necked species has remained in its purity at St. Helena. Ships going to India via the Cape of Good Hope in the olden time did not sail within a thousand miles of St. Helena; but, taking advantage of the trade winds, they went direct to the coast of South America, often, indeed, calling at Rio, and then struck straight away for the Cape of Good Hope, aided by the return trade wind. It was on the return from India that the Island of St. Helena was visited, and letters from England to the island went via the Cape. Under these circumstances, the introduction of a Colchian pheasant to the island is exceedingly improbable, and that of a Japanese out of the 160 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. question. With regard to the alteration in plumage pro- duced by an exposure to .these new conditions for 373 years, it must be confessed that they are remarkably insignificant. There is the same glossy, shining green of the head and neck, the white ring completely surrounding the neck, the pale greenish tail and wing coverts, but the breast and flanks are less distinctly spangled, the under parts being of a more uniform red. The slight change in the plumage is doubtless owing to the influence of a change of climate acting through many generations, added, perhaps, by a change of diet. We are informed by Mr. J. English Torbett that the ripe seeds of the Calla wthiopica, so common as a greenhouse plant in this country, are much sought after by the pheasants in St. Helena, and that it forms a large portion of their food. Closely allied to the ordinary Chinese pheasant is a bird which has been described as a distinct species by Consul Swinhoe, under the title of the Eingless Chinese Pheasant (P. decollatus). It was obtained by him at Chung-king-foo, in Szechuen, and a somewhat similar bird was procured by Pere David, at Moupin, near the Thibetan boundary. I cannot regard these birds as anything more than mere local varieties of the ordinary Chinese species, and must refer those who wish to trace the slight distinctions between them to Mr. Elliot's " Phasianidae," in which they are figured. In the same magnificent folio will be found engravings of the Mongolian Pheasant (P. mongolicus), the Yarkand Pheasant (P. insignis), and Shaw's Pheasant (P. shawii) ; all closely allied to the common Chinese species, if not merely to be regarded as geographical variations from it. None of these forms are known in a living state in Europe, and con- sequently do not require detailed notice in the present work. CHAPTER XIII. PHEASANTS ADAPTED TO THE COVERT (CONTINUED). THE JAPANESE PHEASANT (PEASIANU8 VERSICOLOR}. ;APAN, among the numerous objects of interest with which it has furnished Europe, has supplied us with the most gorgeous of the true pheasants P. versicolor. It is doubtful, indeed, whether any of the gallinaceous group, magnificent as many of them are, can surpass this bird in resplendent brilliancy. The wonderful dark grass green of the breast, that no painter can equal, the dark blue of the neck, and the brilliant scarlet of the face, 'taken together, constitute one of the most effective combinations of colour to be found in the whole class of birds. This splendid addition to the fauna of Great Britain was utterly unknown in a living state in Europe sixty years since. In 1840 a few birds were brought to Amsterdam from Japan. Of these a pair passed into the possession of the Earl of Derby the grandfather of the present Earl a man whose memory as a zoologist will be green when party strife is forgotten. Of this pair the female died, and the breed was established by crossing the male with several females of the ordinary species, and then pairing the half- bred progeny with the old male, and continuing the breeding back until the offspring were no longer capable of being distinguished from the original bird. 162 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. At the death of the Earl the Knowsley collection came to the hammer. A number of the versicolor pheasants, including the original bird, were purchased by Prince Demidoff for his preserves in Italy, and others passed into the possession of Mr. J. J. Gurney, of Norwich, by whom they were intro- duced into the preserves of that country. Since that period other specimens have been imported, and at the present time the P. vesicolor is established as a denizen of many of our preserves. In form, habits, and disposition the P. versicolor cor- responds closely to our common pheasants. As a game bird it is, both in the covert and on the table, of undeniable excellence. As the bird crosses freely both with the common and the Chinese species, it is desirable to give an accurate and detailed description of its plumage. For this purpose I shall again have recourse to Mr. Gould's " Birds of Asia," and reproduce his elaborate description of the two sexes : " The male has the forehead, crown, and occiput purplish oil green ; ear tufts glossy green ; chin, throat, and sides and back of the neck glossy changeable bluish green; back of the neck, breast, and under surface deep shining grass green, with shades of purple on the back of the neck and upper part of the breast ; feathers of the back and scapularies chesnut, with buffy shafts and two narrow lines of buff running round each, about equidistant from each other and the margin; lower part of the back and upper tail coverts light glaucous grey ; shoulders and wiug coverts light greenish grey, washed with purple; primaries brown on the internal web, toothed with dull white at the base; outer web greyer and irregularly banded with dull white ; tertiaries brown, freckled with grey, and margined first with greenish grey and then with reddish chesnut ; centre of abdomen and thighs blackish brown; tail glaucous grey, slightly fringed with purplish, and with a series of black marks down the centre, opposite to each other at the base of the feathers, where they assume a GOULD ON JAPANESE PHEASANT. 163 band-like form ; as they advance towards the tip they gradually become more and more irregular, until they are arranged alternately, and in the like manner gradually increase in size ; on the lateral feathers these marks are much smaller, and on the outer ones are entirely wanting, those feathers being covered with freckles of brown ; orbits crimson red, interspersed with minute tufts of black feathers ; eyes, yellowish hazel ; bill and feet horn colour. " Compared with the female of the common pheasant, the hen of the present bird has all the markings much stronger, and is altogether of a darker colour. She has the whole of the upper surface very dark or blackish brown, each feather broadly edged with buff, passing in some of the feathers to a chesnut hue; those of the head, and particularly those of the back, with a small oval deep spot of deep glossy green close to the tip ; primaries and secondaries light brown, irregularly barred with buff, and with buffy shafts ; tertiaries dark brown, broadly edged with buff on their inner webs, and mottled with dull pale chesnut on the outer web, the edge of which is buff ; tail dark brown, mottled with buff, and black on the edges, and crossed by narrow irregular bands of buff, bordered on either side with blotches of dark brown; on the lateral feathers the lighter edges nearly disappear, and the bands assume a more irregular form ; throat buff ; all the remainder of the under surface buff, with a large irregular arrowhead-shaped mark near the top of each feather; thigh similar, but with the dark mark nearly obsolete." The habits of the Japanese pheasant in its native country were first described by Mr. Heine, the naturalist attached to the American expedition to Japan, and the following obser- vations by him were published in Commodore Perry's " Japan Expedition " : ( ' After the treaty of Yokuhama had been concluded, the United States squadron proceeded to Simoda. A. friendly intercourse with the natives was established, and I constantly availed myself of Commodore Perry's kind M 2 164 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. permission to make additions to our collections in natural history. One morning, at dawn of day, I shouldered my gun and landed in search of specimens of birds, and that day had the good fortune to see, for the first time, the Versicolor pheasant. The province Idza, at the southern extremity of which the port of Simoda is situated, forms a long neck of land extending from the island of Niphon, in a southerly direction, and is throughout mountainous, some of the mountains being from 4000 to 5000 feet high. The valleys are highly cultivated, presenting in the spring a most luxurious landscape. The tops of the mountains and hills are in some places composed of barren rocks, and in others covered with grass and shrubs, producing an abundance of small berries. Between those higher regions and the fields below the slopes are covered with woods, having, for the greater part, such thick undergrowth that it is scarcely possible to penetrate them. Following the beautiful valley, at the outlet of which the town of Simoda stands, for about four miles, I came to a place where the Simoda creek divides into two branches. Selecting the eastern branch, I soon left fields and houses behind me, and ascending through a little gulley, I emerged from the woods into the barren region. It was yet early in the morning; clouds enveloped the peaks and tops of the hills ; the fields and woods were silent, and the distant sound of the surf from the seashore far below rather increased than lessened the impression of deep solitude made upon me by the strange scenery around. " The walk and ascent had fatigued me somewhat ; I had laid down my gun and game-bag, and was just stopping to drink from a little spring that trickled from a robk, when, not ten yards from me, a large pheasant arose, with loud rustling noise, and before I had recovered my gun, he had disappeared over the brow of a hill. I felt somewhat ashamed for allowing myself thus to be taken so completely aback ; but, noticing the direction in which he had gone, I proceeded more carefully in pursuit. A small stretch of table-land, which I HEINE ON JAPANESE PHEASANT. 165 soon reached, was covered with short grass and some little clusters of shrubs, with scattered fragments of rocks; and as I heard a note which I took to be the crowing of a cock pheasant, at a short distance, I availed myself of the excellent cover, and crawling cautiously OD my hands and knees, I succeeded in approaching him within about fifteen yards. Having the advantage of the wind and a foggy atmosphere, and being moreover concealed by the rocks and shrubs, I could indulge in quietly observing him and his family. On a small sandy patch was an adult cock and three hens busy in taking their breakfast, which consisted of the berries already mentioned growing hereabouts in abundance. From time to time the lord of this little family stopped in his repast and crowed his shrill war-cry, which was answered by a rival on another hill at some distance. At other moments again, when the sun broke forth for a short time, all stretched themselves in the golden rays, and rolling in the sand, shook the morning dew from their fine plumage. It was a beautiful sight, and I looked upon it with ex- ceeding pleasure ; so much, indeed, that I could not find the heart to destroy this little scene of domestic happiness by a leaden shower from my fowling - piece. Suddenly the birds showed signs of uneasiness, and I soon discovered the cause in a Japanese root-digger coming from the opposite direction. I therefore took up my gun, and standing on my feet, raised the birds also, and as they flew towards the next hill, I had the good fortune to bring down the cock with one barrel of my gun, and one of the hens with the other. " The Japanese, who came up after I had loaded my gun and secured my game, looked with some astonishment at the stranger, for I was certainly the first foreigner who had been in pursuit of game on the hunting grounds of Niphon. He evidently asked me several questions, which I was not, of course, able to understand, but from his signs, and the frequent repetition of the word " statzoo " (two), I inferred 166 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. that lie inquired whether I had fired twice in such quick succession with one gun. I nodded and explained to him as well as I could the nature of my double-barrelled gun, and the use of percussion caps, which seemed to astonish and delight him very much. A pipe of tobacco' which I offered was gladly accepted ; and in answer to a question that he appeared to understand, he gave me the name of the pheasant as Ki-zhi. * Later in the day more people came to the hills, some for the purpose of 'digging roots, others to look after their cattle, which appeared to be turned out to graze on the hills. The birds had taken to the bushes, where I could not follow them, and so obtained no more specimens on that occasion. , ( ; f A few days after, Lieutenants Bent and Nicholson and myself made another shooting excursion to the hills, f but although we saw many pheasants, but a single specimen was shot, and the birds appeared to be very shy. We observed several Japanese with matchlocks about the hills, firing away at a great rate. As we did not see either of them with game, and as the game-laws of Japan are very severe, so much, so, indeed, that their observance has been made a special article of the treaty with the United States, I con- cluded that the firing was only for the purpose of driving away the pheasants to places where they would be more secure from the strangers/' The three species of pheasants the P. versicolor, torquatuSy and colchicus readily breed with each other, and the mixed progeny, from whatever parentage, are perfectly fertile. The effect of this introduction of foreign blood in our common breed has been amazing, producing an increase of size and vigour, and beautiful variations in the plumage, dependent on the species whose blood predominates in the cross. Nothing can be more interesting than the production of these beautiful mongrels, which increase so rapidly that Gould stated his opinion that in twenty years' time it would be STEVENSON ON JAPANESE PHEASANT. 167 difficult to find a true species in this country-. This, however, he regarded as of little moment, as fresh birds can always be obtained from their native countries, Asia Minor, China, and Japan. All naturalists, however, are not of Mr. Grould's opinion. The late Mr. Blyth informed me that P. versicolor and P. torquatus kept themselves distinct in two neighbouring copses at Lord Craven's, not intermixing, although at a comparatively short distance from each other, and that he believed, although these races will cross when in confinement, that in the open country the birds of each would select their proper mates and produce pure bred offspring, an opinion which I regard as exceedingly doubtful. The cross between the Japanese and common pheasant is a bird of brilliant plumage, easy to rear, of greater size than the average of English birds, and the flesh is very tender and well flavoured. In Norfolk this very beautiful cross was introduced some few years back by Mr. J. H. Grurney, who bred most successfully, both at Easton and Northrepps, from the birds he obtained at the Knowsley sale and the common pheasant (though chiefly with the ring-necked cross), and produced magnificent specimens; and from the eggs being greatly sought after by other game preservers in his district, the race soon spread throughout the county. " From personal observation and inquiry, however," writes Mr. Stevenson, "during the last two or three years, it appears evidences of this cross, even in the coverts where these hybrids were most plentiful, are now scarcely per- ceptible ; the strong characteristics of the Chinese bird apparently absorbing all the less marked though darker tints of the Japanese. One of these birds, killed in 1853, weighed upwards of four and a half pounds, and many examples, which were stuffed for the beauty of their plumage, will be found in the collections of our country gentlemen." The absorption of the Japanese in the more common race is not surprising when the small interfusion of new blood is 168 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. taken into consideration, but with the fresh introduction of new blood, and the care in the preservation of the cross-bred birds, there can be no doubt a permanent breed would result, bearing the same relation to the pure bred Japanese that the common ring-neck does to the pure blooded Chinese species. CHAPTER XIV. PHEASANTS ADAPTED TO THE COVERT (CONTINUED). SGE MM BERING'S PHEASANT (PHASIANVS SCEMMERRINGII) . .(EMMERRING'S pheasant is a second exquisitely beautiful species inhabiting Japan. In the southern islands, Kin-Shin and Hondo, it is very numerous, and is commonly exposed for sale in the markets of Nagasaki. In other districts of the country its place seems to be supplied by the Phasianus verticolor. The bird was known to Temminck by the dried skins, but recently the living animal has been introduced into aviaries in Europe, and it has bred in the zoological gardens in London and Antwerp. In the Regent's Park Garden it first bred, according to Mr. Bartlett, in 1865, when the female laid ten eggs, but only a few birds were hatched, and the young birds died in a few days. Since then the breeding has been more successful, and mature specimens have been reared. The species, however, is but ill-adapted to breed in con- finement, as the males are excessively pugnacious not only destroying one another, but even killing the females. This tendency is probably developed by captivity, and no doubt, if placed in a free range, Soemmerring's pheasant would prove as fertile as the other species, but the experiment has never yet been tried. Mr. Bartlett, writing of this species in 170 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. Elliot's monograph, says: " Amongst the Phasianidas some species are remarkable for their pugnacious and fierce dis- positions ; not only the males, but frequently the females destroy each other. The want of sufficient space and means of escape among bushes, shrubs, and trees is no doubt the cause of many females being killed when kept in confinement ; and this serious misfortune is unhappily of no rare occurrence. After the cost and trouble of obtaining pairs of these beautiful birds, and they have recovered from their long confinement on the voyage, their owner is desirous of reaping a reward by obtaining an abundant supply of eggs as the birds approach the breeding season, when, alas ! he finds that some disturbance has occurred, the place is filled with feathers, and the female bird, from which he expected so much, is found dead or dying, her head scalped, her eyes picked out, or some other serious injury afflicted. I have found some species more inclined to this cruel practice than others, the worst, according to ray experience, being the P. scem- merringii." Mr. Elliot justly remarks that this is a sad account of such a beautiful bird, and he also suggests the right remedy when he states that doubtless this evil could be abolished by planting thick clumps of bushes in their inclosure, into which the hens could retreat and escape from the persecution of the males ; if kept in large inclosures covered with shrubs, and filled with growing grass, there should be no difficulty in rearing these birds, especially if a due supply of fresh vegetable food be daily given. Our knowledge of the habits of this magnificent bird in its native state is very limited. The best account which has been published is in Commodore Perry's " Japan Expedition " one of those magnificent and expensive scientific works so liberally published by the American Government. Commodore Perry writes : "This is undoubtedly the most beautiful of all the true ^ pheasants, and will, compare in richness and brilliancy of colour with almost any other species of bird. In the adult HEINE ON SCEMMERRING'S PHEASANT. male the neck and back are of a deep golden red, with a metallic lustre of great beauty, but the female is exceedingly plain and unpretending. " Like the Yersicolor, the present is only known as a bird of Japan; and but few years have elapsed since it was first introduced to the attention of naturalists by the celebrated Professor Temminck, well known as the most distinguished of European ornithologists. It appears to inhabit the same districts of country as the Yersicolor, and to subsist on much the same description of food ; but we regret to say that the gentlemen of the expedition had no opportunity for observing this species to such an extent as to enable us to make any important contribution to its history. " Nothing having previously been published in relation to this beautiful pheasant, we have exerted ourselves to obtain all available information, and have great pleasure in again acknowledging our obligations to Mr. Heine, the accomplished artist of the expedition, for the following note : " ' On one of my excursions I came very suddenly upon another species of pheasant, of very beautiful colours, and with a very long tail. Being in the midst of briars, and in an inconvenient position, I missed him, or at least did not injure him further than to shoot off his two long tail feathers. " ' Returning on board in the evening, I found that our chaplain, the Rev. George Jones, had purchased a pheasant of the same kind from a Japanese root-digger in the hills. It was not wounded, or otherwise injured, and seemed to have been either caught in a trap or found dead. To my inquiries of the Japanese Dutch interpreter, whether these birds were ever hunted, I could obtain but evasive answers ; but if, however, such is the case, the right is undoubtedly reserved to the princes and nobility. " ' It appears that both these kinds of pheasants inhabit similar localities, and are abundant over the southern and the middle parts of the island of Nipon, for even during my rambles in the vicinity of Yokuhama, in the Bay of Yeddo 172 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. I could Lear their calls in the little thickets and woods scattered over the country/ tf For the following note on the bird now before us, and the preceding species, we are indebted to the kindness of Joseph Wilson, jun., M.D., of the United States Navy, who was attached as surgeon to the squadron of the expedition : " ' Our acquaintance with the pheasants of Japan began soon after our arrival at Simoda, or about the middle of April, 1854. A Japanese brought to the landing-place a young bird, which, with the dark tips on his downy covering, and his frequently repeated " peet-peet," might have been mistaken for a young turkey but for his diminutive size. This in- teresting little fellow had been obtained by hatching an egg of a wild pheasant, obtained in the hills, under a domestic fowl. " ' A few days after this a male pheasant in full plumage was brought to the same place, dead but uninjured, and evidently but very recently killed. The golden brilliancy of this bird's plumage is probably not exceeded by any object in nature, and is quite equal in lustre to the most brilliant markings of the humming-birds, or the most highly burnished metal. This splendid colouring covers the whole body of the bird, merely shaded with a little copper-red about the tips and margins of the feathers, so as to show the lance-head form of the feathers. This specimen was taken on board the flagship Independence and preserved. " ' The specimen of the other species that I saw was shot by Mr. Heine, who made a very beautiful painting of it. The two birds are found in the same localities, and seem to be similar in habits. " ' The Japanese system of agriculture, although very minute, and appropriating all available land to some useful purpose, yet affords abundant shelter for the native fauna. Scarcely any land is tilled except such as can be watered, so that the tops of hills and large portions of mountainous and precipitous places are appropriated to the growth of timber, or left covered with the primitive forest. These wooded WILSON ON SCEMMERRING'S PHEASANT. 173 districts afford shelter for wild hogs, foxes, and raccoons (the skins of which were seen), as well as for the pheasants; and they all descend in turn to plunder the crops, or steal the chickens in the valleys. During the first part of our stay at Simoda the cultivated fields afforded no food for the pheasants. The natives told us there were plenty in the hills ; but no one was willing to undertake to show them, and several rambles through the bushes where these birds were supposed to feed ended in disappointment. Only once I had a glimpse of a brood of young ones near a hut in the mountains, but they immediately disappeared by running very rapidly. Perhaps one reason of oar want of success is to be found in the fact that the wheat was ripe, and partially harvested before we left (June 24th), so that during the time of our efforts they were enabled to fill their crops occasionally from the wheat-fields, and lie very close in the hills during the day, without being under the necessity of wandering in search of food. " ' The note of one or the other of these species of pheasants was heard frequently. On the top of a precipitous hill, about a mile south of Simoda, covered by small pines and a very thick growth of shrubbery, a pheasant (so we were assured by the Japanese) passed the weary hours, while his mate was on her nest, and very sensibly solaced himself and her with such music as he was capable of making. It was, however, anything but melodious, and may be represented as a sort of compound of the filing of a saw and the screech of a peacock. There are two notes only, uttered in quick succes- sion, and represented by the Japanese name of the bird Ki-ji ; but the second note is much longer, louder, and more discordant, in fact has more of the saw-filing character Kee-jaeae. These two notes are uttered, and if the bird is not disturbed they are repeated in about five minutes. A good many attempts, perhaps twenty, to become better acquainted with this individual all failed. It seemed impossible to make him fly, though his covert was by no means extensive. ' " 174 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. This species is readily distinguished by the widely separated transverse bands on the tail of the male, and the short, rounded tail of the female (Sin. in length, that of the male being 23in.), the feathers of which are tipped with white at the extremity. We are not aware of any hybrids between this and allied species, although their production would be very interesting as bearing on a suggestion made by Darwin to the effect that " if the female Soemmerring pheasant with her short tail were crossed with the male common pheasant, there could be no doubt that the male hybrid offspring would have a much longer tail than that of the pure offspring of the common pheasant. On the other hand, if the female common pheasant, with her tail nearly twice as long as that of the female Soemmerring pheasant, were crossed with the male of the latter, the male hybrid offspring would have a much shorter tail than that of the pure offspring of Scemmer ring's pheasant." "The Descent of Man," Vol. II., p. 156. The following description of the two sexes is taken from Mr. Gould's magnificent folio, "The Birds of Asia " :" The male has the whole of the upper surface and throat of a fine coppery brown, with a lighter border to each feather, which in some lights appear of a purple hue ; in others rich coppery red, and in others again bright but deep flame colour this latter tint being especially conspicuous on the lower part of the back and upper tail coverts. This is the general appearance. On examining each feather singly, it is found to be grey at the base, dark rich brown in the middle, with a broad stripe down the centre, and on each side of dark coppery brown, with a lustrous stripe on each side of the tip ; wing coverts the same, but devoid of the lustre at the tips ; a few of the greater coverts with a narrow bar of creamy white at the tip, within which is a still narrower one of black. Primaries dark brown, crossed by irregular broken bands of a tawny hue; secondaries dark brown, freckled near the tip with tawny, and a large patch of deep rufous GOULD ON SCEMMERRING'S PHEASANT. 175 near the end of the outer web, becoming much paler at the extremity ; on the tips at the inner webs of several of them the double mark of white and black, as on the greater coverts. Tail rich chesnut red with black shafts, and crossed at intervals of about two inches with a narrow irregular band of black, and a second broader and more decided band of the same colour the space between the bands being of a similar but paler tint than the body of the feather; the second band of black, moreover, becomes broader, and gradually blends with the general colours of the feathers as they approach the extremity. On some the intermediate pale band is white; feathers of the under surface marked like the upper, but the bordering is not luminous, and terminates in dull grey, within which, on the lower part of the sides of the abdomen, is a narrow line of white ; eye orbits red ; bill brown colour ; feet bluish-brown colour. "The female has a patch of dark brown at the back of the head, with a narrow bordering of rufous at the end of each feather; feathers of the head and upper surface generally mottled with rufous, with a narrow edging of black at the tip, and with a stripe down the centre, which on the sides of the neck and shoulders is white, and on the other parts deep buff; rump and upper tail coverts deep rust red, each feather faintly barred with dark brown, some of the wing coverts marked at the tip with black and white, as in the male, but the marks are broader, and not so pure ; throat deep buff, feathers of the under surface brown, largely striped down the centre, and tipped with pale or creamy buff, and bordered on each side with tawny; tail short, central feathers greyish brown, freckled with dark brown; lateral feathers rufous, crossed obliquely near the tip with dark brown, beyond which the end is white/' Under the title of P. scintillans, a variety of this pheasant has been described as a distinct species, but it appears to differ only in the male having the feathers 176 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. on the back more or less completely margined or tipped with white. Mr. W. R. Ogilvie-Grant, in his "Hand Book to the Game Birds," writes : t( It can only be recognised as a well marked variety, for it not only occurs in the same islands where the P. scemmerringii is found, but every intermediate stage of plumage between the two forms may be seen." ' ft.WC CHAPTEE XY. PHEASANTS ADAPTED TO THE COVERT (CONTINUED). REEVES'S PHEASANT (PHASIANUS EEEVESII). ARCO POLO, the old Venetian traveller, who re- turned to Venice in 1298, after a residence of seventeen years in Tartary, was evidently ac- quainted with the magnificent species now known as Reeves' s Pheasant. In the language of his original translator, whose quaint orthography I have followed, he is made to state : " There be plenty of Feysants and very greate, for 1 of them is as big as 2 of ours, with tayles of eyght, 9 and tenne spannes long, from the Kingdom of Erguyl or Arguill, the W. side of Tartary." This descrip- tion can only be applicable to the species now under con- sideration. From this time, until described by Latham and Temminck, this bird was comparatively unknown, except from the inspection of Chinese drawings. Sonnini, who preceded Temminck, concludes his account by stating that it is very possible that the bird, of which he had merely seen pictures, " exists only in the imagination of the Chinese painters." Singularly enough, the species was, for thirteen years namely, 1808 to 1821 living in the aviary of Mr. Beale, at Macao. Dr. Bennett, in his " Wanderings in New South Wales," states : "In Mr. Beale's splendid aviary and garden at Macao N 178 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. the beautiful Phasianus veneratus of Temminck, the P. reevesii of Gray, now commonly known by the name of the Reeves's Pheasant, was seen. It is the Ghee-kai of the Chinese. " The longest tail feathers of the bird are 6ft. in length, and are placed in the caps of the players when acting military characters. This I observed at Canton, where some of the beautiful tail feathers (rather in a dirty condition, like the actors themselves, who, in their tawdry dresses, reminded me of the chimney-sweepers in London on a May-day) were placed erect on each side of their caps as a decoration. "The Chinese do not venerate this bird, as was first supposed, and which may have caused Temminck to bestow on it the name of veneratus but it is superstitiously believed that the blood of the bird possesses poisonous properties, and that the Mandarins, when in expectation of losing their rank and being suddenly put to death by order of the Emperor, preserve some of it on a handkerchief in a dried state, on sucking which they fall down and instantly expire. "Mr. Beale's first male specimen, obtained in 1808, was kept in a healthy state for thirteen years ; after its death he endeavoured to procure others, but did not succeed until 1831, when four specimens were brought from the interior of China, and purchased by him for 130 dollars ; these were, I believe, taken to England subsequently by Mr. Reeves." The first living bird of this species was imported into Europe about the year 1831 by Mr. Reeves (of the firm of Dent and Co.). This specimen was a male. The son of this gentleman, Mr. John R. Reeves, brought a female over in 1838, and the pair were in the Zoological Gardens at same time ; but the male being old, they did not breed. Some cross-bred birds were reared from the hen, who died in 1840, these are now in the British Museum. Dr. Latham, in his " General History of Birds/' gave a description of this species from a drawing and tail feathers in the possession of Sir J. Anstruther. He states : " I had an opportunity of seeing a bundle of thirty or forty of these tail INTRODUCTION OF REEVE S'S PHEASANT. 179 feathers,, which were brought from China, and I found amongst them specimens of every length from 18in. to 7ft." The species was named by Latham P. superbus. Temminck described it under the title of Faisan superbe in his " Pigeons et Gallinaces," published in 1813. At this date it was known to him only by the two central tail feathers, and the drawings of native Chinese artists. Subsequently, however, he obtained a skin of the male, which he figured in his " Planches coloriees," giving it the erroneous name of P. veneratus. This plate was copied on a reduced scale in Jardine's " Naturalist's Library," published in 1834. Dr. J. E. Gray, in his " Indian Zoology," named the bird after the gentleman by whom it was introduced into England, and by this name it is now generally known. The successful introduction of the living birds now in England is owing to the combined efforts of the late Mr. John J. Stone and Mr. Walter H. Medhurst, H.M. Consul at Hankow. Owing to their exertions, this splendid pheasant is now firmly established in this country, and like the P. versicolor and P. torquatus, is to be seen at large in our woods, and specimens are not unfrequently to be bought in the wholesale markets. For several years Mr. Stone made continuous efforts to obtain this and other new pheasants from Northern China, but with no satisfactory results until the aid of Mr. Medhurst was obtained. It is mainly due to that gentleman's thorough knowledge of the natives of China, and of their language, that the true habitat of this bird was ascertained, and an experienced Chinaman sent into the interior for the purpose of collecting this and other rare pheasants, of which coloured drawings had been supplied for his guidance. The first three lots of birds obtained all died before reaching England, with the exception of one male, which lived for about three months. The fourth lot was obtained in the direction of Syechney, about thirty days' journey from Hankow, and from it seven Reeves's pheasants were deposited N 2 180 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. in the Zoological Gardens, Regent's Park. Mr. Medhurst was anxious that Her Majesty the Queen should have early possession of specimens of Phasianus reevesii ; and, in com- pliance with his wish, one male and two females were offered to and graciously accepted by Her Majesty. Since the successful reintroduction of these birds they have bred freely both in confinement and at large in England and on the Continent, and are now to be purchased at the dealers. "With regard to the distribution of this bird in China, Mr. Saurin remarks : " The Reeves' s pheasant, called by the Chinese Chi-Chi, is very rarely seen in the Pekin market. For a long time I failed to discover from what quarter they came Last winter I ascertained, however, that they came from the Tung-lin ; and I have reason to suppose that they are to be found nowhere else in the province of Chi-li. About twenty birds were brought down alive last winter. They are never brought in frozen or by Mongols. Their flesh is very delicious, and superior, to my taste, to that of any other pheasant." The general character of the plumage of the Reeves's pheasant is well shown in the illustration. The head is covered by a cowl of white, surrounded by a band of black, with a spot of white under the eye ; the neck has a broad ring of white ; the feathers of the back and upper part of the breast are of a brilliant golden yellow, margined with black ; those of the lower part of the breast are white, each one presenting bands of black more or less irregular in their arrangement ; the under parts of the body are deep black ; the tail is formed of eighteen feathers, which are closely folded together, so that the entire tail appears narrow ; at the broadest part the feathers are about 2in. in breadth ; the ground colour of each tail feather is greyish-white in the centre, and golden red at the edges, and crossed with crescent- shaped bars, which vary in number according to the length of the feather, in the longest feathers being considerably more than fifty. REEVES'S PHEASANT IN COVERTS. 181 A very interesting observation was made by the late Mr. Blyth on the voice of this species. He states : " I have heard the call-note of Reeves' s pheasant, and it was some time before I could satisfy myself that it actually proceeded from such a bird. It is like the simple song of some small passerine bird, delivered in as high a key as the song of the hedge sparrow (Accentor modularis), one of which happened to be singing at the same time. A repetition of the same note seven or eight times over, quite musical but not loud, being as unlike what would be expected from such a bird as a pheasant, as the voices of sundry Columbidoe are utterly different from what would have been expected to proceed from pigeons and doves." The late Mr. J. J. Stone, to whom naturalists are so much indebted for his introduction of this and other splendid pheasants, was of opinion that the value of Reeves's pheasant in this country rests mainly upon its size and strength of flight, making it the prince of game birds for our woods. In a communication to me on the subject, he wrote : " The point I aim at is to induce the large landed proprietors and game preservers to introduce the Reeves' s pheasant into their coverts, believing that it will (from its wild character) afford the best sport of all the pheasants, and from its size and the magnificence of its plumage it must be a desirable addition to our list of game birds. I want to see Reeves' s pheasant common on the dinner table ; and there is no reason why it should not be so in a few years, seeing that it is now being bred freely in Belgium, and may be purchased there at about the price which the Versicolor still commands, though much longer introduced into Europe." Since Mr. Stone's death several successful attempts have been made to introduce this most noble of all the true pheasants into our coverts. Lord Lilford, writing in March, 1881, gave me the follow- ing information : " I have kept several in pens, and found them very uncertain layers, although one season my hen birds laid an average of twenty eggs apiece, from which a very good 182 PHEASANTS FOE COVERTS AND AVIAEIES. proportion of young birds were hatched out. My impression is that these birds lay best at all events in captivity at about their third or fourth year. My gamekeeper, who has had charge of them, assures me that the young birds are very hardy and easy to rear. I have in Northamptonshire (the county in which I have tried these birds) no very large extent of woodlands of my own, and cannot therefore tell you much of their habits in a wild state, as they are very much given to roaming to great distances, and a good many have fallen victims in my neighbours' woods, besides the large percentage that may be always allowed in a foxhunting country. They have certainly crossed, though not abundantly, with the common pheasant. The male hybrid of the first cross is a most splendid bird. Reeves's pheasant is a very wild, shy bird, very quick on the wing, somewhat given to go back if possible, but quickly attains a good height in the air, giving good rocketing shots. I found them most excellent for the table in my opinion far superior to the common pheasant. I believe, from what I have seen and heard of this species, that for real success with them in this country a wide range of hill coverts would be most eligible. I believe that Sir Dudley Coutts Marjoribanks has had great success with Reeves's pheasants in Inverness-shire." I am informed that as many as sixty Reeves' s have been shot in these coverts in a single season. Fifteen years after Lord Lilford favoured me with the above communication he published in " The Birds of North- amptonshire " a further report on this species, in which he maintains its desirable character as a game bird for ranges of woodland in mountainous districts. His account is as follows : "Another most beautiful species, known as Reeves's or the bar-tailed pheasant (Phasianus reevesii), though we have found it hardy, easy to rear, and excellent for the table, our opinion is that, as it possesses the roaming instinct in a still higher degree than the ring-necked species, and is of a very REEVES'S PHEASANT IN THE OPEN. 183 wild and wary nature, it is not a desirable bird from a sporting point of view, except in very large ranges of wood- land ; and from what we have heard from a friend, who has been in the native haunts of this fine bird in the mountains of Northern China, we are inclined to think that it is more likely to prosper in Scotland and in Wales than in our own Midlands. The hybrids between this and the common pheasant are beautiful birds, but not, so far as we have been able to ascertain, prolific." The late Mr. Home, of Hereford, who reared numbers of the Reeves's pheasants, forwarded to me a letter from a lady who has been most successful with them in the extreme north of England regarding this species. This lady writes : " The cock and two hens I purchased have done wonders, and ujy estate is now fairly stocked with birds, having put all this season's eggs in nests of the common pheasant, except a few which I reared myself and a few which I sold. My hens last season averaged nearly fifty eggs each not bad laying." Not only in the extreme north, but in the more cultivated parts of England, Reeves' s pheasants have done well. One gentleman informs me that during the year 1895 he raised more than twenty in the open, which are now all in full plumage, and that he found them easy to rear. There can be no doubt whatever, as suggested by Lord Lilford, that, the bird being from North China, is hardy and well adapted to mountainous districts, such as those of Scotland and Wales. It appears that the easiest way of introducing it as a wild bird in those places to which it is adapted would be to place the eggs in the nests of pheasants breeding in the open. Reared under those circumstances, the young would be hardy and vigorous in the extreme, and would be much more likely to do well than if hand-reared and turned out afterwards. The fact of the hybrids between it and the common species being sterile is, to my mind, rather in its favour than otherwise. There would be no mongrel crosses introduced, and Reeves's pheasant could be confined to 184 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. those regions to which by its size and habits it is specially adapted. With regard to its beauty and magnificence there can be no doubt, and Lord Lilford speaks practically as to its value as a bird for the table, bat I have never had the opportunity of testing its value in this respect. The most important communication respecting the value of the Beeves' s pheasant as a game bird, and its rearing in the forests of mountainous districts, was made to the Field on February 9, 1896, by Mr. J. G-. Millais. This was accom- panied by a most graphic sketch of the flight of the bird, which Mr. Millais has kindly given me permission to repro- duce. Mr. Millais's letter is as follows : " I noticed a letter by Mr. Tegetmeier in the Field of January 25, on the desirability of establishing Reeves's pheasant as a British game bird ; and as I have seen and shot several of these birds at home, perhaps my observations on the species may be of some interest. "There is no game bird, I think, in the world, which, if introduced into suitable localities, would give greater pleasure to both the sportsman and the naturalist than this grand pheasant; for grand he certainly is, both to the eye as well as the object of aim to the expectant shooter. We all know, when a cock Reeves's pheasant attains his full beauty and length of tail, what a splendid bird he is as he struts about in his gorgeous trappings, and shows himself off for the benefit of his lady-love, but when the same bird is launched in the air, and dashes along above the highest trees of a wild Scotch landscape, leaving poor old Colchicusto scurry at what seems but a slow pace behind him, I can assure your readers that both the dignity and the pace are alike wonderful, and a sight not easily to be forgotten. " Until the year 1890 I had seen and shot several Reeves's pheasants, and under ordinary conditions of covert shooting was content to consider the bird hardly a success from a gunner's point of view. During that autumn, however, I went to the annual covert shoot at Gluisachan, Lord Tweed- EEEVES'S PHEASANT IN FLIGHT. MR. J. G. MILLAIS ON REEVES'S PHEASANTS. 185 mouth's beautiful seat, near Beauly, in Ross-shire, and it was there, amidst the wildest and shaggiest of Scotch scenery in country which must to a great extent resemble the true home of the bird in question that I had cause to alter my opinion. "In one high wood of old Scotch firs, on a steep and broken hillside above the waterfall, the sight of these birds coming along only just within gunshot, in company with common pheasants and blackcocks, I shall never forget. I say, ' in company with/ but, as a matter of fact, as soon as one of the long-tailed sky-rockets cleared the trees, he left the others far behind, and came forward at a pace which was little short of terrific. I doubt if any bird of the genus goes faster. "Now, this is all that the sportsman wants. Here we have a bird of unrivalled beauty, great hardihood, and unequalled pace, which practically fulfils all the conditions which the modern shooter requires. The only other condition which is absolutely essential to make the bird a success from this point of view is its local environment. In this respect Guisachan is not singular, and I could name a hundred localities in Scot- land, England, and Wales where Reeves's pheasant would be certain to succeed. " The Gruisachan birds were obtained by the late Lord Tweedmouth from Balmacaan, the late Lord Seafield's estate near Loch Ness, where I have also seen them shot. No artificial rearing was resorted to ; the birds were breeding in a wild state, and shifting entirely for themselves, except for the maize which was put down for the ordinary pheasants. At Balmacaan, where the birds were in low open woods, one may see Reeves' s pheasants killed in the way in which they should not be. Here these birds (as is the case when turned down on any ordinary English preserve) have formed most un- desirable habits. It is with great difficulty they can be got to rise at all, and when this is effected they keep low, and afford no sport whatever. Now, at Gruisachan all this is obviated by the rough nature of the ground. There is heavy 186 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. bracken, fallen trees, mountain burns, and, above all, rough heather. These cause the birds to get up almost at once. The trees being high and dense assist their elevation, and force them to a respectable height from the very start. " In conclusion, I should like to make one observation on the flight of Reeves's pheasant which I have never seen touched on before, and which is both interesting and remarkable. Keeves's pheasant has the power to stop suddenly when travelling at its full speed, which may be estimated at nearly double that of an ordinary pheasant; and this is performed by an extraordinary movement when the bird makes up its mind to alight on some high tree that has taken its fancy. This bird may be said to be furnished with a ' Westinghouse brake ' in the shape of its tail, otherwise the feat would be impossible. By a sudden and complete turn of the body, both the expanded wings and tail are presented as a resistance to the air, and the position of the bird is reversed. This acts as an immediate buffer and brake, and by this means the bird is enabled to drop head downwards into the tree within the short space of eight or ten yards. This is such a very remark- able movement, and one which of necessity requires some illustrative explanation, that I send you herewith a sketch of it, which may be of interest." Mr. J. Mayes, head-keeper to the late Maharajah Dhuleep Sing, writing from Elvedon, in 1877, stated: "I have bred the Keeves's pheasant for the last five or six years, rearing them by hand, and have had pretty good luck with them the last two years, having succeeded in rearing about sixty in the two seasons ; but I find they are much healthier turned out than when penned up. The soil here is dry and sandy, which seems to suit them very well. Two years ago I penned up fifty very fine young birds, about half-grown ; but they swelled very much about the head, and went completely blind, and about twenty of them died, but those that we have turned out seem to be in very good health and condition. As regards hybridizing, I know they will do so, as three years ago a hen HYBRID REEVES'S PHEASANTS. 187 Eeeves escaped from the pens, bred with a common pheasant, and brought up five very fine young birds, much larger than the common pheasant, and of beautiful plumage/' Many specimens of hybrid or cross-bred Eeeves have been reared in confinement. That figured in the same plate with the Bohemian pheasant was the offspring of a male Reeves with a Bohemian hen; it partook, as may be noticed, the characters of both species, the tail being of intermediate length, the white cowl, cheek patch, and neck ring of the Reeves being retained, but the splendid golden yellow of the body being almost entirely wanting. Hybrids have been produced between a male Reeves's pheasant and female Cheer (Phasianus wallichii), but they have little beyond their size to recommend them. In appear- ance they look like dirty faded Reeves's, with comparatively short tails. They are of large size, like the parent species, and would in all probability partake of those terrestrial habits of the Cheer which preclude its being advantageously intro- duced as a game bird, as it often refuses to rise, even when hunted or pursued with dogs. A singular hybrid was produced and described by Mr. R. Sanders, of Heavitree, who writes: "I have three most beautiful male birds, bred between the Reeves and gold. The size is about that of the male Reeves, but the plumage does not in the least partake of that of either parent ; it is" very much like that of the copper pheasant of China (of which I had several some years since), but not so dark. The chief colour is a soft light brown, running into a light copper ; the marking on the head is somewhat after the Reeves ; the tail verv CHAPTER XYI. PHEASANTS ADAPTED TO THE AVIARY. THE GOLDEN PHEASANT (THAUMALEA PIGTA). MONGrST the birds that are reared in our aviaries on yf| account of the beauty of their plumage, the two species of the genus Thaumalea occupy a very prominent position. These birds have been separated from the more typical pheasants (which have been already described as constituting the restricted genus Phasianus) by several well-marked characters, the most conspicuous of which are the presence of a crest of silky feathers on the crown of the head, and a tippet of broad flat feathers encircling the upper part of the neck. The G-olden Pheasant (Thaumalea picta) has been long known in captivity in Europe ; it was described by Linnseus under the name of Phasianus pictus in 1766, but of its habits in its native country nothing whatever had been ascertaine d ; even its exact locality was doubtful until more recent explorations in China. It is now known to inhabit the mountains of the western central districts, and it has been shot by Europeans on the banks of the Yang-tsze, one hundred miles north of Hankow. In the north of China it is, according to Pere David, quite unknown. In its mature plumage the male is one of the most gorgeous of the whole tribe. The head is ornamented with a long crest DISPLAY OF GOLDEN PHEASANT. 189 of silky orange-coloured feathers. This extends backwards over a tippet formed of broad flat feathers, which are of a deep orange colour, with dark blue bars across the tips ; these latter form, when the feathers are in position, a series of horizontal lines across the tippet. During the courtship of the female this collar or tippet is brought over to the side nearest the hen, as shown in the background of the engraving of this species; the late Mr. T. "W. Wood paid more attention to the amatory displays of birds than any other writer. Eespecting that of the Golden Pheasant he writes : " Not the least remarkable example of the lateral mode of display during courtship is that of the Grolden Pheasant, whose elegant form and brilliant colouring are so well known in this country. The male runs very playfully after the female, and placing himself in front of her, quickly expands his collar, bringing nearly the whole of it round to the side where it is to be exhibited, and thereby presenting to view a flat disc of bright orange-red, banded with perfect regularity by blue-back semicircles; the hen on seeing this frequently runs away pursued by her would-be mate, who generally finds himself placed with his other side towards her, and the collar is accordingly shown on that side. At the moment the full expansion of the collar takes place, the bird utters a very snake-like hiss, which, according to our notions, would not be very fascinating as a love-song ; the body is very much dis- torted, as is the case with the true pheasants, but the tail is not spread so much, as the curved, roof -like shape prevents its forming a flat surface. Slight breaks would occur in the black stripes of the collar when expanded, were it not that each feather has a second black stripe which is so placed as effectually to prevent this." Below the tippet on the lower part of the neck the feathers are deep -green margined with velvet black ; below this again are the scapular feathers of a dark crimson; the back and rump are golden yellow ; the tail itself is very long, the two longest central feathers are covered with small irregular 190 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. circles of light-brown on a dark ground, giving them a mottled appearance ; the other feathers are barred diagonally with dark brown on a lighter ground. On each side of the base of the tail extend the long narrow upper tail coverts of a bright orange crimson. The wings when closed show the deep blue tertiaries covering the chesnut secondary quills. The upper part of the throat is light-brown; the breast and under parts orange-scarlet. Taken altogether, its appearance is so remarkable that it looks more like one of the bizarre creations of Chinese fancy than a real bird. The birds of this genus differ from the true pheasants, in the fact that the mature masculine plumage is not assumed until the autumn of the second year ; the young cocks looking, during the first twelve months of their lives, very much like the hens, from which, however, they can be readily distinguished by pulling one or two of the feathers of the neck, which are reproduced of the distinctive masculine character. The hens are very plain and unobstrusive, being barred with alternate shades of light and dark brown. When barren, they, like the other birds of the family, assume the more gorgeous apparel of the male. Under the name of the Black-Throated or Java Golden Pheasant (Thaumalea obscurd) a variety of this bird has been described as " a good species." It has never been obtained in a wild state and is evidently merely a variety that, like the black-winged peacock, may appear at any time amongst birds of the ordinary type, and could never be regarded as a species by those who have studied the subject of variation practically. It differs merely in the upper part of the throat being darker in colour and obscurely spangled, in the pattern of the mottling of the upper tail feathers, and in the general darker hue of the females and young. One of the best and most complete accounts of the habits and management of the Golden Pheasant in confinement is 'that written by Mr. W. Sinclaire, of Belfast, and published HABITS OF GOLDEN PHEASANT. 191 in Thompson's " Natural History of Ireland." Mr. Sinclaire writes : " Golden Pheasants are very easily reared in confinement,, and are quite as hardy as any of the other pheasants, or as any of our domestic fowls ; indeed, I question if any of them are sooner able to provide a subsistence for themselves, or to live independent of the parent bird. In the several years' experience I have had in the rearing of these birds, I have considered them past all danger when they arrived at the age of three or four weeks; in fact, at that age those which I brought up in the garden began to leave the bantam hen which hatched them, and take into the gooseberry bushes to perch at night; and very soon after into the apple trees. I always observed that they roosted at the extremity of the branches, where they were quite safe from the attacks of cats or other vermin. This habit, together with their very early disposition to roost at night, leads me to infer that their introduction into this country as a game bird would not be difficult; and that in our large demesnes, where protected from shooters, they would become very numerous. But I should imagine that they would not answer where the common pheasants were already introduced, as they are shy, timid birds, and would be easily driven off by the other species. The individuals before referred to, which were reared in the garden, consisted of a family of six; they always remained in the garden, where they were regularly fed, except at the commencement of winter, when they ceased roosting in the apple trees, took to a belt of Scotch firs which bounded the garden on one side, and roosted in them all the winter and following spring. I have seen them sitting in the trees when the branches were laden with snow, but they did not seem to suffer in the slightest degree from the severity of winter. About the month of February they first began to wander from the garden for short distances ; and as tlie spring advanced, finally disappeared, and I never could hear of their being met with afterwards. 192 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. " In rearing the young I found that the very best food for them, and of which they were most fond, was the larvae of 'the bluebottle fly, with a quantity of which I always was prepared prior to the young being hatched. I took care to have a constant supply during the season by hanging a cow's liver over a barrel, in the bottom of which was some bran or sawdust, into which the maggots dropped. A fresh liver was hung up about once a week. In addition to these larvae, the young were supplied with potatoes, alum curd*, groats, and Indian corn m eal ; this last I found they were very fond of, and it seemed to agree with them particularly well. It was mixed into the form of soft dough with a little water, which was all that was required. They were also constantly supplied with green food, such as lettuce, when they were in the aviary. But the best way is to have a coop, railed in iront, into which they are put with the hen twenty-four hours after they are hatched. This coop should be placed upon a gravel walk as near to the windows of the house as possible, so that they may always be within observation ; a small verdure garden is the best possible locality, as the young have plenty of range, with shelter under the bushes from both sun and rain. In the instance which I have already alluded to, the hen was allowed to range about six feet from the coop, by means of a small cord attached to a leather strap round one of her legs, and the other end tied to the coop ; the young pheasants never wandered far from the hen, and always came into the coop to remain with her at night. In front of each coop a small frame was put down, boxed round on three sides, without a bottom, and railed at top ; the open side was put close to the coop, and the young birds could run through the rails of the coop into the inclosed space, and were safe from the night attacks of cats, rats, &c. This frame was always kept before the coops for the first few days after the young * Custard prepared as descrihed at page 111 will he found far superior to curd. REARING GOLDEN PHEASANTS. 193 were hatched, and until they became acquainted with the call of the hen. When I first began to rear young pheasants I could not at all account for their seemingly foolish manner for the first two or three days after being hatched; they would run gaping about without appearing to notice the hen or her calls to them to come for food. The reason of this I afterwards believed to have been owing to their ignorance of the language of their foster-mother, which it took some time for them to understand ; during this process it is necessary to keep them confined within the frame before their coops, as, were they to wander a few yards from the hen, they would not heed her call, and would inevitably perish. When three or four weeks old, it is necessary, if reared for the aviary, to pinion them, which is done by cutting off rather more than the first joint of the wing, having previously, by means of a needle and thread, inserted close to the small wing-bone, and brought round the large one, just within the skin, taking up the main blood-vessels; the piece of the wing is then chopped off on a block. There is no loss of blood, and I never could observe that the birds seemed to suffer in the slightest degree afterwards, although the operation I daresay was painful enough. My reason for taking off rather more than the first joint of the wing was because I found that if only the first joint was taken off, the birds were always able, when grown up, to get out of the aviary, which was about 12ft. high ; and I found it thus requisite to take off so much as to render them incapable of any attempt at flying, but I left enough remaining to enable them to reach their roosting-place at night. I furnished them with a kind of ladder by nailing cross pieces of wood on a long piece about Sin. wide, and which they very soon learned to walk up and down with facility. One aviary in which I kept some had a back wall to it covered with old ivy, and they preferred roosting in this ; indeed, I always found that, although during a wet day those which were at liberty took shelter under a roof, yet at night they would not 194 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. do so, but would instead roost in the open air. The females will lay about twenty-five eggs each in the aviary. I always provided them with baskets to lay in, which they only some- times made use of ; they take twenty-four days to hatch. The young cocks do not attain their full plumage until after the moult of the second summer ; they drop their chicken feathers when about three months old ; their plumage is then something like the hen's, but sufficiently bright in some parts as easily to distinguish them from the young females. In general there are more cocks than hens. " If the cock birds are placed in a portion of the aviary apart from hens, any number may be kept together. I have had so many as twelve males in full plumage together, and when during the summer (and indeed at all times) these beautiful birds were going through the very curious and fanciful attitudes and manoeuvres peculiar to them, it was one of the most brilliant sights to be observed in nature. The flashing of their various golden, crimson, blue, and purple plumes in different lights was absolutely dazzling to the eye, and at these times they contrive to display all the most beautiful parts of their plumage to the utmost advantage ; the golden crest is raised ; the splendid orange and purple- tipped collar is spread out to its full extent, while the scarlet tail coverts are shown in all their beauty. During the whole time the birds are leaping and dancing round each other, and uttering occasionally their peculiar shrill cry." Mr. Thompson states that he has never known the Golden Pheasant to live longer than ten or eleven years, and that such as came under his knowledge " died almost instanta- neously, and when in the highest possible condition as to flesh and plumage," death being apparently induced by high condition and over fatness. Respecting their management in aviaries still more confined for space, my friend the late Mr. Ed. Hewitt kindly gave me the following notes : "As I kept Golden Pheasants many years with success, a few HEWITT ON GOLDEN PHEASANTS. 195 hints may, to beginners, be acceptable. They may with proper care be reared perfectly tame, but have always a tendency to be alarmed at the sudden appearance of strange dogs, cats, or even individuals ; for which reason I think it advisable they should be pinioned if allowed an out-of-door run, lest they may be tempted to fly away, or on to the surrounding buildings ; for, unlike common poultry, they are only tempted to return with great difficulty, as the moment they get from their accustomed range they seem as wild and uncontrollable as birds reared in a state of nature. Pinioning can be easily managed without the slightest detriment to the appearance of the bird. Let it, too, be always kept in mind, in handling pheasants never to lay hold of the legs or wing, for injury is certain to ensue; but take up the bird with both hands tightly round the body over the wings. This is the only safe way of capture, and they then may be taken about without injury at all, either to their plumage or to themselves. " I would advise aviaries for their accommodation to be covered in entirely from the rain, as nothing tends so much to keep them in perfect feather ; and then it will not be by any means difficult to guard them against another great annoyance that of cats prowling about during the night and at twilight. From this cause numbers of pheasants of either kind have been destroyed, not from an actual hurt received from the cat, but from the birds in their fright flying furiously against the roof or the wire work, and scalping themselves. This may be prevented by letting a ' tar-sheet ' be fixed closely every night, to cover the whole of the open work of the aviary. It has this double service : it prevents sudden rain wetting the sanded floor and causing damp (producing rheumatism in the inmates), and by being opaque prevents the shadow of passing cats being seen ; for if they see cats at night the birds will fly, and thus seriously damage themselves. I found simple canvas for this purpose of no use whatever, being semi-transparent; the tar-sheet is effective from its density. It is on moonlight nights that the greatest o 2 196 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. danger is to be feared, for on these occasions the cats come very long distances, attracted no doubt by scent, and when they have once found your birds will be sure to pay them almost nightly visits. As the birds are valued for their beauty, it will add considerably to the perfection of their plumage to place a sufficiency of perches for their accommodation ; not spare and thin ones, but made of deal spars about l^in. square, the sharp edges being taken off with a plane. This will prevent their tails rubbing, and, whether intended for attraction or sale, add not a little to their value. " In selecting the brood stock, a cock with four or even five hens will be a fair proportion. I always prefer a cock bird of the second year and hens of the same age (because they lay far more eggs), though the eggs of pullets of the preceding year are productive. The young hens will only lay ten or twelve eggs in a season, but the older birds when carefully managed will frequently lay thirty to forty eggs in the same period. These eggs require a longer incubation than those of common fowls, as they generally hatch on the twenty-fourth day, though I have repeatedly known them continue in the shell a day longer ; therefore, if desirous of rearing a chicken or two with them (to insure greater familiarity), the fowls' eggs must be deposited accordingly, as nothing tends so sadly to unsettle a hen at hatching time as some portion of her chicks coming a day or two previously to the remainder, and it not unfrequently leads to the desertion of her nest. " The eggs laid in an aviary should be at once removed from Golden Pheasants directly they are laid; the cocks being especially inclined to peck and eat them the moment they are produced. The best remedy I know is to pro- cure half a dozen artificial eggs, and let them lie about always, and then the birds, seeing them constantly, regard them less. They are raised in confinement much more easily than the common pheasant, the young growing FEEDING GOLDEN PHEASANTS. 197 with great rapidity if well and frequently fed on custard, boiled eggs, good cheese all chopped fine and mixed with bruised hemp and canary seed. The maggots produced in flesh from the blow-fly will tend very greatly to their rapid growth. I am perfectly aware that ants' eggs are preferable, but when these are not available maggots will be found an excellent substitute, and should be given daily till the poults are somewhat grown. Wheat, hemp, and barley are the best food for the old stock. It is somewhat singular that neither variety will agree comfortably with the common pheasants in a wood; notwithstanding, I have seen the hybrids produced between these birds and the common pheasants. They are very beautiful, being of a strikingly rich auburn, shading into every variety of gold colour ; but they were invariably unprolific, and sought every possible opportunity to evince their pugnacity to all other birds confined with them. " Golden Pheasants will endure every severity of our climate. Some years since I gave away some eggs, from which birds were hatched and turned loose in a large plantation; they bred freely the ensuing year, and well stocked the preserve ; the year following some withdrew to a covert at some considerable distance, driving away the common pheasants and taking possession of the whole. Some Golden Pheasants' eggs, which I forwarded as a present to a friend whose preserves are among the largest in the kingdom, were hatched very early last season and turned loose ; these bore all the rigours of winter as well as any others, but in the spring began to show a decided aversion to their fellows of more sombre hue." Mr. Hewitt further stated that the sexes in the chicks were easily distinguished, the eyes of the cocks being light, those of the hens deep hazel. Golden Pheasants that have escaped to the coverts and been shot, are found when cooked to be of very delicate flavour. These escaped birds will sometimes breed with the 198 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. ordinary species. Mr. Mayes, writing to me from Elvedon, stated that " the Golden Pheasant will cross with the common pheasant ; we have had two or three instances of their doing so the last two years ; but it is rare, as we have had Golden Pheasants turned out the last ten years or more, and never knew them to cross with any other pheasant before/' CHAPTEK XVII. PHEASANTS ADAPTED TO THE AVIARY (CONTINUED). THE AMHERST PHEASANT (TEAUMALEA AMHERSTI^}. ADY AMHERST'S Pheasant was first made known to Europeans by two male specimens presented by the King of Ava to Sir Archibald Campbell, and by him given to Lady Amherst, who retained them in India for about two years, and succeeded in bringing both alive to England, where, however, they lived only a few weeks. These specimens were figured and described under the title of Phasianus amherstise by Mr. B. Leadbeater in the "Linnsean Transactions" for 1828. Since that time until recently no living specimens have been seen in Europe, and in 1863 the male was figured in Mr. P. L. Sclater's list of desiderata required by the Zoological Society. The successful re-introduction of this remarkable species is entirely owing to the combined efforts of Mr. J. J. Stone and Mr. W, Medhurst, Her Majesty's Consul at Shanghai, who obtained twenty specimens in Western Yunan, eight of which reached Shanghai alive, and six five males and one female were successfully located in the Zoological Gardens, Regent's Park, in July, 1869. Since that time other specimens have been obtained, and the species has bred freely in confine- ment, and even in the open covert. The general appearance of the species is strikingly beautiful. The accompanying engraving, though giving 200 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. very correctly the general character, necessarily fails in imparting any idea of the coloration of the male. The irides are light, the naked skin of the face is light blue, the feathers of the forehead are green, but the long plumes which form the crest are crimson. The tippet, which is so characteristic a feature in the bird, is white, each feather being margined with a dark green band, and having a second narrow band at some distance from the tip. The front of the neck, the breast, shoulders, back, and wing- coverts are of an exquisite metallic green, each feather being tipped with velvety black. The lower part of the breast and belly are white, the thighs and under tail coverts mottled dark brown and white. The feathers of the rump have the exposed parts bright saffron yellow. The tail coverts are brown at the base, striped green and white in the middle, and brilliant scarlet at the ends. The two upper middle tail feathers have a light ground marked so as to resemble lace, with broad transverse bands of green about an inch apart. The other tail feathers have the inner webs mottled black and white, the outer webs with curved green bars, about three-quarters of an inch apart. The bill is pale greenish, and the feet and legs bluish lead colour. The female closely resembles the hen of the last species (T. picta), being a rich chesnut brown, with bars of dark brown, which are broader than those of the Golden Pheasant hen, and the under parts are lighter in colour; moreover, the bare skin of the face is pale blue like that of the male, but much smaller. The size of this species is somewhat larger than that of its close ally, the Golden Pheasant. In the male the adult plumage is not assumed until the autumn of the second year. When Mr. Gould gave his description of this pheasant in his " Birds of Asia," the male only was known, and he wrote : " It would give me great pleasure to see a female of this fine bird, and every ornithologist would be truly gratified by the arrival of any information respecting the CARREAU ON AMHERST PHEASANT. 201 part of the Celestial Empire in which it dwells, and any details as to its habits. The bird would doubtless be as easily kept in our aviaries as its near ally, the Grolden Pheasant ; and it is my ardent wish to see it thus located before I leave this lower world for the higher and brighter one which is the end of our hopes and desires." Every ornithologist "must feel glad that Mr. Grould had his wish gratified. Since the arrival of Mr. Stone's specimens, Mr. Anderson, the curator of the Indian Museum at Calcutta, has received skins of both sexes from Yunan and Upper Burmah, where it is not rare, the plumes being worn by the natives. The only account of the habits of this beautiful species in a wild state occurs in a letter from Monsieur Carreau, a French missionary in Thibet, to the Paris Acclimatization Society. He states : "The pheasant Houa-ze-Ky, the Flower Pheasant of the Chinese, always inhabits very rocky places. Whenever I have seen this bird flying upwards, I have always been able to shoot it ; but if it was descending, I could not procure it, for then it disappeared with excessive rapidity. After having pursued it several times, I have found it more convenient to obtain it in the same manner as the natives, who lay in wait for it during the winter and catch it in snares. When the mountains are covered with snow, and the streams frozen, the Flower Pheasants are obliged to descend to the plains lor water, but as soon as they are satisfied they ascend again. In the paths these birds follow each other in a line ; and as they go in flocks* and the snares are few in number, the Chinese do not make much from the plumage and flesh of this beautiful pheasant. Ta-lin-pin is situated in the 29th degree of latitude N., and the 102nd degree of longitude E. : the heat of these places is very great, as they are surrounded by high mountains, and with very little vegetation. The mountains are covered with brambles, briars, and thorns, and also with grassy places ; in these spots the Arnherst Pheasant is met with in 202 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. abundance. It is an error to think that, like other pheasants, it is met with in the forests ; I have never found it there, and as in the neighbourhood of Ta-lin-pin it only exists where there are no forests, I doubt very much if bushy tracts are to its liking. The more rocky and desolate the mountains, the more certain are you to find the Flower Pheasants, in companies composed of from twenty to thirty individuals. " The habits and economy of the Amherst Pheasant naturally accord with the places in which it delights ; it is an extremely wild bird. Last year I kept one of these pheasants in a stable covered with straw ; it hid itself so frequently and so well that once I was more than fifteen days in the belief that it was dead. I fed it with bread and rice, and it became very fat. ]f this bird should be intro- duced into Europe, it would be useless to endeavour to make it comfortable, if it has not in the aviary some place where, at the least noise, it can hide itself, otherwise I doubt if it can be preserved. I think, from the temperature of the mountains it inhabits, that the climate of France would be suitable for the Flower Pheasant. These particulars respecting the Lady Amherst' s Pheasants are perfectly exact, since I have myself frequently hunted, captured, fed, and raised them. They would increase easily in Europe, provided they were not too much exposed to the heat of the sun, and that shrubs were grown in the aviary to allow their hiding when frightened/' The breeding of the Amherst Pheasant offers no difficulty, provided it be attempted under natural conditions, and not in the close pens, and stifling, vermin-haunted hatching-bouses that are characteristic of some of our zoological collections. Not only has the pure race been increased, but the males have also bred freely with the hens of the Gold Pheasant (Thamnalea picta), and produced hybrids which are of surpassing beauty. At the sale of the surplus stock in the Zoological Gardens at Antwerp in 1872, a single male hybrid of this kind, in full plumage, realised 35Z. The cross-bred AMHERST PHEASANT HYBRIDS. 203 specimens combine in a remarkable degree the most attractive features of the two species from which they are derived, and are unquestionably far more beautiful than either; compared with them the pure bred Amherst looks pallid, and the Gold Pheasant wants the beautiful contrast of the white neck tippet and the brilliancy of the green and blue. The crest is fully developed, being larger than in either parent species; in colour it is a brilliant scarlet orange. The neck tippet is white, margined with brilliant dark green, resembling that of the Amherst, but considerably more developed. The iris, which is white in the latter species, is of a pale straw colour in the hybrids, as is the naked skin under the eye. The neck under the tippet, as well as the throat, is a resplendent green. The breast, which in the Amherst is white, is a brilliant scarlet orange, with a narrow transverse band of lighter yellow about an inch below the margin of the green feathers of the throat. The flanks are of the same colour as the breast. The back is yellow, running into the bright scarlet orange of the tail coverts and side sickle feathers. The wing coverts are of a magnificent dark steel blue. In all the characters mentioned, the hybrids possess the most gorgeous hues of the two species conjoined. The tail, however, is an exception; that of the Amherst is certainly more beautiful than that of the Gold, which latter, however, appears almost unchanged in the cross-breeds, but of somewhat increased size. As, however, in the so-called species TJiaumalea obscura, the tail of the Gold tends to vary towards the markings of that of the Amherst, and the upper part of the throat to assume a spangled character, there would be no difficulty in breeding this cross with the Amherst tail. The cross-breeds are remarkably tame, feeding readily out of the hand. Mr. Elliot, in his monograph of the Phasianidce, gives a life-sized coloured plate of this hybrid, and acknowledges that " in size and brilliancy of dress he eclipses " both the parent species, adding : " Contrary to my intention of not 204 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. figuring any hybrid pheasants, I have been induced to show this one, merely from its great beauty and the comparative rarity of at least one of its parents ; but at the same time I cannot but believe that all those who breed pheasants, either for pleasure or profit, would best consult their own interests by keeping their birds as pure in blood as possible, allowing no foreign strain to intermingle, and resolutely setting their faces against even such a magnificent impostor as here offers himself for our admiration." I quote this passage as illustrative of the beauty of the birds, although I differ entirely from the conclusions arrived at by the writer. There can be no possible doubt of the perfect fertility of the half-bred Amhersts. Mated with the pure Amherst, three- quarter pure-bred birds are the result ; these show very little trace of the Golden species. The half-bred Gold and Amherst are equally fertile when mated with one another, and an intermediate breed may be perpetuated, which possesses the united beauties of both parent species, and be perfectly permanent in its characters. The perpetuation of permanent races produced by the union of two perfectly distinct species is well known to all who do not wilfully shut their eyes to those facts which do not square with their theories. The late Mr. E. Blyth, a most accurate observer, and whose knowledge of species was unsurpassed, informed me that over a large extent of India no other domestic goose is known except the cross between the Chinese species, the Anser cygnoides, and the domesticated variety of the grey-lag, Anser ferus. In the case of the true pheasants, Phasianus colchicus, P. torquatus, and P. versicolor, every variety of interbreeding takes place, and the intermediate forms can be perpetuated as may be desired ; or, as was originally the case with the P. versicolor in this country, the pure breed can be established from a single individual. Most naturalists maintain that these three pheasants are perfectly good species ; but what is the test of a species ? AMHERST PHEASANT IN COVERTS. 205 For my own part, I am sufficiently heterodox in my belief to regard all the true restricted pheasants, such as P. colchicus, versicolor, torquatus, shawii, mongolicus, elegans, &c., as mere geographical variations of one type, capable of breeding together and perpetuating any cross that it may please experimenters to produce ; and in the same manner the two species of the genus Thaumalea, namely, the Gold and Amherst pheasants, may be regarded as geographical races capable of yielding a permanent race intermediate between the two. These views, which I maintained at the time of the publica- tion of the first edition of this work in 1873, have been fully borne out by later experience. In March, 1881, Mr. A. D. Bartlett, the superintendent of the Zoological Gardens, wrote tome: "The hybrid Amherst and Gold pheasants breed freely inter se ; but, as far as I can learn, in most cases the breeders have been breeding the half-bred hens with the pure Amherst males, for the purpose of obtaining as near as possible the characters of the pure Amherst ; and this is very quickly accomplished, for in the third generation all traces of the Gold pheasant are lost, or nearly so." The late Mr. Home, writing to me in 1879, said : " With regard to the Gold and Amherst pheasants being turned out by landed proprietors, I know of a place in Ireland where there are large numbers of these birds breeding together in a wild state, and some of the crosses are very beautiful. There is also an estate in Scotland where Amhersts have been at liberty for years, and the owner wrote me they kept th^ir own quarters, not allowing the other pheasants to interfere with them. I agree with you that it is a pity more of these birds are not turned out, as they form a great attraction to pleasure grounds. The easiest way to bring it about is to place a brood or two under hens in the kitchen garden; and, as they become fully grown, they naturally fly to the adjoining trees, and continue to hang about the place afterwards." CHAPTEE XVIII. PHEASANTS ADAPTED TO THE AVIARY (CONTINUED). THE SILVER PHEASANT (EUPLOCAMUS NYGTHE- MERUS) AND ALLIED SPECIES. NDER the name of Euplocamus nycthemerus the Silver Pheasant has been known to naturalists since the time of Linnaeus. In the earlier works on natural history, such as that of Albin, published in 1738, and Edwards, in 1751, it was termed the Black and White Chinese pheasant, which name was employed by Buffon ; it was also termed the Pencilled and Lineated Pheasant, and by Temminck, the Faisan bicolor. Its native locality was first definitely ascertained by Consul Swinhoe, who informs us that it inhabits the wooded hills in the interior of southern China. Writing to Mr. Elliot, he states : " This bird is known to the Chinese as the Pih Seen, and it is one of those which are embroidered upon the heart-and-back badges of the official dresses of the civil Mandarins to denote the rank of the wearers. So far as I have ascertained, it is found in the wooded mountains of the following provinces : Fokein, Canton, Kwangse, and Kweichou. It is brought to Canton city from the province of Kwangse by the west river, and offered alive in the shops for sale. All the birds I have seen so offered have been captured ; I do not think the Chinese had the bird in con- finement. A friend of mine shot one in some woods, in the SILVER PHEASANT IN AVIARIES. 207 mountains about 100 miles from Amoy (Province Fokein), but I have never met with the species in my rambles." In his recent handbook on Game Birds, Mr. W. Ogilvie- Grant writes : " According to the Abbe David the Silver Pheasant is becoming very rare in a wild state, and is only found in South China, towards the North of Fokien, and perhaps in Chekiang. He says that most of the Golden and Silver pheasants that one sees at Shanghai come from Japan, where these two Chinese species are reared in captivity. The Silver Pheasant is known in China by the names of Ing-ky (Silver Fowl) and Pae-ky (White Fowl). Very little indeed is known of the habits of this extremely fine species in a wild state, though it has long been one of the commonest aviary birds. The males are, unfortunately, so extremely pugnacious and such big heavy birds that they fight with, and often kill, any other male pheasant living in the same aviary, and for this reason must be kept separate." From their large size, commanding appearance, and the beauty of the markings, Silver Pheasants have long been favourites in our aviaries. They have the additional recom- mendation of being exceedingly hardy, of laying freely in captivity, and of being easy to rear when young. They also become perfectly tame, feeding freely from the hand. These birds could be readily domesticated, if it were thought desirable to do so. I have known several instances where they have been allowed to run at full liberty, and have seen the birds sufficiently tame to come and stand before a window, waiting for their accustomed treat at the hands of the members of the family. The hens, though not usually allowed to do so, will readily hatch their own eggs, and attend upon their chickens with all the care of common fowls. I have recently seen a pair, belonging to Mr. Clarence Bartlett, in a moderate-sized aviary, the hen of which had laid, hatched, and was rearing a strong healthy brood of young, the cock being active in defence of his family, and attacking most viciously any person going into the inclosure. 208 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. No game cock could be more determined or courageous in his behaviour : and the sharp spurs with which this species is armed render his assault a thing to be avoided, as he would fly at the face of the intruder on his domain. From the readiness with which the Silver Pheasants can be domesticated and reared among the other denizens of the poultry yard, they occasionally escape into the coverts and become wild, under which conditions they breed freely. They are not, however, desirable additions, either to our limited stock of game birds, or, though exceedingly ornamental, to our very restricted number of domestic poultry, inasmuch as they are exceedingly pugnacious, driving away all the true pheasants from the preserves, fighting with the fowls, killing the young chickens in the poultry yard, and not even hesitating to attack dogs, children, and even grown-up persons during the breeding season. When wild they are flushed with difficulty, and on the wing they have been rightly characterised as being most unsatisfactory from a sporting point of view, flying dangerously low, in a horizontal direction but a few feet from the ground. With regard to their edible qualities I can speak very positively, as I have had specimens that have been shot in the coverts cooked as pheasants, and found them destitute of the flavour of game, and altogether of very inferior quality. The flesh was white, and, although the bird had been well hung, exceedingly firm. A correspondent informs me that he has " reared several Silver Pheasants in confinement, and has turned them out about the grounds. The males are exceedingly tame, but also exceedingly dangerous. Last year I had a lovely specimen, which used to feed at the window of the breakfast-room with the peafowl and other birds, and even knock at the glass and make its way into the room. But in the spring, when hatching was going on, he attacked ladies and children in the most determined manner, always flying at the face. He would dodge people walking, and make his appearance from under REARING OF THE SILVER PHEASANT. 209 the bushes in a very unexpected manner. On one occasion he knocked a lady down, and on another occasion entered the drawing-room and attacked a lady who was sitting there/' Another writer says : " I have for many years had a score of them running loose with the poultry two cocks, one an old one, the other a young one of last year, just getting into full plumage ; the others are hens. In bad weather and in winter they roost in the poultry house, at other times in the trees. The males are most pugnacious and jealous, fighting and bullying the fowls so much so that I am obliged to have their spurs cut off and the hens very spiteful to young poultry. The others I have shut up, otherwise they would fight until they killed each other. In the breeding time they are shut up in large pens. tf I have frequently had the hens sit on and hatch their eggs ; when they have young ones, if anyone goes near them they act like partridges. I have seen them charge dogs and drive them away. I have also seen a cock watching a fox stalking him, and when the fox made his rush the bird flew over him, but lost his tail. To show how severely they can make these spurs tell, one of my keepers kicked at an old Silver cock pheasant to drive him away, when the bird turned on him and sent his spur right through his boot. They are quite as bad as peafowls in a kitchen garden ; they will eat all the fruit. They are not very good birds for the table, but they are useful as being eatable in February and March." The {Silver Pheasant is a long-lived bird, even in confine- ment. Mr. Thompson, in his " Natural History of Ireland," states that he has known one live twenty-one or twenty-two years in captivity. The male, without possessing the gorgeous coloration of many of the Phasianidoe, is a very beautiful bird. The face is entirely covered with a bright vermillion skin, which during the spring becomes excessively brilliant, and is greatly increased in size, so as to almost resemble the comb and wattles of a cock ; the flowing crest is blue-black, the bill light green. p 210 PHEASANTS FOB COVERTS AND AVIARIES. The upper part of the body is white, pencilled with the most delicate tracery of black. The whole of the under parts are bluish-black, the legs and feet red, the spurs well-developed and usually very sharp. The female is smaller than the male ; her general colour is brown, mottled with a darker tint ; the crest and tail are much less ample than those of the cock ; the outer tail feathers are light, marked with black 011 the outer webs. The female in confinement usually lays from eight to fourteen eggs, and the young are most easily reared under a common fowl. The genus Euplocamus, to which the Silver Pheasant belongs, includes several species. They are distinguished from the true pheasants by the crest, by the more fowl-like form of the tail, and by the males (and sometimes even the females) being strongly and sharply spurred. The common species, the kaleege or kalij of India, breed very freely, even in confinement, but are not adapted for turning into the covert, as they rise with difficulty, and their flesh is nob equal for culinary purposes to that of the ordinary pheasant. A correspondent writes : " I have been shooting lately in preserves where, amongst other game, I had the pleasure of seeing the kaleege on the wing. The birds had been bred under hens from eggs taken from old birds in a mew, treated in the same manner as pheasants, and were at this time the last week in December practically as wild as the pheasants in the same coverts. A more unsporting-looking bird on the wing I never met with, or a more unsatisfactory one to knock down. Its flight is low, never rising more than eight or ten feet from the ground, and therefore in a line with everybody's head, consequently a most dangerous bird in a battue. Its flight is more like that of a coot or moorhen than any bird I know; the slow, noiseless .flight, and the dark plumage, making it very like the former bird. It runs much before rising is very savage, driving away the other game birds, and is the most unsatisfactory game bird I ever saw. My friend with whom I was shooting is therefore killing them down." SPECIES OF KALE EG E. 211 Twelve different species of kaleege have at various times been shown in the Zoological Gardens, Regent's Park. Of these the greater number have bred either with their own species, or have produced hybrids with other Enplocami. Amongst those that breed the most freely may be mentioned Swinhoe's pheasant (E. swinhoii), .the purple kaleege (E. horsfeldi)j the black-backed kaleege (E. melanotus), and the white-crested (E. albo-cristatus) . The different species of Euplocami hybridise together even in a wild state, and there is no difficulty in rearing a very large series of hybrids in captivity. v 2 CHAPTEE XIX. PHEASANTS ADAPTED TO THE AVIARY (CONTINUED). THE EAKED PHEASANT (CROSSOPTILON MANTCHURIC UM) . 'W F the remarkable group of birds known as the Eared _ .Jill Pheasants, constituting the genus Crossoptilon, five species are known, though only two, the Maiit- churian (C. mantchuricum) and the white Tibet species (C. tibetanum) have been received in Europe in a living state. The Eared Pheasants differ in many very essential particu- lars from the more common species. Both sexes are alike in plumage, and are only to be distinguished by the presence of spurs on the legs of the males. The large size and peculiar character of the tail coverts separate them from any allied group. The first specimens seen alive were presented to the Zoological Society by Mr. Dudley E. Saurin, in 1866 ; since that time others have been imported, and a considerable number have been bred in this country and on the continent. The Mantchurian Eared Pheasant is more remarkable for the singular arrangement of its plumage than for brilliancy of colouring, in this latter respect not approaching the gorgeous hues of the true pheasants, or many of the closely- allied birds. The general colour of the body is a sombre brown ; the true tail feathers are white, with dark tips ; but the bird derives its remarkable appearance from its large size 'THE EARED PHEASANT. 213 and the peculiar character of the tail coverts, which spring from the lower part of the back, and in great part obscure the true tail. These tail coverts are white, and have the barbs separated, so that they form an elegant appendage to the body. The legs and feet of the Eared Pheasant are red in colour, and of true scratching or rasorial type, the claws being bluntly curved, like those of the common fowl. The head is very striking in its general appearance ; the vaulted beak is of a pale fleshy white, contrasting strongly with the red skin of the face, which again is thrown into prominence by the white feathers that constitute the so-called ears of the bird. Consul Swinhoe states that, " This bird is found in the hills north of Pekin, in Mantchuria, and brought in winter to Pekin in large numbers, both alive and dead. It is called by the natives the Ho-ke. The feathers of this bird were formerly worn by Tartar warriors. I have not seen the species in its wild state." Pere David informs us that these birds frequent the woods of high mountains, and that they subsist much more upon green vegetables, leaves of trees, and succulent roots than upon grain. In their habits they are more gregarious than the common pheasants, assembling together in flocks of considerable size. In domestication they become exceedingly tame, feeding readily from the hand. When at large they appear remarkably hardy; they breed when only one year old, and acquire their adult plumage at the first autumnal moult. They possess the very rare instinct of domestication. 1 have seen specimens at Mr. Stone's residence in the Welsh hills as familiar as barn-door fowls. In the closely confined pens in our Zoological Gardens their increase has not been very rapid, but they have proved themselves as hardy and prolific as common turkeys would have been if placed under similar disadvantageous circumstances. Mr. Bartlett writes : " Of the Crossoptilon we have reared nine fine birds 214 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. the second hatch, having lost by the gapes the first brood of seven." By placing a young brood in a large walled-in garden, where they could obtain abundance of fresh vegetables and insect food, they should offer no more difficulty in rearing than barn-door fowls ; all they would require would be custard and lettuce in addition to ants' eggs, if obtainable ; but fed on dry hard corn, and kept in small aviaries with brick floors, success is not to be expected. Of the allied species, Hodgson's Crossoptilon (C. tibet- anum) three specimens were living in the Zoological Gardens in 1891. In this the general colour is bluish-white, but the crown of the head is black, the wings dark, and the tail black crossed with green and blue. It is a native of Tibet. Under the name of C. drouynii, a species very closely allied if, indeed, it be not identical with the last, has been described and named by M. Verraux, and figured in Elliot's Phasianidae. The original Eared Pheasant described by Pallas was a slaty-blue species. Pallas' s specimens have long been lost, but recently, owing to the indefatigable exertions of Pere David, skins have been received at the Museum at Paris, and the original C. auritum is now known to be perfectly distinct from the Mantchurian species, with which we are most familiar in the living state. CHAPTER XX. PHEASANTS ADAPTED TO THE AVIARY (CONTINUED). THE IMPEYAN PHEASANT (LOPHOPHORUS IMPEYAN US). HE Monaul, or Impeyan Pheasant, is one of the most gorgeous birds ; the wonderful metallic brilliance of its plumage, " gleaming in purple and gold," never fails to attract the attention of the spectator. In the Zoological Gardens it has bred frequently, but a native of the Himalas, seldom descending far below the snow line, and suffering from the heat of summer, is not likely to succeed on the London clay. During the life of my friend, Mr. J. J. Stone, I saw at large on the Welsh Hills Impeyan Pheasants as tame as the other poultry, and I have little doubt but that in suitable localities, as in the North of Scotland, this magnificent bird might be introduced to advantage either as a domestic or wild bird. Should it be thought desirable to try the experiment in any appropriate locality, this can only be done by a con- sideration of their habits in a wild state, and I have there- fore great pleasure in quoting the following from the late Col. Tickell, who was well acquainted with the birds in their natural haunts : " The Monaul ranges high in the mountains where it is found, keeping near the line of snow ; and although met with in the ridges next the plains, becomes much more 216 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. numerous farther in the mountains. It frequents the entire range of the Himala, from Afghanistan to Sikhim. Its range in elevation varies according to season^ but in the severest winter it does not appear to descend below 6000 feet above sea level. I have seen numbers in Nepal in winter, brought with other kinds of pheasants by the Botias for sale in the plains of India, where they soon perish when the hot weather begins. " They are forest birds, and difficult to be found in summer when vegetation is profuse, unless by ascending to the highest limits of the forest, when shots may be obtained in the open downs above, and amongst the rocks and thin herbage near the snow. In autumn, as the underwood decays, they descend and scatter through the woods, some- times in great numbers, and seek lower levels as the winter advances and the soil becomes frozen. At such times they draw near to the small villages, perched on the lower spurs and above the sheltered valleys, and seek their food in the fields, where the mountaineers, with their large hoes, have dug up the soil. In these seasonal migrations it has been remarked that the females and young birds descend lowest and approach nearest to human habitations. " They appear to be either capricious in their rambles through the woods, or are actuated to particular spots at particular times for reasons not apparent. Sometimes the sportsman will put up in one part of the forest fifteen or twenty in the space of four or five acres. In another portion he may keep on flushing for the rest of the day single birds, feeding in solitude, far apart. At no time are they gregarious, and whenever alarmed they rise and escape independently of each other. In some parts only cock birds are found, in others only hens. " Severity of cold and scarceness of food have their taming effect on the Monaul, as on other birds, and the lower the snow the easier the task of making a bag. When on the wing, it generally flies a long way, and if much alarmed THE IMPEYAN PHEASANT. 217 crosses over to a parallel ridge. Occasionally, however, it will settle on the low limb of a tree, at no great distance, and once there, it is, like many other gallinaceous birds, easy of access. " Sometimes when approached in open spots it walks off, or begins to run, stopping often and eyeing the intruder, till suddenly, and without apparent immediate cause, it will rise with a startling napping or flutter of the wings, scattering the dead leaves in a shower around, and fly headlong into the wood with a succession of short, piercing, shrieking whistles, which appear to act as a warning to some distant companions, for their calls are often heard in reply. When feeding quietly and in security the Monaul has a sweet mellow call a long plaintive note which it utters from time to time, especially of a morning and after sunset. It has the same melancholy effect on the ear as the creaking whistle of the curlew winging his way along the mudflats as evening settles over the lonely shore. The call has a rather melancholy sound, or it may be that as the shades of a dreary winter's evening begin to close on the snow-covered hills around, the cold and cheerless aspect of nature, with which it seems quite in unison, makes it appear so. " The Monaul breeds towards the end of spring. The courtship is carried on in the chesnut and large timber forests before the birds ascend, during the summer heats, towards the regions of perpetual snow. It is generally near the upper limits of these forests, where the trees are dwarfed and sparingly scattered, that the hen lays and incubates three to five eggs, in a depression on the ground. The eggs are of a dull cream or pale buff colour, sprinkled with reddish brown. Like most gallinaceous birds, the Monaul may be said to be omnivorous. Those I have had in confine- ment ate rice and grain readily, as well as insects, worms, maggots, flesh, lizards, fish, eggs, &c. It is a diligent digger, and the slightly expanded tip of the mandible acts like a hoe or shovel. I had several of these birds in an aviary at Mullye, 218 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. in Tirhoot. They were strong and vigorous as long as the cold weather lasted, and soon became tame, and did not succumb to the atmosphere of the plains till June, when the rains had set in. Unlike the smaller hill pheasants, they were not pugnacious. If shipped off early in the cold weather from Calcutta, these birds could easily enough be transported to England, where the temperature would suit them, if there were any means of giving them shelter during the extreme severity of winter, or of procuring for them in that season a proper substitute for the insect food which never fails them on the lower elevations of the Himala. If they could become as thoroughly acclimated as the common pheasant, they would indeed be a superb ornament to our parks and planta- tions, though perhaps no great acquisition to the table. It is many years ago since I tasted the Monaul, and, speaking from memory, the flavour appeared to me much the same as that of peafowl, the breast being tender and palatable in the young birds, but no part being fit for anything but soup in old specimens. The Monaul has bred in England, both in the Zoological Gardens of London and in the possession of the Earl of Derby, where the female is said to have laid on one occasion thirteen to fourteen eggs/' In appropriate localities there should be little difficulty in rearing the young, which should be amply supplied with custard and ants' eggs, in preference to much grain, and the fowl rearing them should be allowed as much freedom as possible, in order that she may supply the young chicks with appropriate insect food. The following is the description of the two sexes and young : " The bill of the male is dusky brown or horny ; iris sombre brown ; legs greenish lead colour ; naked orbits ; small blue head ; crest and throat green, and highly metallic ; the lanceolate feathers on the hind neck amethystine or bright purple, changing in lights into cupreous green with a golden glance; middle of the back white; but all the rest of the upper parts, including the upper tail coverts, rich blue, THE IMPEYAN PHEASANT. 219 glancing with green and purple, highly glossed, the purple predominating on the back and rump, the green on the wing and tail coverts ; remiges plain black ; tail pale rust colour ; all under parts black, and without gloss. The female is entirely cinnamon brown ; the feathers shafted pale, and irregularly barred and marked sepia; primaries blackish; chin and throat white. Entire length of the male, about 24 inches; wing, 11 ; tail, 7|. The female is a little smaller. The young males are at first like the female, but may be distinguished by the black spots on the chin and throat. They assume the adult plumage gradually, and in irregular patches scattered over the body." Mr. W. Ogil vie- Grant, in his hand-book of the Game Birds, asserts that Gould was in error in calling the common Monaul the Impeyan Pheasant, L. impeyanus, a name which should be applied to another species the Chamba Monaul. It is to be regretted that the name under which one species has been so long known should be transferred to another in scientific catalogues. There is no doubt whatever that under the name of Impeyan Pheasant the Monaul will long be recognised, as little or nothing is known of the Chamba species, the female being entirely unknown. In addition to these there are two other Monauls, that named after De I/huys from West China, and another named after Dr. Sclater. CHAPTER XXI. PHEASANTS ADAPTED TO THE AVIARY (CONTINUED). THE ARGUS PHEASANT (ARGUS G1GANTEUS}. HE Argus Pheasant, as it was termed by Linnaeus, is undoubtedly one of the most magnificent of the family of the pheasants. Its native haunts are the forests of Malacca and Siam, and it is also found in North-western Borneo. It is so extremely shy in its habits that it is rarely, if ever, shot, even by native hunters, who nevertheless manage to secure numbers by snaring the birds. Mr. Wallace, in his most interesting work on the Malay Archipelago, describes his journey into the heart of the Argus country, and, writing of Mount Ophir, fifty miles east- ward of Malacca, states : " The place where we first encamped, at the foot of the mountain, being very gloomy, we chose another in a kind of swamp, near a stream overgrown with zingiberaceous plants, in which a clearing was easily made. Here our men built two little huts without sides, that would just shelter us from the rain, and we lived in them for a week, shooting and insect-hunting, and roaming about the forest at the foot of the mountain. This was the country of the great Argus Pheasant, and we continually heard its cry. On asking the old Malay to try and shoot one for me, he told me that, THE ARGUS PHEASANT. 221 though he had been twenty years shooting birds in these forests, he had never yet shot one, and had never seen one except after it had been caught. The bird is so exceedingly shy and wary, and runs along the ground in the densest parts of the forest so quickly, that it is impossible to get near it ; and its sober colours and rich eye-like spots, which are so ornamental when seen in a museum, must harmonise well with the dead leaves among which it dwells, and render it very inconspicuous. All the specimens sold in Malacca are caught in snares, and my informant, though he had shot none, had snared plenty/' The great peculiarity of the birds of this genus is that the secondary flight feathers of the wings are excessively en- larged and lengthened, being in the males double the length of the primaries, and covered on the outer webs with the singular ocellated spots from whence the bird derives its name. In the male, also, the two central tail feathers are extremely elongated, and project in a very singular manner beyond the others. Until recently the Argus giganteus was the only known species in the genus ; but another smaller Argus (A. grayi) is now known by specimens in the British Museum; and the existence of one or two others is suspected from specimens of feathers, differing from those of the known species. The great Argus is over five feet in length, the tail being three feet eight inches long. The prevailing colour of the plumage is ochreous red or brown, unrelieved by any lively or brilliant shade. The tints are distributed with so much harmony, and covered with such a profusion of small spots, or even points, sometimes darker and sometimes lighter than the ground, that they produce the most agreeable effect. Its long and broad secondary feathers are covered in their entire length by a row of large eye-like spots, closely imitating half globes; the colour of these, as that of the plumage, has, however, something resembling ancient bronze. The primary feathers, with whitish external barbs, speckled PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. with brown, and with inner barbs of the colour of a fallow deer, dotted with white, have their shafts of the most beautiful sky blue. The naked skin of the face and neck is bright blue, and contrasts well with the bronze hue of the plumage. The female neither exhibits the extraordinary development of the tail and wings nor the eye-like spots of the male. Her plumage is darker, and the total length is only twenty-six inches. The two specimens (a male and female) figured in the engraving had been living some few years in the Zoological Gardens in the Regent's Park when the first edition of this work was published, at which time only five specimens of the Argus had been seen alive in Europe; since then it has been more frequently imported, and a dozen adult specimens have been received in the Zoological Gardens, and several young have been bred there. In addition to those in the Regent's Park, others have lived in the possession of the King of Italy, and in the Zoological Gardens at Amsterdam. It is singular that the Argus, although so exceedingly shy when wild, becomes perfectly tame in captivity, returning to its aviary when allowed to escape, as related by Lieut. Kilham in the Ibis for 1881. The ornamentation of the secondary wing feathers in the male Argus is one of the most wonderful in the whole animal kingdom ; the ornamental marks are usually termed ocelli or eyes, but they much more closely resemble ball and socket ornaments. As these ocelli are not visible when the wing is closed, the mode in which they were displayed has hitherto rather been conjectured than described, and even in recent works the bird has been portrayed displaying its plumage in a perfectly unnatural manner. Fortunately, however, the pair of Argus pheasants formerly in the Zoological Gardens, Regent's Park, were closely watched for some days in succession by the late Mr. T. W. Wood,. who had several opportunities of seeing the male bird display the magnificence of its plumage, and made a drawing of it at THE ARGUS DISPLAYING ITS PLUMAGE. 223- the time. At my request he kindly favoured ine with the following particulars : "It is with great pleasure that I comply with your request to give you a description of the mode of display of the Argus. The male bird commences by running about very briskly, bending his neck, and seeming to look at the female ' out of the corner of his eye ; ^ he is evidently at this time in a very playful mood : he elevates his wings (while still closed) and shakes them. Suddenly, when close to the female, he throws his wings forward, the primaries resting on the ground, the secondaries extending upwards, and the tertials having their upper surfaces pressed together. At this time slight rustling sounds are heard, which I have no doubt are produced chiefly by the movements of the side feathers of the tail, as they are alternately moved outwards and inwards ; the large feathers of the wings are also slightly waved, and moved at regular intervals down- wards towards the female. But the most remarkable cir- cumstance is that the bird places his head behind, or under one wing, so that in front there is nothing to intercept the view of the observer of his plumage. With the head so placed, how is he to observe his ( ladye love/ which, one would think, he must very strongly desire to do ? My idea was that, by lowering his head a little, he could peep between his wings ; but Mr. A. D. Bartlett has told me that he has seen the head thrust through the wing feathers, and Mr. E. Bartlett suspected this on finding some secondary feathers of a specimen which he set up disordered at their bases. I have drawn the head in the position in which it has been placed when I have seen the bird display, and not as described by Mr. Bartlett, although not for one moment doubting the accuracy of such a keen observer, and I am sure I shall be excused for representing only what I have seen, especially as that is sufficiently curious. When I have noticed the head, it has been placed under the right wing; but I should not think this is invariably the case. You are aware that I have 224 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. previously called attention to the very artistic shading of the large round spots on the secondaries, and my opinion that the bird during display would so place his wings that all the lights on these spots would be upwards or towards the source of light, and the shades downwards, has been con- firmed by observation of the living bird." From my own observation I can fully confirm the state- ment of Mr. Wood, namely, that the ocelli are so shaded as to represent the light coming from above when the wings are expanded as the bird is displaying itself. In the engraving the ocelli of the secondary feathers nearest the tail have the light side shown nearest the top of the feather, whereas on the first and second secondaries, those which are held nearest the ground and most horizontally, the light is next the shaft of the feather. The mode in which these ocelli have been produced has been the subject of a very elaborate and ingenious disquisition by Mr. C. Darwin ("Descent of Man/' vol. ii., p. 141), to which I would refer those of my readers who desire to enter more deeply into the subject ; but the following remarks on the characteristics of the feathers and their employment by the male are so graphic that I need make no apology for quoting them (vol. ii., p. 91) : " The immensely developed secondary wing feathers, which are confined to the male, are ornamented with a row of from twenty to twenty-three ocelli, each above an inch in diameter. The feathers are also elegantly marked .with oblique dark stripes and rows of spots, like those on the skin of a tiger and leopard combined. The ocelli are so beautifully shaded that they stand out like a ball lying loosely within a socket. But when I looked at the specimen in the British Museum, which is mounted with the wings expanded and trailing downwards, I was greatly disappointed, for the ocelli appeared flat or even concave. Mr. Gould, however, soon made the case clear to me, for he had made a drawing of a male whilst he was displaying himself. At such times the long secondary DAB WIN ON THE ARGUS PHEASANT. 225 feathers in both wings are vertically erected and expanded, and these, together with the enormously elongated tail feathers, make a grand semi-circular upright fan. Now a? :soon as the wing feathers are held in this position, and the light shines on them from above, the full effect of the shading comes out, and each ocellus at once resembles the ornament called a ball and socket. These featbers have been shown to several artists, and all have expressed their admiration at the perfect shading. " The primary wing feathers, which in most gallinaceous birds are uniformly coloured, are in the Argus pheasant not less wonderful objects than the secondary wing feathers ; they are of a soft brown tint with numerous dark spots, each of which consists of two or three black dots with a surrounding dark zone. But the chief ornament is a space parallel to the dark blue shaft, which in outline forms a perfect second feather lying within the true feather. This inner part is coloured of a lighter chesnut, and is thickly dotted with minute white points. I have shown this feather to several persons, and many have admired it even more than the ball-and-socket feathers, and have declared that it was more like a work of art than of nature. Now these feathers are quite hidden on all ordinary occasions, but are fully displayed when the long secondary feathers are erected, though in a widely different manner ; for they are expanded in front like two little fans or shields, one on each side of the breast near the ground. " The case of the male Argus pheasant is eminently interesting, because it affords good evidence that the most refined beauty may serve as a charm for the female, and for no other purpose. We must conclude that this is the case, as the primary wing feathers are never displayed, and the ball-and-socket ornaments are not exhibited in full perfection except when the male assumes the attitude of courtship. The Argus pheasant does not possess brilliant colours, so that his success in courtship appears to have Q 226 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. .depended on the great size of his plumes, and on the elaboration of the most elegant patterns. Many will declare that it is utterly incredible that a female bird should be able to appreciate fine shading and exquisite patterns. It is, undoubtedly, a marvellous fact that she should possess this almost human degree of taste, though perhaps she admires the general effect rather than each separate detail. He who thinks that he can safely gauge the discrimination and taste of the lower animals may deny that the female Argus pheasant can appreciate such refined beauty ; but he will then be compelled to admit that the extraordinary attitudes assumed by the male during the act of courtship, by which the wonderful beauty of his plumage is fully displayed, are purposeless; and this is a conclusion which I for one will never admit." The illustration, by the late Mr. T. W. Wood, speaks for itself ; its accuracy of detail is remarkable, and I have much pleasure in having been accessory to the publication of the first correct delineation of the display of the Argus pheasant that has been produced. APPENDIX. TRANSPORT OF PHEASANTS FROM ABROAD. PERSONS may be desirous of bringing or sending gallinaceous birds to England, and I cannot therefore do better than reprint the following instructions, which were drawn up for the Zoological Society by Mr. P. L. Sclater and Mr. A. D. Bartlett for the benefit of those desirous of forwarding the various species to England. " INSTRUCTIONS FOE THE TBANSPOET or PHEASANTS AND OTHER GALLINACEOUS BIRDS. " I. For exportation, birds bred or reared in captivity should, if possible, be procured. But if this cannot be done, the following rules should be attended to as regards wild- caught birds : " 2. As soon as the birds are captured, the feathers of one wing and of the tail should be cut off tolerably close to their bases. The birds should be placed in a room lighted only from a skylight above, and having the floor sprinkled with gravel or sand, mixed with tufts of grass and roots and a little earth. Among these the food should be thrown. A tame bird placed with the wild ones is of great advantage, because this bird will induce the new captives to feed. The birds should be kept in this way until they have become tame and are fit to be transferred to the packing-cases. " 3. The food should consist of grain and seeds of various Q 2 228 APPENDIX. kinds, berries, fruit, insects, green food (such, as cabbage, lettuce, &c.), bread or soaked biscuit, chopped meat, boiled eggs, &c. " 4. Travelling cages are most conveniently made of an oblong shape, divided into compartments about eighteen inches square, and not higher than just sufficient to allow the birds to stand upright in them. They should be boarded all round, except in front, where strong wire netting may be employed although, if the birds are at all wild, wooden bars, close enough to prevent the inmates from escaping between them, are preferable. " 5. Every compartment should have the top on the inside padded with canvas, as, if this is not done, the birds are very liable to injure their heads by jumping upwards. "6. A movable feeding- trough should be fixed along the front of each compartment ; one-third of this should be lined with tin, pitch, or otherwise made to hold water ; the remaining two-thirds will hold the food. " 7. Coarse sand or gravel should be kept strewD on the bottom of the cages, and a supply of this should be sent along with the birds, as it is necessary to them for the healthy digestion of their food. '' 8. The front of the cage should have a piece of coarse canvas to let down as a blind to keep the birds quiet ; and, in order to give them air, round holes should be bored at the back of the box in the upper part. tf 9. The box should be cleaned out when the birds are fed, through the opening in front made by removing the feeding trough, care being taken that this opening is not wide enough to let the birds escape. " 10. In order to supply the birds with green food during the voyage, a few small trays (the same as are used to hold the sand or gravel) may be sown with seeds, such as rape, mustard, or any quick-growing vegetable. The green food thus produced should be cut for them from time to time, and the sand and roots afterwards thrown into the cages." TRANSPORT OF PHEASANTS FROM ABROAD. 229 For securing any recently-caught or very wild bird in such a manner that it is unable to injure itself by dashing against the sides or top of the cage, the plan used by falconers, and termed by them brailing, is advantageous. To secure each wing, two pieces of string or tape of equal length must be taken, and two knots tied, as shown in FIG. 1. Fig. 1, so as to form a central loop with loose ends. This loop must be of a size proportionate to that of the wing of the bird to be secured. When used the loop is passed over the fore part of the wing, and one set of loose ends are brought up behind, between the wing and the body, and FIG. 2. secured by being tied to the other set, as shown in the lower figure. If this is properly done, there will be no pressure on any part of the wing, nor need a single feather be ruffled or deranged; nevertheless flight is entirely pre- vented, as the bird has no power of expanding the wing. When properly brailed the wildest bird may be placed on 230 APPENDIX. the ground, where it can run about freely, but without the least power of flight. This plan is one of great utility in the transport of very wild birds, as they are quite unable to dash themselves against the roof or sides of the cage in which they are inclosed. I need hardly say that should a bird be confined a long time in this manner it would be necessary to loosen the wings alternately, otherwise a stiff or contracted joint might ensue. This would be obviated by allowing the bird the free use of each wing for a short period. INDEX. Acorns injurious in confinement page 82 Alarm guns 63 America, North, the pheasant in 37 Amherst pheasant 199 Argus pheasant 220 Barnes, Mr. J., on feeding in coverts 54 Barren hens 60 Bartlett, Mr., on rearing young pheasants 113 Bartlett, Mr., on Scemmer ring's pheasant 168 Bartlett, Mr., on the transport of pheasants 227 Baskets for transporting pheasants 94 Beakless pheasant 76 Bennett, Dr., on Eeeves's pheasant 177 Black- throated Golden pheasant 190 Blindness in young pheasants 132 Blyth on call-note of Eeeves's '181 Bohemian pheasants 149 Bones, crushed, use of 83 Brailing hens with young 118 Oar bolic acid for " Grapes " 130 Carreau, Mons., on the Amherst pheasant 201 Carr-Ellison on formation of coverts 41 Oats destructive to pheasants 75 Chinese pheasants 155 Cobbold, Dr. Spencer, on " Gapes " 126 dock pheasants sitting 16 232 INDEX. Cocks, proportion desirable page 6O Common pheasant wild in Albania 38 Coops for young pheasants 116 Cordeaux, Mr., on power of flight 10 Corsica, wild pheasant in 38 Cost of rearing 123 Courtship, display of plumage during 12. Coverts, formation of 41 Coverts, food in 46 Crane-fly grubs eaten by pheasants 6 Crows destructive to young pheasants 69 Cramp in young pheasants 131 Crook's arrangement for pheasantries 81 Cross-bred pheasants in coverts 166 Crossoptilon mantchuricum 212 Crossoptilon tibetanum 212 Crowing 12 Curd as food for young pheasants Ill Custard as food for young pheasants Ill Darwin, Captain, on mock pheasants 63 Darwin on cross-bred Scemmerring 174' Darwin on display of Argus pheasant 224 Dawkins, Mr. W. B., on introduction into England 25 Digestive organs 8 Diseases of pheasants 125 Distribution throughout Europe 35 Distribution throughout Great Britain 32. Domestication, pheasants not capable of 21 Douglas, J., on rearing young pheasants 114 Eared pheasant 212 Egg-eating by pheasants 83, 96 Egg testers 106 Eggs, purchasing stolen 107 Elliot, Mr. D. G-. , on hybrid Amherst ... 203- Elliot's Phasianid&e 1 Enteritis in pheasants 135- INDEX. 233, Euplocamus nycthemerus page 206^ Exportation of pheasants 227 Feeding in coverts 51 Feeding-troughs objectionable 53 Firs, species best adapted for coverts 42 Flight of pheasants 10 Food of pheasants 3 Food of pheasants during transport 227 Food for young Ill Foxes, driving them from vicinity of nests 74 Grapes in pheasants 126 Golden pheasant 188 Golden pheasant wild in Oregon 37 Gentles as food 112 Gentles from seaweed 112 Gould on Phasianus soem merringii 174' Gould on Phasianus torquatus y 156 Gould on Phasianus versicolor 162 Grasshoppers eaten by pheasants 49 Greece, distribution of pheasants in 39- Gurney on Japanese pheasants 167 Harting, Mr., on pheasant in Middle Ages.. 27 Harting, Mr., on rooks destroying eggs 70 Hatching in confinement ... ... 104 Hedgehogs destructive to eggs 75 Heine, Mr., on habits of Japanese pheasant 163 Heine, Mr., on Soemmerring's pheasant 171 Hens, varieties best adapted for hatching 103 Hewitt on Golden pheasants 194 Home on Eeeves's pheasant ... ... 183 Hybrid Eeeves's pheasant .... ... ... ... ... ... ... 187 Impeyan pheasant 215 Introduction of pheasants into England 25 Introduction into Ireland, date of 31 234 INDEX. Introduction into Scotland, date of page 31 Introduction into St. Helena 159 Introduction into New Zealand 35 Introduction into Samoa 36 Introduction into North America 36 Introduction into Oregon 37 Japanese pheasant ... 162 Jerusalem artichokes for pheasants 57 Jeffries 011 pheasant rearing 99 Jess for tethering hens 118 Kaleege 210 Kestrel occasionally destructive to young pheasants 72 Klein, Dr., on diseases of pheasants 131 Laying, date of 17 Latham, Dr., on Reeves's pheasant 1 78 Leno, Mr., on rooks destroying eggs 65 Leno, Mr., on pens for pheasantries 79 Lettuce, use of, for young birds 84 Lilford, Lord, on Eeeves's pheasant 181 Lilford, Lord, on the introduction by the Romans 25 Lort, W., on feeding in coverts 54 Macgillivray, description of the common pheasant 146 Macgillivray on food of pheasant 4 Maggots from seaweed 112 Male plumage, assumption of, by female 138 Mantchurian Eared pheasant 129 Marco Polo on Reeves's pheasant 177 Mayes, Mr. J., on Reeves's pheasant 186 Millais, Mr. J. G., on Reeves's pheasant 184 Mock pheasants, to make 62 Monaul 215 Moorhen destructive to young pheasants 71 Naumann on the pheasant 2, 3 Nesting 13 INDEX. 935 Nests in trees page 15 Net for catching pheasants in aviaries .... 87 New Zealand, successful acclimatisation in 35 Non- domesticity of common pheasant 21, 24 Oak- spangles as food for pheasants 5 Ogilvie-Grant, Mr., on P. scintillans 176 Open pens for pheasants 84 Orpington disease in pheasants 135 Partridges laying in pheasants' nests 14 Pens for pheasants 78 Perry, Commodore, on Scemmerring's pheasant 170 Phasianus chrysomelas 144 Phasianus colchicus 143, 166 Phasianus decollatus 160 Phasianus elegans 205 Phasianus insignis 144, 153, 160 Phasianus mongolicus 153,160 Phasianus persicus 144 Phasianus pictus 188 Phasianus principalis 152 Phasianus reevesii 178 Phasianus scintillans 175 Phasianus shawii 141,160 Phasianus soemmerringii 169 Phasianus strauchi 144 Phasianus superbus 179 Phasianus torquatus 155,166 Phasianus veneratus ... 178 Phasianus versicolor 162 Phasianus vlangali 144 Phasianus wallichii 187 Pied pheasants 151 Pinioning young birds 193 Potatoes, boiled, use of 82 Prince of Wales' s pheasant 152 Raisins for pheasants ... 57 Eearing in preserves ... .;: 58 236 INDEX. Rearing young pheasants ... page 58,109 Reeves's pheasant 178 Ring-necked pheasant 157 Rooks destructive to pheasants 65 Roup in pheasants 126 Saurin on Reeves's pheasant in Pekin 180 Scent, suppression of, during nesting 73 Sclater, Mr. P. L., on transport of pheasants 227 Sexes, due proportion required 59 Shot, pheasants poisoned by eating 141 Silver pheasant 206 Sinclaire, Mr., on Golden pheasants 190 Sitting hens, arrangement recommended 104 Skin disease 133 Slow-worms eaten by pheasants 7 Soemmerr ing's pheasant 269 St. Helena, pheasants in 159 Stevenson on cross-bred pheasants 167 Stevenson on pheasants 158,167 Stone on the introduction of Reeves's pheasant ... 179, 181 Swimming, examples of 11 Swinhoe, Consul, on the Silver pheasant 206 Swinhoe, Consul, on the Eared pheasant 213 Tameness, examples of 22 Tethering hens with young 117 Thaumalea amherstize 199 Thaumalea obscura * 190 Thaumalea picta 188 Theobald, Mr., on gape worm 128 Thompson on food of pheasant 4 Transport of pheasants, instructions for 227 Turkey-hens as rearers 108 Vegetable food, necessity for 84 Vipers devoured by pheasant 7 Wallace, Mr., on the Argus pheasant 220 Water, catchpools for, in coverts 56 INDEX. 237 Water, rearing young without page 119 Waterton on non-domesticity of pheasant 24 Waterton on formation of coverts 48 Weight of common species 19 White pheasants 150 Whyte, Col. J., roots destroying eggs 68 Windows broken by pheasants 9 Wireworms eaten by pheasants 6 Wood on the display of Gold pheasant 189 Wood on the display of Argus pheasant 223 Wool, death of young pheasants caused by 139 Yew-leaves poisonous to pheasants 139 PHEASANTS: THEIR NATURAL HISTORY AND PRACTICAL MANAGEMENT. BY "VST. B. TEG-IETIMIIEIIEIR,, F.Z.S. NOTICES OF THE PREVIOUS EDITIONS. From the Encyclopaedia Britannica, Art. Pheasants, by Prof. A. Newton. " Mr. Tegetmeier's ' Pheasants, their Natural History and Practical Manage- ment,' is to be commended as a very useful work." From " Yarrell's British Birds." Fourth edition. " For further details as well as for instructions as to the management of pheasants, both in the covert and the aviary, and the disorders to which they are liable, the reader is referred to Mr. Tegetmeier's excellent work . . . to which the editor is under great obligations." From the Daily Telegraph. " Both in its descriptive and in its practical aspects the treatise is admirable." From the Pali Mall Gazette. " This new and sumptuous edition contains so large an amount of fresh matter that it may be regarded practically as another work. In its own way it is quite exhaustive. ... In the technical details of rearing and preservation, Mr. Tegetmeier will be found a thoroughly trustworthy and scientific guide." From the Gardeners' Chronicle. " The book generally, from the beauty of its typography, tasteful and appro- priate binding, and numerous woodcuts ard larger figures of the various species of pheasants alluded to, well deserves to find a place amongst the books of ornament on the drawing room table, as well as amongst those of practical utility in the study." From Baily's Magazine. : ' A sine qua non in the library of a country gentleman or woman." From the Athenaeum. " Nothing can be more interesting than the description of such superb birds. . . . The work treats of the hatching, rearing, and treatment of pheasants,, and is replete with important details." Second Edition, demy 8vo., price 2s. Qd., by post 2s. POULTRY FOR THE T-A-ZBLIEJ WITH AN EXPOSITION OF THE FALLACIES OF POULTRY FARMING. BY W. B. TEQETMEIER, F.Z.S., Author of " Poultry " in the " Encyclopaedia Britannica." "This volume is altogether trustworthy and well-informed as to details of management t>y which good table fowls may be reared and fattened. . . . The most useful book on poultry that has appeared. . . . Likely to serve as a text book for generations " Live Stock Journal. "Mr. Tegetmeier is possibly better entitled than anyone else to a hearing on the subject of poultry." Daily Graphic. " The chapters on hatching, rearing, and breeding poultry for the market can hardly be rivalled.' J A thenceum. NT "A more practical book on the subject was never written; it cannot be too widely circulated in rural districts." Academy. frv '' Good as the first edition was, the second is greatly enhanced by the additions. One of the best text books on the subject that we have come across." Poultry. " Treats of the production of eggs and chickens purely as a matter of business, in which English peasants and farmers are not very expert." Pall Mall Gazette. " A remarkably practical and sensible book. The chapter on the 4 Fallacies of Poultry Farming ' is a most valuable one." Morning Post. " No better instruction can be offered." Garden. "THE FIELD" OFFICE, BREAM'S BUILDINGS, LONDON, B.C. In demy 8vo., price 5s. net, by post 5s. 4d. HORSES, ASSES, ZEBRAS, MULES, and MULE BREEDING. BY W. B. TEGETMEIER, M.B.O.U., F.Z.S., AND C. L. SUTHERLAND, F.Z.S. Late of the War Office ; Attached to the British Commission Philadelphia Exhibi- tion, 1876; International Juror Paris Exhibition, 1878; Assistant Com- missioner, Royal Commission on Agriculture, 1879. This work, which is illustrated by Thirty Full-page Engravings, includes a detailed description of all the animals of the horse tribe, and a demonstration of the advantages of mules for agricultural, draught, and military purposes, as shown by their utilisation in Europe, America, and India. " A most valuable addition to the literature of stock breeding." Live Stock Journal. " Practical and excellently illustrated throughout." Daily Telegraph. " May lead to the more general employment of mules." Daily News. " We rise from its perusal with feelings of the liveliest satisfaction." Veterinarian. "To our readers who are interested in mule breeding this work may be heartily recommended. '' Nature. " Will confer a national benefit if it succeeds in opening the eyes of Britons to the value of the mule."' Land and Water. "A work from the hand of the greatest living authority of the subject (mule breeding), Mr. Sutherland, in collaboration with an excellent naturalist." Madras Mail. "THE FIELD" OFFICE, BREAM'S BUILDINGS, LONDON, E.G. RETURN MARIAN KOSHLAND BIOSCIENCE AND TO > NATURAL RESOURCES LIBRARY 2101 Valley Life Sciences Bldg. 642-2531 LOAN PERIOD ONE MONTH LOAN ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS. DUE AS STAMPED BELOW. DUE NOV 1 OZUU2 SUBJECT TO RECALL R JAN 13 '03 -9^ fllwl FORM NO. DD 8 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY 12M 5-01 Berkeley, California 94720-6500
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i don't know
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Who was the coach of Scotland during 'France 98'?
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World Cup 1998: rosters of 32 national teams.
Group H (Argentina, Croatia, Jamaica, Japan)
Group A
Brazil: 1, Taffarel; 2, Cafu; 3, Aldair; 4, Junior Baiano; 5, Cesar Sampaio; 6, Roberto Carlos; 7, Giovanni; 8, Dunga; 9, Ronaldo; 10, Rivaldo; 11, Emerson; 12, Carlos Germano; 13, Ze Roberto; 14, Goncalves; 15, Alves Cruz; 16, Ze Roberto; 17, Doriva; 18, Leonardo; 19, Denilson; 20, Bebeto; 21, Edmundo; 22, Dida. Coach: Mario Zagallo.
Scotland: 1, Jim Leighton; 2, Jackie McNamara; 3, Tommy Boyd; 4, Colin Calderwood; 5, Colin Hendry; 6, Tosh McKinlay; 7, Kevin Gallacher; 8, Craig Burley; 9, Gordon Durie; 10, Darren Jackson; 11, John Collins; 12, Neil Sullivan; 13, Simon Donnelly; 14, Paul Lambert; 15, Scott Gemmill; 16, Michael Weir; 17, Billy McKinlay; 18, Matt Elliott; 19, Derek Whyte; 20, Scott Booth; 21, Jonathan Gould; 22, Christian Dailly. Coach: Craig Brown.
Norway: 1, Frode Grodaas; 2, Gunnar Halle; 3, Ronny Johnsen; 4, Henning Berg; 5, Stig Inge Bjoernebye; 6, Staale Solbakken; 7, Erik Mykland; 8, Oeyvind Leonardsen; 9, Tore Andre Flo; 10, Kjetil Rekdal; 11, Jahn Ivar Jakobsen; 12, Thomas Myhre; 13, Espen Baardsen; 14, Vegard Heggem; 15, Dan Eggen; 16, Jostein Flo; 17, Havard Flo; 18, Egil Oestenstad; 19, Erik Hoftun; 20, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer; 21, Vidar Riseth; 22, Roar Strand. Coach: Egil Olsen.
Morocco: 1, Abdelkader Brazi; 2, Abdelilah Saber; 3, Abdekrim El Hadrioui; 4, Youssef Rossi; 5, Smahi Triki; 6, Noureddine Naybat; 7, Mustapha Hadji; 8, Said Chiba; 9, Abdeljalil Hadda; 10, Abderrahim Ouakili; 11, Ali El Khattabi; 12, Driss Benzekri; 13, Rachid Neqrouz; 14, Salaheddine Bassir; 15, Lahcen Abrami; 16, Rachid Azzouzi; 17, Gharib Amzine; 18, Youssef Chippo; 19, Jamal Sellami; 20, Taher El Lakhlej; 21, Rachid Roki; 22, Mustapha Chadli. Coach: Henri Michel.
Group B
Italy: 1, Francesco Toldo; 2, Giuseppe Bergomi; 3, Paolo Maldini; 4, Fabio Cannavaro; 5, Alessandro Costacurta; 6, Alessandro Nesta; 7, Gianluca Pessotto; 8, Moreno Torricelli; 9, Demetrio Albertini; 10, Alessandro Del Piero; 11, Dino Baggio; 12, Gianluca Pagliuca; 13, Sandro Cois; 14, Luigi Di Biagio; 15, Angelo Di Livio; 16, Roberto Di Matteo; 17, Francesco Moriero; 18, Roberto Baggio; 19, Filippo Inzaghi; 20, Enrico Chiesa; 21, Christian Vieri; 22, Gianluigi Buffon. Coach: Cesare Maldini.
Chile: 1, Nelson Tapia; 2, Cristian Castaneda; 3, Ronald Fuentes; 4, Francisco Rojas; 5, Javier Margas; 6, Pedro Reyes; 7, Nelson Parraguez; 8, Clarence Acuna; 9, Ivan Zamorano; 10, Jose Sierra; 11, Marcelo Salas; 12, Marcelo Ramirez; 13, Manuel Neira; 14, Miguel Ramirez; 15, Moises Villarroel; 16, Mauricio Aros; 17, Marcelo Vega; 18, Luis Musrri; 19, Fernando Cornejo; 20, Fabian Estay; 21, Rodrigo Barrera; 22, Carlos Tejas. Coach: Nelson Acosta.
Cameroon: 1, Jacques Songo'o; 2, Joseph Elanga; 3, Pierre Wome; 4, Rigobert Song; 5, Raymond Kalla Nkongo; 6, Pierre Njanka; 7, Francois Omam Biyick; 8, Didier Angibeaud; 9, Alphonse Tchami; 10, Patrick Mboma; 11, Samuel Eto'o; 12, Lavriano Etame; 13, Serge Kwetche; 14, Augustine Simo; 15, Joseph Ndo; 16, William Andem; 17, Michel Pensee; 18, Samuel Ipoua; 19, Marcel Mahouve; 20, Salomon Olembe; 21, Joseph-Desire Job; 22, Alioum Boukar. Coach: Claude Le Roy.
Austria: 1, Michael Konsel; 2, Markus Schopp; 3, Peter Schottel; 4, Anton Pfeffer; 5, Wolfgang Feiersinger; 6, Walter Kogler; 7, Mario Haas; 8, Heimo Pfeifenberger; 9, Ivica Vastic; 10, Andreas Herzog; 11, Martin Amerhauser; 12, Martin Hiden; 13, Harald Cerny; 14, Hannes Reinmayr; 15, Arnold Wetl; 16, Franz Wohlfahrt; 17, Roman Mahlich; 18, Peter Stoger; 19, Anton Polster; 20, Andreas Heraf; 21, Wolfgang Knaller; 22, Dietmar Kuhbauer. Coach: Herbert Prohaska.
Group C
France: 1, Bernard Lama; 2, Vincent Candela; 3, Bixente Lizarazu; 4, Patrick Vieira; 5, Laurent Blanc; 6, Youri Djorkaeff; 7, Didier Deschamps; 8, Marcel Desailly; 9, Stephane Guivarc'h; 10, Zinedine Zidane; 11, Robert Pires; 12, Thierry Henry; 13, Bernard Diomede; 14, Alain Boghossian; 15, Lilian Thuram; 16, Fabien Barthez; 17, Emmanuel Petit; 18, Frank Leboeuf; 19, Christian Karembeu; 20, David Trezeguet; 21, Christophe Dugarry; 22, Lionel Charbonnier. Coach: Aime Jacquet.
Denmark: 1, Peter Schmeichel; 2, Michael Schjoenberg; 3, Marc Rieper; 4, Jes Hoegh; 5, Jan Heintze; 6, Thomas Helveg; 7, Allan Nielsen; 8, Per Frandsen; 9, Miklos Molnar; 10, Michael Laudrup; 11, Brian Laudrup; 12, Soeren Colding; 13, Jacob Laursen; 14, Morten Wieghorst; 15, Stig Toefting; 16, Mogens Krogh; 17, Bjarne Goldbaek; 18, Peter Moeller; 19, Ebbe Sand; 20, Rene Henriksen; 21, Martin Joergensen; 22, Peter Kjaer. Coach: Bo Johanssen.
South Africa: 1, Hans Vonk; 2, Themba Mnguni; 3, David Nyathi, 4, Willem Jackson; 5, Mark Fish; 6, Phil Masinga; 7, Quinton Fortune, 8, Alfred Phiri; 9, Shaun Bartlett; 10, John Moshoeu; 11, Helman Mkhalele; 12, Brendan Augustine; 13, Delron Buckley; 14, Jerry Sikhosana; 15, Doctor Khumalo; 16, Brian Baloyi; 17, Benni McCarthy; 18, Lebogang Morula; 19, Lucas Radebe; 20, Naughty Mokoena; 21, Pierre Issa; 22, Andre Arendse. Coach: Philippe Troussier.
Saudi Arabia: 1, Mohammed al-Dayee; 2, Mohammed al-Jahani; 3, Mohammed al-Khilaiwi; 4, Abdullah Zubromawi; 5, Ahmed Madani; 6, Fuad Amin; 7, Ibrahim al-Shahrani; 8, Obied al-Dosari; 9, Sami al-Jaber; 10, Saeed al-Owairan; 11, Fahd al-Mhallel; 12, Ibrahim al-Harbi; 13, Hussain Sulimani; 14, Khalid al-Muwalid; 15, Youssef al-Thyniyan; 16, Khamis al-Owairan; 17, Ahmed al-Dosari; 18, Nawaf al-Temiyat; 19, Abdel Aziz al-Janoubi; 20, Hamza Saleh; 21, Hussain al-Sadiq; 22, Tisir al-Antaif. Coach: Carlos Alberto Parreira.
Group D
Spain: 1, Andoni Zubizarreta; 2, Alberto Ferrer; 3, Agustin Aranzabal; 4, Rafael Alkorta; 5, Abelardo Abelardo; 6, Fernando Hierro; 7, Francisco Morientes; 8, Julen Guerrero; 9, Juan Pizzi; 10, Raul Gonzalez; 11, Alfonso Perez; 12, Sergi Barjuan; 13, Santiago Canizares; 14, Ivan Campo; 15, Carlos Aguilera; 16, Alberto Celades; 17, Joseba Etxeberria; 18, Guillermo Amor; 19, Kiko Narvaez; 20, Miguel Nadal; 21, Luis Enrique Martinez; 22, Jose Molina. Coach: Javier Clemente.
Nigeria: 1, Peter Rufai; 2, Mobi Oparaku; 3, Celestine Babayaro; 4, Nwankwo Kanu; 5, Uche Okechukwu; 6, Taribo West; 7, Finidi George; 8, Mutiu Adepoju; 9, Rasheed Yekini; 10, Jay-Jay Okocha; 11, Garba Lawal; 12, Willy Okpara; 13, Tijani Babangida; 14, Daniel Amokachi; 15, Sunday Oliseh; 16, Uche Okafor; 17, Augustine Eguavoen; 18, Wilson Oruma; 19, Ben Iroha; 20, Victor Ikpeba; 21, Godwin Okpara; 22, Abiodun Baruwa. Coach: Bora Milutinovic.
Paraguay: 1, Jose Chilavert; 2, Francisco Arce; 3, Catalino Rivarola; 4, Carlos Gamarra; 5, Celso Ayala; 6, Edgar Aguilera; 7, Juan Carlos Yegros; 8, Aristides Rojas; 9, Jose Cardozo; 10, Roberto Acuna; 11, Pedro Sarabia; 12, Danilo Aceval; 13, Carlos Paredes; 14, Ricardo Rojas; 15, Miguel Benitez; 16, Julio Cesar Enciso; 17, Hugo Brizuela; 18, Cesar Ramirez; 19, Carlos Morales; 20, Denis Caniza; 21, Jorge Campos. 22, Ruben Ruiz Diaz. Coach: Paulo Cesar Carpeggiani.
Bulgaria: 1, Zdravko Zdravkov; 2, Radostin Kischishev; 3, Trifon Ivanov; 4, Ivaylo Petkov; 5, Ivaylo Iordanov; 6, Zlatko Yankov; 7, Emil Kostadinov; 8, Hristo Stoichkov; 9, Luboslav Penev; 10, Krassimir Balakov; 11, Ilian Iliev; 12, Borislav Mihailov 13, Gosho Ginchev; 14, Marian Hristov; 15, Adalbert Zafirov; 16, Anatoli Nankov; 17, Stoycho Stoilov; 18, Daniel Borimirov; 19, Georgi Bachev; 20, Georgi Ivanov; 21, Rossen Kirilov; 22, Milen Petkov. Coach: Dimitar Penev.
Group E
Netherlands: 1, Edwin van der Sar; 2, Michael Reiziger; 3, Jaap Stam; 4, Frank de Boer; 5, Arthur Numan; 6, Wim Jonk; 7, Ronald de Boer; 8, Dennis Bergkamp; 9, Patrick Kluivert; 10, Clarence Seedorf; 11, Phillip Cocu; 12, Boudewijn Zenden; 13, Andre Ooijer; 14, Marc Overmars; 15, Winston Bogarde; 16, Edgar Davids; 17, Pierre van Hooijdonk; 18, Edde Goey; 19, Giovanni van Bronckhorst; 20, Aron Winter; 21, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink; 22, Ruud Hesp. Coach: Guus Hiddink.
Belgium: 1, Philip de Wilde; 2, Bertrand Crasson; 3, Lorenzo Staelens; 4, Gordan Vidovic; 5, Vital Borkelmans; 6, Franky Van der Elst; 7, Marc Wilmots; 8, Luis Oliveira; 9, Mbo Mpenza; 10, Luc Nilis; 11, Nico Van Kerckhoven; 12, Philippe Van de Walle; 13, Dany Verlinden; 14, Enzo Scifo; 15, Philippe Clement; 16, Glen De Boeck; 17, Mike Vestraeten; 18, Gert Verheyen; 19, Eric Van Meir; 20, Emile Mpenza; 21, Danny Boffin; 22, Eric Deflandre; Coach: Georges Leekens.
South Korea: 1, Kim Byung-ji; 2, Choi Sung-yong; 3, Lee Lim-saeng; 4, Choi Young-il; 5, Lee Min-sung; 6, Yoo Sang-chul; 7, Kim Doh-keun; 8, Noh Jung-yoon; 9, Kim Do-hoon; 10, Choi Yong-soo; 11, Seo Jung-won; 12, Lee Sang-hun; 13, Kim Tae-young; 14, Ko Jong-soo; 15, Lee Sang-yoon; 16, Jang Hyung-seok; 17, Ha Seok-ju; 18, Hwang Sun-hong; 19, Dae Il-jang; 20, Hong Myung-bo; 21, Lee Dong-gook; 22, Seo Dong-myung. Coach: Cha Bum-kun.
Mexico: 1, Jorge Campos; 2, Claudio Suarez; 3, Joel Sanchez, 4, German Villa Castenada; 5, Dulio Davino, 6, Marcelino Bernal; 7, Jesus Ramirez; 8, Alberto Garcia Aspe; 9, Recardo Pelaez; 10, Luis Garcia; 11, Cuauhtemoc Blanco; 12, Oswaldo Sanchez; 13, Pavel Pardo; 14, Raul Lara; 15, Luis Hernandez; 16, Isaac Terrazas; 17, Francisco Palencia; 18, Salvador Carmona; 19, Braulio Luna; 20, Jaime Ordiales, 21, Jesus Arellano; 22, Osdcar Perez. Coach: Manuel Lapuente.
Group F
Germany: 1, Andreas Koepke; 2, Christian Woerns; 3, Joerg Heinrich; 4, Juergen Kohler; 5, Thomas Helmer; 6, Olaf Thon; 7, Andreas Moeller; 8, Lothar Matthaeus; 9, Ulf Kirsten; 10, Thomas Haessler; 11, Olaf Marschall; 12, Oliver Kahn; 13, Jens Jeremies; 14, Markus Babbel; 15, Steffen Freund; 16, Dietmar Hamann; 17, Christian Ziege; 18, Juergen Klinsmann; 19, Stefan Reuter; 20, Oliver Bierhoff; 21, Michael Tarnat; 22 Jens Lehmann. Coach: Berti Vogts.
Yugoslavia: 1, Ivica Kralj; 2, Zoran Mirkovic; 3, Goran Djorovic; 4, Slavisa Jokanovic; 5, Miroslav Djukic; 6, Branko Brnovic; 7, Vladimir Jugovic; 8, Dejan Savicevic; 9, Predrag Mijatovic; 10, Dragan Stojkovic; 11, Sinisa Mihajlovic; 12, Dragoje Lekovic; 13, Slobodan Komljenovic; 14, Nisa Saveljic; 15, Ljubinko Drulovic; 16, Zeljko Petrovic; 17, Savo Milosevic; 18, Dejan Govedarica; 19, Miroslav Stevic; 20, Dejan Stankovic; 21, Perica Ognjenovic; 22, Darko Kovacevic. Coach: Slobadan Santrac.
United States: 1, Brad Friedel; 2, Frankie Hejduk; 3, Eddie Pope; 4, Mike Burns; 5, Thomas Dooley; 6, David Regis; 7, Roy Wegerle; 8, Ernie Stewart; 9, Joe-Max Moore; 10, Tab Ramos; 11, Eric Wynalda; 12, Jeff Agoos; 13, Cobi Jones; 14 Preki Radosavljevic; 15 Chad Deering; 16, Juergen Sommer; 17, Marcelo Balboa; 18, Kasey Keller; 19, Brian Maisonneuve; 20, Brian McBride; 21, Claudio Reyna; 22, Alexi Lalas. Coach: Steve Sampson.
Iran: 1, Ahmadreza Abedzadeh; 2, Mehdi Mahdavikia; 3, Naim Saadavi; 4, Mohammad Khakpour; 5, Mohammad Ali Peyrovani; 6, Karim Bagheri; 7, Alireza Mansourian; 8, Sirous Din Mohammadi; 9, Hamid Estili; 10, Ali Daei; 11, Khodadad Azizi. 12, Nima Nakisa; 13, Ali Latifi; 14, Nader Mohammadkhani; 15, Ali Ostadasadli; 16, Reza Shahroudi; 17, Javad Zarincheh; 18, Satar Hamedani; 19, Behnam Seraj; 20, Mehdi Pashazadeh; 21, Mehrdad Minavand; 22, Parviz Boromand. Coach: Jalal Talebi.
Group G
Romania: 1, Dumitru Stingaciu; 2, Dan Petrescu; 3, Christian Dulca; 4, Anton Dobos; 5, Constantin Galca; 6, Gheorghe Popescu; 7, Marius Lacatus; 8, Dorinel Munteanu; 9, Viorel Moldovan; 10, Gheorghe Hagi; 11, Adrian Ilie; 12, Bogdan Stelea; 13, Liviu Ciobotariu; 14, Radu Niculescu; 15, Lucian Marinescu; 16, Gabriel Popescu; 17, Ilie Dumitrescu; 18, Iulian Filipescu; 19, Ovidiu Stanga; 20, Tibor Selymes; 21, Gheorghe Craioveanu; 22, Florian Prunea. Coach: Anghel Iordanescu.
Colombia: 1, Oscar Cordoba; 2, Ivan Ramiro Cordoba; 3, Ever Palacios; 4, Jose Santa; 5, Jorge Bermudez; 6, Maurizio Serna; 7, Anthony de Avila 8, Harold Lozano; 9, Adolfo Valencia; 10, Carlos Valderrama; 11, Faustino Asprilla; 12, Miguel Calero; 13, Wilmer Cabrera; 14, Jorge Bolano; 15, Victor Aristizabal; 16, Antonio Moreno; 17, Andres Estrada; 18, John Perez; 19, Freddy Rincon; 20, Hamilton Ricard; 21, Leider Preciado; 22, Farid Mondragon. Coach: Hernan Dario Gomez.
England: 1, David Seaman; 2, Sol Campbell; 3, Graeme Le Saux; 4, Paul Ince; 5, Tony Adams; 6, Gareth Southgate; 7, David Beckham; 8, David Batty; 9, Alan Shearer; 10, Teddy Sheringham; 11, Steve McManaman; 12, Gary Neville; 13, Nigel Martyn; 14, Darren Anderton; 15, Paul Merson; 16, Paul Scholes; 17, Robert Lee; 18, Martin Keown; 19, Les Ferdinand; 20, Michael Owen; 21, Rio Ferdinand; 22, Tim Flowers. Coach: Glenn Hoddle.
Tunisia: 1, Chokri el Ouaer; 2, Imed Ben Younes; 3, Sami Trabelsi; 4, Mounir Boukadida; 5, Hatem Trabelsi; 6, Ferid Chouchane; 7, Tarek Thabet; 8, Zoubele Baya; 9, Riadh Jelassi; 10, Kaies Ghodhbane; 11, Adel Sellimi; 12, Mourad Melki; 13, Riadh Bouazizi; 14, Sirajeddine Chihi; 15, Skander Souayah; 16, Radhouane Salhi; 17, Jose Clayton; 18, Mehdi Ben Slimane; 19, Faycal Ben Ahmed; 20, Sabri Jaballah; 21, Khaled Badra; 22, Ali Boumnijel. Coach: Henry Kasperczak.
Group H
Argentina: 1, Carlos Roa; 2, Roberto Ayala; 3, Jose Chamot; 4, Hector Mauricio Pineda; 5, Matias Almeyda; 6, Roberto Sensini; 7, Claudio Lopez; 8, Diego Simeone; 9, Gabriel Batistuta; 10, Ariel Ortega; 11, Juan Veron; 12, German Burgos; 13, Pablo Paz; 14, Nelson Vivas; 15, Leonardo Astrada; 16, Sergio Berti; 17, Pablo Cavallero; 18, Abel Balbo; 19, Hernan Crespo; 20, Marcelo Gallardo; 21, Marcelo Delgado; 22, Javier Zanetti. Coach: Daniel Passarella.
Croatia: 1, Drazen Ladic; 2, Petar Krpan; 3, Ante Seric; 4, Igor Stimac; 5, Goran Juric; 6, Slaven Bilic; 7, Aljosa Asanovic; 8, Robert Prosinecki; 9, Davor Suker; 10, Zvonimir Boban; 11, Silvio Maric; 12, Marijan Mrmic; 13, Mario Stanic; 14, Zvonimir Soldo; 15, Igor Tudor; 16, Ardian Kozniku; 17, Robert Jarni; 18, Zoran Mamic; 19, Goran Vlaovic; 20, Dario Simic; 21, Krunoslav Jurcic; 22, Vladimir Vasilj. Coach: Miroslav Blazevic.
Japan: 1, Nobiyuki Kojima; 2, Akira Narahashi; 3, Naoki Soma; 4, Masami Ihara; 5, Norio Omura; 6, Motohiro Yamaguchi; 7, Teruyoshi Ito; 8, Hidetoshi Nakata; 9, Masashi Nakayama; 10, Hiroshi Nanami; 11, Shinji Ono; 12, Wagner Lopes; 13, Toshihiro Hattori; 14, Masayuki Okano; 15, Hiroaki Morishima; 16, Toshihide Saito; 17, Yutaka Akita; 18, Shoji Jo; 19, Eisuke Nakanishi; 20, Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi; 21, Seigo Narazaki; 22, Takashi Hirano. Coach: Takeshi Okada.
Jamaica: 1, Warren Barrett; 2, Steven Malcolm; 3, Christopher Dawes; 4, Linval Dixon; 5, Ian Goodison; 6, Fitzroy Simpson; 7, Peter Cargill; 8, Marcus Gayle; 9, Andy Williams; 10, Walter Boyd; 11, Theodore Whitmore; 12, Dean Sewell; 13, Aaron Lawrence; 14, Donovan Ricketts; 15, Ricardo Gardener; 16, Robbie Earle; 17, Onandi Lowe; 18, Deon Burton; 19, Frank Sinclair; 20, Darryl Powell; 21, Durrent Brown; 22, Paul Hall. Coach: Rene Simoes.
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Craig Brown
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Which singing duo appeared in 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.', in 1967?
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World Cup 1998: rosters of 32 national teams.
Group H (Argentina, Croatia, Jamaica, Japan)
Group A
Brazil: 1, Taffarel; 2, Cafu; 3, Aldair; 4, Junior Baiano; 5, Cesar Sampaio; 6, Roberto Carlos; 7, Giovanni; 8, Dunga; 9, Ronaldo; 10, Rivaldo; 11, Emerson; 12, Carlos Germano; 13, Ze Roberto; 14, Goncalves; 15, Alves Cruz; 16, Ze Roberto; 17, Doriva; 18, Leonardo; 19, Denilson; 20, Bebeto; 21, Edmundo; 22, Dida. Coach: Mario Zagallo.
Scotland: 1, Jim Leighton; 2, Jackie McNamara; 3, Tommy Boyd; 4, Colin Calderwood; 5, Colin Hendry; 6, Tosh McKinlay; 7, Kevin Gallacher; 8, Craig Burley; 9, Gordon Durie; 10, Darren Jackson; 11, John Collins; 12, Neil Sullivan; 13, Simon Donnelly; 14, Paul Lambert; 15, Scott Gemmill; 16, Michael Weir; 17, Billy McKinlay; 18, Matt Elliott; 19, Derek Whyte; 20, Scott Booth; 21, Jonathan Gould; 22, Christian Dailly. Coach: Craig Brown.
Norway: 1, Frode Grodaas; 2, Gunnar Halle; 3, Ronny Johnsen; 4, Henning Berg; 5, Stig Inge Bjoernebye; 6, Staale Solbakken; 7, Erik Mykland; 8, Oeyvind Leonardsen; 9, Tore Andre Flo; 10, Kjetil Rekdal; 11, Jahn Ivar Jakobsen; 12, Thomas Myhre; 13, Espen Baardsen; 14, Vegard Heggem; 15, Dan Eggen; 16, Jostein Flo; 17, Havard Flo; 18, Egil Oestenstad; 19, Erik Hoftun; 20, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer; 21, Vidar Riseth; 22, Roar Strand. Coach: Egil Olsen.
Morocco: 1, Abdelkader Brazi; 2, Abdelilah Saber; 3, Abdekrim El Hadrioui; 4, Youssef Rossi; 5, Smahi Triki; 6, Noureddine Naybat; 7, Mustapha Hadji; 8, Said Chiba; 9, Abdeljalil Hadda; 10, Abderrahim Ouakili; 11, Ali El Khattabi; 12, Driss Benzekri; 13, Rachid Neqrouz; 14, Salaheddine Bassir; 15, Lahcen Abrami; 16, Rachid Azzouzi; 17, Gharib Amzine; 18, Youssef Chippo; 19, Jamal Sellami; 20, Taher El Lakhlej; 21, Rachid Roki; 22, Mustapha Chadli. Coach: Henri Michel.
Group B
Italy: 1, Francesco Toldo; 2, Giuseppe Bergomi; 3, Paolo Maldini; 4, Fabio Cannavaro; 5, Alessandro Costacurta; 6, Alessandro Nesta; 7, Gianluca Pessotto; 8, Moreno Torricelli; 9, Demetrio Albertini; 10, Alessandro Del Piero; 11, Dino Baggio; 12, Gianluca Pagliuca; 13, Sandro Cois; 14, Luigi Di Biagio; 15, Angelo Di Livio; 16, Roberto Di Matteo; 17, Francesco Moriero; 18, Roberto Baggio; 19, Filippo Inzaghi; 20, Enrico Chiesa; 21, Christian Vieri; 22, Gianluigi Buffon. Coach: Cesare Maldini.
Chile: 1, Nelson Tapia; 2, Cristian Castaneda; 3, Ronald Fuentes; 4, Francisco Rojas; 5, Javier Margas; 6, Pedro Reyes; 7, Nelson Parraguez; 8, Clarence Acuna; 9, Ivan Zamorano; 10, Jose Sierra; 11, Marcelo Salas; 12, Marcelo Ramirez; 13, Manuel Neira; 14, Miguel Ramirez; 15, Moises Villarroel; 16, Mauricio Aros; 17, Marcelo Vega; 18, Luis Musrri; 19, Fernando Cornejo; 20, Fabian Estay; 21, Rodrigo Barrera; 22, Carlos Tejas. Coach: Nelson Acosta.
Cameroon: 1, Jacques Songo'o; 2, Joseph Elanga; 3, Pierre Wome; 4, Rigobert Song; 5, Raymond Kalla Nkongo; 6, Pierre Njanka; 7, Francois Omam Biyick; 8, Didier Angibeaud; 9, Alphonse Tchami; 10, Patrick Mboma; 11, Samuel Eto'o; 12, Lavriano Etame; 13, Serge Kwetche; 14, Augustine Simo; 15, Joseph Ndo; 16, William Andem; 17, Michel Pensee; 18, Samuel Ipoua; 19, Marcel Mahouve; 20, Salomon Olembe; 21, Joseph-Desire Job; 22, Alioum Boukar. Coach: Claude Le Roy.
Austria: 1, Michael Konsel; 2, Markus Schopp; 3, Peter Schottel; 4, Anton Pfeffer; 5, Wolfgang Feiersinger; 6, Walter Kogler; 7, Mario Haas; 8, Heimo Pfeifenberger; 9, Ivica Vastic; 10, Andreas Herzog; 11, Martin Amerhauser; 12, Martin Hiden; 13, Harald Cerny; 14, Hannes Reinmayr; 15, Arnold Wetl; 16, Franz Wohlfahrt; 17, Roman Mahlich; 18, Peter Stoger; 19, Anton Polster; 20, Andreas Heraf; 21, Wolfgang Knaller; 22, Dietmar Kuhbauer. Coach: Herbert Prohaska.
Group C
France: 1, Bernard Lama; 2, Vincent Candela; 3, Bixente Lizarazu; 4, Patrick Vieira; 5, Laurent Blanc; 6, Youri Djorkaeff; 7, Didier Deschamps; 8, Marcel Desailly; 9, Stephane Guivarc'h; 10, Zinedine Zidane; 11, Robert Pires; 12, Thierry Henry; 13, Bernard Diomede; 14, Alain Boghossian; 15, Lilian Thuram; 16, Fabien Barthez; 17, Emmanuel Petit; 18, Frank Leboeuf; 19, Christian Karembeu; 20, David Trezeguet; 21, Christophe Dugarry; 22, Lionel Charbonnier. Coach: Aime Jacquet.
Denmark: 1, Peter Schmeichel; 2, Michael Schjoenberg; 3, Marc Rieper; 4, Jes Hoegh; 5, Jan Heintze; 6, Thomas Helveg; 7, Allan Nielsen; 8, Per Frandsen; 9, Miklos Molnar; 10, Michael Laudrup; 11, Brian Laudrup; 12, Soeren Colding; 13, Jacob Laursen; 14, Morten Wieghorst; 15, Stig Toefting; 16, Mogens Krogh; 17, Bjarne Goldbaek; 18, Peter Moeller; 19, Ebbe Sand; 20, Rene Henriksen; 21, Martin Joergensen; 22, Peter Kjaer. Coach: Bo Johanssen.
South Africa: 1, Hans Vonk; 2, Themba Mnguni; 3, David Nyathi, 4, Willem Jackson; 5, Mark Fish; 6, Phil Masinga; 7, Quinton Fortune, 8, Alfred Phiri; 9, Shaun Bartlett; 10, John Moshoeu; 11, Helman Mkhalele; 12, Brendan Augustine; 13, Delron Buckley; 14, Jerry Sikhosana; 15, Doctor Khumalo; 16, Brian Baloyi; 17, Benni McCarthy; 18, Lebogang Morula; 19, Lucas Radebe; 20, Naughty Mokoena; 21, Pierre Issa; 22, Andre Arendse. Coach: Philippe Troussier.
Saudi Arabia: 1, Mohammed al-Dayee; 2, Mohammed al-Jahani; 3, Mohammed al-Khilaiwi; 4, Abdullah Zubromawi; 5, Ahmed Madani; 6, Fuad Amin; 7, Ibrahim al-Shahrani; 8, Obied al-Dosari; 9, Sami al-Jaber; 10, Saeed al-Owairan; 11, Fahd al-Mhallel; 12, Ibrahim al-Harbi; 13, Hussain Sulimani; 14, Khalid al-Muwalid; 15, Youssef al-Thyniyan; 16, Khamis al-Owairan; 17, Ahmed al-Dosari; 18, Nawaf al-Temiyat; 19, Abdel Aziz al-Janoubi; 20, Hamza Saleh; 21, Hussain al-Sadiq; 22, Tisir al-Antaif. Coach: Carlos Alberto Parreira.
Group D
Spain: 1, Andoni Zubizarreta; 2, Alberto Ferrer; 3, Agustin Aranzabal; 4, Rafael Alkorta; 5, Abelardo Abelardo; 6, Fernando Hierro; 7, Francisco Morientes; 8, Julen Guerrero; 9, Juan Pizzi; 10, Raul Gonzalez; 11, Alfonso Perez; 12, Sergi Barjuan; 13, Santiago Canizares; 14, Ivan Campo; 15, Carlos Aguilera; 16, Alberto Celades; 17, Joseba Etxeberria; 18, Guillermo Amor; 19, Kiko Narvaez; 20, Miguel Nadal; 21, Luis Enrique Martinez; 22, Jose Molina. Coach: Javier Clemente.
Nigeria: 1, Peter Rufai; 2, Mobi Oparaku; 3, Celestine Babayaro; 4, Nwankwo Kanu; 5, Uche Okechukwu; 6, Taribo West; 7, Finidi George; 8, Mutiu Adepoju; 9, Rasheed Yekini; 10, Jay-Jay Okocha; 11, Garba Lawal; 12, Willy Okpara; 13, Tijani Babangida; 14, Daniel Amokachi; 15, Sunday Oliseh; 16, Uche Okafor; 17, Augustine Eguavoen; 18, Wilson Oruma; 19, Ben Iroha; 20, Victor Ikpeba; 21, Godwin Okpara; 22, Abiodun Baruwa. Coach: Bora Milutinovic.
Paraguay: 1, Jose Chilavert; 2, Francisco Arce; 3, Catalino Rivarola; 4, Carlos Gamarra; 5, Celso Ayala; 6, Edgar Aguilera; 7, Juan Carlos Yegros; 8, Aristides Rojas; 9, Jose Cardozo; 10, Roberto Acuna; 11, Pedro Sarabia; 12, Danilo Aceval; 13, Carlos Paredes; 14, Ricardo Rojas; 15, Miguel Benitez; 16, Julio Cesar Enciso; 17, Hugo Brizuela; 18, Cesar Ramirez; 19, Carlos Morales; 20, Denis Caniza; 21, Jorge Campos. 22, Ruben Ruiz Diaz. Coach: Paulo Cesar Carpeggiani.
Bulgaria: 1, Zdravko Zdravkov; 2, Radostin Kischishev; 3, Trifon Ivanov; 4, Ivaylo Petkov; 5, Ivaylo Iordanov; 6, Zlatko Yankov; 7, Emil Kostadinov; 8, Hristo Stoichkov; 9, Luboslav Penev; 10, Krassimir Balakov; 11, Ilian Iliev; 12, Borislav Mihailov 13, Gosho Ginchev; 14, Marian Hristov; 15, Adalbert Zafirov; 16, Anatoli Nankov; 17, Stoycho Stoilov; 18, Daniel Borimirov; 19, Georgi Bachev; 20, Georgi Ivanov; 21, Rossen Kirilov; 22, Milen Petkov. Coach: Dimitar Penev.
Group E
Netherlands: 1, Edwin van der Sar; 2, Michael Reiziger; 3, Jaap Stam; 4, Frank de Boer; 5, Arthur Numan; 6, Wim Jonk; 7, Ronald de Boer; 8, Dennis Bergkamp; 9, Patrick Kluivert; 10, Clarence Seedorf; 11, Phillip Cocu; 12, Boudewijn Zenden; 13, Andre Ooijer; 14, Marc Overmars; 15, Winston Bogarde; 16, Edgar Davids; 17, Pierre van Hooijdonk; 18, Edde Goey; 19, Giovanni van Bronckhorst; 20, Aron Winter; 21, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink; 22, Ruud Hesp. Coach: Guus Hiddink.
Belgium: 1, Philip de Wilde; 2, Bertrand Crasson; 3, Lorenzo Staelens; 4, Gordan Vidovic; 5, Vital Borkelmans; 6, Franky Van der Elst; 7, Marc Wilmots; 8, Luis Oliveira; 9, Mbo Mpenza; 10, Luc Nilis; 11, Nico Van Kerckhoven; 12, Philippe Van de Walle; 13, Dany Verlinden; 14, Enzo Scifo; 15, Philippe Clement; 16, Glen De Boeck; 17, Mike Vestraeten; 18, Gert Verheyen; 19, Eric Van Meir; 20, Emile Mpenza; 21, Danny Boffin; 22, Eric Deflandre; Coach: Georges Leekens.
South Korea: 1, Kim Byung-ji; 2, Choi Sung-yong; 3, Lee Lim-saeng; 4, Choi Young-il; 5, Lee Min-sung; 6, Yoo Sang-chul; 7, Kim Doh-keun; 8, Noh Jung-yoon; 9, Kim Do-hoon; 10, Choi Yong-soo; 11, Seo Jung-won; 12, Lee Sang-hun; 13, Kim Tae-young; 14, Ko Jong-soo; 15, Lee Sang-yoon; 16, Jang Hyung-seok; 17, Ha Seok-ju; 18, Hwang Sun-hong; 19, Dae Il-jang; 20, Hong Myung-bo; 21, Lee Dong-gook; 22, Seo Dong-myung. Coach: Cha Bum-kun.
Mexico: 1, Jorge Campos; 2, Claudio Suarez; 3, Joel Sanchez, 4, German Villa Castenada; 5, Dulio Davino, 6, Marcelino Bernal; 7, Jesus Ramirez; 8, Alberto Garcia Aspe; 9, Recardo Pelaez; 10, Luis Garcia; 11, Cuauhtemoc Blanco; 12, Oswaldo Sanchez; 13, Pavel Pardo; 14, Raul Lara; 15, Luis Hernandez; 16, Isaac Terrazas; 17, Francisco Palencia; 18, Salvador Carmona; 19, Braulio Luna; 20, Jaime Ordiales, 21, Jesus Arellano; 22, Osdcar Perez. Coach: Manuel Lapuente.
Group F
Germany: 1, Andreas Koepke; 2, Christian Woerns; 3, Joerg Heinrich; 4, Juergen Kohler; 5, Thomas Helmer; 6, Olaf Thon; 7, Andreas Moeller; 8, Lothar Matthaeus; 9, Ulf Kirsten; 10, Thomas Haessler; 11, Olaf Marschall; 12, Oliver Kahn; 13, Jens Jeremies; 14, Markus Babbel; 15, Steffen Freund; 16, Dietmar Hamann; 17, Christian Ziege; 18, Juergen Klinsmann; 19, Stefan Reuter; 20, Oliver Bierhoff; 21, Michael Tarnat; 22 Jens Lehmann. Coach: Berti Vogts.
Yugoslavia: 1, Ivica Kralj; 2, Zoran Mirkovic; 3, Goran Djorovic; 4, Slavisa Jokanovic; 5, Miroslav Djukic; 6, Branko Brnovic; 7, Vladimir Jugovic; 8, Dejan Savicevic; 9, Predrag Mijatovic; 10, Dragan Stojkovic; 11, Sinisa Mihajlovic; 12, Dragoje Lekovic; 13, Slobodan Komljenovic; 14, Nisa Saveljic; 15, Ljubinko Drulovic; 16, Zeljko Petrovic; 17, Savo Milosevic; 18, Dejan Govedarica; 19, Miroslav Stevic; 20, Dejan Stankovic; 21, Perica Ognjenovic; 22, Darko Kovacevic. Coach: Slobadan Santrac.
United States: 1, Brad Friedel; 2, Frankie Hejduk; 3, Eddie Pope; 4, Mike Burns; 5, Thomas Dooley; 6, David Regis; 7, Roy Wegerle; 8, Ernie Stewart; 9, Joe-Max Moore; 10, Tab Ramos; 11, Eric Wynalda; 12, Jeff Agoos; 13, Cobi Jones; 14 Preki Radosavljevic; 15 Chad Deering; 16, Juergen Sommer; 17, Marcelo Balboa; 18, Kasey Keller; 19, Brian Maisonneuve; 20, Brian McBride; 21, Claudio Reyna; 22, Alexi Lalas. Coach: Steve Sampson.
Iran: 1, Ahmadreza Abedzadeh; 2, Mehdi Mahdavikia; 3, Naim Saadavi; 4, Mohammad Khakpour; 5, Mohammad Ali Peyrovani; 6, Karim Bagheri; 7, Alireza Mansourian; 8, Sirous Din Mohammadi; 9, Hamid Estili; 10, Ali Daei; 11, Khodadad Azizi. 12, Nima Nakisa; 13, Ali Latifi; 14, Nader Mohammadkhani; 15, Ali Ostadasadli; 16, Reza Shahroudi; 17, Javad Zarincheh; 18, Satar Hamedani; 19, Behnam Seraj; 20, Mehdi Pashazadeh; 21, Mehrdad Minavand; 22, Parviz Boromand. Coach: Jalal Talebi.
Group G
Romania: 1, Dumitru Stingaciu; 2, Dan Petrescu; 3, Christian Dulca; 4, Anton Dobos; 5, Constantin Galca; 6, Gheorghe Popescu; 7, Marius Lacatus; 8, Dorinel Munteanu; 9, Viorel Moldovan; 10, Gheorghe Hagi; 11, Adrian Ilie; 12, Bogdan Stelea; 13, Liviu Ciobotariu; 14, Radu Niculescu; 15, Lucian Marinescu; 16, Gabriel Popescu; 17, Ilie Dumitrescu; 18, Iulian Filipescu; 19, Ovidiu Stanga; 20, Tibor Selymes; 21, Gheorghe Craioveanu; 22, Florian Prunea. Coach: Anghel Iordanescu.
Colombia: 1, Oscar Cordoba; 2, Ivan Ramiro Cordoba; 3, Ever Palacios; 4, Jose Santa; 5, Jorge Bermudez; 6, Maurizio Serna; 7, Anthony de Avila 8, Harold Lozano; 9, Adolfo Valencia; 10, Carlos Valderrama; 11, Faustino Asprilla; 12, Miguel Calero; 13, Wilmer Cabrera; 14, Jorge Bolano; 15, Victor Aristizabal; 16, Antonio Moreno; 17, Andres Estrada; 18, John Perez; 19, Freddy Rincon; 20, Hamilton Ricard; 21, Leider Preciado; 22, Farid Mondragon. Coach: Hernan Dario Gomez.
England: 1, David Seaman; 2, Sol Campbell; 3, Graeme Le Saux; 4, Paul Ince; 5, Tony Adams; 6, Gareth Southgate; 7, David Beckham; 8, David Batty; 9, Alan Shearer; 10, Teddy Sheringham; 11, Steve McManaman; 12, Gary Neville; 13, Nigel Martyn; 14, Darren Anderton; 15, Paul Merson; 16, Paul Scholes; 17, Robert Lee; 18, Martin Keown; 19, Les Ferdinand; 20, Michael Owen; 21, Rio Ferdinand; 22, Tim Flowers. Coach: Glenn Hoddle.
Tunisia: 1, Chokri el Ouaer; 2, Imed Ben Younes; 3, Sami Trabelsi; 4, Mounir Boukadida; 5, Hatem Trabelsi; 6, Ferid Chouchane; 7, Tarek Thabet; 8, Zoubele Baya; 9, Riadh Jelassi; 10, Kaies Ghodhbane; 11, Adel Sellimi; 12, Mourad Melki; 13, Riadh Bouazizi; 14, Sirajeddine Chihi; 15, Skander Souayah; 16, Radhouane Salhi; 17, Jose Clayton; 18, Mehdi Ben Slimane; 19, Faycal Ben Ahmed; 20, Sabri Jaballah; 21, Khaled Badra; 22, Ali Boumnijel. Coach: Henry Kasperczak.
Group H
Argentina: 1, Carlos Roa; 2, Roberto Ayala; 3, Jose Chamot; 4, Hector Mauricio Pineda; 5, Matias Almeyda; 6, Roberto Sensini; 7, Claudio Lopez; 8, Diego Simeone; 9, Gabriel Batistuta; 10, Ariel Ortega; 11, Juan Veron; 12, German Burgos; 13, Pablo Paz; 14, Nelson Vivas; 15, Leonardo Astrada; 16, Sergio Berti; 17, Pablo Cavallero; 18, Abel Balbo; 19, Hernan Crespo; 20, Marcelo Gallardo; 21, Marcelo Delgado; 22, Javier Zanetti. Coach: Daniel Passarella.
Croatia: 1, Drazen Ladic; 2, Petar Krpan; 3, Ante Seric; 4, Igor Stimac; 5, Goran Juric; 6, Slaven Bilic; 7, Aljosa Asanovic; 8, Robert Prosinecki; 9, Davor Suker; 10, Zvonimir Boban; 11, Silvio Maric; 12, Marijan Mrmic; 13, Mario Stanic; 14, Zvonimir Soldo; 15, Igor Tudor; 16, Ardian Kozniku; 17, Robert Jarni; 18, Zoran Mamic; 19, Goran Vlaovic; 20, Dario Simic; 21, Krunoslav Jurcic; 22, Vladimir Vasilj. Coach: Miroslav Blazevic.
Japan: 1, Nobiyuki Kojima; 2, Akira Narahashi; 3, Naoki Soma; 4, Masami Ihara; 5, Norio Omura; 6, Motohiro Yamaguchi; 7, Teruyoshi Ito; 8, Hidetoshi Nakata; 9, Masashi Nakayama; 10, Hiroshi Nanami; 11, Shinji Ono; 12, Wagner Lopes; 13, Toshihiro Hattori; 14, Masayuki Okano; 15, Hiroaki Morishima; 16, Toshihide Saito; 17, Yutaka Akita; 18, Shoji Jo; 19, Eisuke Nakanishi; 20, Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi; 21, Seigo Narazaki; 22, Takashi Hirano. Coach: Takeshi Okada.
Jamaica: 1, Warren Barrett; 2, Steven Malcolm; 3, Christopher Dawes; 4, Linval Dixon; 5, Ian Goodison; 6, Fitzroy Simpson; 7, Peter Cargill; 8, Marcus Gayle; 9, Andy Williams; 10, Walter Boyd; 11, Theodore Whitmore; 12, Dean Sewell; 13, Aaron Lawrence; 14, Donovan Ricketts; 15, Ricardo Gardener; 16, Robbie Earle; 17, Onandi Lowe; 18, Deon Burton; 19, Frank Sinclair; 20, Darryl Powell; 21, Durrent Brown; 22, Paul Hall. Coach: Rene Simoes.
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i don't know
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Cricket. Who were the original sponsors of the one-day Sunday League?
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A brief history of cricket | Cricket | ESPN Cricinfo
A brief history of cricket
Click here for some more detailed aspects of cricket history
The origins of cricket lie somewhere in the Dark Ages - probably after the Roman Empire, almost certainly before the Normans invaded England, and almost certainly somewhere in Northern Europe. All research concedes that the game derived from a very old, widespread and uncomplicated pastime by which one player served up an object, be it a small piece of wood or a ball, and another hit it with a suitably fashioned club.
How and when this club-ball game developed into one where the hitter defended a target against the thrower is simply not known. Nor is there any evidence as to when points were awarded dependent upon how far the hitter was able to despatch the missile; nor when helpers joined the two-player contest, thus beginning the evolution into a team game; nor when the defining concept of placing wickets at either end of the pitch was adopted.
Etymological scholarship has variously placed the game in the Celtic, Scandinavian, Anglo-Saxon, Dutch and Norman-French traditions; sociological historians have variously attributed its mediaeval development to high-born country landowners, emigré Flemish cloth-workers, shepherds on the close-cropped downland of south-east England and the close-knit communities of iron- and glass-workers deep in the Kentish Weald. Most of these theories have a solid academic basis, but none is backed with enough evidence to establish a watertight case. The research goes on.
What is agreed is that by Tudor times cricket had evolved far enough from club-ball to be recognisable as the game played today; that it was well established in many parts of Kent, Sussex and Surrey; that within a few years it had become a feature of leisure time at a significant number of schools; and - a sure sign of the wide acceptance of any game - that it had become popular enough among young men to earn the disapproval of local magistrates.
Dates in cricket history
1550 (approx) Evidence of cricket being played in Guildford, Surrey.
1598 Cricket mentioned in Florio's Italian-English dictionary.
1610 Reference to "cricketing" between Weald and Upland near Chevening, Kent. 1611 Randle Cotgrave's French-English dictionary translates the French word "crosse" as a cricket staff.
Two youths fined for playing cricket at Sidlesham, Sussex.
1624 Jasper Vinall becomes first man known to be killed playing cricket: hit by a bat while trying to catch the ball - at Horsted Green, Sussex.
1676 First reference to cricket being played abroad, by British residents in Aleppo, Syria.
1694 Two shillings and sixpence paid for a "wagger" (wager) about a cricket match at Lewes.
1697 First reference to "a great match" with 11 players a side for fifty guineas, in Sussex.
1700 Cricket match announced on Clapham Common.
1709 First recorded inter-county match: Kent v Surrey.
1710 First reference to cricket at Cambridge University.
1727 Articles of Agreement written governing the conduct of matches between the teams of the Duke of Richmond and Mr Brodrick of Peperharow, Surrey.
1729 Date of earliest surviving bat, belonging to John Chitty, now in the pavilion at The Oval.
1730 First recorded match at the Artillery Ground, off City Road, central London, still the cricketing home of the Honourable Artillery Company.
1744 Kent beat All England by one wicket at the Artillery Ground.
First known version of the Laws of Cricket, issued by the London Club, formalising the pitch as 22 yards long.
1767 (approx) Foundation of the Hambledon Club in Hampshire, the leading club in England for the next 30 years.
1769 First recorded century, by John Minshull for Duke of Dorset's XI v Wrotham.
1771 Width of bat limited to 4 1/4 inches, where it has remained ever since.
1774 LBW law devised.
1776 Earliest known scorecards, at the Vine Club, Sevenoaks, Kent.
1780 The first six-seamed cricket ball, manufactured by Dukes of Penshurst, Kent.
1787 First match at Thomas Lord's first ground, Dorset Square, Marylebone - White Conduit Club v Middlesex.
Formation of Marylebone Cricket Club by members of the White Conduit Club.
1788 First revision of the Laws of Cricket by MCC.
1794 First recorded inter-schools match: Charterhouse v Westminster.
1795 First recorded case of a dismissal "leg before wicket".
1806 First Gentlemen v Players match at Lord's.
1807 First mention of "straight-armed" (i.e. round-arm) bowling: by John Willes of Kent.
1809 Thomas Lord's second ground opened at North Bank, St John's Wood.
1811 First recorded women's county match: Surrey v Hampshire at Ball's Pond, London.
1814 Lord's third ground opened on its present site, also in St John's Wood.
1827 First Oxford v Cambridge match, at Lord's. A draw.
1828 MCC authorise the bowler to raise his hand level with the elbow .
1833 John Nyren publishes his classic Young Cricketer's Tutor and The Cricketers of My Time.
1836 First North v South match, for many years regarded as the principal fixture of the season.
1836 (approx) Batting pads invented.
1841 General Lord Hill, commander-in-chief of the British Army, orders that a cricket ground be made an adjunct of every military barracks.
1844 First official international match: Canada v United States.
1845 First match played at The Oval.
1846 The All-England XI, organised by William Clarke, begins playing matches, often against odds, throughout the country.
1849 First Yorkshire v Lancashire match.
1850 Wicket-keeping gloves first used.
1850 John Wisden bowls all ten batsmen in an innings for North v South.
1853 First mention of a champion county: Nottinghamshire.
1858 First recorded instance of a hat being awarded to a bowler taking three wickets with consecutive balls.
1859 First touring team to leave England, captained by George Parr, draws enthusiastic crowds in the US and Canada.
1864 Overhand bowling authorised by MCC.
John Wisden's The Cricketer's Almanack first published.
1868 Team of Australian aborigines tour England.
1873 WG Grace becomes the first player to record 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in a season.
First regulations restricting county qualifications, often regarded as the official start of the County Championship.
1877 First Test match: Australia beat England by 45 runs in Melbourne.
1880 First Test in England: a five-wicket win against Australia at The Oval.
1882 Following England's first defeat by Australia in England, an "obituary notice" to English cricket in the Sporting Times leads to the tradition of The Ashes.
1889 South Africa's first Test match.
Declarations first authorised, but only on the third day, or in a one-day match.
1890 County Championship officially constituted.
Present Lord's pavilion opened .
1895 WG Grace scores 1,000 runs in May, and reaches his 100th hundred.
1899 AEJ Collins scores 628 not out in a junior house match at Clifton College, the highest individual score in any match .
Selectors choose England team for home Tests, instead of host club issuing invitations.
1900 Six-ball over becomes the norm, instead of five.
1909 Imperial Cricket Conference (ICC - now the International Cricket Council) set up, with England, Australia and South Africa the original members.
1910 Six runs given for any hit over the boundary, instead of only for a hit out of the ground.
1912 First and only triangular Test series played in England, involving England, Australia and South Africa.
1915 WG Grace dies , aged 67.
1926 Victoria score 1,107 v New South Wales at Melbourne, the record total for a first-class innings.
1928 West Indies' first Test match.
AP "Tich" Freeman of Kent and England becomes the only player to take more than 300 first-class wickets in a season: 304.
1930 New Zealand's first Test match.
Donald Bradman's first tour of England: he scores 974 runs in the five Ashes Tests, still a record for any Test series.
1931 Stumps made higher (28 inches not 27) and wider (nine inches not eight - this was optional until 1947).
1932 India's first Test match.
Hedley Verity of Yorkshire takes ten wickets for ten runs v Nottinghamshire, the best innings analysis in first-class cricket.
1932-33 The Bodyline tour of Australia in which England bowl at batsmen's bodies with a packed leg-side field to neutralise Bradman's scoring.
1934 Jack Hobbs retires, with 197 centuries and 61,237 runs, both records. First women's Test: Australia v England at Brisbane.
1935 MCC condemn and outlaw Bodyline.
1947 Denis Compton of Middlesex and England scores a record 3,816 runs in an English season.
1948 First five-day Tests in England.
Bradman concludes Test career with a second-ball duck at The Oval and a batting average of 99.94 - four runs short of 100.
1952 Pakistan's first Test match.
1953 England regain the Ashes after a 19-year gap, the longest ever.
1956 Jim Laker of England takes 19 wickets for 90 v Australia at Manchester, the best match analysis in first-class cricket.
1957 Declarations authorised at any time.
1960 First tied Test, Australia v West Indies at Brisbane.
1963 Distinction between amateur and professional cricketers abolished in English cricket.
The first major one-day tournament begins in England: the Gillette Cup.
1969 Limited-over Sunday league inaugurated for first-class counties.
1970 Proposed South African tour of England cancelled: South Africa excluded from international cricket because of their government's apartheid policies.
1971 First one-day international: Australia v England at Melbourne.
1975 First World Cup: West Indies beat Australia in final at Lord's.
1976 First women's match at Lord's, England v Australia.
1977 Centenary Test at Melbourne, with identical result to the first match: Australia beat England by 45 runs.
Australian media tycoon Kerry Packer, signs 51 of the world's leading players in defiance of the cricketing authorities.
1978 Graham Yallop of Australia wears a protective helmet to bat in a Test match, the first player to do so.
1979 Packer and official cricket agree peace deal.
1980 Eight-ball over abolished in Australia, making the six-ball over universal.
1981 England beat Australia in Leeds Test, after following on with bookmakers offering odds of 500 to 1 against them winning.
1982 Sri Lanka's first Test match.
1991 South Africa return, with a one-day international in India.
1992 Zimbabwe's first Test match.
Durham become the first county since Glamorgan in 1921 to attain firstclass status.
1993 The ICC ceases to be administered by MCC, becoming an independent organisation with its own chief executive.
1994 Brian Lara of Warwickshire becomes the only player to pass 500 in a firstclass innings: 501 not out v Durham.
2000 South Africa's captain Hansie Cronje banned from cricket for life after admitting receiving bribes from bookmakers in match-fixing scandal.
Bangladesh's first Test match.
County Championship split into two divisions, with promotion and relegation.
The Laws of Cricket revised and rewritten.
2001 Sir Donald Bradman dies, aged 92.
2003 Twenty20 Cup, a 20-over-per-side evening tournament, inaugurated in England.
2004 Lara becomes the first man to score 400 in a Test innings, against England.
2005 The ICC introduces Powerplays and Supersubs in ODIs, and hosts the inaugural Superseries.
2006 Pakistan forfeit a Test at The Oval after being accused of ball tampering.
Resources relating to the history of cricket
General
The measurements of cricket - the origin of the dimensions of cricket by AR Littlewood.
National
|
John Player & Sons
|
Which aeronautics company built the advanced trainer the 'Gnat', for the RAF in 1968?
|
A brief history of cricket | Cricket | ESPN Cricinfo
A brief history of cricket
Click here for some more detailed aspects of cricket history
The origins of cricket lie somewhere in the Dark Ages - probably after the Roman Empire, almost certainly before the Normans invaded England, and almost certainly somewhere in Northern Europe. All research concedes that the game derived from a very old, widespread and uncomplicated pastime by which one player served up an object, be it a small piece of wood or a ball, and another hit it with a suitably fashioned club.
How and when this club-ball game developed into one where the hitter defended a target against the thrower is simply not known. Nor is there any evidence as to when points were awarded dependent upon how far the hitter was able to despatch the missile; nor when helpers joined the two-player contest, thus beginning the evolution into a team game; nor when the defining concept of placing wickets at either end of the pitch was adopted.
Etymological scholarship has variously placed the game in the Celtic, Scandinavian, Anglo-Saxon, Dutch and Norman-French traditions; sociological historians have variously attributed its mediaeval development to high-born country landowners, emigré Flemish cloth-workers, shepherds on the close-cropped downland of south-east England and the close-knit communities of iron- and glass-workers deep in the Kentish Weald. Most of these theories have a solid academic basis, but none is backed with enough evidence to establish a watertight case. The research goes on.
What is agreed is that by Tudor times cricket had evolved far enough from club-ball to be recognisable as the game played today; that it was well established in many parts of Kent, Sussex and Surrey; that within a few years it had become a feature of leisure time at a significant number of schools; and - a sure sign of the wide acceptance of any game - that it had become popular enough among young men to earn the disapproval of local magistrates.
Dates in cricket history
1550 (approx) Evidence of cricket being played in Guildford, Surrey.
1598 Cricket mentioned in Florio's Italian-English dictionary.
1610 Reference to "cricketing" between Weald and Upland near Chevening, Kent. 1611 Randle Cotgrave's French-English dictionary translates the French word "crosse" as a cricket staff.
Two youths fined for playing cricket at Sidlesham, Sussex.
1624 Jasper Vinall becomes first man known to be killed playing cricket: hit by a bat while trying to catch the ball - at Horsted Green, Sussex.
1676 First reference to cricket being played abroad, by British residents in Aleppo, Syria.
1694 Two shillings and sixpence paid for a "wagger" (wager) about a cricket match at Lewes.
1697 First reference to "a great match" with 11 players a side for fifty guineas, in Sussex.
1700 Cricket match announced on Clapham Common.
1709 First recorded inter-county match: Kent v Surrey.
1710 First reference to cricket at Cambridge University.
1727 Articles of Agreement written governing the conduct of matches between the teams of the Duke of Richmond and Mr Brodrick of Peperharow, Surrey.
1729 Date of earliest surviving bat, belonging to John Chitty, now in the pavilion at The Oval.
1730 First recorded match at the Artillery Ground, off City Road, central London, still the cricketing home of the Honourable Artillery Company.
1744 Kent beat All England by one wicket at the Artillery Ground.
First known version of the Laws of Cricket, issued by the London Club, formalising the pitch as 22 yards long.
1767 (approx) Foundation of the Hambledon Club in Hampshire, the leading club in England for the next 30 years.
1769 First recorded century, by John Minshull for Duke of Dorset's XI v Wrotham.
1771 Width of bat limited to 4 1/4 inches, where it has remained ever since.
1774 LBW law devised.
1776 Earliest known scorecards, at the Vine Club, Sevenoaks, Kent.
1780 The first six-seamed cricket ball, manufactured by Dukes of Penshurst, Kent.
1787 First match at Thomas Lord's first ground, Dorset Square, Marylebone - White Conduit Club v Middlesex.
Formation of Marylebone Cricket Club by members of the White Conduit Club.
1788 First revision of the Laws of Cricket by MCC.
1794 First recorded inter-schools match: Charterhouse v Westminster.
1795 First recorded case of a dismissal "leg before wicket".
1806 First Gentlemen v Players match at Lord's.
1807 First mention of "straight-armed" (i.e. round-arm) bowling: by John Willes of Kent.
1809 Thomas Lord's second ground opened at North Bank, St John's Wood.
1811 First recorded women's county match: Surrey v Hampshire at Ball's Pond, London.
1814 Lord's third ground opened on its present site, also in St John's Wood.
1827 First Oxford v Cambridge match, at Lord's. A draw.
1828 MCC authorise the bowler to raise his hand level with the elbow .
1833 John Nyren publishes his classic Young Cricketer's Tutor and The Cricketers of My Time.
1836 First North v South match, for many years regarded as the principal fixture of the season.
1836 (approx) Batting pads invented.
1841 General Lord Hill, commander-in-chief of the British Army, orders that a cricket ground be made an adjunct of every military barracks.
1844 First official international match: Canada v United States.
1845 First match played at The Oval.
1846 The All-England XI, organised by William Clarke, begins playing matches, often against odds, throughout the country.
1849 First Yorkshire v Lancashire match.
1850 Wicket-keeping gloves first used.
1850 John Wisden bowls all ten batsmen in an innings for North v South.
1853 First mention of a champion county: Nottinghamshire.
1858 First recorded instance of a hat being awarded to a bowler taking three wickets with consecutive balls.
1859 First touring team to leave England, captained by George Parr, draws enthusiastic crowds in the US and Canada.
1864 Overhand bowling authorised by MCC.
John Wisden's The Cricketer's Almanack first published.
1868 Team of Australian aborigines tour England.
1873 WG Grace becomes the first player to record 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in a season.
First regulations restricting county qualifications, often regarded as the official start of the County Championship.
1877 First Test match: Australia beat England by 45 runs in Melbourne.
1880 First Test in England: a five-wicket win against Australia at The Oval.
1882 Following England's first defeat by Australia in England, an "obituary notice" to English cricket in the Sporting Times leads to the tradition of The Ashes.
1889 South Africa's first Test match.
Declarations first authorised, but only on the third day, or in a one-day match.
1890 County Championship officially constituted.
Present Lord's pavilion opened .
1895 WG Grace scores 1,000 runs in May, and reaches his 100th hundred.
1899 AEJ Collins scores 628 not out in a junior house match at Clifton College, the highest individual score in any match .
Selectors choose England team for home Tests, instead of host club issuing invitations.
1900 Six-ball over becomes the norm, instead of five.
1909 Imperial Cricket Conference (ICC - now the International Cricket Council) set up, with England, Australia and South Africa the original members.
1910 Six runs given for any hit over the boundary, instead of only for a hit out of the ground.
1912 First and only triangular Test series played in England, involving England, Australia and South Africa.
1915 WG Grace dies , aged 67.
1926 Victoria score 1,107 v New South Wales at Melbourne, the record total for a first-class innings.
1928 West Indies' first Test match.
AP "Tich" Freeman of Kent and England becomes the only player to take more than 300 first-class wickets in a season: 304.
1930 New Zealand's first Test match.
Donald Bradman's first tour of England: he scores 974 runs in the five Ashes Tests, still a record for any Test series.
1931 Stumps made higher (28 inches not 27) and wider (nine inches not eight - this was optional until 1947).
1932 India's first Test match.
Hedley Verity of Yorkshire takes ten wickets for ten runs v Nottinghamshire, the best innings analysis in first-class cricket.
1932-33 The Bodyline tour of Australia in which England bowl at batsmen's bodies with a packed leg-side field to neutralise Bradman's scoring.
1934 Jack Hobbs retires, with 197 centuries and 61,237 runs, both records. First women's Test: Australia v England at Brisbane.
1935 MCC condemn and outlaw Bodyline.
1947 Denis Compton of Middlesex and England scores a record 3,816 runs in an English season.
1948 First five-day Tests in England.
Bradman concludes Test career with a second-ball duck at The Oval and a batting average of 99.94 - four runs short of 100.
1952 Pakistan's first Test match.
1953 England regain the Ashes after a 19-year gap, the longest ever.
1956 Jim Laker of England takes 19 wickets for 90 v Australia at Manchester, the best match analysis in first-class cricket.
1957 Declarations authorised at any time.
1960 First tied Test, Australia v West Indies at Brisbane.
1963 Distinction between amateur and professional cricketers abolished in English cricket.
The first major one-day tournament begins in England: the Gillette Cup.
1969 Limited-over Sunday league inaugurated for first-class counties.
1970 Proposed South African tour of England cancelled: South Africa excluded from international cricket because of their government's apartheid policies.
1971 First one-day international: Australia v England at Melbourne.
1975 First World Cup: West Indies beat Australia in final at Lord's.
1976 First women's match at Lord's, England v Australia.
1977 Centenary Test at Melbourne, with identical result to the first match: Australia beat England by 45 runs.
Australian media tycoon Kerry Packer, signs 51 of the world's leading players in defiance of the cricketing authorities.
1978 Graham Yallop of Australia wears a protective helmet to bat in a Test match, the first player to do so.
1979 Packer and official cricket agree peace deal.
1980 Eight-ball over abolished in Australia, making the six-ball over universal.
1981 England beat Australia in Leeds Test, after following on with bookmakers offering odds of 500 to 1 against them winning.
1982 Sri Lanka's first Test match.
1991 South Africa return, with a one-day international in India.
1992 Zimbabwe's first Test match.
Durham become the first county since Glamorgan in 1921 to attain firstclass status.
1993 The ICC ceases to be administered by MCC, becoming an independent organisation with its own chief executive.
1994 Brian Lara of Warwickshire becomes the only player to pass 500 in a firstclass innings: 501 not out v Durham.
2000 South Africa's captain Hansie Cronje banned from cricket for life after admitting receiving bribes from bookmakers in match-fixing scandal.
Bangladesh's first Test match.
County Championship split into two divisions, with promotion and relegation.
The Laws of Cricket revised and rewritten.
2001 Sir Donald Bradman dies, aged 92.
2003 Twenty20 Cup, a 20-over-per-side evening tournament, inaugurated in England.
2004 Lara becomes the first man to score 400 in a Test innings, against England.
2005 The ICC introduces Powerplays and Supersubs in ODIs, and hosts the inaugural Superseries.
2006 Pakistan forfeit a Test at The Oval after being accused of ball tampering.
Resources relating to the history of cricket
General
The measurements of cricket - the origin of the dimensions of cricket by AR Littlewood.
National
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i don't know
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Cricket. The winners of the last Benson & Hedges Cup Final in 1998 were also the winners of the first in 1972. Which county was this?
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Cricinfo - England
England
B&H winners
One of cricket's longest sponsorships - and the last one dependant on a tobacco company - came to an end in 2002 after 31 seasons. Established in 1972 in the wake of the success of the end-of-season 60-over competition and the resulting Sunday league, the B&H was always the League Cup final to the Gillette/NatWest's FA Cup. But, nevertheless, it was an immediate success, enjoying its heyday in the 1970s before settling down into comfortable middle-age in the 1980s. In its latter years it increasingly came under fire, critics arguing it was one competition too many and also attacking it for its rather clumsy system of zonal matches. The formatting was tinkered with several times but increasing legislation against tobacco advertising gave the authorities the chance to quietly kill the concept off.
In its defence, the B&H provided good income for the counties and some decent early-season entertainment. It also allowed non first-class sides to play against the big boys and, on occasion, beat them. In 1989 Combined Universities, led by Michael Atherton, came within a whisker of reaching the semi-finals, and eight years later Ireland pulled off a memorable win over Middlesex.
Benson & Hedges Cup winners
1972 Leicestershire beat Yorkshire by 5 wickets
1973 Kent beat Worcestershire by 39 runs
1974 Surrey beat Leicestershire by 27 runs
1975 Leicestershire beat Middlesex by 5 wickets
1976 Kent beat Worcestershire by 43 runs
1977 Gloucestershire beat Kent by 64 runs
1978 Kent beat Derbyshire by 6 wickets
1979 Essex beat Surrey by 35 runs
1980 Northamptonshire beat Essex by 6 runs
1981 Somerset beat Surrey by 7 wickets
1982 Somerset beat Nottinghamshire by 9 wickets
1983 Middlesex beat Essex by 4 runs
1984 Lancashire beat Warwickshire by 6 wickets
1985 Leicestershire beat Essex by 5 wickets
1986 Middlesex beat Kent by 2 runs
1987 Yorkshire beat Northamptonshire by losing fewer wickets
1988 Hampshire beat Derbyshire by 7 wickets
1989 Nottinghamshire beat Essex by 3 wickets
1990 Lancashire beat Worcestershire by 69 runs
1991 Worcestershire beat Lancashire by 65 runs
1992 Hampshire beat Kent by 41 runs
1993 Derbyshire beat Lancashire by 6 runs
1994 Warwickshire beat Worcestershire by 6 wickets
1995 Lancashire beat Kent by 35 runs
1996 Lancashire beat Northamptonshire by 31 runs
1997 Surrey beat Kent by 8 wickets
1998 Essex beat Leicestershire by 192 runs
1999 Gloucestershire beat Yorkshire by 124 runs
2000 Gloucestershire beat Glamorgan by 7 wickets
2001 Surrey beat Gloucestershire beat by 47 runs
2002 Warwickshire beat Essex by 5 wickets
Summary of County wins
4 - Lancashire 3 - Gloucestershire, Kent, Leicestershire, Surrey 2 - Essex, Hampshire, Middlesex, Somerset 1 - Derbyshire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Yorkshire
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Leicestershire
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The theme tune to which TV series starring Don Johnson gave Jan Hammer his first UK chart success?
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Cricket For America
Miss Frances Bush, Spinster
With assistance from her great-nephew, Ambrose Bush
We are enormously in debt to Miss Fanny Bush and her great nephew who have graciously consented to provide CricketUSA® with this entertaining and informative dictionary of cricket terms, spiced with just a pinch of the devil.
Now Available!
The print version of the Devil's Dictionary of Cricket is now available!! Have you ever wondered about the difference between a hoick and a hook? A dibbly-dobbly and a donkey drop? Do you know how to bowl a maiden over? Or what the correct distance is to set two fine legs apart? All this and much much more is answered in "The Devil's Dictionary of Cricket", a dictionary of cricket terms which is a combination of wit, wisdom and wickedness. This is the perfect book to slip into your bag or backpack on your way to a cricket match. Have it at the ready for quick reference during the match. It's a great read, a handy reference and the perfect gift for the cricket fan in your life!
Agricultural shot -- See Cow shot .
All out -- The batting team is said to be all out when ten of its eleven batsmen are dismissed . The eleventh batsman cannot continue without a partner, and is recorded as ' not out ' in the scorebook.
All-rounder -- A player who can both bat and bowl , or occasionally, both bat and keep wicket . ( Bowler - wicketkeeper all-rounders are a rare breed.) Strictly speaking, a true all-rounder would be worth his place as a specialist in either role, although such players at Test level come along very infrequently. As a guide, an all-rounder's batting average ought to be at least equal to his bowling average . A true all-rounder can bat at number 6 (See Batting order ), thus giving the side the 'ideal' balance of five bowlers , six batsmen and a specialist wicketkeeper . I.T.Botham (b.1955), who scored 5200 runs and took 383 wickets in 102 Tests between 1977 and 1992, was the last to fill this role for England.
Annual General Meeting -- A requirement under English law of any private members' club, at which accounts are presented, officers elected and the club's policy decided for the year to come.
Appeal -- The fielding side's invitation to the umpire to give a batsman out , answered with an upraised finger or a call of 'not out'. Any member of the side may make an appeal, but if the fielding captain feels a batsman has been given out wrongly - for example, a catch not taken cleanly - he may withdraw the appeal and reinstate the batsman.
Arm ball -- A finger-spinner's delivery bowled without spin, in the hope of deceiving the batsman into allowing for turn that does not come.
Ashes -- Test series between England and Australia are played for The Ashes. In 1883, Australia beat England at The Oval for the first time in England. This led an English sporting paper, The Sporting Times, to publish a mock obituary of English cricket, which concluded with the words, "The body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia." Accounts vary, but the 'body' was in fact a bail (or two, or a stump ) which had been burned by "certain ladies." The ashes were placed in a tiny, goblet-shaped urn only four inches high and the urn was presented to the Honorable Ivo Bligh (later Lord Darnley). In his will, Lord Darnley bequeathed the urn to the M.C.C. Nowadays, the urn itself is kept permanently in the Long Room at Lord's , but the side that last won a Test series between the two countries is said to hold The Ashes. In the event of a tied series, the holding country retains The Ashes. After the present series, The Ashes will next be contested in the Australian summer of 1998-99.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Backing up -- Backing up: (1) Non-striker's action in walking up the pitch as the bowler bowls , in order to be ready for a quick run (similar to 'taking a lead' in baseball.) As the ball is in play at this point, he risks being run out if the bowler spots him out of his ground , although some batsmen seem to regard such a dismissal as unsporting conduct on the bowler's part, rather than sloppy cricket on their own. (2) Fielder's action in taking a position on the opposite side of the wicket from the fielder throwing the ball, in order to prevent overthrows . Its absence is the principal cause of recrimination within club second XIs .
Batting shots -- See Block , Chinese cut , Cut , Drive , Edge , Flash , French cut , Glance , Harrow drive , Hook , Late cut , Leg glance , Lofted drive , Pull , Reverse sweep , Slog , Square cut , Sweep .
BBC -- British Broadcasting Corporation. Presently celebrating the 75th anniversary of its inception as the British Broadcasting Company in 1922, the BBC became the British Broadcasting Corporation in 1924. It is not, as is commonly believed abroad, the broadcasting arm of the British state - witness the Conservative government's fury that the BBC dared to report the civilian casualties in the US raid on Libya in 1986. The BBC's domestic radio and television services are funded not from taxes but by the 100-pound annual licence fee paid by owners of television sets, and by revenue from sales of programmes abroad, titles such as BBC Good Trousers Magazine, and tickets to fights over Teletubbies dolls.
(The BBC is to be commended, incidentally, for its philanthropic action in helping Mike Gatting, Ian Botham, Andy Moles and Merv Hughes on a new career in childrens' entertainment at the end of their playing days. For those who have no idea what we're talking about, this picture probably won't help.)
BBC TV provides live coverage of all the Test matches in the English summer, although with annoying interruptions for such trivial events as Wimbledon and Royal Ascot. (How can a two-minute horse race take up 20 minutes of TV time? It gets more preamble and post-(non-)event blather than an entire day's play, and all for a load of walking dogfood, for heaven's sake!) Ahem. The BBC also covers the later rounds of the NatWest Trophy , and occasional Sunday League thrashes. Meanwhile, BBC Radio covers all this and more under the banner of Test Match Special . (It tends to be called TMS even when the match it is covering is a One-Day International or the Benson and Hedges final.) No horses here, the only interruptions are for the Shipping Forecast - Dogger, ct Fisher b German Bight, Forties, that sort of thing - although I'm sure the seamen would prefer to have even this shifted a few minutes so as not to spoil the flow.
Beamer -- A fast, head-high full toss . Beamers are dangerous, and a bowler who bowls one on purpose will be warned by the umpire and, if he persists, prevented from bowling again in that innings .
Behind the bowler's arm -- Most cricket grounds have large, white sightscreens at either end, to provide a clear, unobstructed background against which the batsman can see the ball . Anything moving in front of or close to the screen at the bowler's end causes a distraction, and play will be held up until it is removed. On a club ground, such delays are usually caused by wandering dogs, American tourists or members of the batting side walking the boundary when they think the captain might be looking for someone to take over the scorebook. At a Test match, it is more likely to be a corporate guest in a hideous blazer, wobbling back from his hospitality lunch at ten to three. (In English Tests , play resumes at 1:40.)
Benaud, Richie -- Former Australian captain (b. 1930) and the first player to take 200 wickets and score 2000 runs for that country. Now the best TV commentator on cricket or, arguably, any sport. Perhaps most noteworthy is his technique of saying nothing until he has something worth saying. To appreciate the value of this, see how long you can listen to Tony Lewis saying 'one more run to Steve Waugh' before you hit the Mute button. Benaud's only weakness is a peculiar fascination with the supposed unfairness of the front-foot no-ball law , but even this seems to have diminished in recent years.
Benefit -- The traditional reward given each season by an English county club to one of its long-serving players, usually in his tenth full season with the club. It consists of a season-long programme of fund-raising events, usually special matches and dinners. The proceeds are given favourable tax treatment by the Inland Revenue, since the benefit is intended to provide the player's retirement fund. The England captain, Mike Atherton, recently declared a profit of 307,000 pounds (500,000 USD) from his benefit with Lancashire during the 1997 season. This is an exceptional sum - indeed a club record. 100,000 pounds is more typical for less high-profile players. The benefit system originated at a time when professional cricketers were very poorly paid (although even today, only a few players make pots of money from the game). Many observers now regard it as outdated and counter-productive, since county committees , understandably reluctant to deny a loyal but underachieving player security in his retirement, will keep him on until his benefit season, often at the expense of a young player in need of experience. Those same observers would like to see benefits replaced by a more equitable, centrally-funded pension scheme for professional players.
Block -- A defensive batting shot , purely to keep the ball off the wicket .
Blocker -- A batsman of sound defensive technique, and sometimes little else. May be useful as an opener , where his sheer stubbornness can blunt the new-ball bowling and bore the bowlers into making mistakes. Later in the innings , his lack of scoring shots can stall the team's momentum and hand the initiative back to the opposition. G. Boycott (b.1940) played this role for England in 108 Tests between 1964 and 1982, making 8114 runs ; the present captain , M.A.Atherton (b.1968) does it now.
Blockhole -- The depression sometimes made in a dusty pitch where the batsmen take guard . A ball 'in the blockhole' is a yorker-length delivery.
Bodyline -- Tactic employed by England during the 1932-33 Ashes series in Australia. By setting a predominantly leg side field and having his fast bowlers bowl at the batsman's body to generate catches, England captain D.R.Jardine won the Ashes but came close to destroying the Commonwealth. In the aftermath of this notorious series, the law was changed to limit the number of fielders behind square on the leg side to two, to prevent further use of this tactic.
Bosie -- See Googly
Bouncer -- A fast, shortpitched ball , bowled to rise off the pitch to the height of the batsman's chest or head. Legal, and less dangerous than the beamer , but the umpire may still warn and remove a bowler who bowls bouncers merely to intimidate the batsman.
Boundary -- (1) The edge of the playing area, usually 60 to 80 yards from the wicket and marked by a line, rope or fence . In this diagram the boundary would be represented by the black line bordering the edge of the diagram. However, in practice, there is no fixed size or shape for the field, although large deviations from a low-eccentricity ellipse are discouraged. (2) A ball that crosses the boundary, scoring four runs if it touches the ground first, or six if it reaches the boundary on the full .
Bowled -- The most basic, and still the most satisfying, way to get a batsman out . The batsman is out bowled if the ball , either straight from the bowler's hand or by way of the batsman's bat or body, hits his wicket with enough force to dislodge at least one bail . Incidentally, if proof were needed that cricket is the natural game of the pedant, the MCC sees fit to state in the laws that if the ball hits the the wicket by way of the pad , even if it satisfies the criteria for an lbw , the batsman is out bowled, not lbw . How many bowlers , having uprooted the off stump , would appeal for lbw ? I suppose it must have happened.
Bowling, bowler, bowl -- A player who bowls is known as a bowler. Bowling is the act of propelling the ball with a straight arm towards the batsman's wicket . The ball is not thrown - if the bowler straightens his elbow in delivery, the umpire calls ' no-ball ' - hence the need for fast bowlers to run up to 30 yards to build up sufficient speed. The bowler will usually aim to hit the ball on the pitch before it reaches the batsman - a full toss is easy to hit. A fast bowler will bowl at speeds in the range of 80-90 mph. A medium pace bowler will bowl from 60-80 mph. A spin bowler will typically bowl at speeds in the range of 45-55 mph.
Bowling a maiden over -- To bowl an over in which no runs are scored off the bat , nor from a wide or no-ball .
[Editor's note: Whereas we realize that this traditional best man's joke was outlawed by the Marylebone Cricket Club in 1927, we feel in the interest of bringing cricket and all its nuances to America, it should be repeated in this glossary.]
Bowling analysis -- The section at the bottom of the scoresheet in which each ball bowled is recorded. At the end of the innings , this data is then used to produce summary statistics for each bowler , his ' bowling figures '. The values usually given are the number of overs bowled , the number of those that were maidens , the number of runs conceded and the number of wickets taken. Sometimes these are given just as numbers, without explanation, but the sequence is always the same, so '17-5-36-3' means '17 overs , five maidens , three for 36'. Incidentally, partial overs , usually where the innings ended midway through an over , are recorded as pseudo-decimals, so '12.5 overs ' means 12 overs and five balls .
Bowling crease -- One of the two transverse lines at either end of the pitch , on which the wickets are set. Please see this diagram for a graphical representation of the pitch . Formerly significant in the definition of a no-ball , since 1967 the bowling crease has had no relevance during the game itself (see Benaud, Richie )
Bowling figures -- A bowler's summary statistics produced at the end of an innings . See Bowling analysis .
Box -- Curiously known in cricket catalogues as an 'abdominal protector', this is a batsman's best friend and the first piece of cricket equipment a new player should own. The only thing worse than tucking in a cold box from one's own bag is borrowing a warm, sweaty one from someone else's.
While we deem it inappropriate for a conservative web site like ours to present a photographic rendering of a box as it would appear in actual use, we thought that perhaps the photograph to the right (of West Indies captain Brian Lara taken only seconds after being struck "in the box" by a hard delivery from Andrew Caddick during the 1998 West Indies Tour) would suffice to convey the absolute importance of this vital piece of cricketing protective equipment . The photograph to the left, taken only seconds later (although we suppose it seemed more like a lifetime to Mr. Lara) would serve to drive home the idea to an even greater degree.
Bradman, D.G. -- Sir Donald Bradman (b.1908) dominated his chosen sport of cricket like no other has dominated any sport. Clearly the best batsman to have played the modern game he was a relentless accumulator of runs , often at a rapid rate. He holds or held almost too many records to tabulate. His Test record was such that he was only four runs short of averaging 100. No other player in the history of the game has averaged over 65 in international cricket. He took few risks, but was proficient with all strokes . His best scoring stroke was probably the pull , played all along the ground in the arc from mid on to backward square leg . He was an excellent field, particularly in the covers , and a capable leg spin bowler . He made 19 hundreds against England between 1928 and 1948, including two triple centuries and 6 double centuries . And of course, he set the world's record score of 452 not out vs. Queensland in 1930. He was Australia's captain between 1936 and 1948, during which time his side won 11 tests , to England's 3. He kept the Ashes through 4 series.
Broken wicket -- The wicket is said to be 'broken' or ' down ' when one or both bails have been dislodged from their grooves by the ball . If - for example, when the batsmen are running overthrows from a rebound - a fielder wants to break a wicket whose bails are already off, he may first replace a bail , or knock or pull a stump from the ground while touching it with the ball . Don't worry - I've never seen this happen! See also Down wicket .
Bush , Frances Jemima -- England's foremost cricket fan, the author of this 'ere glossary. Frances Jemima Bush was born in Madras in 1924, the youngest of three children of William Bush, a District Commissioner in the Colonial Service. She had a conventional Colonial childhood - seven years of abusing the natives before being sent away to boarding school in England.
When her parents died in the terrible poppadom riots of 1933, nine-year-old Frances knew that she would never return to India. Fortunately, the end of her school term coincided with her uncle Richard's release, and from then on she spent the holidays on his farm in Wiltshire. It was there that she developed what was to be a life-long interest in meat in general and sausages in particular, and as she grew towards womanhood, her aptitude for handling a carcass was a source of great comfort to her uncle.
In 1942, Frances enlisted in the Women's Royal Air Force, where she met and fell in love with Roger Wright-Upham, a young officer who was serving in Wellingtons with her elder brother Ginger. The following year, however, both Roger and Ginger failed to return from a disastrous raid on a Bratwurst factory at Bremen, and Frances, heart-broken, vowed to devote herself to rebuilding the base's shattered morale by providing the young men around her with some home comforts. Her summers on the farm had equipped her well for this, and her cries of "Who's for toad-in-the-hole?" and "Get your spotted dick over here" soon made her a mess-tent favourite.
Frances was discharged from the WRAF on medical grounds early in 1944 and was taken on as a junior housemistress by a girls' boarding school near Hastings. Her accommodation was spartan, even by RAF standards, but what she missed most was the vibrancy of service life and the handsome young men at the base.
Help was at hand, though. The approach of D-Day brought a camp of American GIs to a neighbouring village, and Frances got the headmistress's approval to use the school's extensive facilities to arrange dinner-dances and entertainments for the men. Within weeks, Hastings was the US Army's most popular posting in England and the GIs so appreciated Frances's work that they brought her fabrics and furnishings to help make her rooms more hospitable.
Frances encouraged the headmistress to help her with the organization, and the GIs responded in kind. Soon, the headmistress had refurbished her own threadbare residence, and by the end of the War, the school had the funds for its long-awaited auditorium.
By this time, Frances had risen rapidly to become the school's senior housemistress, and when the old head retired in 1951, Frances was the automatic choice to succeed her. She held the post for over thirty years, throughout which she maintained the tradition of close contact with the US Air Force base established nearby after the War. In that time, the school grew from the modest institution it had been in 1944 to be one of the best-appointed schools in England. One notable Old Girl, now an eminent diplomat, said that it had done "More to improve Trans-atlantic relations than the Foreign Office could in a hundred years".
Frances retired in 1987, when flare-ups of an infection she believes dates from insect bites received during her childhood in India became more frequent. She was awarded the MBE for "Services to the Atlantic Alliance", and now lives with her sister Ginny in Tunbridge Wells. Her old affliction means she is no longer very mobile, but she keeps in touch with her old GI friends via the alt.fanny.bush newsgroup on the Internet, although recent official interest has forced her to curtail her involvement. When she can get out, she likes nothing better than a glass of sweet sherry and a spotted dick at the local Conservative Association.
[Editors note: None of which has the least bit to do with cricket, but we felt you should know where we're coming from.]
Bye -- Run scored from a ball that hit neither the batsman's bat nor his body. Rare at Test level, but can be the top scorer in a club side's innings .
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Cabbage patch -- An under-prepared, uneven pitch on which the ball behaves unpredictably, making batting very difficult.
Calling -- Batsman's method of indicating to his partner whether or not he intends to run. One of the few truly simple things in cricket - if the ball goes in front of the wicket , the striker calls; square or behind the wicket , the non-striker does. Better still, there are only three calls: 'Yes' and 'No' are self-explanatory; 'Wait' acts as an amber light, for example, when the ball is hit hard at a fielder, who may or may not stop it cleanly. So why, so often, does it go so horribly wrong? Usually because batsmen change their minds. A favourite technique sees the striker hit the ball sweetly to extra-cover's left, bellow 'Yes' and set off for the other end, only to see the fielder fling himself full-length and stop the ball . Momentarily forgetting that the fielder has still to get the ball into his throwing hand and thence to the bowler , that he is already going the right way, and that his partner, having a head-start from backing-up , is already several yards further towards his end, the striker screams 'No, get back', helpfully holds up his free hand, traffic cop-style, and trots back to his wicket . His partner, meanwhile, has to do an abrupt about-face and try to beat the throw to the bowler's end. Extra-cover , meanwhile, has had time to regain his feet and send an easy, accurate throw to the bowler , who removes the bails while the hapless non-striker is three yards short of his ground . A batsman who does this to his partner should open his kit bag with great care when he returns to the dressing room.
Cap -- In first-class cricket, the sign that a player has been recognized as a full member of that particular team. A county player is awarded his cap once he has demonstrated that he can be a regular first-team player. From then on, he is a 'capped player', even if he prefers to wear a helmet , sunhat or Donald Duck mask on the field. A Test player receives his cap when he makes his first appearance for his country. In 1997, England revived the tradition in which the captain presents the cap to the new player on the field, although now there are cameras and microphones present, giving the new man the chance to mumble something about being honoured to be chosen and giving it his best shot with the rest of the lads. Each Test match a player plays for his country is also referred to as a 'cap', although the authorities consider one actual piece of headgear sufficient.
Captain -- The leader of a cricket team on the field, and held by the laws to be solely responsible for his team's conduct of the game. At international level, the captain's obligations extend to end-of-day press conferences and long solitary fishing trips to decide if he wants to lead the side to the West Indies. Such a high-pressure job can doubtless be stressful, but as Marcus Berkmann points out in his wonderful book Rain Men (required reading for all CricketUSA® students), it is unlikely that Mike Atherton has ever had to ring all his mates on the first morning of a Test match because Graeme Hick's wife says he has to stay home and put up some shelves. The lot of a club captain is seldom a happy one: not for him the tricky decision of whether to field a second spinner or to bolster the batting; he is more concerned about what to do when his two competent bowlers need a rest and he has only four varieties of dibbly-dobbly cannon fodder to choose from. This may be the reason that many club annual general meetings feature an unscheduled two-minute silence when the question is asked "So, who wants to be captain next year?"
Carrying his bat -- Strictly, used only of an opener who survives while all ten of his teammates are out.
Cart track -- See Cabbage patch .
Catches win matches -- Schoolmaster's favourite - probably out of the same book as 'would you put your feet on the furniture at home?' Trite but true.
Caught out -- When a fielder catches a batted ball before it touches the ground the batsman is 'caught out'. See also Out .
Caution -- The umpire's sanction against a bowler who infringes the provisions of Law 42 , Unfair Play, against beamers , excessive bouncers and 'running on' . The bowler's first offence earns a caution; the second gets a final warning, and if he persists in offending, the bowler will be prevented from bowling again in that innings .
Century -- One hundred runs scored by a single batsman in a single innings . Multiples of one hundred are referred to as double and triple centuries. Fifty runs would be referred to as a 'half century'. While a partnership of 100 might be referred to as a 'century partnership ', it would not simply be called a century. In fact, the term 'century' is slowly falling (if it is possible to fall slowly) out of favour - it is more common these days simply to speak of a batsman making 'a hundred ', even if his actual score was 143. Similarly, a score of 71 might be the batsman's 'third fifty of the series', meaning his third innings of fifty or more runs . See also Hundred , Fifty .
Chinese cut -- See French cut .
Clean bowled -- One of those mysterious parts of cricket's vocabulary that really belong under a separate heading of Redundancies. As far as we can tell, those who use it do so because they belong to the school of Never Use One Word Where Two Would Do - they think 'clean bowled' sounds more emphatic or impressive than simply ' bowled '. If they used it to indicate that the ball passed through the batsman's defence without touching bat or body, or that it removed a stump from the ground, there might be some sense in it; but they don't - ' bowled ' is all it means, so ' bowled ' is all one need say.
Clothing -- Most cricket clothing is white or off-white, or white with brownish-green knees and inexplicable stains elsewhere. Since there is no need to make a visual distinction between the two teams on the field, there are no 'home' or 'away' colours. Players wear white, full-length trousers, partly because they always have and partly to protect against the sun and the straps of their protective equipment , and loose-fitting, long- or short-sleeved shirts that still end up skin-tight on some club players. The other essential is boots, usually with metal-spiked soles to provide a secure grip. Fast bowlers ' boots are cut higher to support the ankles. Depending on the weather, players may also wear long-sleeved or sleeveless V-neck sweaters, often trimmed at neck, waist and cuffs in the club colours, and a coloured cap or a coloured or white sunhat.
Club cricket -- Typically used to refer to recreational, amateur cricket, although there is tremendous variation within this band of the game.
Coffin -- Elongated, suitcase-like container for carrying cricket kit. Essential for international cricketing air travel, it's a bloody nuisance in a cramped club dressing room.
Coming on -- More usually heard as 'not coming on', this is a comment on the pace of the pitch , or rather, the amount of horizontal velocity the ball loses to the pitch as it bounces. A soft surface will slow the ball down more than a hard one, making it harder for a batsman to time his strokes by judging the speed of the ball from the bowler's hand. Such pitches tend to make for poor cricket, since a bad ball is more likely to go unpunished, and any deviation the bowler achieves is unlikely to happen fast enough to trouble the batsman.
And therein lie so many of the problems of modern cricket - how to prepare pitches on which the players can give their best. The 1998 Test series in the West Indies has highlighted the difficulty more starkly than ever.
Competitions, domestic -- England: The principal competition in England is the first-class County Championship. Each of the 18 counties plays each of the others in a four-day match, earning sixteen points for a win, eight for a tie or a draw with the scores level, three for any other draw , and up to eight bonus points for first- innings batting and bowling performances. (Intriguingly, Richie Benaud has calculated that the result of most recent Championships would have been the same if no bonus points had been awarded.) Though one might suppose that the County Championship would be won by the strongest first-class team in the country, there are reasons why this may not always happen. Because there is no time to reschedule rain-affected matches, a wet month can distort the result by denying a strong team the points for matches it would have expected to win. To make matters worse, a strong county like Surrey, four of whose batsmen are regulars in the England team, may have six matches in which it is unable to field its best team because of clashes with Test matches. The 1996 Champions, Leicestershire, and the 1997 winners, Glamorgan, each had only one England player. There have been many proposals to reform the County Championship, on the perfectly reasonable grounds that too many counties find themselves too early in the season with nothing left to play for. The most likely to be implemented, although not popular among the members of the weaker counties, is to split the Championship into two divisions, with the top two in the lower division taking the place of the bottom two in the upper division for the next season. For all its imperfections, though, County Championship cricket presents an absorbing spectacle and excellent value for money - at Warwickshire's Edgbaston ground, for example, a day's admission costs only six pounds.
Declining attendances at Championship matches in the early sixties prompted the introduction of the first one-day competition in 1962. In 1963, this took its present form as the Gillette Cup, a knockout competition played over 60 overs a side, with Minor Counties sides competing with the first-class teams. The competition culminates in a showpiece final at Lord's in early September. The competition became the NatWest Trophy in 1981, a time when (coincidentally?) the world's Test cricketers were sprouting beards. It remains the most interesting of the domestic one-day competitions, since the longer innings allows a less frantic style of play, with time to build an innings and a reasonable allowance of 12 overs per bowler . But those same long innings give the competition its biggest problem. The Lord's final is one of the game's big occasions, but the early September dusk necessitates a start at 10.30am, when the morning dew has not had time to dry and batting against seam bowlers is well-nigh impossible. For this reason, the captain winning the toss invariably puts his opponents in to bat, and all but a few finals have been won by the side batting second. Plans are afoot to move the final to August; the sense of occasion may be diminished a little, but the cricket will undoubtedly be better.
The Benson and Hedges Cup is nearing the end of its life, like many of its sponsor's customers. Inaugurated in 1972 and originally played over 55 overs a side, it is now played under One-Day International rules, with 50 overs a side and fielding restrictions for the first 15 overs of each innings . The competition opens in early May with round-robin matches in four regional groups. Eight teams qualify for the knock-out stages, leading to a final at Lord's in July.
Like the B&H, the Sunday League is doomed under the ECB's new plan for English cricket. It was inaugurated as the John Player League in 1969 and was contested on a play-everyone-once basis by the 17 (now 18) first-class counties . Matches are 40 overs a side, with bowlers limited to 8 overs each and a 15-yard run-up. When the present sponsor, AXA Equity and Law, took over in 1993, the format was changed to 50 overs a side, but this was unpopular with spectators, as it meant they had to miss the earlier start, or leave the pub before closing time, and the 40- over format was restored in 1994. Played in pyjamas , with a white ball, Sunday League matches present an unedifying spectacle of negative bowling , defensive fields and all-out, crash-bang-wallop batting. Few real cricket enthusiasts will miss it when the ECB replaces it, and the B&H, with a single, 50- over one-day league competition in 1999.
Corridor of uncertainty -- OK, I give up, we'll put this in. A usefully descriptive term worn thin with overuse, it is nowadays associated with Geoff Boycott in his TV commmentator's hat, but I believe the credit for its coining belongs to the Australian swing bowler Terry Alderman. It refers to the technique, of which Alderman was a master, of bowling a line fractionally wide of the off stump , so that the batsman cannot be sure whether or not he can safely leave the ball alone. If he plays at it, however, the slightest movement away is likely to take the edge and offer a catch to the wicketkeeper or slips .
County championships -- See Competitions, domestic .
County club -- Term usually used to refer to one of the eighteen first-class counties that compete in English domestic competitions. Another twenty counties (the Minor Counties) have representative teams, but these play mostly against one another, joining the first-class teams only in the one-day knockout NatWest Trophy competition. The club-based structure of the first-class game reflects its patrician, amateur origins. Even at the highest level, cricket was played by gentleman amateurs, with a few humble professionals to do the difficult bits, like bowling . (Not until after the Second World War was society ready for a professional, Leonard Hutton, to captain the England team.) Nowadays, the amateurs have gone but the club structure remains. Like any club, a County Cricket Club is owned by and run for its members, who decide major issues of policy at General Meetings but delegate day-to-day decisions to committees, including a Cricket Committee to take care of the team.
The first-class counties are: Derbyshire (main venue Race Course Ground, Derby) A promising 1997 ruined by dressing-room acrimony and contractual disputes with players. Crashed from 2nd in 1996 to 16th in the 1997 Championship. Durham (Riverside, Chester-le-Street) The 18th county to gain first-class status (in 1992). 17th place in 1997 an improvement on the norm. Essex (County Ground, Chelmsford) One of the strongest counties in recent years. 1997 NatWest Trophy winners but only 9th in the Championship. Glamorgan (Sophia Gardens, Cardiff) The 17th first-class county, and not actually English, but won the County Championship in 1997. Only one England player in a strong squad, so less weakened by Test calls than some rivals. Gloucestershire (County Ground, Bristol) W.G.Grace's county, but hasn't won much since he retired. 7th in 1997 was the best for some years. Hampshire (County Ground, Southampton) Won't win much until they get some bowlers. 14th in 1997. Kent (St Lawrence, Canterbury) Fell just short in the 1997 Championship chase, partly due to Test calls and injuries to key bowlers. 2nd in 1997. Lancashire (Old Trafford, Manchester) The biggest and richest club in the game. Powerful one-day team but ought to do better in the Championship (11th in 1997.) Leicestershire (Grace Road, Leicester) 1996 Champions, despite (or because of?) lack of big stars. 10th in 1997. Middlesex (Lord's, London) Another perennially strong county, 4th in 1997. Northamptonshire (County Ground, Northampton) Fortunes have ebbed since several key players passed their best. Still strong in the one-day game, but 15th in the Championship. Nottinghamshire (Trent Bridge, Nottingham) Income from Test ground hasn't prevented under-achievement in recent seasons. 13th in 1997. Somerset (St James Road, Taunton) Another small club. 12th in 1997. Surrey (The Oval, London) Possibly the strongest on-paper club in England, but finished 8th in 1997. Suffered more than most from Test calls, but still lost games they should have won. Sussex (County Ground, Hove) Lost a captain, an England bowler and the entire management in 1997, and recovered to finish bottom of the Championship table. Warwickshire (Edgbaston, Birmingham) Won successive Championships and a roomful of trophies under Dermot Reeve in 1994 and 1995, but struggled since his injury-enforced retirement. Still reached the 1997 NatWest final and the top five of the Championship. Worcestershire (New Road, Worcester) Hugely successful in the late 1980s; reversed the decline in 1997 to take 3rd in the Championship, despite weak bowling. Yorkshire (Headingley, Leeds) Enjoying a revival after many lean years, and should have done better than 6th in 1997. Arouses the most passionate opinions of any county (and not just about cricket!) The club nearly tore itself apart in the 1980s in a dispute about the future of Geoff Boycott, and may yet do so again over the decision to move to a new site at Wakefield.
Daisy-cutter -- See Shooter .
Dead ball -- When the ball is not in play, it is said to be 'dead'. The ball comes into play when the bowler starts his run-up, and becomes automatically dead when the umpire considers it to have 'finally settled' in the hands of the wicket-keeper or bowler , when a wicket falls, or when the ball reaches the boundary or when the umpire calls ' over ' or ' time '. The umpire may call the ball dead at other times - for example, when the ball lodges in the batsman's clothing , or when a serious injury occurs to a player.
Declaration -- The decision of the batting captain to close his innings . Usually made in order to give his bowlers time to bowl the other side out to win the match, or delayed by twenty crucial minutes while the side's senior player struggles from 96 to 100.
Declaration bowler -- Inept bowler employed to allow the batting side to score quickly, usually in the hope of contriving a result in a rain-affected match.
Deep -- Fielding position prefix also indicating 'on the boundary ' (See Long ), but used in conjunction with the name of an infield position - e.g. deep square leg , deep extra cover .
Devil's number -- An Australian superstition concerning the number 87 and, by extension, 187, 287 etc. Something to do with things being upside-down in Australia, perhaps, but the theory is that being 13 short of 100 gives it terrible powers. It is, of course, purely coincidental that 1987 was when Australia last lost a Test series to England.
Dibbly-dobbly -- Derogatory term applied to slow-medium paced bowling even less threatening than that of a trundler .
Did not bat -- Entry in the scorebook against a batsman who, erm, did not bat.
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Earache -- The commonest cause of incapacity among club cricketers, as in "Reg can't play on Sunday, he's getting earache." As with so many debilitating afflictions, the actual causative agent is very small - usually some minor household task that the player's spouse insists must be performed between three and four that afternoon. Earache takes two forms: chronic earache tends to persist at a low level, sometimes for a whole season, with brief periods of respite. Acute earache is, thankfully, rarer, but its effects can be devastating. In its worst form, the player may be dragged from the pavilion - or even from the field of play - by a vituperative spouse, leaving the team a man short. (The "a href="#laws">law on Substitutes makes no special provision for this.) Such an attack can end a player's career, leaving him unable ever again to face his teammates. (See also Women's cricket )
ECB -- Strictly speaking, the England and Wales Cricket Board but, as in so many other cases, Wales is quietly forgotten when it comes to the short version and the design of the snazzy three-lions-and-a-coronet emblem that appears on the shirts of the England team. The ECB came into being in 1997, to replace the former Test and County Cricket Board, but with a broader remit to administer the game at all levels, not just professional cricket. See also Governing bodies .
Economy -- A bowler's ability to prevent the batsmen from scoring. Of course, the best way to do this is to put them back in the hutch , but economy is usually measured in runs per over . In most forms of cricket, a bowler is happy with a rate of less than three runs an over .
Edge -- Batting shot , usually unintentional contact between ball and edge of the bat . May result in a catch to wicket-keeper or slips .
Eleven -- See XI . Also, the most random number in the universe. Ask people for a random number and 11 will be the number chosen more than any other.
Fanny -- See Bush, Frances Jemima .
Farm the strike -- Where a good batsman is batting with a tail-ender , he will often want to face as much of the bowling as possible, since he ought to be at less risk than his less proficient partner. To this end, he will aim to take a single from the fifth or sixth ball of an over , in order to put himself at the receiving end for the next. An astute captain will be aware of this tactic and may set his field to frustrate it, or to encourage the good batsman to take a single early in the over . Sometimes, however, a captain becomes so focused on getting at the tail-ender that he appears to forget about getting the batsman out . A valuable late-order partnership can develop this way, when a more aggressive approach from the fielding side might have stopped it before it began.
Faxes -- Preferred prank of BBC Radio cricket correspondent, TMS commentator and former England fast bowler Jonathan Agnew, as in the following example from the opening day of the first Test of the 1997 Ashes series, lifted from the Telegraph.
"Shortly after lunch Agnew, in a state of some excitement, showed me a fax he was about to send upstairs to Sybil Ruscoe, who was reporting on the Test for Radio Five Live. It was a letter complimenting her on her programme and asking her if she would mind explaining the term ' googly '. The signature at the bottom was ' Hugh Jarce '."
Featherbed -- A pitch of gentle pace and predictable bounce on which batting is easy.
Fence -- (1) criminal slang for a receiver of stolen goods. (2) means by which the boundary is marked on some grounds. Curiously, a fielder may touch a boundary fence when stopping or catching a ball , but if he touches a boundary line or rope, the ball is deemed to have crossed the boundary . Quite how thick a rope can be before it becomes a fence is one to ponder in the bar while the rain pours down outside.
Ferret -- Not-very-competent-at-all batsman, so called because he goes in after the rabbits .
Five for -- Colloquial term for a bowler's return of five wickets in an innings . (See Bowling analysis .)
Flash -- Batting shot , a cousin of the Harrow drive . The flash is an ambitious drive aimed at a ball too wide to reach easily. Safer than it looks, since any contact with the ball is likely to send it high over the slips ' heads and first bounce into the third-man fence .
Flight -- Arguably a more important weapon even than spin in a slow bowler's armoury, flight is the art of varying the ball's arc and speed through the air in order to deceive the batsman. An aerodynamicist will tell you that flight depends heavily on the non-linear relationship between velocity and drag, and the existence of a 'critical velocity', below which the drag on an object can actually increase. To a spin bowler , this means that he can make the ball dip suddenly in mid-flight, leaving a batsman who thought he had it covered a yard short of the pitch and unable to keep the ball down. Flighted bowling takes nerve and the confidence not to give in when the occasional ball's whistles over mid-on for six . By presenting the batsman with temptingly hittable balls , it encourages him to take risks.
Flipper -- A wrist-spinner's 'trick' ball , deceptively fast and low-bouncing. Difficult to bowl , but deadly when straight.
Follow-on -- If, in a two- innings match, the side batting second falls short of the other side's first- innings score by 150 runs in a three or four-day match, or 200 runs in a five-day match, the captain of the leading team may ask them to bat again immediately. By exercising this option, he gives his bowlers the chance to bowl the other side out again and win by an innings . (See Winning margin )
Footwork -- The stance is only a starting point - it allows the batsman to move his feet easily into position to play balls of any length and direction. A short-pitched ball can be played most easily off the back foot (' playing back '). The batsman moves his back foot back towards the wicket and across into the line of the ball , giving him the maximum time to judge the speed and bounce of the ball . An overpitched ball is best played off the front foot (' playing forward '). The batsman moves his front foot forward and across, ideally alongside the point where the ball pitches . This allows him to hit it close to the ground, before it has bounced very high or deviated off the pitch . A good-length ball ( pitching maybe 6-8 feet from the batsman from a slow bowler , slightly more from a fast bowler ) makes neither of these methods easy, but a good batsman will usually play forward to a good-length ball . Against slow bowling , a batsman may ' use his feet ' - i.e. leave his crease to bring himself closer to the pitch of the ball , or even to turn a good-length ball into a full toss . In doing this, he risks being stumped if he misses the ball , but it is a tactic that can upset a bowler's rhythm and accuracy.
Four -- A ball which crosses the boundary after having first touched the ground, and which scores four runs .
Four ball -- Bad ball , likely to be hit for four .
Fraser, A.R.C. -- The finest bowler in England, 'Gus' Fraser (b. 1965) has been instrumental in such recent success as England has had against major Test opposition, notably the West Indies at Bridgetown, 1994, and Australia at Sydney, 1995. He was unjustly made a scapegoat for the failings of others following England's defeat at Cape Town in 1996, and has been cruelly overlooked by the selectors since. Only 31, he would have restored some much-needed discipline to England's wayward bowling in the 1997 Ashes series. And truly, as all good things come to those who wait, Mrs. Fraser's boy has been selected to venture to the West Indies and defend the honor of the Empire! See also Six foot five .
French cut -- An attempted attacking batting shot in front of the wicket resulting in four fortunate runs behind the wicket off the inside or bottom edge of the bat . Usually millimetres away from a ' Bad luck, mate '.
Front foot, But he was on the -- expression of the bizarre but abundant supposition that a batsman cannot be out lbw when playing forward.
Front foot no ball -- The original no-ball law required the bowler to have some part of his back foot behind the bowling crease at the instant of release. However, many bowlers 'drag' the back foot a considerable distance after landing it, and umpires complained that it was impossible to judge where the bowler's foot was when he actually released the ball . So in 1967, the MCC introduced the present law requiring some part of the front foot to be behind the popping crease when the ball is released. Since the bowler's front foot does not move after landing (if it did, he would do the splits!) it is much easier for the umpire to judge the fairness of the delivery.
Full, on the -- Without touching the ground. According to context, this may be between bowler and batsman, bat and fielder or bat and boundary . (In some cases, even between bowler and boundary , although this scores only four byes or wides , not six .)
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Gardening -- The laws allow a batsman to make minor repairs with his bat to the surface of the pitch , for example to pitch-marks made by the ball or scratches from fielders' studs. There's an element of psychology at work here too: a batsman beaten by a ball that whistled past his chin might prod the spot where it pitched to spare the bowler from giving himself too much credit for the delivery.
Gate -- The gap between bat and pad , that a good batsman should keep closed. Hence 'Gated' or bowled through the gate.
Grubber -- see Shooter
Guard (position) -- In waiting for the ball , a batsman will usually stand astride the popping crease , feet slightly apart, looking at the bowler along his left (if he is right-handed) shoulder, with the toe of his bat resting on the ground by his right foot.
Gully -- Fielder in catching position, slightly behind square on the off side . See also Fielding Position .
Gunn and Moore -- Proper cricket bats are made by Messrs Gunn and Moore of Nottingham, whose classic Autograph or meatier Cannon ought to be all a batsman needs. Passable imitations are made elsewhere in England by Slazenger (once the choice of Geoff Boycott) and Gray Nicolls, and in Australia by Kookaburra.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Half-volley -- An overpitched ball , whose pitch the batsman can reach easily, and so hit off the front foot.
Hand action -- Not what batsmen do in their spare time, but what a fast bowler does with his wrist and fingers as he releases the ball . His aim is to keep the seam upright, so it can act as a rudder to guide the ball's swing and land on the pitch to produce movement. He will usually drag his fingers down the rear part of the seam , imparting backspin that will stabilize the flight of the ball .
Handled the ball -- The batsman's hands, when holding the bat , count as part of the bat , and so may legally touch the ball . Any other use of the hand by either batsman is illegal, and a batsman who handles the ball in an attempt to gain an advantage will be given out by the umpire . The bowler gets no credit for the wicket . G.A.Gooch (Essex and England) ended what might have been a match-saving innings against Australia in 1993 by being out handled the ball , the only time I've seen it happen. See also Out .
[Editors note:Regarding the curious handling of the ball by Mr. Gooch , we are told that the unfortunate Mr. Gooch was not so much unfortunate as silly. In the second innings of the first Test at Manchester in 1993, Australia set England a huge target of 512 to win. At 223-3 (See Score ), with Gooch on 133, England were still in with a chance of salvaging a draw when Gooch failed to keep down a ball from Merv Hughes that bounced higher than he'd expected, thought it was about to fall on his wicket and knocked it away with the back of his glove . Had the glove still been on the bat , or had he used any other part of his person or equipment , all would have been well. As it was, he was out Handled the Ball and England folded to 332 all out, to lose by 179 runs. (See Winning Margin .]
Hanging bat out to dry -- See Fishing
Harrow drive -- See French cut .
Hat trick -- Three wickets taken in successive balls . It may be a debasement of the coinage, but these days a bowler may be credited with a hat-trick even if an over from another bowler - or even his own side's innings - comes between two of his three wickets . A bowler who has taken two successive wickets is said to be 'on a hat-trick', and the third ball is the 'hat-trick ball '. In club cricket , the hat-trick ball is all too often a wide . Here is a thrilling recording of Dominic Cork's remarkable hat-trick in the first over of the day against the West Indies in 1995 that will send chills down your spine:
ICC -- International Cricketing Council. See Governing bodies .
In-ducker -- Opposing batsman's term for the stock delivery of a trundler . Although it sounds like a variation on the inswinger , the in-ducker is merely a straight ball that the batsman has contrived to miss, so he has to give it a semi-mystical name to explain his downfall.
Infield -- Those fielders either close to the bat in search of a catch, or within about 30 yards of it, saving the single .
Injuries -- If a batsman or bowler gets injured before he is needed, hard luck. Other players in the team can fill in for an injured bowler , but no allowance is made for an unfit batsman - he can struggle through as best he can, or the team can make do without him. Real man's game, cricket!
Innings -- (1) The time spent at the wicket by one batsman, until he is out ; (2) The combined innings (1) of the entire batting team, ending when ten batsmen are out , or the batting captain declares the innings closed. (Note: In cricket, the word "innings" is used for both the plural and the singular. "Inning" is a term used only in baseball, which is as it should be.)
Inswinger -- Swing delivery that moves in the air towards a righthanded batsman. The bowler's aim is to pass the inside edge of the bat and hit the batsman's leg for an lbw , or the wicket itself.
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Jaffa -- Good or unplayable ball , typically one that bounces and leaves the bat late in its trajectory.
Jag -- (1) Motor car made in Coventry, England, that consumes an obscene amount of fuel and roadspace, while still forcing occupants to sit with their chins on their knees. (2) Rather unattractive verb for the behaviour of a ball that cuts in off the seam from outside a batsman's off stump .
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Knee roll -- Not the peculiar chicken-effect product containing more gristle than meat, whose appearance at tea-time can be grounds for a club's removal from its visitors' fixture list, but the thickened part of the pad that protects the batsman's knee. Most usually spoken of when commentators use it as a crude guide for judging the height of a possible lbw : a ball that hits the batsman above the knee is likely to pass over the wicket .
Knights -- I don't refer here to the 2nd XI ferrets who come to the crease in full body armour, nor to N.V.Knight (b.1969), left-handed opener for Warwickshire and England, but to the elite band of cricketers who have been honoured by the British Crown for their services to the game. India, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, although all former parts of the former British Empire, no longer recognize the Queen as head of state, so this list, which is not exhaustive, contains only players from Australia, England, New Zealand and West Indies.
Sir George Allen 1902-89, England 1930-48, Knighted 1986
Sir Alec Bedser b.1918, England 1946-55, Knighted 1997
Sir Donald Bradman b.1908, Australia 1928-48, Knighted 1949
Sir Colin Cowdrey b.1932, England 1954-75
Sir Richard Hadlee b.1951, New Zealand 1973-90, Knighted 1990 -the only one knighted while still playing Test cricket
Sir Leonard Hutton 1916-90, England 1937-55, Knighted 1956
Sir Garfield Sobers b.1936, West Indies 1954-74, Knighted 1975
Sir Clyde Walcott b.1926, West Indies 1948-60
Sir Pelham Warner 1873-1963, England 1898-1912, Knighted 1937
Sir Everton Weekes b.1925, West Indies 1948-58
Sir Frank Worrell 1924-67, West Indies 1948-63, Knighted 1964
Knocking in -- Conditioning the surface of a new bat by repeatedly hitting it with an old ball or a wooden mallet. A bat that hasn't been adequately knocked in will splinter under the impact of a new ball .
Law 41: The Fieldsman
Law 42: Unfair Play
However, if all those laws are a bit too much for you and you would just like a simple explanation of the game, there is always this explanation which seems to appear most often on tea towels to be hung in people's offices:
"You have two sides, one out in the field and one in. Each man that's in the side that's in goes out, and when he's out, he comes in and the next man goes in until he's out. When they are all out the side that's out comes in and the side that's been in goes out and tries to get those coming in out. Sometimes you get men still in and not out. When both sides have been in and out including the not-outs, that's the end of the game. Howzat?"
LBW -- See Leg Before Wicket .
LBW, not playing a shot -- Part of the lbw law since the Sixties, this reduces the criteria a ball must satisfy for a batsman not attempting to hit it to be out lbw.
Leg Before Wicket -- When a batsman prevents a bowled ball from striking the wicket by blocking the ball with his leg, he is said to be out 'leg before wicket', or more simply "lbw". See also Out .
Leg-break -- A ball spun by the bowler so as to turn from leg to off for a righthanded batsman.
Leg-bye -- Run scored from a ball that hit the batsman's body rather this his bat .
Leg cutter -- Fast bowler's delivery that leaves the righthanded batsman sharply after pitching .
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[Editors note: We feel we should educate our US readers as to what it means to "get a leg over". Ahem. Without getting ourselves kicked off our ISP, let it suffice to say it indicates that one has engaged in the most intimate of relations with a member of the opposite sex.]
Leg side -- The side of the pitch nearer the batsman's legs as he faces the bowler , i.e. to the bowler's right for a right-handed batsman. See also On side .
Leg stump -- Of the three stumps which comprise a wicket , the one to the leg side . See also Off stump and Middle stump .
Length -- The distance from the bowler to the point where the ball pitches . This affects the time the batsman has to see the ball's behaviour off the pitch , and so influences his choice of stroke . See shortpitched , good length and overpitched .
Limited bouncers -- Not a law but a playing condition for first-class matches, restricting a bowler to one ( county matches ) or two ( Test matches) bouncers per batsman per over . Bouncers above this limit are called no-balls . Many observers, CricketUSA® included, regard this as unnecessary. The umpires already have the power under law 42 to remove a bowler for intimidatory bowling (see Beamer , Bouncer ), and indeed this recently happened in a first class match to M.J.McCague of Kent. This condition is a belated and inappropriate response to the blatantly intimidatory tactics employed, most notably by the West Indies, in the 1970s and 1980s, when all that was needed was for the umpires to enforce the existing law .
Limited overs cricket -- Alternative term for one-day cricket .
Line and length -- Another schoolmaster's favourite, ostensibly in praise of the undoubted virtue of accuracy in bowling . Too often, however, it has the effect of deterring young bowlers from practising the aggressive arts of pace , swing and spin, and could be the reason that English cricket is full of journeyman medium- pacers . Coaches are at last beginning to realize that while a fast bowler or a big spinner can become accurate with practice, no donkey, however good his sense of direction, has yet won the Derby.
Linseed oil -- What glaziers use to keep their putty malleable. When they're not doing that, they rub it into their cricket bats . The oil maintains the resilience of the wood, and keeps it from drying out and becoming brittle, or from absorbing moisture and swelling up. Some modern bats are impregnated with polyurethane or other waterproofing substances, but such bats tend to perform less well than natural, oiled willow . As owners of CD mini-systems, electric coffee makers and home hairdressing kits already know, convenience and performance seldom come along together.
Lofted drive -- A batting shot played intentionally in the air, over the heads of the close fielders.
Long -- Fielding position prefix indicating 'on the boundary '. Confusingly, long- leg is behind the wicket , while the apparently synonymous long- on is in front of it, barely within shouting distance of long- leg . See also Deep .
Long hop -- A shortpitched ball , not fast or high enough to be a bouncer , which presents the batsman with an easy hit off the back foot.
Long Room -- A long room (!) in the pavilion at Lord's , looking out onto the playing area and lined with portraits of distinguished cricketers and cricketing memorabilia. Players walk through it on their way to the middle .
Loop -- The high trajectory of a flighted delivery from a slow bowler . By tossing the ball up, the bowler gives it the greatest chance of deviating off the pitch , and also encourages the batsman to take the risk of using his feet .
Lord MacLaurin -- chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board , and author of a 32-page document known entitled "Raising The Standard", also known as The MacLaurin Plan, The MacLaurin-Lamb Proposals, rubbish, a load of cobblers, barmy, idiotic, fatuous, attrocious, a bum note, etc. This plan also earned Lord MacLaurin the sobriquet, "Lord Macchiavelli" in some circles. See Raising The Standard for more information on the proposal itself.
Lord's -- A cricket ground in St John's Wood, north London, generally considered the 'home' of cricket. It belongs to the Marylebone Cricket Club ( MCC ), and was founded by Thomas Lord some 200 years ago. Lord's plays host to a Test match against each touring country each year, as well as the finals of the major domestic competitions. Middlesex County Cricket Club also plays its home games at Lord's.
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Maiden -- An over in which no run is scored off the bat , nor from a wide or no-ball . The traditional best man's joke about bowling a maiden over ceased to be funny before the First World War and was eventually outlawed by the Marylebone Cricket Club in 1927.
Maker's name -- Sound defensive batting technique involves meeting the ball with the full face of the bat - 'showing the bowler the maker's name'. These days, most bats are so garishly decorated that the bowler could probably see the maker's name from the end of his run.
Marigolds -- Fashionable, often brightly decorated batting gloves (See Protective equipment ) with oh-so-comfortable lightweight foam padding. Blissfully comfortable to wear - until you get hit. Then, once the swelling has subsided enough to get them off, they join the slippers in the bin and their former owner goes back to the shop for some proper gloves .
Marylebone Cricket Club -- Should you find it necessary to contact the Marylebone Cricket Club, you may do so at the following address: Marylebone Cricket Club, Lord's Cricket Ground, London NW8 8QN, England, (44) 171-289 5686
Match referee -- An off-field official at Test matches and other major events, whose responsibility is to oversee the broader conduct of the game and to take any disciplinary action that may be required against the players.
NatWest Trophy -- See Competitions, domestic .
Nelson -- The number 111. The connection to Admiral Lord Nelson is tenuous and mostly unexplained, but the number that bears his name, and multiples of that number, are held to have mystical properties in English cricket. There are those - Test umpire David Shepherd prominent among them - who will not keep both feet on the ground while 111 is on the scoreboard, although quite what they are trying to prevent is not clear either.
Nets -- A pitch enclosed at the sides, back and top with netting is called a net and used for practice. Trouble is, turf net pitches take as much maintenance as those on the square , so most clubs don't bother. Instead, they use a concrete base covered with synthetic 'all weather' matting, which takes on the character of a police skid-pan after the slightest sprinkling of rain. Worse, it doesn't tolerate spikes, so bowlers are expected to practise in rubber-soled shoes, in which no bowler in his right mind (so we can exclude left-armers) would risk bowling at full speed.
New ball -- In most levels of cricket, each innings begins with a new ball . In the first class game, once the fielding side has bowled 80 overs with one ball , the captain may call for a new one, so that his pace bowlers have the advantage of a sharp seam and a shiny cover. The tactic can backfire, however, especially if the batsmen are well set, since the harder ball comes faster off the bat .
Nightwatchman -- In a first-class match, a tail-ender sent in when a wicket falls near the end of a day's play. The theory is that a batsman is most vulnerable at the start of his innings and early in the day, so this tactic is intended to protect a specialist batsman from one of these dangerous times.
Nipbacker -- Colloquially, a fast ball that 'nips back' off the pitch towards the batsman, like an off-cutter .
No! -- The call from one batsman to the other indicating that he should not run. See Calling .
No-ball -- A delivery ruled unfair by the umpire for one of several reasons, usually to do with the position of the bowler's feet. (See Popping crease , Return crease ) The bowler cannot take a batsman's wicket with a no-ball, although the batsman may be out in ways not credited to the bowler , e.g. run out . A no-ball counts one run to the batting side's score . If the batsmen run, or the ball goes to the boundary without hitting the bat , that number of no-balls is scored instead. If runs are scored off the bat , the one- run penalty does not apply.
Non-striker -- The batsman at the bowler's end, not facing the bowling . See also Striker .
Not out -- (1) Umpire's call in denying an appeal . (2) Entry in the scorebook against a batsman not dismissed at the end of his team's innings , either because of a declaration , or because all ten of his teammates are out .
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Obstructing the field -- Another rare means of dismissal . A batsman who causes an intentional obstruction to the fielding side may be given out . The kind of accidental collision that occasionally results from two players watching the ball is not considered an infringement of this law . See also Out .
ODI -- One Day International.
Off-break -- A ball spun by the bowler so as to turn from off to leg for a righthanded batsman.
Off-cutter -- Fast bowler's delivery that turns sharply towards a righthanded batsman after pitching .
Offer the light -- Strictly speaking, the opposite. The law requires the umpires to determine that the light is unfit for play (see Bad light ), and then to ask the batsmen if they wish to continue in the unfit conditions. If they do, play continues until the light deteriorates further and the umpires repeat the offer.
Off side -- The side of the pitch away from the batsman's legs as he faces the bowler , i.e. to the bowler's left for a right-handed batsman.
Off stump -- Of the three stumps which comprise a wicket , the one to the off side . See also Leg stump and Middle stump .
Old favourite -- Usually to be found in the hands of a trundler when his turn comes to bat. Close inspection reveals the autograph of the young W.G.Grace and the maker's mark 'Noah and Sons, finest gopher wood'. The trundler's batting, incidentally, is instantly recognizable from his bowling - although technically correct and hard to get out , he seldom hits the ball off the square .
Orthodox spinner -- See Finger spinner .
Out -- As a special service to our American readers who may be familiar with baseball terminology (after all, this is CricketUSA®), we think we should point out that in cricket, batsmen do not 'make out', in any sense - they are mostly too short, overweight and the smell of Ralgex and linseed oil can be quite stomach-turning. (The Don was an exception - as a cricketer, and as a man.) Happiness, as any girl will tell you, is a fast bowler , preferably one of six-foot-five . A batsman gets out, or just is out. That said, there are numerous ways for a batsman to get out. See Bowled , Caught out , Handled the ball , Hit the ball twice , Hit wicket , Leg before wicket , Obstructing the field , Run out , Stumped , Timed out .
Outfield -- The area between the infield and the boundary . A shot hit into the outfield is usually worth at least one run , even if it goes straight to a fielder.
Outswinger -- Swing delivery that moves in the air away from a right-handed batsman. The bowler's intention is usually to hit the outside edge of the bat and offer a catch to slips or wicketkeeper .
Oval, the -- A cricket ground in Kennington, south London, home of Surrey County Cricket Club. Famous for the giant gas holder (no, not Tony Lewis) to one side of the ground, it has a reputation for producing the best, fastest pitches in England and is traditionally the venue for the last Test match of the English summer.
Over -- A series of consecutive balls . bowled from one end by one bowler . The international convention for an over is now six balls , although overs of four and five balls were common before 1900, and Australia and New Zealand only recently abandoned their customary eight- ball overs. No-balls and wides do not count as part of an over, so a bowler who bowls one must bowl an extra ball to compensate. Alternate overs are bowled from opposite ends of the pitch , and no bowler may bowl two overs consecutively.
Overarm -- The usual style of bowling in modern cricket, in which the ball is released above the head and bounces once before reaching the bat . According to legend, it was invented in a nineteenth-century English back garden by a girl in a crinoline, whose skirt was too full to let her bowl underarm to her brothers. Whether, when she beat the outside edge for the third time in an over , she also invented the phrase 'Good Sir, you are indeed a most fortunate bleeder', history does not record.
Over (umpire's call) -- The umpire's call after six fair balls have been bowled , or as close as he can guess to six after he dropped all his counting stones trying to signal One Short .
Overpitched -- A ball whose length allows the batsman to play forward and meet the pitch of the ball .
Overseas player -- Under current rules, English county clubs are allowed to employ one player who is not qualified to play Test matches for England. According to taste, this is either a valuable way to enhance the appeal of the county game , or a devious attempt by Johnny Foreigner to accustom his players to English conditions so he can beat us on our own patch, while at the same time undermining the development of deserving English players. As always, the truth lies somewhere between the two. The counties take two different approaches to the employment of overseas players. Some overseas players have made second homes at English clubs - former West Indies captain Clive Lloyd played regularly for Lancashire and still lives there, while South African fast bowler Allan Donald has formed a close attachment to Warwickshire, helping to coach the club's bowlers even when not employed as a player in 1996. Such players contribute enormously to the success of the club, and to the development of its young players. More recently, there has been an unseemly scramble to attract big-name overseas players on lucrative one-season contracts. Glamorgan reputedly paid Pakistani fast bowler Waqar Younis 140,000 pounds for the 1997 season. He helped them win the County Championship - to chants of "Waqar is a Welshman" from the stands - but is unlikely to become part of the club's fabric. Four clubs vied to outbid each other for the services of Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne for 1998; in the end, he turned them all down to spend the Australian winter at home with his baby daughter. Quite right too. There is no doubt that overseas players can bring valuable fresh ideas into county cricket , as well as bringing more spectators into the grounds. The danger, as is becoming apparent in English football, is that clubs will spend too much on the short-term glamour of foreign stars, rather than invest in encouraging the young local talent that is the future of the game.
Overthrow -- A further run scored when a fielder's throw misses or rebounds from the stumps . If an overthrown ball crosses the boundary , four runs are added to those the batsmen have run.
Over the wicket -- The position of the bowler relative to the wicket , such that his bowling arm is between his body and the wicket . A right-arm bowler will therefore bowl to the left of the wicket . See also Round the wicket .
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Pace -- (1) The speed of a bowler's delivery, as in medium-pace or, less often, slow- or fast-paced bowling. (A slow or fast bowler is usually called just that.) (2) Fast bowling. (3) High speed, as in 'the game was played at a tremendous pace.'
[Editors note: Miss Bush also sent us the following curious musings as regards to pace:
Here's one for the Newtonians out there. You know that what we're referring to as 'pace' is, in fact, velocity (well, strictly the horizontal component of a vector quantity, since what counts is the time the ball takes to travel from the bowler's hand to the batsman.) So you also know that Sir Isaac, had he lived beyond the furlongs per fortnight era, would agree that there's only one unit in which to measure velocity, and that is metres per second.
So why is it that, according to cricketers, pace comes by the yard, as in "He's lost a yard of pace since his back injury"? As anyone who's made their own curtains will know, this is meaningless because it doesn't tell you how wide the roll of pace is. I've scoured learned cricketing volumes for information on this, but can't find anything to tell me whether there is a standard width for pace, or whether medium pace comes in a wider roll than, say, searing pace. (There certainly seems to be a lot more of it about.) Not even Military Medium pace appears to adhere to a standard, and the military are famous for their measurements (well, according to Great Aunt Fanny, anyway.)
I think we should be told, and there may be scope here for a CricketUSA campaign. Our track record is good, as Gus Fraser can testify as he polishes up the new ball in Trinidad, so how about it?
So, readers. How about it?]
Pace bowler -- A bowler who bowls with pace , i.e., a fast bowler
Pad -- Usual term for the device known as a leg-guard only in cricket catalogues, a cane and canvas structure strapped to the lower leg to protect it against the impact of the ball . Also worn by the wicketkeeper .
Pad up -- (1) To put on protective equipment before going out to bat; (2) To allow the ball to hit the pad , rather than attempt to hit it with the bat .
Pair -- A duck in each innings . Also - rarely - 'a pair of spectacles'. A batsman coming in for his second innings after a duck in the first is said to be 'on a pair'.
Pajamas -- See Pyjamas . No, we're not kidding.
Partnership -- The time spent at the wicket by one pair of batsmen and the runs scored (including extras ) in that time. There are ten partnerships per completed innings , labeled from first-wicket partnership to tenth-wicket partnership, in order.
Pavilion -- The clubhouse of a cricket ground, where the players change, wait to bat and take their refreshments.
Penetration -- Great Aunt Fanny has drifted off into one of her reveries, so I'd better do this one. Generally, penetrative bowling is that which is likely to take wickets , rather than merely being difficult to score off. Of course, there's nothing quite like the moment of penetration, as the gleaming red weapon slips through the last line of defence. The emphasis on economy rather than penetration may explain Great Aunt Fanny's lack of enthusiasm for the one-day game.
Pinch-hitter -- A recent and, as far as we can tell, entirely inappropriate borrowing from baseball. Rather than a substitute batsman (not allowed anyway - see Substitute ), a 'pinch hitter' is a big-hitting tail-ender , promoted to the top of the batting order to take advantage of field-placement restrictions in the first 15 overs of a 50- over one-day innings .
Pitch -- (1) The mown area, 22 yards long and ten feet wide, with the wickets and creases at either end; Please see this diagram for a graphical representation of the pitch. (2) In hitting the ground on its way to the batsman, the ball is said to pitch; (3) The point on the pitch (1) at which the ball pitches (2)!
Plank -- Typically an old or poor-quality bat that imparts more energy to the batsman than to the ball when hit.
Playing back -- When batting, to play a ball off the back foot, a good strategy against a short-pitched ball . See also Footwork .
Playing for his average -- Accusation levelled at a batsman who plays the role of the blocker when his team needs quick runs .
Playing forward -- When batting, to play a ball off the front foot, a good strategy against an overpitched ball . See also Footwork .
Point -- Fielding position square of wicket on off side .
Popping crease -- A transverse line four feet in front of the bowling crease . Please see this diagram for a graphical representation of the pitch . The batsman must ground his bat or body behind this line in order to complete a run or to avoid being stumped by the wicketkeeper . As he releases the ball , the bowler must keep some part of his front foot behind the popping crease if he is not to bowl a no-ball . (see also Benaud, Richie )
Promotion and relegation -- Not really a cricketing term - not yet anyway. Sporting leagues in Britain are routinely split into Divisions; top teams from lower divisions win promotion to the division above, while teams from the bottom of a division are relegated to the one below. Some cricket leagues do this, but it is more usual in football and rugby leagues, where more teams are involved.
Protective equipment -- Pre-war photographs show Bradman and others going out to bat in little more than pads , skimpy rubber-spiked gloves and a green Australian cap. Modern batting gloves are far more heavily padded, and yet batsmen seem to suffer more broken fingers than ever. Minimal batting equipment consists of pads for the shins and knees, a strap-on foam pad for the leading thigh, a box and a pair of gloves . Oh yes, and a bat . Other batsmen may variously add a second thigh pad, foam pads for the leading forearm and chest and - universally in modern Test cricket - a helmet , usually with a metal grille in front of the face. Certain short, nervous or pessimistic club batsmen also bat in helmets , seemingly unaware of the automatic response of the opposing fast bowlers : "Wonder what that sounds like". Please see this helpful diagram of protective equipment.
[Editors note: We can only wonder how Miss Bush , the author of this glossary, was able to discern from pre-war photographs whether or not Sir Donald George Bradman , the greatest batsman of all time, was indeed not wearing a box .]
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Qadir, Abdul -- Abdul Qadir (b.1955) can take much of the credit for the rising popularity of wrist-spin bowling , an art that had appeared to be in terminal decline, in modern international cricket. His aquiline features and his quasi-mystical spinning of the ball from hand to hand as he walked back to his mark gave him the air of a magician and added to the already beguiling effect of his bowling . He played 67 Tests for Pakistan between 1978 and 1990-1, taking 236 wickets . His 9-56 in England's first innings at Lahore in 1987 is still the best innings return by any Pakistan bowler , and the best by any bowler against England.
Rabbit -- Not-very-competent batsman, usually a tail-ender .
Raising the standard -- Much-touted but bizarrely irrelevant proposal on the future of the County game in England, produced by the chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board , Lord MacLaurin, in August 1997. Before its publication, there was much speculation that it would propose to split the present 18-club county championship into two divisions, with promotion and relegation between them. The idea was that this would improve the competitiveness of first-class cricket and reduce the influence of the one-day game. What emerged was a proposal for an incomprehensible system of three 'conferences', with end-of-season play-offs for the leading teams, and MORE one-day cricket. Thankfully, the county clubs for once saw sense and rejected the proposal, although this means that the 1998 championship will be played under the same out-dated conditions as before. MacLaurin has since publicly wished that he'd had the nerve to stick with his preference for two divisions. I think there's a little lesson for us all in here.
Ralgex -- The most essential item in the kit bag of a club's senior player (see also Slips ). By rubbing it into his groaning muscles and joints, he can reduce his time for the hundred metres to a matter of mere days. To a club novice, Ralgex is 'the stuff that nice old chap in the corner of the dressing room suggested I clean my box with.'
[Editors note: An American equivalent would be "Aspercreme" or "Heet". Tee hee.]
Ratings -- (1) Royal Navy personnel below the rank of Petty Officer; a couple of Bristol Creams and Great Aunt Fanny will tell you all you want to know about them. (2) Once upon a time, it was sufficient for a sporting hero to score the winning try against the All Blacks, or to clear six cubits and a span in the high jump. Not any more; now that everything and everyone is sponsored, the Managing Director of Dougal's Dog Biscuits wants to know that he is backing the leader in his field, so everyone has to be ranked. Cricket has always attracted more than its share of statistical anoraks. In the old days, they would marvel at the third decimal place of Denis Compton's batting average , but there was always the suspicion that a mere mean didn't fully reflect the value of the runs scored or the wickets taken. This, combined with the advent of the computer, led the accounting firm Coopers and Lybrand to spot the chance of some cheap publicity by devising a more sophisticated and 'scientific' system for ranking cricketers. The method they came up with awards points for batting and bowling performances, but applies weightings for the strength of the opposition and according to the high- or low-scoring nature of the match. Thus five top-order wickets against Australia in a high-scoring match (by implication in good batting conditions) will earn a bowler more points than five New Zealand tail-enders on a cabbage patch . A Test player's Coopers and Lybrand rating is now a part of the profile that BBC TV displays whenever it needs to fill a lull in proceedings. The accountants must be delighted. For full details of the method, and the current ranking list of Test players, visit Coopers and Lybrand's site at
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Score -- A batting side's score is expressed as a total of runs scored for wickets lost, e.g. 176 for 5 or 176-5. In Australia and New Zealand, this convention is often reversed - 5 for 176. The score for a completed innings is usually written simply as a total of runs - e.g. 355, rather than 355-10 or 355 all out .
Scorer -- One of (usually) two off-field officials, whose job is to record the events of the match in the scorebook. Each side will usually supply one scorer; two scorers help each other with the identification of players and in making sure the two books agree. They are the intended recipients of the umpires ' signals (with the exception of the raised finger for ' out '), and produce a summary of each batsman's innings and an analysis of each bowler's overs . Sounds great, doesn't it? At club level, it doesn't often work this way, and unless a willing schoolboy can be pressed into service (and as Great Aunt Fanny will confirm, they're harder to find than they used to be), the players waiting to bat have to keep score themselves. The result is a scoresheet in a number of varyingly legible hands, a corresponding degree of variation in the accuracy of the arithmetic and, considering all this, remarkably few fights over the result at the end of the match.
Seam -- The six rows of raised stitching around the equator of a cricket ball .
Skipper -- See Captain .
Skier, skyer -- A ball hit so high in the air that it descends almost vertically. Especially dangerous if it comes down close to the wicket , giving several fielders the chance to assume that someone else will catch it.
Sledging -- A term that originated in Australia for a practice that is probably as old as the game, the verbal abuse of opponents. Batsmen are more usually targets than sledgers, partly because they are outnumbered on the field, and partly because sledging can involve long words, which tend to frighten them. With the increasing use of on-field effects microphones in TV coverage of cricket, sledging poses a knotty problem. The BBC's technicians are instructed to switch on the microphone only as the bowler starts his run, and to switch it off again as soon as the ball hits or passes the bat . Despite this precaution, you didn't have to be an expert lip-reader to catch Darren Gough's 'fook me!' after he'd bowled Australia's Greg Blewett with a no-ball at Edgbaston in 1997. (Gough had Blewett caught at slip with his next ball.)
Slip -- Fielder in catching position, behind the wicket on the off side . At Test level, this is the position for the sharpest-eyed, surest-handed men in the team; in a club side, the two 50-year-old, sixteen-stone endomorphs are usually parked there because they don't often have to run far. Multiple fielders may play in this position and are called 1st, 2nd and 3rd slips, with the 1st slip being closest to the wicket-keeper . See also Fielding position .
Slippers -- Rubber-soled, unspiked cricket shoes. Usually found in a dustbin after their wearer has slipped while turning for a hasty third and been run out by half the length of the pitch .
Slog -- Unorthodox attacking batting shot , usually played regardless of the merits of the delivery. Also used generally of the closing stages of a one-day innings , where scoring quickly is more important than conserving wickets .
Soft hands -- Nothing to do with Fairy Liquid, otherwise Nanette Newman might have been the finest player of legspin ever to bat for England. This is part of a batsman's defensive technique by which he allows the bat to yield on contact with the ball . The idea is that, even if the ball turns or bounces unexpectedly, an uncontrolled shot played with soft hands is less likely to carry to the close fielders.
Spell -- Sequence of consecutive overs bowled by one bowler from one end. (Interspersed, obviously, with overs by other bowlers from the other end.) A fast bowler can seldom sustain peak effectiveness for more than about ten overs (even a bowler of six-foot-five ), but spells of four to eight overs are more usual; slow bowlers can bowl much longer spells, although even they tire eventually.
Spin specialist -- Not a true specialist, since any batsman that can't play fast bowling is unlikely to make much of an impression, a batsman who is comfortable against the subtle menace of spin is an asset to any team. Notoriously rare in England, especially since the departure from the Test side of M.W.Gatting (b.1957), although J.P.Crawley (b.1971) and N.V.Knight (b.1969) have shown encouraging signs.
Sunday League -- See Competitions, domestic .
Sundries -- Australian term for extras .
Swan off -- To go somewhere one's spouse would rather one didn't, usually to the cricket club on a day when said partner has found a small household task that simply must be done that afternoon. The verb is often used (and the task identified) retrospectively, when one arrives home in triumph, expecting an audience eager for tales of one's one-for-plenty and heroic nought-not-out, only to find that the toilet's been leaking again, the garden fence needs creosoting, and it's all one's own fault.
Sweep -- A front-foot leg-side batting shot played with bat parallel and very close to the ground. Possible only against slow bowling , and must be skilfully played to avoid giving a catch off the top edge of the bat .
Sweeper -- Modern term, scorned by the purists, for a fielder on the extra - cover boundary , usually in a one-day match, to cut off an aggressive batsman's favourite scoring shot .
Swing -- Bowling technique that causes the ball to deviate in the air. Factors that influence this deviation include: the angle of the seam relative to the travel of the ball , the relative shininess of the two sides of the ball , the bowler's arm and hand action, the hardness and prominence of the seam , cloud cover and relative humidity. That the ball does swing is evident even to the casual observer, but to date, no amount of scientific investigation has fully explained the mechanism by which it does so.
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Tail-ender -- Batsman, usually in the team as a bowler , who bats late in the order.
Take guard -- To mark, with the help of the umpire , the resting position of the bat on the popping crease . The batsman may ask to cover, for example, leg stump or leg stump and middle stump . This is important in that it determines the position of the batsman's eyes, and hence his judgement of the balls he has to play and those he can safely leave alone.
TMS -- See Test Match Special .
Topspinner -- A wrist-spinner's delivery bowled to spin 'end-over-end', in the direction of travel. Rather than turning, the topspinner picks up speed after pitching . Some finger-spinners also bowl a variety of topspinner.
Tosh -- Generally in British English used to mean 'rubbish', so bowling can be 'tosh', as was 'The English Patient'.
[Editor's note: As Great Aunt Fanny has generally been loathe to include jargon or slang which is not strictly cricket-related in our Dictionary, we surmise that she must have felt an overwhelming need to comment on 'The English Patient.' What do you think?]
Toss -- After naming their players, the captains toss a coin. The winner of the toss may elect to bat or field first. Unless the conditions are very likely to favour his swing or seam bowlers , the winning captain will usually choose to bat.
Trapped -- Lazy commentator's or journalist's automatic description of a batsman being out lbw , so much so that it may appear three or four times in an account of a single innings .
Trundler -- A club player who may once have been a fast bowler , but who is now reduced by age to bowling at slow-medium pace . Immensely boring to watch and to play against, a true trundler is still fiendishly difficult to score off. This may be why every club league team seems to have one.
TV Replay -- A replay on TV. Current Test rules allow for a third, off-field umpire to adjudicate line decisions - i.e. run-outs , stumpings and boundaries , but not catches or lbw s - with the aid of slow-motion replays.
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Umpire -- One of the two officials who control the game on the field. At first-class level, these are usually respected ex-players with a detailed knowledge of the game. This is true of some club umpires too, but sadly, not of many.
Waaaaaaaaaaaah? -- See How's that?
Wait! -- The call from one batsman to the other indicating that he should wait before running. See Calling .
Walk -- (of batsman) leave the field voluntarily when dismissed , without waiting to be given out by the umpire .
Watercooler -- What is alleged to have been placed in the dressing-room at Chelmsford to replace Graham Gooche's locker in order to eliminate bickering over who should have the retired batsman's spot, thought to have talismanic powers.
Wicket -- (1) The structure of three vertical stumps and two horizontal bails , 28 inches high by nine wide, at either end of the pitch , that it is the batsman's primary responsibility to defend. Please see this diagram for a graphical representation of the wicket. Also please see this diagram for a graphical representation of the wicket's placement on the pitch .(2) By extension from (1), the batsman's right to be on the field; by getting a batsman out , a bowler is said to take his wicket . (3) Term colloquially but incorrectly used to refer to the pitch .
Wicketkeeper -- A specialized fielder who stands behind the wicket to catch those balls the batsman does not hit. To a slow bowler , he will stand immediately behind the wicket (' standing up '), in order to perform a stumping . To a fast bowler , this is too difficult and dangerous, so he stands 10-20 yards from the wicket (' standing back '), where he has more time to react. The wicketkeeper wears heavy leather gauntlets to protect his hands and pads similar to the batsman's on his shins. Although the law does not specifically prohibit it, other fielders do not wear gloves.
Wide -- A ball that passes so far from the batsman that he cannot hit it, something that few umpires at club level seem competent to judge once, let alone to judge consistently. The batsman can be out to a wide in any way that is physically possible, given that the ball may not, by definition, pass within reach of the wicket or his bat . A wide counts one run to the batting side's score . If the batsmen run, or the ball goes to the boundary , that number of wides is scored instead.
Willow -- Wood from which cricket bats are made, usually grown in eastern England, even for those bats made in other countries. Hence 'to wield the willow', which means to bat and is not - in most cases - synonymous with 'to beat the bishop'.
Winning Margin -- If the side batting last wins the game, its margin of victory is expressed as the number of wickets still standing as it passes the winning target. The result of the first Test in the 1997 Ashes series was as follows:
Australia 118 and 477
Australia 501-9 dec
Australia won by an innings and 61 runs .
Women's cricket -- For too long the Cinderella area of the sport (in my younger days, it was all I could do to get so much as a good knock-up behind the pavilion ), women's cricket has increased sharply in popularity in recent years. I can think of two possible reasons for this. Firstly, in 1993, a summer when the men's team was being soundly thrashed by Australia, England's women beat New Zealand at Lord's to win the World Cup . Secondly, women players have at long last abandoned the ridiculous 'culottes' they used to wear (whether these were skirts or baggy shorts was never clear, despite my great-nephew's careful observation through powerful binoculars at the 1993 final), in favour of trousers. Although physical factors dictate that there is less brute force in the women's game, at the top level it is played with great skill and at a considerable pace. There is no giggling and no throwing like a girl, and the display of exuberant but controlled hitting by England's Jo Chamberlain in the 1993 final was worth the admission money on its own. It should be the hope of all cricketers that the women's game will continue to grow, for it represents the best hope that the words 'You were out all day on Saturday, surely you're not playing Sunday as well' will be heard no more.
World Cup -- A one-day international tournament held every four years. The nine Test -playing countries qualify automatically, and are joined by the top three 'minor' countries from the ICC Trophy. The World Cup is presently held by Sri Lanka, and will next be contested in England in 1999.
Wrist spinner -- Bowler who turns his wrist at the point of delivery to impart spin to the ball . This action can impart far more spin than the finger spinner , and by varying the angle of the wrist, the bowler can vary the direction of the spin, and thus the turn of the ball . (See Googly ) A right-arm wrist spinner is a leg-spinner .
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
XI -- Conventional notation for a cricket team, or 'eleven'. 'The Duchess of Norfolk's XI' is not a shocking Victorian novel, but the invited team assembled for a touring team's traditional first fixture at Arundel Castle in Sussex. The Roman numerals are probably a product of English public school elitism - cricket and hockey teams are XIs, rugby union teams XVs, but one seldom hears of a Tottenham Hotspur (football) XI or a Rochdale Hornets (rugby league) XIII. Irrelevant thought: in these days of Premiership squad numbers running into the 30s, wouldn't it be fun to put Roman numbers on footballers' shirts? "Taking the field for Barnsley, number XXXVIII, Norbert Fothergill." They'd have to stop at 39, though, or the players might mistake XL for the shirt size and wear them inside-out. [Note: the M&B Brew XI is not a cricket team.]
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Yes! -- The call from one batsman to the other indicating that he should run. See Calling .
Yorker -- A ball bowled to pitch at the batsman's feet, to pass under his bat and hit the wicket .
Zoehrer, T.J. -- Tim Zoehrer (b.1961) kept wicket in 10 Tests for Australia between 1985 and 1987, claiming 18 catches and one stumping .
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In which year was the 'Achille Lauro' cruise ship hijacked by the P.L.F.?
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BBC ON THIS DAY | 7 | 1985: Gunmen hijack Italian cruise liner
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1985: Gunmen hijack Italian cruise liner
Palestinian militants have hijacked an Italian cruise liner, the Achille Lauro, in the Mediterranean and threatened to blow it up.
The gunmen are demanding the release of 50 Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.
There are said to be 420 passengers and crew on board the ship including six Britons.
Little is yet known about the hijackers but Egyptian and Italian authorities are said to be in communication with the Palestinian Liberation Organisation.
Emergency meeting
The Naples-based ship was commandeered this afternoon shortly after leaving the port of Alexandria in Egypt on its way to Port Said.
Most of the passengers disembarked in Alexandria to go on a sight-seeing tour and were planning to rejoin the cruise further up the Egyptian coast.
The Achille Lauro's present position and intended destination is unknown, but the Italian Navy is sending ships and reconnaissance aircraft in an attempt to establish its location.
Italian Prime Minister Bettino Craxi is understood to be holding an emergency meeting to discuss options with his foreign and defence ministers.
Marine hijackings are uncommon. In 1961 the passenger liner Santa Maria was taken over by opponents of the Portuguese dictator Antonio Salazar, but it ended peacefully.
Notable sea hijacks have also occurred off Singapore, Greece and Cambodia in the 1970s.
Experts say a forced boarding of the Achille Lauro could result in heavy hostage casualties.
I was there
When the Achille Lauro was hijacked in October 1985 I was working as a receptionist at a Cairo Hotel.
At around 0200 hours on my late night shift I received a phone call from one of the Egyptian travel agents asking if I have 300 rooms available!
I was surprised and answered with hesitance that we do have availability. In three hours around 350 guests arrived in shocked condition.
They were passengers of the Achille Lauro that went on a trip to Cairo and were supposed to rejoin the ship at PortSaid.
I remember that I had to deal with this situation for three days nonstop. They were the longest three days I worked during my entire career.
Mohamed Samy, Egypt
In Context
The hijackers were from the Palestinian Liberation Front, a splinter group of Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Liberation Organisation.
They shot dead a disabled American tourist, 69 year-old Leon Klinghoffer and had his body thrown overboard with his wheelchair.
The crisis ended on 10 October. Egypt gave free passage to the hijackers in exchange for the rest of the hostages.
But US Navy jets intercepted a chartered Egypt Air 737 carrying the gunmen and forced it to land in Italy.
Four of them were tried in Italy and sentenced to long prison terms. Abu Abbas, the alleged mastermind escaped jail and stands convicted in absentia.
He was arrested by US special forces in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, in April 2003 and died in custody in March 2004. A post mortem examination showed he died of heart disease.
The Achille Lauro caught fire and sank in 1994.
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one thousand nine hundred and eighty five
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"Which musical instrument is known as a ""woodpile""?"
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Project MUSE - The <i>Achille Lauro</i> Hijacking
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pp. ix-x
THE idea of writing this book came from my friend Gene Gibbons, the long-time White House correspondent for UPI, then later Reuters. Gene covered the White House when I served on the National Security Council staff as the director of the White House Situation Room during the Reagan administration. I am indebted to Sarah Flynn for her inspired editorial guidance, and clear strategy for the structure and tone of the book. Thanks also to Rick Russell and...
Prologue
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pp. xi-xix
ON November 1, 2001, the United States was still reeling from the extraordinary terrorist attack on America fifty days earlier. Smoke and steam continued to rise from the smoldering heap of rubble that was once the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. At the Pentagon in Washington, DC, Department of Defense personnel were back at work, with many still haunted by memories of the blast, fire, and...
1 Murder on the High Seas
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pp. 1-19
SEYMOUR and Viola Meskin, passengers aboard a cruise ship off the coast of Egypt, had just finished their lunch when they heard the first shots. Four men stormed into the ship’s dining room, shooting over the heads of the passengers with automatic weapons and yelling unintelligible instructions. Viola and others echoed the gunmen’s shouting with screams of their...
2 ‘‘You Can Run, But You Can’t Hide’’
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pp. 20-45
THEY have actually left Egypt. I do not know exactly where they have gone. Perhaps they have left for Tunisia.’’ On the day following the hijackers’ surrender at Port Said, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak uttered a bald-faced lie. Questioned by the news media about the whereabouts of the four men, Mubarak insisted that they had left the country within hours....
3 Backlash (1985)
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pp. 46-71
ISPIT in their faces,’’ Marilyn Klinghoffer told President Ronald Reagan, describing her confrontation with the hijackers in a Sicilian jail just three days after they murdered her husband. Mrs. Klinghoffer was not the only person with strong emotions that day. Politicians from Washington to Tel Aviv were outraged, the former hostages and their families were still torn with grief, and the citizens in four countries were mad...
4 ‘‘Terrorvision’’ and Trials (1986)
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pp. 72-96
MARILYN Klinghoffer died of colon cancer February 9, 1986, just a few months after her husband’s murder. ‘‘She went downhill fast after she came home,’’ said Lisa Klinghoffer. ‘‘On her drive down to Washington to testify before Congress, she was in such pain that she lay on the back seat the whole trip. She just gritted her teeth and marched ahead. She didn’t talk about her illness lest it...
5 ‘‘Swim for It?’’ (1987–1989)
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pp. 97-114
TWO families. Two American families, both struggling with grief, anger, and frustration. Both the objects of hate, both victims of prejudice. One was Jewish, mourning the murder of the father and the premature death of his wife. Despite their grieving, Lisa and Ilsa Klinghoffer showed grit and tenacity in their quest to have Abu Abbas arrested. The other family was Catholic and Palestinian, also lamenting...
6 Mideast Machiavelli (1990–1991)
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pp. 115-132
LITTLE happened in the Odeh investigation during 1989, or in the first months of 1990. In May 1990, however, law enforcement officials said that they suspected three Jewish Defense League members had planted the bomb—Keith Fuchs, Andy Green, and Robert Manning. Federal officials provided evidence to grand juries in both Brooklyn and Los Angeles that linked the three men to several 1985 bombings. Manning was...
7 The Death of Klinghoffer (1991–1995)
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pp. 133-147
IN 1991, five years after Italy’s trial of the hijackers, their accomplices, and Abu Abbas, this was the status of the eleven persons that Italy charged with the hijacking....
8 The Ship of Death
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pp. 148-158
DURING the ten years following Youssef Majed Molqi’s murder of Leon Klinghoffer, Achille was plagued by that death. Horribly, his was not the first death, nor the last on that ship. And the ship was not always the Achille Lauro. She began her life as a Dutch ocean liner. With a crack of a champagne bottle on July 1, 1946, Mevrouw E. E. Ruys-Van Houten christened a new...
9 Terrorist Turned Politician (1996–1999)
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pp. 159-173
MY face is not the face of a professional killer, is it?’’ This rhetorical question, however disingenuous, was part of Abu Abbas’s attempt to remake his image in the eyes of the Western news media during the second half of the 1990s. He entered the decade hurling polemics at the United States during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, but was trying to sell himself as a man of peace and just another Palestinian...
10 Gotcha! (2174–2004)
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pp. 174-192
THE Jewish Defense League must have killed Alex Odeh. Irv Rubin all but admitted it. His confession, however, didn’t come from a session with the cops at the precinct house. In 2000, the FBI’s search for Alex Odeh’s killer generally had ground to a halt. Although the investigation was still ongoing, FBI spokeswoman Laura Bosley said in Los Angeles that there were few leads and no firm suspects. A..
Epilogue
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pp. 193-196
ABU Abbas was a terrorist in my mind. Lisa and Ilsa Klinghoffer considered him a terrorist. I am not saying that he was anything else. The most important point in the saga of the Achille Lauro hijacking, however, is that lots of other people viewed him as a freedom fighter. In my opinion, America can better deal with international terrorism, especially in deterring...
Notes
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Who married Graca Machel in 1998?
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Mandela's women by his side at end
Email a friend
NELSON Mandela died with the two main women of his life, wife Graca Machel, and the woman who he bitterly divorced in 1996, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, at his side.
As preparations are made to celebrate Nelson Mandela's life at memorial service in Johannesburg and a funeral service in the country's south, it has also been revealed that Mandela's personally nominated successor, grandson Mandla, thought to be excommunicated from the family, was also present.
FAMILY SPEAKS OF GRAVE SADNESS
South Africa's Sunday Times reported that Mandela died at 8.50pm on Thursday evening, local time, with the women, Mandla and his daughter, Makaziwe in the room. The paper said he was breathing on his own, without the support of a machine.
Mandela's immediate family has remained largely out of sight since the death. Some members have been shamed by ugly claims of gold-digging.
News_Image_File: Nelson Mandela married Graca Machel, his greatest love, in 1998 on his 80th birthday. Retired General Temba Templeton Matanzima, made the first public remarks on behalf of the family after Mandela died at his home in Houghton, Johannesburg, on Thursday evening, aged 95.
"The pillar of the family is gone, just as he was away during that 27 painful years of imprisonment, but in our hearts and souls he will always be with us, his spirit endures," Mr Matanzima said on Saturday in Johannesburg.
"As a family we commit ourselves to uphold and be guided by the values he lived for and was prepared to die for."
DAY OF PRAYER FOR LOST MANDELA
Soweto's 95-000-capacity FNB Stadium will be the site of a huge public memorial for world leaders and citizens on Tuesday, though there are doubts the stadium will be able to hold what is expected to be a much bigger crowd.
News_Image_File: Nelson Mandela walks free from prison in February 1990 with his then wife Winnie by his side. As world leaders prepare to arrive in Johannesburg for the memorial service to Nelson Mandela, South Africans have already begun to celebrate his life, with thousands turning up outside the home where he died.
News_Module: NND Mandela Pictures Multipromo
The rolling informal event has been marked by joy rather than sadness as the country braces for what may be the biggest funeral event the world has seen.
What has been described as a flood of world leaders, including President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Tony Abbott, along with a swathe of dictators who also revere Mandela, is set to cause a massive headache for South Africa's security forces.
News_Image_File: Members of the ANC Women's League march and sing to celebrate the life of Nelson Mandela outside his old house in Soweto.
Mandela's descendants have been accused of failing to live by his example, after grandson Mandla dug up the remains of three family members who were buried in Mandela's home village of Qunu on Eastern Cape and shifted them 20km south to his home village of Mvezo.
This was part of a bigger plan by Mandla, who had built a hotel and museum in Mvezo, intending that it also be the resting place of his grandfather, despite Mandela's wish that he be buried in his home village of Qunu.
News_Image_File: Nelson Mandela's grandson Mandla Mandela outside his grandfather's house in Soweto.
A court ordered Mandla to return the bodies to Qunu and Mandela's final wishes to be buried there will be respected.
Two of his daughters, including Makaziwe, have been accused through legal actions of trying to gain control of Mandela's wealth and to trying to profit on his name.
People will have a chance to pay their last respects to him when his body will be transported in procession on Wednesday to the country's administrative capital, Pretoria, where it will lie in state before being flown by to Qunu for his funeral on Sunday.
News_Image_File: Graca Machel and Nelsob Mandela attend the 2010 FIFA football World Cup final at the Soccer City stadium in Soweto.Graca Machel was seen briefly outside the Houghton residence on Sunday. She has not made any public statement as yet. Nor has Mandela's Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, who was also at one stage believed to have been exiled from Mandela's life.
Their marriage had failed during his long incarceration and Ms Madikizela-Mandela, who was Mandela's second wife, faced charges of leading an orchestrated campaign of gang violence in the Soweto township.
News_Rich_Media: Vale Nelson Mandela
But she visited Mandela when he was first hospitalised in Pretoria earlier this year and is understood to be on close terms with Graca Machel.
Ms Madikizela-Mandela shot down rumours that towards the end, Mandela was in a virtual vegetative state. "I have heard this nonsense that he is on life support - he is not," she said last month.
The Sunday Times reports that close to midnight, on Thursday night, arrived to remove Mandela's body to a military hospital.
People of all backgrounds warmed up for a week of mourning outside Mandela's home in the well-to-do district of Houghton, coming together and showing why South Africa was christened the Rainbow Nation after the fall of apartheid.
News_Image_File: Mourners gather outside Nelson Mandela's old house in Soweto.
But it appeared to be more festive than mournful as they formed tight circles and sang uplifting songs about the man they called Madiba.
They said he would not have wanted them to be sad, though one man who fought back a tear stood out among the others: a burly Afrikaans man who brought his wife and daughter to lay flowers.
The Afrikaners, or Boers, created the apartheid system that became so reviled around the world. Yet Deon Olivier, a sugar farmer from Natal, whose family grew up depending on black field hands, saw only greatness in what Mandela achieved.
"We weren't brought up to be racist. Why should we run?" Mr Olivier said. "This is our country after all.
"And we listened to what he was saying. He never distinguished between whites and black. He never distinguished between us. He was a great man."
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Nelson Mandela
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Who wrote the 1978 novel 'Young Adolf'?
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Graça Simbine Machel | South African History Online
South African History Online
Home » Biographies » Graça Simbine Machel
Graça Simbine Machel
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People category:
Biographical information
Synopsis:
Deputy Director of the Frelimo Secondary School in Tanzania, member of Frelimo's Central Committee and the Minister of Education and Culture in Mozambique, Chairperson of the National Organization of Children of Mozambique.
First name:
Location of birth:
Gaza, Mozambique
Graça Simbine Machel was born on 17 October 1945, in Gaza, Mozambique, the last in a family of six children. Her father, a Methodist minister who had died three weeks before she was born, left explicit instructions that her older siblings were to see her through high school. After that, a church-based scholarship made it possible for her to attend Lisbon University (Portugal) in 1968, to major in languages.
Under surveillance from the Portuguese secret police, she was forced to abandon her education and flee to Switzerland to escape the prison sentence that was almost certainly waiting for her due to her political activities as a student.
In 1973, while she was in Europe she joined the Marxist-based Mozambican Liberation Front (FRELIMO), an organised resistance movement that was steadily gaining ground in the struggle against colonialism from the Portuguese.
When Machel arrived in Tanzania from Europe, she found an efficiently run FRELIMO headquarters operation, as well as storage facilities, supply routes, and two training camps, one run by Chinese instructors, the other by Russians. She underwent military training and learnt how to take an assault rifle apart and put it back together. Subsequently, she spent a short period in Mozambique's Cabo Delgado Province, where she met Samora Machel , the FRELIMO commander who later became her husband.
In September 1975, she married Samora Machel, the first president of newly independent Mozambique. She also became a willing stepmother to her husband's five children by his first companion, Sorita, and his first wife, Josina, who had died of leukaemia in 1971, after scarcely two years of marriage. Samora and Graca Machel have two children of their own.
During the war for independence from the Portuguese rule, FRELIMO set up schools in liberated territories and within their training camps in neighbouring Tanzania. Machel participated in the armed struggle, and she was appointed Deputy Director of the Frelimo Secondary School at Bagamoyo, Tanzania, in 1974.
When Mozambique became independent and FRELIMO formed the country’s first government in 1975, Machel became a member of Frelimo's Central Committee and the Minister of Education and Culture. As Minister for Education until 1989, Graça Machel worked to implement FRELIMO's goal of universal education for all Mozambicans. From 1975 to 1985, the number of students enrolled in primary and secondary schools rose from about 40 percent of all school-aged children to over 90 percent for males and 75 percent for females.
Machel is recognised for her dedication to educating the people of Mozambique, and for her leadership in organisations devoted to the children of her war-torn country. She has been a major force in increasing literacy and schooling in Mozambique and has spoken of the needs and rights of children, families and community, from platforms all over the world.
Following President Machel’s death in a plane crash on 19 October 1986, she resigned her post as Minister of Education, leaving behind a sterling record-1.5 million children in school, as against 400,000 when she had arrived. As Minister of Education to the new government, she was able to reduce the illiteracy rate by 72%.
Machel has striven for peace and reconciliation in her country, and has attempted to further Mozambique's reconstruction and development efforts. As President of the Foundation of Community Development, she has facilitated greater community access to knowledge and technology and patterns of sustainable human development.
In recognition of the particular devastation of war on children, Machel became Chairperson of the National Organization of Children of Mozambique, an organization that places orphans in village homes while reinforcing the role of the family and community in the healing process. Machel worked closely with families in her efforts to rehabilitate children, and to empower Mozambican women.
Machel has also participated in international fora, as a delegate to the 1988 UNICEF conference in Harare, Zimbabwe, and as the President of the National Commission of UNESCO in Mozambique. In addition to her many contributions, Machel also served on the international steering committee of the World Conference on Education for All, held in 1990.
As chair of Mozambique's National Organization of Children and president of the country's UNESCO commission, Machel was asked to chair a study to assist young victims of Mozambique’s civil war that was published by the United Nations (UN) on 11 November 1996. Machel's recommendations for rehabilitation called on UNICEF to begin resettling all displaced children, and to start funds specifically for their re-education. Machel's report also focused on landmines. Her report endorsed the idea that humanitarian mine clearance should become a routine part of all peace agreements, and that the countries, which have profited from the manufacture and sale of these lethal weapons should bear the huge cost of their removal.
She was appointed by the Secretary General of the United Nations as an Expert to Chair the Study on the Impact of Armed Conflict on Children. The Study on the Impact of Armed Conflict on Children, the first of its kind in the history on the United Nations, demonstrated to the world community the necessity of adopting effective measures for the promotion and protection of the rights of the children who are victims of armed conflicts, and to stimulate much greater international action to this end.
Machel is President of the Foundation for Community Development (FDC), a not”for”profit organisation,she founded in 1994. FDC makes grants to civil society organisations to strengthen communities, facilitate social and economic justice and assist in the reconstruction and development of post war Mozambique.
In the 1990s, the friendship between Graca and Nelson Mandela , President of South Africa, whom Machel has known since her husband's death deepened. The couple married on 18 July 1998.
Over the years, Machel has gained international recognition for her achievements. Her many awards include the Laureate of Africa Prize for Leadership for the Sustainable End of Hunger from the Hunger Project in 1992 and in 1995 the Nansen Medal in recognition of her contribution to the welfare of refugee children. She has received the Inter Press Service’s (IPS) International Achievement Award for her work on behalf of children internationally, the Africare Distinguished Humanitarian Service Award and the North-South Prize of the Council of Europe, among others.
In 2008, the University of Barcelona, Spain, awarded a Doctor Honoris Causa to Machel. She has served on the boards of numerous international organisations, including the UN Foundation, the Forum of African Women Educationalists, the African Leadership Forum and the International Crisis Group. Among her many commitments, she is Chair of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization Fund, Chancellor of the University of Cape Town, South Africa and a Panel Member of the African Peer Review Mechanism.
References:
• Kituo Cha Katiba, Graça Simbine Machel from the Eastern Africa Centre for Constitutional Development, [online], Available at www.kituochakatiba.org [Accessed on 14 June 2013]
• The Hunger Project, Graça Simbine Machel , [online], from The Hunger Project, Available at www.thp.org [Accessed on 14 June 2013]
• Accord, (2013), Trustees Mrs. Graça Machel , from Accord Website, [online], Available at www.accord.org.za [Accessed on 19 June 2013]
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"Which musical instrument is known as a ""gob-stick""?"
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Musical Instruments – Music Around The World
July 28, 2016 muacbbif Uncategorized 0
Music itself is a special word that has it own complete meaning. It is best and precious creation of human being, which rejuvenate ourselves and touch our soul. Due to its high impact on people, it is capable of breaking the boundaries to unit people from different heritage and backgrounds. This is the pleasant sound which gives ear-soothing effects. Music also have healing power, it can relax our tense muscles of body. If you want to show or express your feelings in the front of someone special then you can take the helping hand of music because it is a source for everyone to tell their mood and feelings.
There are a huge range of musical instruments, all are played with different methods and give pleasant sounds. Each instrument has unique power and sound that mesmerize not only people infact animals too. With the advancement in technology many new instruments have coming up each day with perfect sound. Basically five types of instruments are found around the world these are as following:
1) Aerophones
4) Chordophones
5) Electronic Instruments
1) Aerophones: These are the instruments that generate music through vibration of air. Types of Aerophones are as followings:
a) Recorders: It is the woodwind instrument.It is one of the duct flute which is popular in western classical tradtion. It has thumb hole for the upper hand and seven finger holes. These are available in different sizes which produce different vocal ranges. Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass are the types of recorders.
b) Panpipes: It is also called syrinx or pan flutes. It is wind instrument having the cane pipes or flutes of different length, they are tied together in the form of bundle by wax or cord. Each pipe providing a different note.
c) Clarinets: It is the younger woodwind instrument. It has single reed. They are bigger than a recorder. It is made of generally with black grenadilla wood, silver plated keys and having cylinderical bore.
d) Saxophones: It is also the part of woodwind musical instrument. Made of brass and its single reed mouthpiece. Which is similar to the clarinet. Basically used in classical music. The players are known as saxophonists.
e) Oboes: It is double reed woodwind instrument. Its played in soprano or treble rangle commonly. In this instrument sound is produced by blowing into the reed.
f) Bassoons: Its double reed in the form and plays music written in the bass.
g) Bagpipes: It is the aerophone instrument having enclosed reeds. In this form air is reservoir in the bag. It gives melody sounds everytime.
h) Trumpets: This one is the popular instrument used in classical and jazz ensembles. In ancient time it was used as signaling device for battle and haunting.
i) Mouth organs: It is another aerophone device. It is free reed in form. It can be commonly found around the world.
j) Whistle Flutes: It is reedless instrument comes under the woodwind group. The sound is produced by blowing the air across an opening. Commonly find in India.
Moreover Tubas, Cornets, Bugles, Organs, Concertinas, Trombones, End-Blown, Side-Blown, Horns are the types of aerophones.
2) Idiophones: These are the instruments which are made of material and create natural sounds. Following are the types of idiophones:
a) Tapping Feet: It is one type of instrument where sound is produced with tapping feet. It is common and easily feel in our daily life.
b) Clapping Hands: Since our childhood we feel this sound and it is the common type of instrument. Joining of our two hands give perfect sound.
c) Stamping Sticks: You can also hear this type of sound by stamping the sticks.
d) Steel Drums: These are also known as steelpan. Musician of this instrument is called pannists. This is invented in Trinidad and Tobago.
e) Slit Drums: Its not a drum but a idiophone carved from bamboo or wood. These have number of slits in this instrument.
f) Xylophones: In this type the wooden bars is usually struck by mallets. It gives melodic voice ranges.
Besides all above Gongs, Bells, Cymbals, Castanets are the some types of idiophones.
3) Membranophones: They produce sound by the vibration of membrane or skin. Types of this kind of instrument is as following:
a) Drums: In this kind of instrument one membrane is used which is stretched over the a shell and its called drumhead or skin. The melody sound in this kind is created by using of sticks known as drum stick or by player’s hands.
b) Mirliton: It is device where sound is produced by waves or instrument vibrance of skin.
c) Kazoo: It is kind of mirliton where skin or membrane is set on the wall of short tube.
4) Chordophones: In this kind of instrument sound is generated with the vibration of strings. Following are the types of chordophones:
a) Pianos: It is musical device that produce sounds by pressing the set of keys on keyboard. In this instrument one can use his both hands. It is widely used in classical, traditional and jazz ensemble.
b) Guitars: It is the string device having 4 to 18 strings. The melody sound in this instrument is generated by plucking or strumming the strings with right hand.
c) Banjos: In this device the membrane is stretched over the frame and it has four to five strings. It is a folk instrument.
d) Violins: It is a wooden instrument. It is available in smallest and highest pitched. It usually has four strings.
e) Harps: It is kind of device where number of strings running at an angle to its soundboard. The sound in this type of instrument is generated by plucking with the fingers.
f) Violas: Its another type of string instrument. Its slighter larger than the violin and having deeper sound than the violin.
Some other types are Lyres, Ukeless, Cellos, Kits, Zithers, Dulcimers, Clavichords, Harpsichords are also the chordophones.
5) Electronic Instruments: In these types of musical instruments sound is produced by amplified or electricity. Types of electronic instruments are as below:
a) Electric Guitar: It is same like the guitar having strings and generate sounds by plucks and finger picks but it used electrical impulses which is plus point in the guitars.
b) Electric Pianos: It is another electronic musical instrument that produce sound by pressing the keys on piano.
c) Music Boxes: It is automatic musical instrument that generate sounds by use of a set of pins.
Other electronic devices are Electric Organs, Electric Basses, Drum Machines, Carillons and Theremins
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Clarinet
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Who divorced Ronald Regan in 1948?
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Best Musical Instruments - Top Ten List - TheTopTens®
Best Musical Instruments
1 Electric Guitar
Defiantly guitars, I mean let's try to make this realistic, who really plays the bagpipes?
Wow I just laughed really hard, you are hilarious.. I know this comment has no point but just had to put that out there!
The most flexible instrument in the world. Whilst other instruments such as bagpipes and violin are beautiful in their own right, electric guitar can master sounds like rock, jazz, blues, classical sounds etc... Although I do like bagpipes... I respectfully crank my guitar and max distort in your face
The electric guitar can do so much. From Jazz to Heavy metal, clean sound to super distorted. You can create your own sound and style. You
Can play really simple, fun riffs or technical solos. It's mind-boggling how many different ways there are to play. You can bend, tap, use the whammy bar (if you have one), scratch etc. And don't even get get me started on different effect pedals and tunings. Basically, the electric guitar is the best instrument ever.
I play electric guitar and I love it it is unique and easy to play, this is definitely the best musical instrument
V 147 Comments
2 Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played using a keyboard, which is a row of keys that the performer presses down or strikes with the fingers and thumbs of both hands.
It sounds beautiful! It's wonderful!
This is the one that sounds beautiful and awesome! The songs sound so nice! The piano is the instrument that gives everyone the happiness and joy EVERYDAY!
I play piano, and it's very fun, simple, and, once you've been playing it for a few years, people think you're awesome.
Piano should be in first place. It can play music in every single genre, is simple to learn but can always be improved, and is the easiest to learn music technique on!
V 265 Comments
3 Drums
Drums gives a rhythm to every piece of music. The beat is very powerful, and the it makes every song sounds even better.
Drums give rhythm and sound to every song - IceCream
With it's solid heart-shaking kicks, striking rollings which can be done on snare, and it's king-like appearance, drums definitely can be said to be the king of all musical instruments. Drums make people feel that music is very cool. The thrashing sound can only be done on no other musical instrument except the cymbal of drums. Long live drums. Whenever I play you I gain so much peace that I cannot express it in words. Drums is my favourite musical instrument.
I play the drums and they make everyone want to dance to the beat
V 109 Comments
4 Saxophone
The saxophone is different. Sure, you meet many people who can get beautiful tones on the clarinet or flute, play the drums or bagpipes, but the saxophone speaks for itself. The electric guitar might be able to do a lot, and classical instruments like the violin, viola or cello, but the sax (alto, in particular) is so satisfying, relaxing and lovely. It's not about difficulty at all, for example, do you ever feel hesitant about getting out your instrument and playing it? The sax isn't like that. Never. It's obviously not hard to see how it can capture so many people's hearts. I used to play classical, and felt that as much as I liked it, I wanted to try jazz. And I did. And it made me realise that whilst I had been complaining about the task of practising, I had been missing out on so much that is so useful, and brings joy to people. So to all you saxophone players out there like me - keep on playing and don't give up. The saxophone has a world of its own, of jazz, waiting to be ... more
The saxophone is jazzy, can be loud, soft, and can sound like a brass or woodwind instrument. It is the instrument that balances out brass and woodwind. This is why I like it so much.
Saxophone is by far the most romantic and sexiest instrument and its not merely any instrument its number 1 for me and I've met a lot of people with the same opinion. I really think that everyone can enjoy good sax and jazz songs cause they can be also chill out songs.
It can be used as a soothing instrument in jazz songs, or create a dance-able beat in R&B songs. - MistyMay113
V 131 Comments
5 Violin
The violin is a wooden string instrument in the violin family. It is the smallest and highest-pitched instrument in the family in regular use.
Good luck and I play violin and it is so so fun I love it but I reckon violin could of made it to the top 3 but I don't get why the bag pipes are number 1 no body I know really has a bagpipe or even play the bagpipes! But I see their point
Violin is good accompaniment in heavy music, melodic metal, even hiphop. Dracula's favorite instrument.
I am in 4th grade and I will be in 5th next year and there is band next year and they don't have the violin and that is what I wanted to play I am very mad to play the violin is my dream
Come on :// violin should be #2 after the piano
V 113 Comments
6 Bass Guitar
Bass guitar is probably the most underrated and underrespected instruments out there. And it's also one of the best sounding! Electric guitarists get all the fame because they make it look easy but the fact is it IS easy (compared to bass or acoustic). Bass players on the other hand, deserve far more respect than they get. If you disagree that bassists get disrespected just go to The Uncyclopedia and look up bass guitar.
Poor John Deacon is so underrated and really, all of them are, but he is my favorite. If I had to play an instrument, this would be it. But I already play drums. (I am not that good. ) But anyway, I REALLY love the sound, it sounds so cool... Listen to "Invisible Man" by Queen, and it sounds AWESOME. Also, "Crazy Little Thing Called Love". BASS FOREVER
Far more important than electric guitar. A band can survive with just bass and drums, guitars, keyboards or even saxophones are merely the decoration on the musical cake that is the rhythm section. - Christian.H.Mills
Just go and listen to cliff burton
V 43 Comments
7 Acoustic Guitar
An acoustic guitar is a guitar that produces sound acoustically - by transmitting the vibration of the strings to the air - as opposed to relying on electronic amplification.
Absolutely. It's harder than bass and electric, so it produces a clearer sound. I play instruments from all the categories and guitar is easily the best.
It's like no other sound. It refreshes that need for sound quality. I love playing acoustic guitar.
This is a very modern guitar! Very cool!
Its very cool I really want to learn how to play this instruments - lovingicecreams
V 59 Comments
8 Flute
Flute definitely deserves to be on this list because it is the hardest of the woodwind instruments to master. 60% of a flute players air doesn't even make it into the instrument. If you have ever made a noise by blowing across a beer bottle... It is way harder. I play this instrument in a symphony setting and get paid more than most of the other instrumentalists.
I would put the flute over any woodwind instruments. It is definitely the hardest woodwind instrument to play. It doesn't have a reed which makes it harder to play because it requires more air, not to mention the fingerings. But once you've mastered the flute, it is an amazing instrument to play.
I think flutes deserve at least a 3! I've played for 4 years so far, and it helps me play piano; by changing my fingering a lot. I play in school band and practice about 20 minutes EVERY DAY at home. At least. The sound range is pretty nice, you can go really high. It is rather difficult to get the sound right sometimes, but it's not nearly as pricy as some other instruments. I carry my flute around nearly all day and it is so light and portible. I LOVE MY FLUTE!
Flute players deserve a lot more credit than they get! They use a lot of air to play their instrument and if they are sick, it is very hard. They also have to play very high where no one else can and when you have to be soft it is very hard. Flutes deserve at least a 3!
V 75 Comments
9 Guitar
I love all guitars so I couldn't jut chose electric or acoustic, they are fun to play and are used is so many genres. I love the guitar
(Yes I know ELP is my favorite band, and they didn't have guitar. )
BUT FOR PETE'S SAKE THIS IS THE GUITAR WE ARE TALKING ABOUT. THIS IS POSSIBLY THE MOST IMPORTANT INSTRUMENT IN MUSIC IN THE LAST TWO CENTURIES.
Guitars of any matter are amazing! Acoustic guitars give songs a nice feel and electric guitars give songs an exciting feel! - Lina1028
I actually have my OWN guitar (Best birthday gift well top 5 at least) the color is ABSOLUTELY AMAZING the color is Black mix with red and playing a guitar is fun,addicting and the sound is beautiful
V 16 Comments
10 Trumpet
Trumpet is the bomb in any latin band. It's also important in any big/show/stage band. It can also can also rock a seedy jazz bar. Honestly it's like singing just better. =D
I have played the trumpet for 4 years and it is an amazing instrument to play. You can reach a range of all different notes with it and it can handle all genres.
Trumpet is probably the best instrument because it sounds, just beautiful. I love the sound of the trumpet. The trumpet is DEFINITELY the best instrument!
Trumpet is the best and very underrated by people!
The Contenders
11 Clarinet
The clarinet is the best instrument ever. It is right in the middle of the flute and saxophone yet is small and lightweight. It has the largest range of notes music styles and dynamics of any woodwind instrument. It is also the most important instrument to any concert band's sound. The clarinet has the largest range of different members of its family. The clarinet can be used in marching bands, symphony orchestras, chamber ensembles, jazz bands, big bands, latin jazz, rock n roll, pop, commercial music, country, samba, or salsa music. The clarinet Iis one of the most expressivec and flexible instruments ever created, having a tone and range closest to the human voice. It can sound expressive as a solo instrument or as a section. CLARINETS ARE AMAZING.
The clarinet is the pathway to learning basically any woodwind instrument. When you learn the clarinet, that makes it easy to learn any saxophone, flute, any other kind of clarinet, etc. With the clarinet there is no limit as to how high your range goes - you can define your range by how far you are willing to go, which is a unique and great quality. The clarinet sounds beautiful and has a full, dark, and rich tone. You can also play a variety of different styles of music on the clarinet. Although the clarinet embrouchure is perhaps the hardest to develop correctly, the instrument is otherwise not terrible to learn. I fell in love with the clarinet, have you?
It's a hard woodwind instrument to play. When you master it it makes it less difficult for you to play other woodwind instruments.
It is easy to learn and makes a soothing sound.
V 52 Comments
12 Keyboards
I kind of think this is pretty much a more modern and cheaper version of a piano and the only difference is you can't look inside it for the strings and it's electrical but same sound and stuff.
Keyboards are practically the same as pianos and they are more fun because you can try out different sounds, if you can play the key board you can play anything!
They make most of the other best interments in one. I love it more than even a guitar. I recommend you try a keyboard because I love it hope you will to
I think keyboard should be higher than piano. After all piano is also a keyboard. - zxm
V 21 Comments
13 Cello
The cello is an amazing instrument, that has the perfect tone. It has a sound that no band instrument can compete with. A cello can accompany virtually any instrument, while it can also play beautiful solos. This instrument, is the best instrument ever invented.
The cello allows me to express myself in ways that I could have never imagined. It has taken me places I could have never dreamed of going, and it has given me the chance to see things that I had never noticed, both musical and non-musical.
There is no musical instrument on planet Earth that can be as expressive as a cello.
Yes, it's not often the main part of some symphony orchestra, but it makes the melodies even more beautiful. I've often wondered why bands don't sound as good as orchestras, and this is the reason.
V 67 Comments
14 Voice
I am a big singer and have been singing for about ten years. It can be loud, soft, and can copy any sound. It is one of the hardest of all instruments because you can tune a violin or a cello but it is hard to tune a voice. Once you get the hang of it, you can add your own special touches to any song.
The human voice is the most emotional, diverse and natural instrument in the world. The possibilities can be infinite since you never know what you're going to get. Also, it can be altered like other instruments with machinery. An instrument anyone can play! - DoubleTreble
There's no better instrument than the voice, singing is like a talent that same people are good at and some people are not but not like other instruments the voice is natural and gives more chances. It is peace to harmony.
I love to sing. This is a great choice and the only better instrument is the euphonium
V 32 Comments
16 Harp
Where on earth is the harp on this list? To me the most beautiful sounding instrument. Wont do for every situation but for the right song nothing does the job more beautifully.
I have always wanted to try the harp before I got my flute! The sound is just so romantic and beautiful that I fell head over heels when I first heard it! :D but the problem is that they could be really hard to play and they are SUPER EXPENSIVE! I would not recommend them to any family with a tight budget because they can be anywhere up to 1,000,000 Dollers or sometimes even more! With their beautiful sounds but expensive prices I would prefer just 'borrowing' one from someone and try it out. Try your local music shop and see what they recommend.
The harp is a beautiful sounding instrument, but over summer holidays I just "forgot" to play it as I am very impatient and it is quite hard...
I'm 10 playing the flute but my next instrument on the list is the Harp...
V 5 Comments
17 Ukulele
The ukulele is awesome instrument to learn and is really fun to play along to songs and sing with as well. It makes an amazing sound and easily cheers up anyone on a very bad day! It is easy too learn too, and is very good if you want to learn the guitar and definitely easier to learn if you already know how to play the guitar. UKULELE = TOTAL OWNAGE
The ukulele is such a versatile instrument. Hands down the best instrument to play on chill and relaxing days. It relieves one's stress with just a couple chords. While you can't get the raw power of an electric guitar, you get more of melodic, comforting sound. Definitely belongs in the top three, not rank 15 (how did the bag pipes get a better score haha)
Ukuleles can play all genres and are hugely under appreciated. They are suitable substitutes to most overused instruments and deserve to be at the top of this list.
I LOVE UKULELE! I play ukulele and so does my third grade teacher!
V 38 Comments
18 Synthesizer
In complete honesty, if you hate the sound the synthesizer makes then you must hate music yourself. How is it not #1, it can do anything! I know the guitar, piano and violin are all very traditional, but this may be the instrument of the future, if not already the instrument of the time. It can be used right, it just isn't being used right with popular music nowadays. - Donut
No. Synths can only replicate the instrument sound to a certain level so it usually ends up sounding nothing like the actual instrument - AlbertAngrySami
Synthesizer should be #1 on this list because they can make literally ANY SOUND. Guitar? You got it. Piano? Yep. Violin? Absolutely. You name the instrument, a synth can emulate it.
Yep, it can emulate it and turn it into a complete joke. Not that it can't be used right, but more often than not it isn't and even when used right trying to actually compare it to the instrument it's being used to mimic is laughable. - dubsinthetubs
I disagree. Sure, Synths can make any sound but it will never truly replicate the sound of many instruments
This shouldn't even count as an instrument
V 10 Comments
19 Xylophone
You know why no one takes the xylophone seriously? It's because the only types that are ever seen are baby toys. It is so much more than how it often appears to us. Also, it's great to make and makes a fun project!
I love xylophones! They sound like skeletons!
Those sound pretty and are easy to play.
I have a xylophone
V 1 Comment
20 Harmonica
It's great for the blues! If you're looking to play some great but sad song then the harmonica is all yours
This instrument is handy. You can play anywhere, and anytime.
Understated. Does everything you want/can think of. From Jazz and blues, to rock and roll if you stick a pedal and an amp on it. And if you get bored, practice beatbox and play it making your own baseline!
I just love the sound, it's just so fun!
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i don't know
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Who was the Archbishop of Canterbury at the time of Edward VIII's abdication?
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The madness of King Edward VIII: Shocking letters hidden for 76 years reveal Archbishop accused Monarch of insanity, alcoholism and persecution mania - and forced him into abdication crisis | Daily Mail Online
The madness of King Edward VIII: Shocking letters hidden for 76 years reveal Archbishop accused Monarch of insanity, alcoholism and persecution mania - and forced him into abdication crisis
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He was the first celebrity Archbishop – a man of the cloth who enjoyed the trappings of power.
Intelligent and charismatic, Cosmo Gordon Lang baptised the Queen and was a close friend of the Queen Mother.
He became the first Archbishop of Canterbury to broadcast to the nation and is even credited with inventing the royal walkabout.
But now a darker side to the Archbishop has emerged, with newly discovered Lambeth Palace archives revealing that he betrayed King Edward VIII – the Monarch he was supposed to serve – and orchestrated the Abdication crisis.
Plotter: Cosmo Lang, pictured with Edward in 1936, stooped to blackmail and rumour-mongering, falsely alleging that the King was mentally ill and an alcoholic
Lang colluded with the editor of The Times to threaten Edward over his affair with divorcee Wallis Simpson.
He stooped to blackmail and rumour-mongering, falsely alleging that the King was mentally ill and an alcoholic.
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And in a hand-written letter delivered by a footman to No 10 – a document described as the ‘smoking gun’ – Lang told Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin that Edward must go immediately.
He wrote: ‘I understand that you are seeing him tonight; and doubtless you would make this plain.’
It has long been assumed that the two leading figures chiefly responsible for pushing Edward from office in 1936 were Baldwin, and the editor of The Times, Geoffrey Dawson.
But an Essex vicar, the Rev Dr Robert Beaken – who interviewed the late Queen Mother and spent hours looking through dusty files in Lambeth Palace – has established that the puppetmaster was Lang.
Scandal: The Archbishop had a boundless dislike of the 'playboy Prince', as Edward, right, had been described, after the Royal's affair with divorcee Wallis Simpson, left,
Dr Beaken, who uncovered the archives during his research for a book, says Lang was no mere ‘bystander’ in the crisis. ‘The papers show that Lang pressurised Baldwin to ensure that the King went, and went swiftly,’ he says.
'According to Dr Beaken, parish priest of St. Katharine’s, Little Bardfield, although the Archbishop felt some sympathy for the ‘playboy prince’, as Edward had been described, he feared that the new King's behaviour would impact on the future of the monarchy.'
First he colluded with Baldwin and Dawson to ensure that Edward received a clear threat: his affair with Mrs Simpson would be exposed in public unless the King abdicated.
The relationship was seen as scandalous by the establishment, threatening a constitutional crisis, and no details were reported in the domestic press – though it was becoming widely reported abroad.
Uncovered: Archbishop Lang's 'smoking gun' secret letter to the Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin
The Archbishop’s private secretary records in his diary that: ‘Lang had some talk with Geoffrey Dawson.
It seems to be agreed that Baldwin must take action quite soon in order to clear the air. Dawson is prepared to come out with an utterance in The Times if necessary.’
Baldwin authorised the delivery of a letter warning the King of their intentions. Then, in the face of continuing public support for Edward, Lang attempted to blacken the King’s name.
A devastating private letter was sent to Dawson that said: ‘My dear Dawson, I have heard from a trustworthy source that His Majesty is mentally ill and that his obsession is due not to mere obstinacy but to a deranged mind.
More than once in the past he’s shown symptoms of persecution-mania. This, even apart from the present matter, would lead almost inevitably to recurring quarrels with his ministers if he remained on the throne.’
Lang also told Baldwin that Edward had undergone treatment for alcoholism using hypnotism, though he had no evidence of this.
The cause of the conflict between the King and his Archbishop appears to have been a question of style as well as traditional morality.
Lang had come into his own during the Depression when he recognised that the Monarchy faced a threat from a disgruntled public.
'Deranged mind': The Archbishop wrote to Times editor Geoffrey Dawson, saying that Edward was 'mentally ill' and had a 'deranged mind'
His masterstroke had been to bind the Royal Family to the Church of England, helping to ensure their popularity as a God-fearing example to the nation.
But the new King was more interested in high society than the Church. He had been a modern Prince, adored by the crowds for his smooth good looks, easy charm and fashion sense.
This stirred resentment at the highest levels of society even before he met Mrs Simpson. His father, George V, was horrified by his son’s relationship with ‘that dreadful common American woman’.
Intrigue: Derek Jacobi as the Archbishop in the film The King's Speech with Colin Firth as Edward's brother Albert, later George VI
George V confided in Lang: ‘What’s the use in all this if my son is going to ruin it after I’m gone?’
Lang’s private secretary recorded in his diaries that: ‘Edward is all out for youth and common people. He hates society and the conventions of court life. All this has its advantages in a democratic age but there are difficulties.’
Edward was equally scathing about the Archbishop, writing that he was ‘more interested in the pursuit of prestige and power than the abstractions of the human soul’.
The gulf between Lang and Edward became apparent shortly after the funeral of George V on January 28, 1936. The Archbishop feared losing his role as an intimate adviser to the Crown, while Edward described his nemesis as ‘a spectre clad in black gaitors going noiselessly about’.
When Edward took Wallis to the Mediterranean that August, flaunting her to the world as if she were already Queen, the churchman was horrified.
Matters came to a head when Edward and Wallis held court at Balmoral. For the first time in 25 years, Lang was not invited.
Snubbed, he travelled north to his own Scottish retreat and meditated in seclusion. At that point, according to Dr Beaken, Lang became determined that Edward had to go.
Lang had friends at the highest level including, it seems, Edward’s younger brother Albert, the Duke of York (father of the current Queen, and later George VI).
When Lang was invited to stay with the Yorks at Birkhall, their Scottish residence, he wrote about his visit and was apparently already considering a change of Monarch.
‘The children Lilibet and Margaret Rose joined us,’ he recorded. ‘They sang . . . most charmingly. It was strange to think of the destiny which may be awaiting the little Elizabeth.’
His invitation to Birkhall was not necessarily as innocent as it seemed: there was a sense in which the Yorks had set up a rival Court.
Historian Susan Williams, author of The People’s King: The True Story Of The Abdication, explained: ‘It was not a neutral act because the Archbishop of Canterbury had always been in living memory the cornerstone of the Court.
‘Edward certainly understood this as an attack. He was in fact furious with his brother Albert and he felt that Albert had thrown the gauntlet down as if to say we’re on the offensive now.’
Turmoil: To Lang¿s horror, Winston Churchill suggested a solution that would keep Edward on the Throne: that he could marry Wallis if she became Duchess of Cornwall, rather than Queen
Despite the turmoil, Edward continued with his public duties and remained popular. And to Lang’s horror, Winston Churchill suggested a solution that would keep Edward on the Throne: that he could marry Wallis if she became Duchess of Cornwall, rather than Queen.
At the time, it would have been an extraordinary departure for a king (although, when Prince Charles followed in his great-uncle’s footsteps and married a divorcee this was the very title taken by Camilla Parker Bowles, rather than Princess of Wales).
Lang’s response has remained hidden for generations. In a letter to Baldwin, dated November 25, 1936, he dismisses Churchill’s plan and, warning that the scandal could go public at any time, advises the Prime Minister to tell the King that he must give up the Throne.
He wrote: ‘My dear Prime Minister, Forgive me if in this letter I seem to intrude unasked into your heavy responsibilities about The Affair. I gather that it is becoming more and more difficult to prevent leakage into the press. If so, the leakage will soon become a flood and burst the dam.
‘He must leave as soon as possible.It would be out of the question that he should remain . . . any announcement that is to be made of the kind you indicate to me, it should be made as soon as possible and the announcement should appear as a free act.
‘I understand that you are seeing him tonight; and doubtless you would make this plain.’
Dr Beaken says: ‘I found this letter Lang had written to Baldwin which took my breath away.
‘It’s the smoking gun. It’s not typed. There is no carbon copy. The secretaries don’t know. The chaplains don’t know. He puts it in an envelope and then gets a footman to take it to No 10 Downing Street.’
Baldwin received the Archbishop’s letter just before he saw the King and told him bluntly the Cornwall plan was dead.
Edward had found himself alone and unguided against a seasoned politician and a ruthless archbishop and the letter sealed his fate.
Over the coming week Lang consulted daily with Baldwin, who was booed in Downing Street by the King’s supporters.
On December 10, 1936 – exactly as Lang had intended – the King announced his decision to abdicate ‘of his own accord’. He had been on the Throne for just 325 days.
‘They were all glad he was going but pretended hard to be so very sorry,’ wrote Lang’s secretary.
And the reaction of the new Queen, the late Queen Mother?
Archbishop Lang immediately received a letter of thanks and was invited to tea with her.
Edward VIII: The Plot To Topple A King will be screened on Channel 4 at 9pm on May 9.
Cosmo Lang, Archbishop In War And Crisis, by the Rev Dr Robert Beaken, is due to be published in October.
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Cosmo Gordon Lang
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Which Belgian city was the site of the first battle between Britain and Germany in World War I?
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Edward VIII: the Plot to Topple a King, Channel 4, review - Telegraph
TV and Radio
Edward VIII: the Plot to Topple a King, Channel 4, review
Iain Hollingshead reviews Edward VIII: the Plot to Topple a King, a channel 4 docudrama exploring the former Archbishop of Canterbury Cosmo Gordon Lang's bid to oust the monarch.
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Turbulent priest: Cosmo Gordon Lang (played by David Calder) in C4’s The Plot to Topple a King Photo: Channel 4
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One hopes that whoever succeeds Rowan Williams won’t take their inspiration from Edward VIII: the Plot to Topple a King (Channel 4). For whereas the official version of the abdication has always had Stanley Baldwin, the Prime Minister, and Geoffrey Dawson, the editor of The Times, conniving to nudge a love-struck monarch into exile, this engaging docudrama looked instead at the role of Cosmo Gordon Lang, the Archbishop of Canterbury (played here by David Calder). One was left in little doubt that the politician and the journalist had nothing on the cleric when it came to deploying underhand methods to get their way.
Lang, we were told by an unseen narrator who sounded like she could do with a good cough sweet, was “the first media archbishop”. A confidante of George V, Edward’s father, he wrote the King’s radio speeches, suggested his walkabouts and choreographed the 1935 Jubilee celebrations. Edward, for his part, was “the first media darling”, adored by his people.
And yet the only attribute the two men shared was their mutual loathing. Lang thought Edward too fond of “vulgar society”. Edward described the archbishop as “too polished, too worldly – more interested in the pursuit of prestige and power than the abstractions of the human soul”. If it had been 800 years earlier, perhaps he might have found someone to rid him of this turbulent priest.
Instead, he was stuck with him. George V died in January 1936. Three hundred and twenty six days later, Lang had engineered Edward’s abdication in favour of his brother, Albert.
Some of the Archbishop’s behaviour could be excused as the actions of a man trying to do what he fervently thought best – not just for himself, but for the country, the monarchy and the Church. His chaplain, Alan Don, whose newly discovered diaries formed the basis of this programme, was shocked by the pictures of Edward and the twice-divorced Mrs Simpson appearing in the foreign press. Lang thought he could mould the new king.
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And yet once it became clear that Edward had no intention of giving up Mrs Simpson, Lang’s tactics became outrageous. When his cunning letters to Baldwin and Dawson had little effect, he got one of his staff to write a letter to the editor of The Times saying that Edward had used hypnotism to combat his alcoholism. Adding injury to insult, Lang gave his own public broadcast two days after the abdication, a spectacularly ill-judged act of hypocrisy which attacked the King as “misguided and disgusting” for finally doing what Lang had tried so hard to effect.
Not that it seemed to bother Lang. He was soon back where he thought he belonged, having tea with the new queen. And at least everyone from the Duke of Cambridge to Colin Firth to everyone who enjoyed The King’s Speech can be grateful for what he did.
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i don't know
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'Petruchio' appears in which play by Shakespeare?
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Chicago Shakespeare Theater: The Taming of the Shrew
adapted and directed by Rachel Rockwell
A Look Back at The Taming of the Shrew in Performance
Though readers and scholars never lost sight of Shakespeare's text since it was first published in the first Folio in 1623 (at least 30 years after it was first seen on stage), the stage history of The Taming of the Shrew has been less faithful to Shakespeare's text. Shakespeare's play was popular at least into the 1630s when it was printed again as a separate "quarto"—the equivalent to our paperback books. John Fletcher, Shakespeare's successor as the resident playwright for the King's Men, offered a sequel to Shrew that he called The Woman's Prize or the Tamer Tamed, in which Petruchio suffers "taming" by his second wife, Maria, who uses sexual denial to challenge his views of marriage. Between 1663 when Shakespeare's version of The Taming of the Shrew last appeared on London's stage as an "old revival," and 1844, when it was finally restaged in its original, Shakespeare's text disappeared in performance for 181 years. Its story, however, remained popular and was borrowed and adapted frequently by other playwrights.
In 1663, following the reopening of London's theaters—and a failed revival of A Midsummer Night's Dream—the King's Company made a final attempt to produce a Shakespearean comedy, using an adaptation of Shrew written by an actor named John Lacy. Renamed Sauny the Scot and set in London, this adaptation excluded the Christopher Sly Induction, and portrayed Grumio as a stereotypical Restoration Scotsman. Fifty-three years later in 1716, Charles Johnson produced a farcical version, The Cobbler of Preston, in which Christopher Sly would become the hero of this tale.
David Garrick, the famous actor and director of London's Drury Lane, returned to an abbreviated version of Shakespeare in his Catherine and Petruchio, first produced in 1754. Garrick's play, which eliminated Christopher Sly, Bianca, and her suitors completely, remained popular for more than a century, serving as a "star piece" for famous lead actors. An opera written in 1828 was based on Garrick's rendition of the story, not Shakespeare's—by then long silenced. It was not until Benjamin Webster revived Shakespeare's text in 1844 that The Taming of the Shrew reclaimed its place in live performance—but still it competed against Garrick's adaptation for the next 40 years. Shrew was considered the Birmingham Repertory Theatre's most successful experiment in presenting Shakespeare in modern dress. In addition to the modern costumes, the 1928 production featured press photographers and a movie camera in the wedding scene, and a young Laurence Olivier in a small role.
Here in the United States, the play has evolved its own unique history. Shrew was the first Shakespearean film with sound to be made in America. It starred Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford—the leading couple in 1929. In 1930 the famous husband-wife acting duo, Alfred Lunt and Lynne Fontanne, toured The Taming of the Shrew throughout the United States. The production included a clown band, dwarves and acrobatics. It is commonly held stagelore that the offstage relationship of the couple, as witnessed by stagehand-turned-producer Saint Subber, was the inspiration for the Cole Porter musical Kiss Me, Kate. Shakespeare's text takes a backseat in the musical adaptation in which a divorced couple, cast as Kate and Petruchio, push each other's buttons throughout the rehearsals for a play.
In the twentieth century, The Taming of the Shrew proved as popular as it was controversial. Franco Zeffirelli created his famous version for the screen in 1967, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Like Pickford and Fairbanks before them, Taylor Kathryn Grayson and Howard Keel in the 1953 movie, Kiss Me, Kate and Burton were the most famous Hollywood couple of the mid- Sixties; their tumultuous off-screen relationship brought new levels of ferocity to their on-screen battles. This work, like Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet, is characterized by the relationship between two characters: the Bianca subplot recedes into the background, and the Christopher Sly framework disappears entirely as a stage device of no use to Zeffirelli's naturalistic vision as a director. Kate and Petruchio fall in love at first sight, and the subsequent taming plot is approached by the film's stars as an elaborate game. Their battle is not one so much between the sexes as between two bohemian anarchists and the conventions of the hypocritical and repressed society in which they live. There is no submission by Kate in Zeffirelli's eyes: she delivers her speech with knowing looks shared privately with Petruchio.
The same text is used to very different ends in another production readily available and widely known: Jonathan Miller's Shrew filmed for the BBC television series in 1980. Miller, like Zeffirelli, banished Christopher Sly from his stage, but the similarity in interpretation stops there. In the hands of John Cleese as a cerebral, funny and rather gawky Petruchio, the taming of Katherine becomes more a studied lesson play or well-devised therapy process than a sexy game of mutual attraction. Miller's Petruchio teaches rather than tames his Kate. Kate's closing speech is portrayed as a statement of Elizabethan family and sexual values. The film ends with the wedding party joining in to sing a Puritan hymn extolling marital harmony.
Just two years earlier, in 1978, a very different interpretation of Shakespeare's text, directed by Michael Bogdanov, appeared on London's stage. Like much of the Royal Shakespeare Company's work in this period, Bogdanov's work was deeply influenced by Jan Kott's groundbreaking book, Shakespeare Our Contemporary, which posits that the themes relevant in Shakespeare's particular moment of history are equally relevant throughout human history. History repeats itself, and we return to the same problems wrapped in different circumstances (for example, the feud of the Capulets and Montagues as portrayed through the experience of rival gangs in New York City in West Side Story). Bogdanov's Shrew made a strong and relentless statement against the repression of women by a capitalist society. The production began with a drunken Christopher Sly planted as an "audience member. "The innkeeper was played by a female "usher" who, in attempting to throw this rowdy "patron" from the theater, is victimized by Sly's inebriated abuse. The Sly Induction was so realistic that at one performance audience members called the police to intervene. The struggle between Katherine and Petruchio was violent and abusive. Paduan society was portrayed as a cold, repressive bed of capitalism where women were bought, sold and used. In light of Bogdanov's dark interpretation, Katherine's final speech was a somber one—with evidence of the woman's angry but suppressed resistance to the role she had been unfairly dealt in this society of males and money.
In the 1985 Royal Shakespeare Company tour, director Di Trevis used the play-within-a-play as a springboard for a commentary on property and poverty. The show began with the players crossing the stage in tattered costumes. Leading the procession pulling an oversized property basket on wheels was a young unwed mother, who would later take on the role of Kate. Both the players and the characters in the play were portrayed as needy. Like Sly, the players were playthings for the wealthy, and acting provided them with a life of fantasy and some income.
Turkish director Yücel Erten interpreted the play in 1986 as a love tragedy. In Erten's production, Petruchio broke down Kate's defensive wall as she fell in love, and subsequently his humiliation of her resulted in her emotional breakdown. After delivering her infamous speech of female submission, Kate removed her shawl to reveal her slit wrists and suicide.
While David H. Bell's upcoming production is the first abridgement at CST, The Taming of the Shrew has appeared on its stage as a full-length production twice before. In fact, it was Bell who brought Shrew to CST's stage three years ago. Set in 1960 along the Via Veneto, an area in Rome made famous by Frederico Fellini's La Dolce Vita, Bell's production opened the Theater's 2003 season. Bell created a world of glamour, wealth and high fashion. The set was filled with the balconies, fountains and marble arches of a glamorous Italian street. Around the café owned by Kate's father, papparazi swarmed and Vespa scooters zoomed. To reflect the time period of the show, Bell updated certain lines: horse references, for example, were changed to motorcycles. Bell staged an optimistic view of Kate's taming, and the "Kiss me, Kate" scene left the audience believing that Kate and Petruchio were very much in love. Kate's final speech was delivered by actor Kate Fry as a woman changed by love, not tamed by torture.
A decade earlier in 1993 staged at CST's previous home, the Ruth Page Theatre, Artistic Director Barbara Gaines directed CST's first production of Shrew. Gaines retained the Christopher Sly framework of the original script and set the production in Renaissance Italy. Actors were dressed in ornate colorful costumes, with the warm woods of the set inviting the audience in to this antique world. Gaines chose not make a political statement with Kate's transformation from shrew to wife, but allowed the audience to interpret Kate's final speech on their own.
Teen comedies dominated movie screens in the 1990s, so it was perhaps no surprise that a teen flick, called 10 Things I Hate About You, premiered in 1999. What is surprising, however, is the fact that its story is based upon Shakespeare's 400-year-old play. The setting moves to Tacoma, Washington. Kat (Katherina) is now an antisocial, Sylvia Plath-reading, ball-breaking, vicious field hockey-playing high school student, frequently called a "heinous bitch" by her sister Bianca, who is the most popular and sought-after girl in school. In the movie's contemporary high school world, Bianca doesn't want to get married. She just wants to go on a date with a boy, which her pregnancy-phobic father forbids until the older sister starts dating. Money is still the impetus for Patrick (Petruchio). Cameron (Lucentio) sets a plan in motion where Joey (Hortensio) pays Patrick to date Kat so that Cameron can have a chance with Bianca. Patrick, who is feared by fellow classmates, is the only one not deterred by Kat's man-hating reputation.
Kat's taming is, in fact, quite a bit tamer than her namesake's. The famous speech of submission at the end of Shakespeare's play is transformed in the film into Kat publicly reading a poem she has written about Patrick, first listing all his vile characteristics, and culminating with the line: "But mostly I hate the way I don't hate you. Not even close, not even a little bit, not even at all." True to both its derivative genres—teen movies and Shakespeare comedy—10 Things I Hate About You delivers a happy ending.
The twenty-first century has ushered in a trend in performance that faces Shrew's gender politics through re-inventing a convention from the Early Modern English stage: single-gender casting. Of course, men played all roles in Elizabethan times, but in 2003 Shakespeare's Globe started an all-female troupe called the Company of Women. In its inaugural season, the company performed Shrew, directed by Phyllida Lloyd. Lloyd did not feminize the story or characters in any way. The patriarchal structure remained firmly in place, with the machismo of many of the male characters was highly exaggerated. Petruchio, for example, urinated on a pillar of The Globe's stage. Kate's final speech was presented as an obvious satire. She leapt on to a table and lifted up her dress, embarrassing Petruchio who couldn't convince her to come down. Encouraging all the wives to place their hands under their husband's feet brought only gales of laughter in response. The all-female cast of Shrew shifted the play's controversial theme from female submission to male power in general.
In 2005, the BBC launched a new series of contemporary Shakespeare adaptations, entitled "ShakespearRe-Told." Screenwriter Sally Wainwright reframes Shakespeare's story in modern-day Britain, where Katherine Minola is a successful, outspoken politician, poised to become the next leader of the opposition party. Her sister Bianca is a jet-setting model, who vows she'll marry only when her older sister does-which means never. Bianca's spurned boyfriend has a cash-strapped aristocrat friend named Petruchio, who decides that the unattainable, unlovable—and very wealthy—politician will be his. Petruchio traps Katherine at their honeymoon villa in Italy, slashing the car tires and hiding her phone and clothes. The two do, indeed, fall in love—just as Katherine wins the leadership of her party and kicks off her campaign to become prime minister. When Bianca insists that her boyfriend Lucentio sign a pre-nuptial agreement, Kate delivers an impassioned speech, declaring that wives obey their husbands, and that if her sister requires a pre-nuptial agreement, then she shouldn't get married. In the end, the credits are run against a backdrop of blissful family photos of the new prime Minister, her adoring husband and their triplets.
As part of the Royal Shakespeare Company's Complete Works Festival in 2006, Propellor, an all-male English theater company, brought The Taming of the Shrew to the stage. Director Edward Hall (who directed CST's production of Rose Rage: Henry VI, Parts 1, 2 and 3 here and subsequently in New York) chose to preserve the Induction with Christopher Sly and the play-within-a-play. In an interesting twist, Sly was eventually goaded into taking on the part of Petruchio in the play. The sets (moveable mirrored cupboards that allowed actors to appear and disappear) and the props and costumes (a mix of contemporary and traditional) created a dream-like world. This surreal world created by the director and the play-within-a-play framework helped to distance the production from the script's politically incorrect issues. Hall's Kate was broken by Petruchio's taming tactics, and delivered her final speech as a brainwashed shell of a woman. Audiences may have been more able to witness Kate's torture and engage in a production in which the character was played by a man. British theater critics saw correlations between the production's disturbing tactics of taming to the tactics of torture being utilized in the current war on terror.
The same playwright and the same words have been understood and approached in countless ways through four centuries. Actors will continue to explore the themes and gender politics of Shrew as the world and its attitudes continue to evolve. Each time a director approaches Shakespeare, he or she hopes to bring to light something previously hidden. And what is quite remarkable about Shakespeare's art is that, 400 years later, they can still succeed in doing just that.
– Contributed by the CST Education Department
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The Taming of the Shrew
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"Which British commanding officer in his final message to his troops from Luneberg Heath, in May 1945 concluded with the words ""We have won the German war, let us win the peace""?"
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Chicago Shakespeare Theater: The Taming of the Shrew
adapted and directed by Rachel Rockwell
What Critics Have Said
God hath given to the man great wit, bigger strength, and more courage to compell the woman to obey by reason or force: and to the woman, bewtie, a faire countenaunce, and sweete wordes to make the man to obey her againe for love. Thus each obeyeth and commaundeth other, and they two togeather rule the house.
– Thomas Smith, 1583
Catharines harangue to her sister and the widow on the Duty of Wives to their Husbands, if the ladies wou’d read it with a little regard, might be of mightly use in this age.
– Charles Gildon, 1710
The part between Catharine and Petruchio is eminently spritely and diverting. At the marriage of Bianca the arrival of the real father, perhaps, produces more perplexity than pleasure. The whole play is very popular and diverting.
– Samuel Johnson, 1765
Catharine takes an occasion...of reproving another married woman in an admirable speech; wherein the description of a wayward wife, with the duty and submission which ought to be shewn to a husband, are finely set forth.
– Elizabeth Griffith, 1775
The Taming of the Shrew is almost the only one of Shakespear’s comedies that has a regular plot, and downright moral. It is full of bustle, animation, and rapidity of action. It shews admirably how self-will is only to be got the better of by stronger will, and how one degree of ridiculous perversity is only to be driven out by another greater still.
– August Wilhelm Schlegel, 1811
For the actress of Katharine, the wooing scene is the difficult point; for the actor of Petruchio, the course of the taming. The latter might appear wholly as an exaggerated caricature: but he who is capable of giving it the right humour will impart to this extravagance something of the modesty of nature.
– G.G. Gervinus, 1849
It might be suspected that The Taming of the Shrew was not altogether the work of Shakespeare’s hand. The secondary intrigues and minor incidents were of little interest to the poet. But in the buoyant force of Petruchio’s character, in his subduing tempest of high spirits, and in the person of the foiled revoltress against the law of sex, who carries into her wifely loyalty the same energy which she had shown in her virgin sauvagerie [wildness], there were elements of human character in which the imagination of the poet took delight.
– Edward Dowden, 1881
Unfortunately, Shakspear’s own immaturity...made it impossible for him to keep the play on the realistic plane to the end; and the last scene is altogether disgusting to modern sensibility. No man with any decency of feeling can sit it out in the company of a woman without feeling extremely ashamed of the lord-of-creation moral implied in the wager and the speech put into the woman’s own mouth.
– George Bernard Shaw, 1897
The Merchant of Venice and The Taming of the Shrew, although Heminges and Condell classed them both as comedies, belong to wholly different dramatic types... The Taming of the Shrew is not a drama of the emotions at all. It is a comedy, or more strictly a farce, in the true sense. It approaches its theme, the eternal theme of the duel of sex, neither from the ethical standpoint of the Elizabethan pulpiter nor from that of the Pioneer Club. It does not approach it from an ethical standpoint at all, but merely from that of the humorous and dispassionate observation.
– E.K. Chambers, 1905
To call The Shrew a masterpiece is not only to bend criticism into sycophancy and a fawning upon Shakespeare’s name. It does worse. Accepted, it sinks our standard of judgment, levels it, and by leveling forbids our understanding of how a great genius operates; how consummate it can be at its best, how flagrantly bad at its worst.
– Arthur Quiller-Couch, 1928
The Taming of the Shrew has comparatively few images, but, rather the contrary to what we should expect, a high proportion—nearly one half—of poetical ones, counterbalancing the farce and roughness of the play, which touches of beauty. These are largely due to Petruchio, who uses close on one half of all the images in the play (40 out of 92), for he is a young man of keen perceptions, and observation of nature, and, when he chooses, he speaks with a poet’s tongue.
– Caroline F. E. Spurgeon, 1935
The trouble here is that Shakespeare over-reached himself—a noble error to which he was always prone—and that...humanity is always disconcertingly breaking in. Farce is no place for the depiction of human beings as they are in the round.
– M. R. Ridley, 1937
Our secret occupation as we watch The Taming of the Shrew consists of noting the stages by which both Petruchio and Katherine—both of them, for in spite of everything the business is mutual—surrender to the fact of their affection. Shakespeare has done this not by violating his form, not by forgetting at any point to write farce, and least of all by characterizing his couple. He has left them man and woman, figures for whom we can substitute ourselves, and that is precisely what we do.
– Mark Van Doren, 1939
The Taming of the Shrew belongs in its major plot to a...popular type of comedy of which there are traces in Shakespeare’s early work, comedy for the popular rather than for the courtly portion of his audience. The major plot is a refined treatment of the old farcical theme of the taming of the curst wife, but it is a mistake to conceive of the play n purely farcical terms. Petruchio is no wife-beater. He is a gentle, clever man of the world, a profound humorist and the best of actors.
– Hardin Craig, 1948
While a large part of the action concerns match-making and marriage, it is plain that the predominating conception of marriage is Roman (and sixteenth-century). Marriage is primarily an economic and social institution, and love has little to do with it.
– E. C. Pettet, 1949
It is not until [Petruchio] positively declares that the sun is the moon that the joke breaks upon her in its full fantasy, and it is then that she wins her first and final victory by showing she has a sense of fun as extravagant as his own, and is able to go beyond him...After that, victory is all hers, and like most human wives that are the superiors of their husbands she can afford to allow him mastery in public. She has secured what her sister Bianca can never have, a happy marriage.
– Nevil Coghill, 1950
The play ends with the prospect that Kate is going to be more nearly the tamer than the tamed, Petruchio more nearly the tamed than the tamer, though his wife naturally will keep the true situation under cover...This interpretation has the advantage of bringing the play into line with all other Comedies in which Shakespeare gives a distinct edge to his heroine. Otherwise it is an unaccountable exception and regresses to the wholly un-Shakespearean doctrine of male superiority, a view which there is not the slightest evidence elsewhere Shakespeare ever held.
– Harold C. Goddard, 1951
The psychology of the Katherine-Petruchio plot is remarkably realistic. It is even ’modern’ in its psychoanalytical implications. It is based on the familiar situation of the favorite child. Baptista is the family tyrant and Bianca is his favorite daughter. She has to the casual eye all the outer markings of modesty and sweetness, but to a discerning one all the inner marks of a spoiled pet.
– Harold C. Goddard, 1951
Though in marriage the dominant woman threatens proper ordering of a household, in courtship the woman enjoys a superior position. Courtship is not, then, very good training for marriage. Women who take seriously such lavish expressions of praise and worship as sonnet lovers heap upon them will not take easily to the altered marital situation.
– M. C. Bradbrook, 1958
Against the spirit of much of its story, The Taming of the Shrew emerges as a civilizing effort on Shakespeare’s part, one not essentially out of line with the spirit of his later comedies, which tend always to enhance human relationships, to provide for them a foundation of tenderness and mutual respect.
– Derek Traversi, 1960
There can be no question about the justice of his tactics, if measured by the end product, for he enables her first to see herself as others see her, and then, her potentiality for humor and self-criticism having been brought out, she is able to discover in herself those qualities he is so sure she possesses.
– Maynard Mack, 1962
It is well to remember that in the First Folio edition of The Shrew there is no mention at all of an ’induction’ and that editors...have disregarded the Folio and have labeled the first two scenes of the play as ’The Induction.’ To the editors of the first surviving edition of The Shrew, then, the prominence of an outer frame may have seemed less important to the play proper and the Sly material itself may have appeared as more intimately a part of the whole play.
– Cecil C. Seronsy, 1963
The Shrew is a play about marriage, and about marriage in Elizabethan England. The point needs to be stressed, because its obvious affiliations with Latin comedy and with Italian comedy can easily obscure its concern with what were, when it was first produced, topical and urgent issues in this country, coming home to men’s business and women’s bosoms in the literal sense of both words...There is, in fact, nothing inherently farcical in the initial situation out of which The Shrew develops; it reflects life as it was lived.
– George R. Hibbard, 1964
What happens gradually in the course of the play is that Bianca and Lucentio become more and more realistic, and the Kate-Petruchio relationship moves further and further from reality. Eventually the two lines cross; at the end of the play Bianca is talking back to her husband like an ordinary realistic housewife, scolding him for laying a wager on her docility, and Kate makes a speech urging all women to submit to their husbands.
– Sears Jayne, 1966
To see either of these love relations as Shakespeare’s view of marriage we must conclude that he saw the most vital of all human relations either as the act of buying an animal or as the act of beating one into submission. But the real key to Shakespeare’s moral commentary on marriage may perhaps be found in the third story...The Christopher Sly induction is absolutely essential to The Taming of the Shrew because it furnishes the frame of reference in which the other two plots are to be seen, and in this perspective the wooing of Kate is as absurd as the wooing of Bianca. We do not have, as some suppose, a presentation of two views of marriage, the one finally to be judged more valid than the other; we have the holding up to ridicule of two views of marriage, and as the Petruchio-Kate relation receives the greater dramatic emphasis, it is the one found most wanting.
– Irving Ribner, 1967
The subject of the play, the breaking of the spirit of a woman or man who had an evil disposition, was evidently a popular one during the last quarter of the century and is really, in the words of Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, ’as old as the hills.’
– W. B. Thorne, 1968
Petruchio, with his rags, demonstrates that roles on the stage of the world, like the clothing any person wears, may be used to disguise or to reveal a person’s true character.
– Richard Henze, 1970
It would be simpliste [simplistic] to regard [Katharina’s] statement of total passivity at its face value, and as a prognosis. The open end of The Taming of the Shrew is Katharina’s mind, undisclosed in soliloquy. And so it is appropriate that the play should end on a faint, but ominous, question mark.
– Ralph Berry, 1972
If Petruchio’s conquest of Kate is a kind of mating dance with appropriate strutting and biceps-flexing, she in turn is a healthy female animal who wants a male strong enough to protect her, deflower her, and sire vigorous offspring...The animal imagery in which the play abounds is a prime reason for its disfavor with the critics, who find such terms degrading to Kate and to the concept of matrimony.
– Michael West, 1974
[Petruchio’s] aim is not the crude one of the traditional wife-tamer, or to pulverize the woman’s will as well as, in most cases her body. What Petruchio wants, and ends up with, is a Katharina of unbroken spirit and gaiety who has suffered only minor physical discomfort and who has learned the value of self-control and of caring about someone other than herself.
Anne Barton, 1974
Petruchio, Katharina and the Lord have a special vision, an awareness of life as a play or a game, that gives them a power to control not only their own lives but other people’s. They have a sense of convention, and therefore a power to manipulate convention, to create experiences rather than have experiences forced upon them.
Alexander Leggatt, 1974
The Shrew dramatizes the traditional Horatian view that the function of comedy is both to please and to instruct, achieving these ends not by directly imitating reality, but by creating exaggerated and distorted images of life which show Sly how wonderful the world could be and show Kate how terrible it could become.
– J. Denniss Huston, 1976
At the end of the Middle Ages and in early modern Europe, the relation of the wife—of the potentially disorderly woman—to her husband was especially useful for expressing the relation of all subordinates to their superiors...In the little world of the family, with its conspicuous tension between intimacy and power, the large matters of political and social order could find ready symbolization.
– Natalie Zemon Davis, 1977
This uneasy mixture of romance and farce suggests that Shakespeare’s own sense of purpose is unclear, that he is discovering possibilities of one kind of comic structure while working within the demands of another.
– John C. Bean, 1980
Bianca’s rebellion is perhaps the most optimistic sign the play affords us. Even the Good Child, in her new role as wife, calls such an exhibition of obedience ’a foolish duty,’ and refuses to submit. We can see where Lucentio learned to require submission, and we can guess that Bianca has learned defiance from her sister. But Kate herself is a living sacrifice to the pedagogy of patriarchal rule that holds her culture in thrall.
– Katherine A. Sirluck, 1991
The Taming of the Shrew appears to tame the critic more than the shrew. Its ability to contain us is vividly evidenced both in its onstage containment of an audience and in its success in engaging critics in debate. Whether Kate is a shrew or merely a misunderstood young woman, whether Petruchio is a bully or a philosopher, whether the play upholds or undermines degree, is farce or philosophical comedy, should be staged with or without its Induction—all are matters of heated debate in Shakespearean scholarship.
– Barbara Freedman, 1991
Looked at with sober late-twentieth century eyes, this is a story in which one human being starves and brainwashes another, with the full approval of the community. Cruelty can be funny—it is the basis of the "practical joke"—as long as one is on the dominant side, and no lasting damage is done to the victim. The Taming of the Shrew argues that the cruel treatment is for the victim’s good, to enable her to become a compliant member of patriarchal society.
– Penny Gay, 1994
Power is indeed in Katherine’s hands when she commands the centre of the playing-space. Three leading actors who have recently played the role comment that Katherine’s ’submission’ speech is the scene of her, and their, greatest theatrical power—’the play lands back in Kate’s hands. It’s her play at the end.’ So while there is no doubt that Katherine is subjected to power, it is also true that she wields an irreducible force of her own.
– Paul Yachnin, 1996
The Induction invites the audience of 1592 to decipher an anti-play that is an Elizabethan subversion of the conventional shrew-taming story. But the Induction likewise cannily predicts the play’s reproduction and reception four hundred years after its original performance: in our own time, under feminist scrutiny, the ’pleasant comedy’ announced by the Messenger in the Induction (authorized to call it a comedy, one supposes, by the players themselves) has increasingly been seen as a ’kind of history,’ an intervention in and interrogation of women’s history, and not at all innocent of politics.
– Carol Rutter, 1997
When one plays Petruchio there are, I think, roads that it is important not to go down. The text seems to say that you can be as cruel as you like, but if you really start putting on the pressure, being really cruel—for which you have the language and the structure of the speeches to support you—it becomes simply too dark and bleak.
– Michael Siberry, 1998
Katharina is freed from habitual shrewishness by Petruchio’s unrelenting travesty of such waywardness—a robust mode of farcical comedy which is tolerable because Petruchio is clearly acting a part, because he imposes the same privations on himself as on her, and because his underlying delight in her buried self becomes clear.
– John Creaser, 2002
I think these are two people fated to be together and they recognize it instantly. They are always inches away from falling madly in love and it is only Petruchio’s strategy that thwarts it. In his mind the shrew will be tamed by love rather than by abuse. I think it’s important that she not be a victim, that she not simply surrender to what’s happening to her.
– David H. Bell, 2002
Feminists’ long-standing obsession with The Taming of the Shrew might have been brought swiftly to an end if only they had known that John Fletcher had already relied to Shakespeare himself on their behalf. What is more, some 350 years ago the two plays used to be presented in a smug double bill—a dialectical take on the equality of sexes, whereby Petruchio eventually gets his comeuppance.
– Duska Radosavljevic, 2003
There is no longer a question of "taming"; this is a marriage, one consummated in couplets as well as quips. Attention now shifts to the unresolved elements of the love plot, and thus to the story of Bianca, who has been joined by a nameless (but wealthy) widow, the new bride of Bianca’s failed suitor Hortensio. And here we encounter the second reversal. For it is suddenly far from clear who is the real "shrew" of the play’s title—and even who is appointed to do the "taming."
– Marjorie Garber, 2004
Part of the problem, if it is a problem, is that many modern readers do not want Shakespeare to hold, or to have held, views that are socially or politically incompatible with their own; this is "our Shakespeare"...Evidence in the plays of "antifeminism" or of a hierarchical social model in which husbands rule and control their wives is not the evidence many contemporary appreciators would prefer to find.
– Marjorie Garber, 2004
Katherine in The Shrew is the most obvious Shakespeare example of an abused woman. Although New Criticism may interpret Petruchio’s contradictions...as a game, a loving tease with the positive psychological aim of behavior modification, in the twenty-first century it is difficult to find the subjugation of a woman a suitable subject for comic treatment.
– Laurie E. Maguire, 2004
What Katherine actually declares to the other wives is on par with arguments put forward by sixteenth-century Protestant reformers, who held that marriage should be a union of like-minded belief, not domestic tyranny.
– Andrew Dickson, 2005
Beginning with The Taming of the Shrew, Shakespeare uses hawking metaphors to suggest that a husband tame his haggard like wife as a falconer would his bird.
– Sean Benson, 2006
On one hand, [The Taming of the Shrew] is a classic "battle of the sexes" comedy, a romantic fantasy in which true love tempers the most combative of pairs. On the other, it is an assault on assertive women, a misogynist fantasy in which the "hero" starves and mentally tortures his wife into submission.
– Ben Fisler, 2007
Rather than condemning Katharina’s violence or self-assertion entirely, Petruchio redirects her claims to mastery away from him. The two remain equals with regard to their desire to domineer over their own servants and the outside world. Katharina recognizes only Petruchio as her superior. In a fairytale logic, then, Petruchio seems to get a wife who is a sheep with him and a shrew to servants and other women.
– Fran Dolan, 2008
We might imagine a Petruchio who is routinely violent or one who, in collusion with his servants, stages his own volatility to taming effect. But there is no question that the violence the text describes and implies is directed largely at Petruchio’s subordinates. While it is "not aimed at Kate," she responds as if she is under threat.
– Fran Dolan, 2008
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i don't know
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What was the name of the first million pound winner on 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire'?
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Judith Keppel | Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Wiki
18-20 November 2000, 6-9 September 2003
Money won
£1,000,000, £32,000
Judith Cynthia Aline Keppel (born 18 August 1942) [1] , a garden designer from Fulham, was a contestant on series 8 of the UK version of the show on 18, 20 November 2000. She was the first British contestant to win £1,000,000. Later she appeared on September 6 and 9 on 2003 with David Seaman and won £32.000.
Contents
Edit
Judith is the granddaughter of Walter, 9th Earl of Albemarle. Her great-grandfather, the 8th Earl was brother-in-law of Alice Keppel, the mistress of King Edward VII and was the great-uncle of Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall. [2] The Duchess of Cornwall is therefore her third cousin.
WWTBAM Run
Starting with the earliest, put these British prime ministers in order.
• A: Anthony Eden
• C: Harold Macmillan
• D: Winston Churchill
From the 8 remaining contestants, only Judith (with a time of 8.00 seconds) correctly answered D-A-C-B, making it into the Hot Seat.
Judith's Run to the Million
£100 (1 of 15) - Not Timed
Complete the saying: 'As sick as a…'?
• A: Partridge
£200 (2 of 15) - Not Timed
Which legal document states a person's wishes regarding the disposal of their property after death?
• A: Would
£300 (3 of 15) - Not Timed
Complete the title of the James Bond film: 'The Man With the…'?
• A: Golden Tooth
£500 (4 of 15) - Not Timed
Which of these fruits shares its name with something superior or desirable?
• A: Apricot
£1,000 (5 of 15) - Not Timed
In which sport do two teams pull at opposite ends of a rope?
• A: Tug of war
£2,000 (6 of 15) - Not Timed
Where would a cowboy normally put his 'chaps'?
• A: On his head
£4,000 (7 of 15) - Not Timed
Which of these zodiac signs is not represented by an animal that grows horns?
• A: Taurus
£8,000 (8 of 15) - Not Timed
Sherpas and Gurkhas are native to which country?
• A: Russia
£16,000 (9 of 15) - Not Timed
Prime Minister Tony Blair was born in which country?
'Ask The Audience' lifeline used
• A: England
Ask the Audience Results: A: 19% • B: 12% • C: 53% • D: 16%
The klaxon called time and Judith would return on £16,000 with 2 lifelines still available.
£32,000 (10 of 15) - Not Timed
Whose autobiography has the title 'A Long Walk To Freedom'?
• A: Ranulph Fiennes
£64,000 (11 of 15) - Not Timed
Duffel coats are named after a town in which country?
'50:50' lifeline used
£125,000 (12 of 15) - Not Timed
Complete this stage instruction in Shakespeare's 'The Winter's Tale': 'Exit, pursued by a …'?
'Phone-A-Friend' lifeline used
• C: Bear
• D: Dog
Judith did not know, so she decided to call her friend Jilly, who was 100% sure it was Bear. She decided to go with her and won £125,000.
£250,000 (13 of 15) - Not Timed
The young of which creature is known as a 'squab'?
• A: Salmon
£500,000 (14 of 15) - Not Timed
Who is the patron saint of Spain?
• A: Saint James
£1,000,000 (15 of 15) - Not Timed
Which king was married to Eleanor of Aquitaine?
• A: Henry I
Edit
On the 6th and 9th September 2003 Judith returned to the hot seat as part of the 5th Birthday special, playing with former goalkeeper David Seamen and winning £32,000 to share between their charities after answering the £64,000 question incorrectly.
Keppel now appears on the quiz show Eggheads, where she and six other quiz champions are pitted against members of the public.
Trivia
Edit
There was speculation at the time that the win was fixed so that ITV would draw ratings away from BBC One which was showing the last episode of One Foot in the Grave in the same timeslot. However, the ITC cleared Celador and ITV of the allegations.
Judith Keppel's win was broadcast just over one year after John Carpenter 's run (19 November, 1999), the first American contestant to claim the million dollar prize on the U.S. version of the show and the first contestant anywhere in the world to answer all questions correctly and claim the top prize.
Judith Keppel is so far the only female contestant to win the top prize in the UK version of the show.
Judith Keppel is the only British contestant to win £1,000,000 in neither the months of September or April and not on a Saturday.
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Judith Keppel
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Which country is South East Asia has a red rectangular flag surmounted by a gold star?
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All Time Winners List - UKGameshows
All Time Winners List
Good Game Guides - Articles
The Winners' List is believed to include all winners of £100,000 or more on game shows made and broadcast in the UK. It does not include programmes that are not game shows, nor episodes that were made but never broadcast. If you have an addition or correction, please contact us .
Contents
£1,000,000+ Winners
Graham Fletcher, Red or Black? - 8th September 2012 (£1,500,000)
Ian Woodley, TFI Friday (Someone's Going To Be A Millionaire) - 24th December 1999 & Poker Den - 2005 (£1,050,000)
Sarah Lang, PokerFace - 16th July 2006, In It to Win It - 16th July 2005 & Wipeout - 2001 (£1,033,100)
Clare Barwick, Someone's Going To Be A Millionaire (Chris Evans radio show) - 17th December 1999 & Weakest Link - 8th November 2000 (£1,001,500)
£1,000,000 Winners
Judith Keppel, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 20th November 2000
David Edwards, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 21st April 2001
Charlotte Hobrough, Survivor - 25th July 2001
Robert Brydges, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 29th September 2001
Johnny Gibb, Survivor: Panama - 29th May 2002
Pat Gibson, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 24th April 2004
Karen Shand, The Vault - 3rd August 2004 (home winner)
Ingram Wilcox, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 23rd September 2006
Dominic Jackson, PokerFace - 3rd March 2007
Nathan Hageman, Red or Black? - 3rd September 2011
Kevin Cartwright, Red or Black? - 4th September 2011
Darren Thompson, Red or Black? - 8th September 2011
Gary Brocklesby, Red or Black? - 9th September 2011
Kris Danns, Red or Black? - 30th September 2012
Ann from Manchester, ITV Daytime Make Me a Millionaire prize draw - 5th October 2015
£500,000+ Winners
Mary Swain, The Vault - 16th August 2003 (£704,900)
Peter Lee, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 18th January 2000, Sounds Like London - 1981, Password - 1983, Winner Takes All - 1984, & 100% Gold - 1999. (£504,855)
Peter Spyrides, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 16th October 2001 & The People Versus - 1st October 2001 (£503,150)
£500,000 Winners
Kate Heusser, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 2nd November 2000
John Randall, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 27th November 2000
Steve Devlin, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 20th January 2001
Mike Pomfrey, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 12th March 2001
Roger Walker, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 26th February 2002
Laurence & Jackie Llewelyn-Bowen (for the Shooting Star Children's Hospice), Celebrity Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Valentines Day - 11th February 2006
Ashleigh and Pudsey, Britain's Got Talent - 12th May 2012
Sophie Shaw, Red or Black - 18th August 2012
Chris Fryer, Red or Black - 25th August 2012
Christine Stalker, Red or Black - 15th September 2012
£250,000+ Winners
Robert Swarbrick, Duel - 8th March 2008 (£482,500)
Leah Nichols, The Vault - 25th May 2002 (£300,000 - home winner)
Jack and Michael Whitehall - The Million Pound Drop Live - 24th September 2011 (£300,000)
Naomi Turner and Danny Diggins - Home for the Holidays - 24th December 2011 (£300,000)
Dom and Lou - The Million Pound Drop Live - 4th October 2012 (£300,000)
Pamela Mullins, Magic Numbers - 7th August 2010 (£290,000 - home winner)
Paddy McGuinness and Christine Martin, The Million Pound Drop Live - 9th December 2011 (£275,000)
Nathan Birtle, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 31st March 2001 & The Vault - 29th June 2002 (£263,460)
Diane Hallagan, 100% Gold - 1998, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 13th November 2001, Come And Have a Go If You're Think You're Smart Enough (shared winnings of £40,052) - 2004, and Battle of the Brains (shared winnings of £2000) - July 2008 (£261,699)
Steve Kidd, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 20th November 2004 & Weakest Link - March 2005 (£252,080)
Mark Kerr, 100% Gold - 1998, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 31st January 2004, Come And Have A Go If You're Think You're Smart Enough (shared winnings of £40,052) - 2004, and Battle of the Brains (shared winnings of £2000) - July 2008 (£251,786)
£250,000 Winners
Jonathan Green, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 4th September 1999
David Neale, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 17th January 2000
Margaret Whittaker, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 19th January 2000
Paddy Spooner, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 30th March 2000
Mark Townsend, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 9th September 2000
Graham Hickin, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 28th September 2000
Andy Martin, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 11th November 2000
Roger Waldon, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 21st December 2000
Keith Wilcock, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 21st January 2001
John Sexton, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 19th February 2001
Tony Emans, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 22nd February 2001
John & Doreen Lawrence, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Couples - 24th March 2001
Martin Jenkins, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 12th April 2001
Derek & Delia Banks, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Parent & Child - 6th October 2001
Kate Mathieson, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 17th November 2001
Karl Shuker, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 24th November 2001
Briony Poole, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 27th November 2001
Doug Kelly, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 22nd December 2001
David Baddiel & Frank Skinner (for the Catholic Children's Society and Imperial Cancer Research Fund), Celebrity Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Christmas - 26th December 2001
Patrick Calthrop, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 16th February 2002
Kim Totman, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 17th March 2002
Den Hewitt, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 19th March 2002
Ray & David Proir, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Twins - 26th March 2002
Mike Vernon, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 7th September 2002
Dougie Wilson, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 16th November 2002
Hugh Swainston, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 19th January 2003
Robert Scott, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 15th March 2003
Isabel & James Morgan, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Mothers Day - 29th March 2003
Bob Ginger, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 12th April 2003
Andrew Whitely, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 12th April 2003
Stephen Fitzsimons, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 26th April 2003
Fiona Bangert, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 27th September 2003
Paul Taylor, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 13th March 2004
Bill Honeywell, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? - 8th May 2004
Chris Pattison, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 5th June 2004
Simon Curtis, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 15th & 22nd January 2005
David Rainford, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 9th April 2005
Gordon Barrass, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 30th April 2005
Gloria Hunniford & Frederick Forsyth, Celebrity Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 24th September 2005
Elizabeth Northey, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 17th December 2005
James Plaskett, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 21st January 2006
Charles Dickson, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 18th March 2006
Laura Pearce, Deal or No Deal (1st top prize winner) - 7th January 2007
John Gallantry, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 26th May 2007
Alice Mundy, Deal or No Deal - 12th March 2009
Chris & Wes (Chris Donnelly and Wes Clack), Got to Dance - 27th February 2011
Suzanne Mulholland, Deal or No Deal - 13th May 2011
Nick and Katie, The Million Pound Drop Live - 16th September 2011
Tegen Roberts, Deal or No Deal - 22nd September 2011
Prodijig (Alan Kenefick, Ciara McGillan, Darren Casey, Diane McKiernan, Christina Havlin, Craig Mason, Andy O'Reilly), Got to Dance - 4th March 2012
Mo Farah (for The Mo Farah Foundation), The Cube - 14th July 2012
Nong Nan Nong Sket, Deal or No Deal - 5th August 2012
Lukas McFarlane, Got to Dance - 17th March 2013
Attraction, Britain's Got Talent - 8th June 2013
Paddy Roberts, Deal or No Deal - 12th August 2013
Roop Singh, Deal or No Deal - 12th February 2014
Collabro (Michael Auger, Richard Hadfield, Jamie Lambert, Matt Pagan, Thomas Redgrave), Britain's Got Talent - 7th June 2014
Duplic8 (Tobias Mead and Jak Tuite-Leach), Got to Dance - 29th August 2014
Jules O'Dwyer and Matisse, Britain's Got Talent - 31st May 2015
Ann Crawford, Deal or No Deal - 15th October 2015
Vikki Heenan, Deal or No Deal - 23rd December 2016
£125,000+ Winners
Rob, Duel - 29th March 2008 (£215,000)
Stephanie Bruce, The People's Quiz - 23rd June 2007 (£200,700) and Weakest Link - 30th March 2012 (£7750, donated to Cambridge Centre for the Prevention of Disease) (£201,450)
Anne Parkinson, The Vault - 8th June 2002 (£200,000 - home winner)
Rick & Sophie Dickens, The Million Pound Drop Live - 4th February 2011 (£200,000)
Janelle and Dave, The Million Pound Drop Live - 24th September 2011 (£200,000)
Dave and Julie, The Million Pound Drop Live - 1st October 2011 (£200,000)
Jimmy and Lorna, The Million Pound Drop Live - 12th October 2012 (£200,000)
Albie and Jack, The Million Pound Drop Live - 12th October 2012 (£200,000)
Christine and Joe, The Million Pound Drop Live - 13th October 2012 (£200,000)
Niki Yianni, Loose Women / This Morning phone-in contest - 1st December 2014 (£200,000)
Scott Gray, The Bank Job - 10th March 2012 (£198,000)
James, Duel, 5th April 2008 (£186,000)
Clive Spate, The Weakest Link - 2001, Grand Slam - 2003 & Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 27th March 2004, also Brainteaser, Judgemental and Winner Takes All. (£184,050)
Alan Carr & Melanie Sykes (for the British Wildlife Rescue Centre and the Hearts and Minds Challenge), The Million Pound Drop Live - 30th March 2012 (£175,000)
The Broadfoot Family: Jimmy, Jackie, Kevin, Nicola, and Paul, The Million Pound Drop - 20th March 2015 (£175,000)
Trish McGowan & Seamus Hassain, Who Dares Wins - 29th December 2007 (£170,000)
Pat Crick, Deal or No Deal - 10th March 2014 (£170,000)
Chrissy & Joe, Who Dares Wins - 18th January 2014 (£165,000)
Alison "Pooee" Pitman, Greed - 9th June 2001 (£160,000)
Oonagh McMullan, The Bank Job - 7th January 2012 (£155,833.33)
Katrina Anderson, The Bank Job - 7th January 2012 (£155,833.33)
Wayne Conyers, The Bank Job - 7th January 2012 (£155,833.33)
Nat Moitt & Euan Fleming, Who Dares Wins - 11th June 2011 (£155,000)
Rachel Adkins, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 30th October 2007 - & Brainteaser - 14th February 2006 (£153,000)
Eamonn Holmes & Kay Burley, Celebrity Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 1st September 2007 (£150,000)
Sian Williams & Bill Turnbull, Celebrity Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 11th September 2007 (£150,000)
Vanessa Feltz & Ben Ofoedu, Celebrity Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 22nd September 2007 (£150,000)
Dave Mills, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 5th February 2008 (£150,000)
Ian Hawthorn, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 11th March 2008 (£150,000)
Marie-Noelle Chesterfield, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 6th May 2008 (£150,000)
Tim Griffin & Darren Jones, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Firefighters - 23rd September 2008 (£150,000)
Daniel Chantrey & James Pearson, Who Dares Wins - 18th October 2008 (£150,000)
Dr. Hilary Jones & Andrea McLean, Celebrity Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 3rd January 2009 (£150,000)
Chris Mapp, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 11th July 2009 (£150,000)
John Suchet & Zoe Lucker, Celebrity Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 1st September 2009 (£150,000)
Angela Rippon & Martin Lewis, Celebrity Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 15th September 2009 (£150,000)
Annabel Croft & Pat Cash, Celebrity Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 4th May 2010 (£150,000)
Patsy Kensit and Leigh Francis, The Million Pound Drop Live - 6th October 2012 (£150,000)
Des O'Connor and Lee Mack, Celebrity Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 20th December 2012 (£150,000)
Duncan Bannatyne and Greg Rutherford, Celebrity Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 8th January 2013 (£150,000)
Scott and Jane Couper, The Exit List - 7th February 2012 (£137,000)
Keith (surname unknown), The Mint - 20th October 2006 (£130,721)
Adam Ellis & Dawn Hopkins, Who Dares Wins - 7th May 2011 (£130,000)
Kwan Loo, The Vault - 19th June 2002, also Who Wants to be a Millionaire? and Beat the Nation. (£127,200)
Gabriele Micalizzi, Master of Photography - 8th September 2016. (€150 000) (converted to £126,942.09)
Gen Broadbent, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 7th December 2000, also Catchphrase - 11th September 1998 and Raise the Roof - 13th January 1996. (£125,795)
Taz Poole, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 1st December 2001, also The People Versus - June 2001 (£125,178)
£125,000 Winners
Martin Skillings, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 9th January 1999
Ian Horswell, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 9th January 1999
Tony Kennedy, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 8th March 1999
Martin Smith, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 13th March 1999
Davy Young, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 14th March 1999
Tony Stanton, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 5th September 1999
Ben Bartle, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 7th November 1999
Gerry Lennon, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 8th November 1999
Sylvia Nixon, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 25th December 1999
Jim Barwick, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 25th December 1999
Leslie Palmer, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 27th March 2000
Brian Jones, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 28th March 2000
Keith Morgan, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 1st April 2000
Alistair McNaughton, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 3rd April 2000
Carol Vorderman, Celebrity Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Day of Promise - 1st May 2000
Patrick Lidierth, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 8th September 2000
Elaine Briggs, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 25th September 2000
Steve Cornfield, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 28th September 2000
Peter Dauncey, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 1st October 2000
Nadeem Tufail, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 8th October 2000
John Bullivent, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 15th October 2000
Joanna Webb, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 16th October 2000
Roger Tozer, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 23rd October 2000
Dan Hotchin, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 30th October 2000
David Turner, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 4th November 2000
Chris Elliot, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 23rd November 2000
Ben Whitehead, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 25th November 2000
Hywel Harris, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 29th November 2000
Laraine & Russell Thomas, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Couples - 4th January 2001
John & Karan Hannaford, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Couples - 4th January 2001
Rob & Corinne Sawyer, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Couples - 6th January 2001
Jonathan Hughes, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 11th January 2001
Arrol Toplin, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 29th January 2001
John Ramsden, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 8th March 2001
Peter & Anne Jenkins, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Couples - 26th March 2001
Steve Lacey, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 7th April 2001
Ian Saunders, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 11th September 2001
John Norton, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 18th September 2001
Miles Robson, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 29th September 2001
Muir Smillie, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 27th October 2001
Colin Hallett, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 3rd November 2001
Stuart Reid, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 6th November 2001
Colin Mitchell, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 24th November 2001
Suzanne Disley, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 8th December 2001
John & Sally Salter, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Couples - 18th December 2001
Nigel Wackett, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 29th December 2001
Steve Silverman, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 5th January 2002
Alan Crompton, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 19th January 2002
Kieron Smyth, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 21st January 2002
Rob Dodds, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 26th January 2002
David Martin, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 11th February 2002
Phil Leiwy, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 24th February 2002
Kaye Adams & Ross Kelly, Celebrity Who Wants to be a Millionaire? 9th March 2002
Sean McCaughey, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 7th September 2002
Adrian Shaw, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 14th September 2002
Hugh Williams, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 26th January 2003
John Forster, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 5th April 2003
Vic Reeves & Matt Lucas, Celebrity Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Easter 19th April 2003
Syd Rawcliffe, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 23rd May 2003
Mark Jessop, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 6th September 2003
Glen Jardine, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 21st February 2004
Chris Payne, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 3rd April 2004
Sir Tim Rice & Alice Beer, Celebrity Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Easter - 17th April 2004
Richard Edwards, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 8th May 2004
Roger Black & Matthew Pinsent, Celebrity Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Olympians - 15th May 2004
Graham Barker, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 16th October 2004
John Rimmer, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 16th October 2004
David Meyer, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 30th October 2004
Gary Alexander, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 6th November 2004
Keith Pottage, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 15th January 2005
Stephen Fry & Nigella Lawson, Celebrity Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Easter - 2nd April 2005
Greg Condry, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 16th April 2005
Alan Gibbs, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 4th June 2005
Lord Sebastian Coe & Nell McAndrew, Celebrity Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Christmas, 31st December 2005
Tim Westcott, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 25th March 2006
Richard Parnell, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 13th May 2006
Jerry Hall & James Sommerville, Celebrity Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Prince's Trust - 20th May 2006
Brian Wilkins, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 17th June 2006
Mike Abbott, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 9th September 2006
Chris Wray, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 4th November 2006
Helen Norgrove, Don't Forget the Lyrics - 24th January 2009
Joe Connors, Don't Forget the Lyrics - 26th April 2009
Kirstie Allsopp and Phil Spencer (for Home-Start UK, SOS Children's Villages, Children's Hospice South West, and Broadway Homelessness and Support), The Million Pound Drop Live - 15th June 2012
Sara Cox and Aled Hayden-Jones, The Million Pound Drop Live - 21st July 2012
Leika and Simeon, The Million Pound Drop Live - 15th September 2012
Paula McGarry, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire - 8th January 2013 (phone-in competition winner)
Sam & Kevin, Who Dares Wins - 6th April 2013
Kerri, Who's on Heart? - 24th May 2013
Emma, Claire, Chantelle and Sophie, The Million Pound Drop Live - 22nd June 2013
£100,000+ Winners
Christine McKendrick, Play Your Cards Right (with husband Mike McKendrick) - 7th April 1995, In It to Win It - 23rd December 2006, Are You Smarter Than a 10 Year Old? - 21st October 2007 & Tipping Point - 2nd April 2014 (£122,500)
Chloe Wilburn, Big Brother - 8th July 2015 & 16th July 2015 (£121,100)
Jennifer Miller, Deal or No Deal - 18th November 2005 (£120,000)
Trudie Eaton, This Morning - 3rd December 2012 (phone-in competition winner) (£120,000)
Fiona Bruce , Rick Edwards , Kate Humble, Joe Swash (for Refuge, Cancer Research UK, Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, Ben Kinsella Trust), The Chase - 24 October 2015 (£120,000)
Dawn Muggleton, Smooth Secret Song - 19th April 2006 (£118,454)
Marlene Service, Deal or No Deal - 21st July 2013 (£118,000)
Mike Denby, Take It or Leave It - 1st November 2006, Win My Wage - 16th July 2007 & In It to Win It - 9th February 2008 (£117,500)
Paul Nevins, Deal or No Deal - 14th September 2006 & Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - 29th January 2008 (£116,000)
"Russell in Reading", Magic Mystery Voices - 1st February 2008 (£110,700)
Nicola Diss, Magic Mystery Voices - 12th January 2006 (£110,600)
Jonathan Bunney, Deal or No Deal - 31st January 2007 (£110,000)
Elena Smith, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire - 20th December 2012 (phone-in competition winner) (£110,000)
Theo Daniels, Heads or Tails - 20th December 2009 (£108,300)
Paul Potts, My Kind of Music - 1999 & Britain's Got Talent - 23rd June 2007 (£108,000)
Diane Bailey, The Mint - 12th May 2006 (£107,882)
Claudine Whyte, Deal or No Deal - 17th December 2006 (£107,031)
Sam Evans, Deal or No Deal - 2012 & Big Brother - 19th August 2013 (£107,000)
Sian Howells, Unanimous - 15th December 2006 (£106,562)
Graeme Garioch, Deal or No Deal - 4th May 2007, also Postcode Challenge and Brainteaser (£102,100)
Simon Trigg, Heads or Tails - 27th December 2009 (£101,600)
Irene and Elspeth, Pointless - 20th January 2015, The Million Pound Drop - 27th February 2015 (£101,000)
Nadia Sawalha, James Cosmo, Gemma Atkinson, Jimi Mistry (for DEBRA, Street Child Africa, Bleakholt Animal Sanctuary, Cedar House Support Group), The Chase - 12th December 2015 (£100,500)
Sarah Noughton, Golden Balls - 14th March 2008 (£100,150)
£100,000 Winners
Colin O'Connell, The National Lottery Big Ticket - 30 May 1998
Mike Skerritt, The National Lottery Big Ticket - 13 June 1998
Zi Khan, The Mole, 2nd March 2001
Gaz Hall, Deal or No Deal - 2nd May 2006
Eleri Owen, In It to Win It - 29th July 2006
Pete Bennett, Big Brother - 18th August 2006
Liam McGough, Big Brother - 20th June 2007
Brian Belo, Big Brother - 31st August 2007
Maria Valentia, Deal or No Deal - 25th September 2007
Paul Kalo, Are You Smarter Than a 10 Year Old? - 27th April 2008 (6.30pm)
Chris Rainford, Beat the Star - 27th April 2008 (7.55pm)
Elizabeth "Betty" Hardwick, Deal or No Deal - 7th May 2008
Pete Russell, Beat the Star - 11th May 2008
George Sampson, Britain's Got Talent - 31st May 2008
Rachael Hornigold, Beat the Star - 1st June 2008
Rachel Rice, Big Brother - 5th September 2008
David Gest (for The Rhys Jones Memorial Fund), Celebrity Are You Smarter Than a 10 Year Old? - 2nd October 2008
Richard Arnold (for The Charity Service), Celebrity Are You Smarter Than a 10 Year Old? - 16th October 2008
Carolyne Bateman, Are You Smarter Than a 10 Year Old? - 13th November 2008
Lauren Titley, Deal or No Deal - 21st December 2008
Toni Cox, In It to Win It - 24th January 2009
'Oblivion' aka Nick Aldis (for The Alzheimer's Society), Celebrity Are You Smarter Than a 10 Year Old? - 13th May 2009
Diversity (Ashley & Jordan Banjo, Ian, Jamie & Matthew McNaughton, Mitchell & Sam Craske, Warren Russell, Terry Smith, Ike Ezekwugo, and Perri Luc Kiely), Britain's Got Talent - 30th May 2009
David Needham, Are You Smarter Than a 10 Year Old? - 15th July 2009
Johnny Lowry, The Cube - 19th September 2009
Claire Hyde, Heads or Tails - 23rd December 2009
Charlie Bruce, So You Think You Can Dance - 13th February 2010
Akai Osei, Got to Dance - 14th February 2010
David Are You Smarter Than Your 10 Year Old? - 17th April 2010
Nick Orchard, The Whole 19 Yards - 15th May 2010
Spelbound (Nicholas Illingworth, Alex Uttley, Adam Buckingham, Adam McAssey, Douglas Fordyce, Leighanne Cowler, Edward Upcott, Katie Axten, Lauren Kemp, Abigail Ralph, Jonathan Stranks, Hollianne Wood, and Amy Mackenzie), Britain's Got Talent - 5th June 2010
Josie Gibson, Big Brother - 24th August 2010
Emma's Imagination (Emma Gillespie) Must Be the Music - 19th September 2010
Paul McDonald, The Cube - 10th October 2010
Christopher King, Deal or No Deal - 26th October 2010
Dale Speight, Deal or No Deal - 26th January 2011
June Jeffrey and Alana Vass, Secret Fortune - 26th March 2011
Karl Dooley and Shabz Roughani, The Million Pound Drop Live - 30th April 2011
Ash and James, The Million Pound Drop Live - 13th May 2011
Jai McDowall, Britain's Got Talent - 4th June 2011
Sam Hunt, Deal or No Deal - 6th June 2011
Tom Fletcher of McFly (for The Brain Injury Rehabilitation Trust and Comic Relief), The Cube - 11th June 2011
Yashi and Tahirah, Secret Fortune - 20th August 2011
Pat Monahan, Show Me the Funny - 25th August 2011
Luke Playforth and Luke Whydle, The Million Pound Drop Live - 2nd September 2011
Tabitha Prince, Deal or No Deal - 27th September 2011
John Thomson, Sue Cleaver, Paul Ross, Carol Vorderman (playing, respectively, for Royal Manchester Childrens' Hospital, When You Wish Upon a Star, Children with Cancer UK, Cleft Lip and Palate Association), The Chase - 19th November 2011
Seve Gomez-Aspron and Craig Ward, The Million Pound Drop Live - 7th December 2011
Luke, The Cube - 11th December 2011
David and Jenny Bentley, The Exit List - 10th January 2012
Jay and Vijaya Rudravajhala, The Million Pound Drop Live - 11th February 2012
Stuart Barnes, World's Toughest Trucker - 23rd February 2012
Stacey, The Bank Job - 10th March 2012
Acropolis, Let's Get Gold - 7th July 2012
Jonathan Edwards and Colin Jackson, The Million Pound Drop Live - 21st July 2012
Claire and Julie, Secret Fortune - 18th August 2012
Alex Brooker and Josh Widdicombe (for Scope, Echoes Foundation, and Joseph's Goal), The Million Pound Drop Live - 14th September 2012
Roy, Deal or No Deal - 29th April 2013
David and Christos, The Million Pound Drop Live - 14th June 2013
Joe, Maggie, Billie and Matt Pinches, The Million Pound Drop Live - 5th July 2013
Jon Culshaw, Charlotte Jackson, Tina Malone, Hilary Jones (playing for Starlight Children's Foundation, Barnado's, Gary Miller's Charity Trust and the Matt Hampson Foundation), The Chase - 5th October 2013
Tom and Lowri, The Million Pound Drop - 8th August 2014
Helen Wood, Big Brother - 15th August 2014
Samia Ghadie, Alex Brooker, Annabel Giles, Julian Clary (playing for East Cheshire Hospice, Panathlon, Amaze in Brighton, Food Chain), The Chase - 20th September 2014
Janita Kirwan, This Morning - 24th October 2014 (phone-in draw)
Paul Jagger, Who's on Heart? - 14th November 2014
Pat and Steph, Deal or No Deal - 21st September 2015
Nigel Havers, Melinda Messenger, Michelle Hardwick, Dave Gorman (for Sequal Trust, Bucket List Wishes, Multiple Sclerosis Society, Shelter), The Chase - 9th October 2016
Ian and Chris, Who Dares Wins - 12th November 2016
Miscellaneous Winners
£2 million was invested evenly between Colin Robinson (schoolsforschools.com) and Joe Rajko (youreable.com) on The E-millionaire Show .
A BMG record contract was handed to Will Young (series 1) and Michelle McManus (series 2) on Pop Idol . Similar contracts have been awarded by The X Factor , Fame Academy , The Voice , etc etc.
A house valued at £500,000+ was won by Darren Kilner and Stacey Reynolds on Building the Dream .
Disqualified winers
Charles Ingram, Who Wants to be a Millionaire (£1,000,000), in an episode recorded for broadcast on 18 September 2001. He was convicted in a high-profile fraud trial .
"Maria Crosskey", Magic Mystery Voices (£168,000), 30 March 2007. "Maria Crosskey" was an alias used by Bernadette Hurst, who was not eligible to win the contest as she'd won an earlier contest on the Magic radio station. The prize was not paid, and Hurst convicted of fraud.
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i don't know
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Russian President, Vladimir Putin is an accomplished exponent of which 'martial art'?
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Widgets Magazine
8 3912592
The speaker of the Lebanese Parliament, Nabih Berri, praised the actions of Russian President Vladimir Putin calling him the “experienced judoka” of international relations after his decision to pull the main contingent of Russian troops out of Syria, the As-Safir newspaper reported.
"Once again [Putin] proved he's the experienced judoka on the international arena," Lebanese Parliament speaker Berri told As-Safir in an interview.
Earlier this week, Putin announced Russia would start withdrawing its main forces out of Syria, stating that the Russian military has accomplished its anti-terrorism mission. Many politicians around the world agreed that Putin made a good, strategic decision.
© Photo: Press service of the Russian Defense Ministry
Unexpected? Russia's Pullout From Syria is 'Catalyst' for a Thaw With NATO
The Lebanese politician added that by helping the Syrian government to fight terrorism last year, Putin changed the balance of power on all fronts in Syria. And now by pulling out Russian troops, the Russian president provided a push for a peaceful settlement of the Syrian conflict.
With Putin setting a good example, now it's time for other actors — Syrian opposition factions, international and regional powers — to do the same and work for peace in Syria, Berri said.
Putin is a long-time practitioner of judo, a martial art that involves using holds and leverage to lift and throw opponents on the ground. The combat sport requires an individual to possess both physical power, strong mental discipline and the ability to calculate actions several steps in advance. Vladimir Putin has been studying martial arts since the age of 11. He earned the title of Master of Sports in both judo and sambo, and is also an 8th dan black belt in Kyokushin-kan karate.
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Judo
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Which Christian sect was founded in the USA in 1848 by John Thomas?
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Systema Russian Martial Art Sweden: My own, personal Systema cheat-sheet (Part 3)!
Sunday, 28 June 2009
My own, personal Systema cheat-sheet (Part 3)!
Well, as the training season for Göteborgs Systema-RMA Klubb comes to an end, I believe the time has come to finish this three-part article on the sets of rules that, in my opinion form the backbone of Russian Martial Art. Just to remind you, the first part of the article referred to N.A. Bernstein’s definition of dexterity (you can read more about it here), which helps us view Russian Martial Art not as a set number of comprehensive, start-to-finish, martial arts techniques that someone learns in order to “graduate”, but rather as a training method to make one’s body dexterous, “clever” enough to solve the motor problems of hand-to-hand combat. The second part of my cheat-sheet was about the “three pillars” of Systema (read more about it here), the way breathing, structure and movement relate to combat performance and how they form a “martial dogma” that provides us with a unique way of explaining combat within the context of a rational Western scientific tradition.
So, let’s now move ahead to
Rules set #3: Victor Spiridonov's Combat SAMBO fighting strategy
Before we begin to analyze the Combat SAMBO strategy (the “single algorithm of actions used in warding off an onslaught” – more on this later), it would be a good idea to try and explain the historical framework under which SAMBO and what we currently refer to as Russian Martial Art were developed, and the connections between those two. Most people tend to believe that SAMBO (a Russian acronym meaning "self-protection without weapons" - SAMozashchitya Bez Oruzhiya) was developed as a pure grappling style in the 1930s Soviet Union, by Kodokan judo black belt Vassili Sergeevich Oschepkov and Victor Afanasievich Spiridonov, an officer of the Russian Army, who combined elements of Japanese jujitsu, judo, Greco-Roman and freestyle wrestling with techniques taken from the various native wrestling styles of the older Soviet republics (such as the Georgian chidaoba, Armenian koch and Tatar kuriash)[1] . Another view, less common, has Spiridonov and Oschepkov being among the group of combat experienced individuals, members of the Dynamo athletic society (also including Anatoly Kharllampiev and I.V. Vasiliev), that was assigned in 1923 by the Cheka (Chrezvychaynaya Komissiya, Extraordinary Commission), the Soviet state security service to conduct a worldwide research on the field of hand-to-hand combat in order to improve the combat system of the Red Army. These four persons were given the title of “combat investigator” and travelled around the world in order to study a great number of native martial arts. The course of this investigation lasted about ten years - in the history of mankind, there has never been such an awesome pursuit (and a state-sanctioned one!) of information into combat. The huge body of knowledge that was gathered by this research was to be controlled by the state and is said to have resulted in three combat systems, a Close Quarter Combat system to be used by the elite forces of the former Soviet Union and secret police, a Subject and Crowd Control Tactics system to be used by the police and a competitive form which would become the training regimen of the general military[2] .
Although it is pretty hard to discern the thin line dividing history from propaganda when one is trying to research events that happened during the Soviet era, I believe it makes perfect sense that a world-wide research of combat styles would have naturally resulted in more than one approaches to combat and not only the unarmed, pure grappling style we know as SAMBO today (some refer to this version of SAMBO as a “Russian version of Japanese Judo”). There’s also another thing we should keep in mind: that the combat investigators of the Dynamo worked to some degree independently of each other [3]. Now, while Oschepkov was a hulk of a man, very athletic and an accomplished judoka, Spiridonov was maimed during World War I from a bayonet wound to his left shoulder, something that greatly restricted his ability to practice any form of wrestling. It is safe to assume that even if these men had not worked independently, they would most probably have used different approaches to address the problems of hand-to-hand combat. So, once again it should come as no surprise that Spiridonov is said to have developed Samoz, a softer system than the pure grappling style of Oschepkov, “one that could be used by smaller, weaker practitioners or even wounded soldiers”[4] .
While, due to Soviet propaganda, sport SAMBO was to become the official version of the art, and also the one that was “leaked out” to the espionage of competitive nations as the supposedly secret Soviet fighting style, the Combat SAMBO [5], reserved for use by the elite forces of the Soviet Army and the secret police remained a closely guarded secret. According to the chapter on Combat SAMBO included in former Russian president Vladimir Putin’s (who holds the title of ‘master of sports’ in both Judo and SAMBO) book on Judo, Spiridonov was the father of this style, since “the techniques he developed became the foundation of combat SAMBO” [6].
I believe that the various expressions of Russian Martial Art that are taught today around the world (all of them became known to the West only after the collapse of the Soviet Union), such as the Ryabko-Vasiliev Systema, Kadochnikov’s Systema and Alexander Retuinskih’s ROSS are derived to a large degree from Spyridonov’s style [7]. But even if the historical connection seems to be weak (once again, the obstacle in discerning history from propaganda in the Soviet Union seems sometimes insurmountable) once one studies the basic fighting strategy of Combat SAMBO, the similarities between the fundamental theory of Spiridonov’s style and the practice of contemporary Russian Martial Art become hard to ignore. And since this is exactly what this article is all about, here’s the Combat SAMBO strategy, once again as presented in the afore-mentioned book on Judo by Vladimir Putin:
“Steps in Combat SAMBO
In combat SAMBO, regardless of the nature and substance of an attack, there is a single algorithm of actions used in warding off an onslaught. This algorithm is the order of steps, each of which represents the resolution of a specific tactical objective:
Step1: Minimize losses from your opponent’s attack.
Step 2: Seize the initiative through diversionary actions.
Step 3: Get your opponent on his back.
Step4: Execute a final, pain-causing action.
Depending on the situation, additional steps might be taken:
Step 5: Disarm your opponent.
Step 6: Search your opponent.
Step 7: Escort your opponent away”[8].
For anyone who has studied any style of contemporary Russian Martial Art, the first four steps must seem very familiar. In Systema Ryabko-Vasiliev, for example, the first skill we train is evasion from all sorts of attacks. Why do we want to evade? The detailed analysis of the above mentioned steps in Putin’s book gives the obvious answer: “If an opponent strikes (punching, kicking, or with a weapon) forceful blocks and props won’t guarantee uke’s safety. The most effective resolution is to step off the line of attack and at the same time deflect the attacking limb in the opposite direction” [9]. What is it that Systema has that Spyridonov’s style hadn’t? It is the knowledge in the field of biomechanics which can make the evasive movements more efficient! Now, regarding the second step, the Combat SAMBO theory states that “After stepping off the line of the attack, if you are able to avoid a serious initial defeat and maintain combat readiness, you need to launch a counter-strike, preferably an injury-causing action. The nature and form of the diversionary action depend on the opponent’s positioning to one another, their respective height and weight, type of clothing, etc”[10]. In Systema, this would mean that we either disrupt the opponent’s breathing or break his structure – both these actions result in taking the initiative from the opponent (see also the second part of this article here). For the third step, taking the opponent down seems to be a priority both in Combat SAMBO and in contemporary expressions of Russian Martial Art. About the fourth step, the detailed analysis states that “Final injury-causing actions (the final blow) must be executed primarily by the legs (heel, toes, knees) and with the arms only in exceptional circumstances”. Well, have you ever noticed what Vladimir Vasiliev always does in his demonstrations after taking down a partner? Exactly!
So, what is the conclusion of this comparison between the Combat SAMBO fighting strategy and the practice of contemporary Russian Martial Art? I would say, that since Spyridonov laid the foundation of his style, the subsequently obtained scientific knowledge in the fields of biomechanics, neurophysiology and psychophysiology (and let’s admit it, scientific research was one of the very strong points of the Soviets) enhanced the application of a combat strategy that remains basically unaltered for about ninety years!
This article concludes the three-part series on the sets of rules that I consider to be my personal Systema cheat-sheet. The point I tried to make in it is that Russian Martial Art, rather than being an “all natural, anything goes, fully improvised” system of combat or a huge collection of “cool” (maybe even funky!) training drills, is a very specific framework of principles and concepts that allows one to study (as opposed to “learn”) hand-to-hand combat in the most efficient way. In my opinion, one does not learn Systema – one studies fighting using the Systema method.
I sincerely hope these texts will be of help.
References:
[1]This view is expressed, for example in Latvian born, Judo – SAMBO champion and coach Alexander Iatskevich’s book, Russian Judo (1999, Ippon Books).
[2] A very interesting and detailed article written by Scott Sonnon on the history of SAMBO can be found at http://www.sambo.com.ua/
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i don't know
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Which country of the Caribbean has a rectangular flag of blue and red, halved horizontally?
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Flags with descriptions
Home - Country listing - Field listing
Flags with descriptions
European Union
a blue field with 12 five-pointed gold stars arranged in a circle in the center; blue represents the sky of the Western world, the stars are the peoples of Europe in a circle, a symbol of unity; the number of stars is fixed
Taiwan
red field with a dark blue rectangle in the upper hoist-side corner bearing a white sun with 12 triangular rays; the blue and white design of the canton (symbolizing the sun of progress) dates to 1895; it was later adopted as the flag of the Kuomintang Party; blue signifies liberty, justice, and democracy; red stands for fraternity, sacrifice, and nationalism, white represents equality, frankness, and the people's livelihood; the 12 rays of the sun are those of the months and the twelve traditional Chinese hours (each ray equals two hours)
A
Afghanistan
three equal vertical bands of black (hoist side), red, and green, with the national emblem in white centered on the red band and slightly overlapping the other two bands; the center of the emblem features a mosque with pulpit and flags on either side, below the mosque are numerals for the solar year 1298 (1919 in the Gregorian calendar, the year of Afghan independence from the UK); this central image is circled by a border consisting of sheaves of wheat on the left and right, in the upper-center is an Arabic inscription of the Shahada (Muslim creed) below which are rays of the rising sun over the Takbir (Arabic expression meaning "God is great"), and at bottom center is a scroll bearing the name Afghanistan; black signifies the past, red is for the blood shed for independence, and green can represent either hope for the future, agricultural prosperity, or Islam
note: Afghanistan had more changes to its national flag in the 20th century than any other country; the colors black, red, and green appeared on most of them
Albania
red with a black two-headed eagle in the center; the design is claimed to be that of 15th-century hero George Kastrioti SKANDERBEG, who led a successful uprising against the Turks that resulted in a short-lived independence for some Albanian regions (1443-78); an unsubstantiated explanation for the eagle symbol is the tradition that Albanians see themselves as descendants of the eagle; they refer to themselves as "Shqipetare," which translates as "sons of the eagle"
Algeria
two equal vertical bands of green (hoist side) and white; a red, five-pointed star within a red crescent centered over the two-color boundary; the colors represent Islam (green), purity and peace (white), and liberty (red); the crescent and star are also Islamic symbols, but the crescent is more closed than those of other Muslim countries because the Algerians believe the long crescent horns bring happiness
American Samoa
blue, with a white triangle edged in red that is based on the fly side and extends to the hoist side; a brown and white American bald eagle flying toward the hoist side is carrying two traditional Samoan symbols of authority, a war club known as a "Fa'alaufa'i" (upper; left talon), and a coconut fiber fly whisk known as a "Fue" (lower; right talon); the combination of symbols broadly mimics that seen on the US Great Seal and reflects the relationship between the United States and American Samoa
Andorra
three vertical bands of blue (hoist side), yellow, and red, with the national coat of arms centered in the yellow band; the latter band is slightly wider than the other two so that the ratio of band widths is 8:9:8; the coat of arms features a quartered shield with the emblems of (starting in the upper left and proceeding clockwise): Urgell, Foix, Bearn, and Catalonia; the motto reads VIRTUS UNITA FORTIOR (Strength United is Stronger); the flag combines the blue and red French colors with the red and yellow of Spain to show Franco-Spanish protection
note: similar to the flags of Chad and Romania, which do not have a national coat of arms in the center, and the flag of Moldova, which does bear a national emblem
Angola
two equal horizontal bands of red (top) and black with a centered yellow emblem consisting of a five-pointed star within half a cogwheel crossed by a machete (in the style of a hammer and sickle); red represents liberty, black the African continent, the symbols characterize workers and peasants
Anguilla
blue, with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side quadrant and the Anguillan coat of arms centered in the outer half of the flag; the coat of arms depicts three orange dolphins in an interlocking circular design on a white background with a turquoise-blue field below; the white in the background represents peace; the blue base symbolizes the surrounding sea, as well as faith, youth, and hope; the three dolphins stand for endurance, unity, and strength
Antigua and Barbuda
red, with an inverted isosceles triangle based on the top edge of the flag; the triangle contains three horizontal bands of black (top), light blue, and white, with a yellow rising sun in the black band; the sun symbolizes the dawn of a new era, black represents the African heritage of most of the population, blue is for hope, and red is for the dynamism of the people; the "V" stands for victory; the successive yellow, blue, and white coloring is also meant to evoke the country's tourist attractions of sun, sea, and sand
Argentina
three equal horizontal bands of light blue (top), white, and light blue; centered in the white band is a radiant yellow sun with a human face known as the Sun of May; the colors represent the clear skies and snow of the Andes; the sun symbol commemorates the appearance of the sun through cloudy skies on 25 May 1810 during the first mass demonstration in favor of independence; the sun features are those of Inti, the Inca god of the sun
Aruba
blue, with two narrow, horizontal, yellow stripes across the lower portion and a red, four-pointed star outlined in white in the upper hoist-side corner; the star represents Aruba and its red soil and white beaches, its four points the four major languages (Papiamento, Dutch, Spanish, English) as well as the four points of a compass, to indicate that its inhabitants come from all over the world; the blue symbolizes Caribbean waters and skies; the stripes represent the island's two main "industries": the flow of tourists to the sun-drenched beaches and the flow of minerals from the earth
Australia
blue with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side quadrant and a large seven-pointed star in the lower hoist-side quadrant known as the Commonwealth or Federation Star, representing the federation of the colonies of Australia in 1901; the star depicts one point for each of the six original states and one representing all of Australia's internal and external territories; on the fly half is a representation of the Southern Cross constellation in white with one small, five-pointed star and four larger, seven-pointed stars
Austria
three equal horizontal bands of red (top), white, and red; the flag design is certainly one of the oldest - if not the oldest - national banners in the world; according to tradition, in 1191, following a fierce battle in the Third Crusade, Duke Leopold V of Austria's white tunic became completely blood-spattered; upon removal of his wide belt or sash, a white band was revealed; the red-white-red color combination was subsequently adopted as his banner
Azerbaijan
three equal horizontal bands of blue (top), red, and green; a crescent and eight-pointed star in white are centered in the red band; the blue band recalls Azerbaijan's Turkic heritage, red stands for modernization and progress, and green refers to Islam; the crescent moon is an Islamic symbol, while the eight-pointed star represents the eight Turkic peoples of the world
B
Bahamas, The
three equal horizontal bands of aquamarine (top), gold, and aquamarine, with a black equilateral triangle based on the hoist side; the band colors represent the golden beaches of the islands surrounded by the aquamarine sea; black represents the vigor and force of a united people, while the pointing triangle indicates the enterprise and determination of the Bahamian people to develop the rich resources of land and sea
Bahrain
red, the traditional color for flags of Persian Gulf states, with a white serrated band (five white points) on the hoist side; the five points represent the five pillars of Islam
note: until 2002 the flag had eight white points, but this was reduced to five to avoid confusion with the Qatari flag
Barbados
three equal vertical bands of blue (hoist side), gold, and blue with the head of a black trident centered on the gold band; the band colors represent the blue of the sea and sky and the gold of the beaches; the trident head represents independence and a break with the past (the colonial coat of arms contained a complete trident)
Belarus
red horizontal band (top) and green horizontal band one-half the width of the red band; a white vertical stripe on the hoist side bears Belarusian national ornamentation in red; the red band color recalls past struggles from oppression, the green band represents hope and the many forests of the country
Belgium
three equal vertical bands of black (hoist side), yellow, and red; the vertical design was based on the flag of France; the colors are those of the arms of the duchy of Brabant (yellow lion with red claws and tongue on a black field)
Belize
blue with a narrow red stripe along the top and the bottom edges; centered is a large white disk bearing the coat of arms; the coat of arms features a shield flanked by two workers in front of a mahogany tree with the related motto SUB UMBRA FLOREO (I Flourish in the Shade) on a scroll at the bottom, all encircled by a green garland of 50 mahogany leaves; the colors are those of the two main political parties: blue for the PUP and red for the UDP; various elements of the coat of arms - the figures, the tools, the mahogany tree, and the garland of leaves - recall the logging industry that led to British settlement of Belize
note: Belize's flag is the only national flag that depicts human beings; two British overseas territories, Montserrat and the British Virgin Islands, also depict humans
two equal horizontal bands of yellow (top) and red (bottom) with a vertical green band on the hoist side; green symbolizes hope and revival, yellow wealth, and red courage
note: uses the popular Pan-African colors of Ethiopia
Bermuda
red, with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side quadrant and the Bermudian coat of arms (a white shield with a red lion standing on a green grassy field holding a scrolled shield showing the sinking of the ship Sea Venture off Bermuda in 1609) centered on the outer half of the flag; it was the shipwreck of the vessel, filled with English colonists originally bound for Virginia, that led to settling of Bermuda
note: the flag is unusual in that it is only British overseas territory that uses a red ensign, all others use blue
Bhutan
divided diagonally from the lower hoist-side corner; the upper triangle is yellow and the lower triangle is orange; centered along the dividing line is a large black and white dragon facing away from the hoist side; the dragon, called the Druk (Thunder Dragon), is the emblem of the nation; its white color stands for purity and the jewels in its claws symbolize wealth; the background colors represent spiritual and secular powers within Bhutan: the orange is associated with Buddhism, while the yellow denotes the ruling dynasty
Bolivia
three equal horizontal bands of red (top), yellow, and green with the coat of arms centered on the yellow band; red stands for bravery and the blood of national heroes, yellow for the nation's mineral resources, and green for the fertility of the land
note: similar to the flag of Ghana, which has a large black five-pointed star centered in the yellow band; in 2009, a presidential decree made it mandatory for a so-called wiphala - a square, multi-colored flag representing the country's indigenous peoples - to be used alongside the traditional flag
Bosnia and Herzegovina
a wide medium blue vertical band on the fly side with a yellow isosceles triangle abutting the band and the top of the flag; the remainder of the flag is medium blue with seven full five-pointed white stars and two half stars top and bottom along the hypotenuse of the triangle; the triangle approximates the shape of the country and its three points stand for the constituent peoples - Bosniaks, Croats, and Serbs; the stars represent Europe and are meant to be continuous (thus the half stars at top and bottom); the colors (white, blue, and yellow) are often associated with neutrality and peace, and traditionally are linked with Bosnia
Brazil
green with a large yellow diamond in the center bearing a blue celestial globe with 27 white five-pointed stars; the globe has a white equatorial band with the motto ORDEM E PROGRESSO (Order and Progress); the current flag was inspired by the banner of the former Empire of Brazil (1822-1889); on the imperial flag, the green represented the House of Braganza of Pedro I, the first Emperor of Brazil, while the yellow stood for the Habsburg Family of his wife; on the modern flag the green represents the forests of the country and the yellow rhombus its mineral wealth; the blue circle and stars, which replaced the coat of arms of the original flag, depict the sky over Rio de Janeiro on the morning of 15 November 1889 - the day the Republic of Brazil was declared; the number of stars has changed with the creation of new states and has risen from an original 21 to the current 27 (one for each state and the Federal District)
British Indian Ocean Territory
white with six blue wavy horizontal stripes; the flag of the UK is in the upper hoist-side quadrant; the striped section bears a palm tree and yellow crown (the symbols of the territory) centered on the outer half of the flag; the wavy stripes represent the Indian Ocean; although not officially described, the six blue stripes may stand for the six main atolls of the archipelago
British Virgin Islands
blue, with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side quadrant and the Virgin Islander coat of arms centered in the outer half of the flag; the coat of arms depicts a woman flanked on either side by a vertical column of six oil lamps above a scroll bearing the Latin word VIGILATE (Be Watchful); the islands were named by COLUMBUS in 1493 in honor of Saint Ursula and her 11 virgin followers (some sources say 11,000) who reputedly were martyred by the Huns in the 4th or 5th century; the figure on the banner holding a lamp represents the saint, the other lamps symbolize her followers
Brunei
yellow with two diagonal bands of white (top, almost double width) and black starting from the upper hoist side; the national emblem in red is superimposed at the center; yellow is the color of royalty and symbolizes the sultanate; the white and black bands denote Brunei's chief ministers; the emblem includes five main components: a swallow-tailed flag, the royal umbrella representing the monarchy, the wings of four feathers symbolizing justice, tranquility, prosperity, and peace, the two upraised hands signifying the government's pledge to preserve and promote the welfare of the people, and the crescent moon denoting Islam, the state religion; the state motto "Always render service with God's guidance" appears in yellow Arabic script on the crescent; a ribbon below the crescent reads "Brunei, the Abode of Peace"
three equal horizontal bands of white (top), green, and red; the pan-Slavic white-blue-red colors were modified by substituting a green band (representing freedom) for the blue
note: the national emblem, formerly on the hoist side of the white stripe, has been removed
two equal horizontal bands of red (top) and green with a yellow five-pointed star in the center; red recalls the country's struggle for independence, green is for hope and abundance, and yellow represents the country's mineral wealth
note: uses the popular Pan-African colors of Ethiopia
Burma
design consists of three equal horizontal stripes of yellow (top), green, and red; centered on the green band is a large white five-pointed star that partially overlaps onto the adjacent colored stripes; the design revives the triband colors used by Burma from 1943-45, during the Japanese occupation
Burundi
divided by a white diagonal cross into red panels (top and bottom) and green panels (hoist side and fly side) with a white disk superimposed at the center bearing three red six-pointed stars outlined in green arranged in a triangular design (one star above, two stars below); green symbolizes hope and optimism, white purity and peace, and red the blood shed in the struggle for independence; the three stars in the disk represent the three major ethnic groups: Hutu, Twa, Tutsi, as well as the three elements in the national motto: unity, work, progress
C
Cabo Verde
five unequal horizontal bands; the top-most band of blue - equal to one half the width of the flag - is followed by three bands of white, red, and white, each equal to 1/12 of the width, and a bottom stripe of blue equal to one quarter of the flag width; a circle of 10, yellow, five-pointed stars is centered on the red stripe and positioned 3/8 of the length of the flag from the hoist side; blue stands for the sea and the sky, the circle of stars represents the 10 major islands united into a nation, the stripes symbolize the road to formation of the country through peace (white) and effort (red)
three horizontal bands of blue (top), red (double width), and blue with a white three-towered temple representing Angkor Wat outlined in black in the center of the red band; red and blue are traditional Cambodian colors
note: only national flag to incorporate an actual building in its design
Cameroon
three equal vertical bands of green (hoist side), red, and yellow, with a yellow five-pointed star centered in the red band; the vertical tricolor recalls the flag of France; red symbolizes unity, yellow the sun, happiness, and the savannahs in the north, and green hope and the forests in the south; the star is referred to as the "star of unity"
note: uses the popular Pan-African colors of Ethiopia
Canada
two vertical bands of red (hoist and fly side, half width) with white square between them; an 11-pointed red maple leaf is centered in the white square; the maple leaf has long been a Canadian symbol; the official colors of Canada are red and white
Cayman Islands
a blue field, with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side quadrant and the Caymanian coat of arms centered on the outer half of the flag; the coat of arms includes a crest with a pineapple, representing the connection with Jamaica, and a turtle, representing Cayman's seafaring tradition, above a shield bearing a golden lion, symbolizing Great Britain, below which are three green stars (representing the three islands) surmounting white and blue wavy lines representing the sea and a scroll at the bottom bearing the motto HE HATH FOUNDED IT UPON THE SEAS
Central African Republic
four equal horizontal bands of blue (top), white, green, and yellow with a vertical red band in center; a yellow five-pointed star to the hoist side of the blue band; banner combines the Pan-African and French flag colors; red symbolizes the blood spilled in the struggle for independence, blue represents the sky and freedom, white peace and dignity, green hope and faith, and yellow tolerance; the star represents aspiration towards a vibrant future
Chad
three equal vertical bands of blue (hoist side), yellow, and red; the flag combines the blue and red French (former colonial) colors with the red and yellow of the Pan-African colors; blue symbolizes the sky, hope, and the south of the country, which is relatively well-watered; yellow represents the sun, as well as the desert in the north of the country; red stands for progress, unity, and sacrifice
note: similar to the flag of Romania; also similar to the flags of Andorra and Moldova, both of which have a national coat of arms centered in the yellow band; design was based on the flag of France
Chile
two equal horizontal bands of white (top) and red; a blue square the same height as the white band at the hoist-side end of the white band; the square bears a white five-pointed star in the center representing a guide to progress and honor; blue symbolizes the sky, white is for the snow-covered Andes, and red represents the blood spilled to achieve independence
note: design was influenced by the US flag
China
red with a large yellow five-pointed star and four smaller yellow five-pointed stars (arranged in a vertical arc toward the middle of the flag) in the upper hoist-side corner; the color red represents revolution, while the stars symbolize the four social classes - the working class, the peasantry, the urban petty bourgeoisie, and the national bourgeoisie (capitalists) - united under the Communist Party of China
Christmas Island
territorial flag; divided diagonally from upper hoist to lower fly; the upper triangle is green with a yellow image of the Golden Bosun Bird superimposed; the lower triangle is blue with the Southern Cross constellation, representing Australia, superimposed; a centered yellow disk displays a green map of the island
note: the flag of Australia is used for official purposes
Colombia
three horizontal bands of yellow (top, double-width), blue, and red; the flag retains the three main colors of the banner of Gran Colombia, the short-lived South American republic that broke up in 1830; various interpretations of the colors exist and include: yellow for the gold in Colombia's land, blue for the seas on its shores, and red for the blood spilled in attaining freedom; alternatively, the colors have been described as representing more elemental concepts such as sovereignty and justice (yellow), loyalty and vigilance (blue), and valor and generosity (red); or simply the principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity
note: similar to the flag of Ecuador, which is longer and bears the Ecuadorian coat of arms superimposed in the center
Comoros
four equal horizontal bands of yellow (top), white, red, and blue, with a green isosceles triangle based on the hoist; centered within the triangle is a white crescent with the convex side facing the hoist and four white, five-pointed stars placed vertically in a line between the points of the crescent; the horizontal bands and the four stars represent the four main islands of the archipelago - Mwali, N'gazidja, Ndzuwani, and Mahore (Mayotte - department of France, but claimed by Comoros)
note: the crescent, stars, and color green are traditional symbols of Islam
Congo, Democratic Republic of the
sky blue field divided diagonally from the lower hoist corner to upper fly corner by a red stripe bordered by two narrow yellow stripes; a yellow, five-pointed star appears in the upper hoist corner; blue represents peace and hope, red the blood of the country's martyrs, and yellow the country's wealth and prosperity; the star symbolizes unity and the brilliant future for the country
Congo, Republic of the
divided diagonally from the lower hoist side by a yellow band; the upper triangle (hoist side) is green and the lower triangle is red; green symbolizes agriculture and forests, yellow the friendship and nobility of the people, red is unexplained but has been associated with the struggle for independence
note: uses the popular Pan-African colors of Ethiopia
Costa Rica
five horizontal bands of blue (top), white, red (double width), white, and blue, with the coat of arms in a white elliptical disk toward the hoist side of the red band; Costa Rica retained the earlier blue-white-blue flag of Central America until 1848 when, in response to revolutionary activity in Europe, it was decided to incorporate the French colors into the national flag and a central red stripe was added; today the blue color is said to stand for the sky, opportunity, and perseverance, white denotes peace, happiness, and wisdom, while red represents the blood shed for freedom, as well as the generosity and vibrancy of the people
note: somewhat resembles the flag of North Korea; similar to the flag of Thailand but with the blue and red colors reversed
Cote d'Ivoire
three equal vertical bands of orange (hoist side), white, and green; orange symbolizes the land (savannah) of the north and fertility, white stands for peace and unity, green represents the forests of the south and the hope for a bright future
note: similar to the flag of Ireland, which is longer and has the colors reversed - green (hoist side), white, and orange; also similar to the flag of Italy, which is green (hoist side), white, and red; design was based on the flag of France
Croatia
three equal horizontal bands of red (top), white, and blue - the Pan-Slav colors - superimposed by the Croatian coat of arms; the coat of arms consists of one main shield (a checkerboard of 13 red and 12 silver (white) fields) surmounted by five smaller shields that form a crown over the main shield; the five small shields represent five historic regions, they are (from left to right): Croatia, Dubrovnik, Dalmatia, Istria, and Slavonia
note: the Pan-Slav colors were inspired by the 19th-century flag of Russia
Cuba
five equal horizontal bands of blue (top, center, and bottom) alternating with white; a red equilateral triangle based on the hoist side bears a white, five-pointed star in the center; the blue bands refer to the three old divisions of the island: central, occidental, and oriental; the white bands describe the purity of the independence ideal; the triangle symbolizes liberty, equality, and fraternity, while the red color stands for the blood shed in the independence struggle; the white star, called La Estrella Solitaria (the Lone Star) lights the way to freedom and was taken from the flag of Texas
note: design similar to the Puerto Rican flag, with the colors of the bands and triangle reversed
Curacao
on a blue field a horizontal yellow band somewhat below the center divides the flag into proportions of 5:1:2; two five-pointed white stars - the smaller above and to the left of the larger - appear in the canton; the blue of the upper and lower sections symbolizes the sky and sea respectively; yellow represents the sun; the stars symbolize Curacao and its uninhabited smaller sister island of Klein Curacao; the five star points signify the five continents from which Curacao's people derive
Cyprus
white with a copper-colored silhouette of the island (the name Cyprus is derived from the Greek word for copper) above two green crossed olive branches in the center of the flag; the branches symbolize the hope for peace and reconciliation between the Greek and Turkish communities
note: the "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus" flag retains the white field of the Cyprus national flag but displays narrow horizontal red stripes positioned a small distance from the top and bottom edges between which are centered a red crescent and a red five-pointed star; the banner is modeled after the Turkish national flag but with the colors reversed
two equal horizontal bands of white (top) and red with a blue isosceles triangle based on the hoist side
note: is identical to the flag of the former Czechoslovakia
D
Denmark
red with a white cross that extends to the edges of the flag; the vertical part of the cross is shifted to the hoist side; the banner is referred to as the Dannebrog (Danish flag) and is one of the oldest national flags in the world; traditions as to the origin of the flag design vary, but the best known is a legend that the banner fell from the sky during an early-13th century battle; caught up by the Danish king before it ever touched the earth, this heavenly talisman inspired the royal army to victory; in actuality, the flag may derive from a crusade banner or ensign
note: the shifted design element was subsequently adopted by the other Nordic countries of Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden
Djibouti
two equal horizontal bands of light blue (top) and light green with a white isosceles triangle based on the hoist side bearing a red five-pointed star in the center; blue stands for sea and sky and the Issa Somali people; green symbolizes earth and the Afar people; white represents peace; the red star recalls the struggle for independence and stands for unity
Dominica
green, with a centered cross of three equal bands - the vertical part is yellow (hoist side), black, and white and the horizontal part is yellow (top), black, and white; superimposed in the center of the cross is a red disk bearing a Sisserou parrot, unique to Dominica, encircled by 10 green, five-pointed stars edged in yellow; the 10 stars represent the 10 administrative divisions (parishes); green symbolizes the island's lush vegetation; the triple-colored cross represents the Christian Trinity; the yellow color denotes sunshine, the main agricultural products (citrus and bananas), and the native Carib Indians; black is for the rich soil and the African heritage of most citizens; white signifies rivers, waterfalls, and the purity of aspirations; the red disc stands for social justice
Dominican Republic
a centered white cross that extends to the edges divides the flag into four rectangles - the top ones are blue (hoist side) and red, and the bottom ones are red (hoist side) and blue; a small coat of arms featuring a shield supported by a laurel branch (left) and a palm branch (right) is at the center of the cross; above the shield a blue ribbon displays the motto, DIOS, PATRIA, LIBERTAD (God, Fatherland, Liberty), and below the shield, REPUBLICA DOMINICANA appears on a red ribbon; in the shield a bible is opened to a verse that reads "Y la verdad nos hara libre" (And the truth shall set you free); blue stands for liberty, white for salvation, and red for the blood of heroes
E
Ecuador
three horizontal bands of yellow (top, double width), blue, and red with the coat of arms superimposed at the center of the flag; the flag retains the three main colors of the banner of Gran Columbia, the South American republic that broke up in 1830; the yellow color represents sunshine, grain, and mineral wealth, blue the sky, sea, and rivers, and red the blood of patriots spilled in the struggle for freedom and justice
note: similar to the flag of Colombia, which is shorter and does not bear a coat of arms
Egypt
three equal horizontal bands of red (top), white, and black; the national emblem (a gold Eagle of Saladin facing the hoist side with a shield superimposed on its chest above a scroll bearing the name of the country in Arabic) centered in the white band; the band colors derive from the Arab Liberation flag and represent oppression (black), overcome through bloody struggle (red), to be replaced by a bright future (white)
note: similar to the flag of Syria, which has two green stars in the white band, Iraq, which has an Arabic inscription centered in the white band, and Yemen, which has a plain white band
El Salvador
three equal horizontal bands of blue (top), white, and blue with the national coat of arms centered in the white band; the coat of arms features a round emblem encircled by the words REPUBLICA DE EL SALVADOR EN LA AMERICA CENTRAL; the banner is based on the former blue-white-blue flag of the Federal Republic of Central America; the blue bands symbolize the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, while the white band represents the land between the two bodies of water, as well as peace and prosperity
note: similar to the flag of Nicaragua, which has a different coat of arms centered in the white band - it features a triangle encircled by the words REPUBLICA DE NICARAGUA on top and AMERICA CENTRAL on the bottom; also similar to the flag of Honduras, which has five blue stars arranged in an X pattern centered in the white band
Equatorial Guinea
three equal horizontal bands of green (top), white, and red, with a blue isosceles triangle based on the hoist side and the coat of arms centered in the white band; the coat of arms has six yellow six-pointed stars (representing the mainland and five offshore islands) above a gray shield bearing a silk-cotton tree and below which is a scroll with the motto UNIDAD, PAZ, JUSTICIA (Unity, Peace, Justice); green symbolizes the jungle and natural resources, blue represents the sea that connects the mainland to the islands, white stands for peace, and red recalls the fight for independence
Eritrea
red isosceles triangle (based on the hoist side) dividing the flag into two right triangles; the upper triangle is green, the lower one is blue; a gold wreath encircling a gold olive branch is centered on the hoist side of the red triangle; green stands for the country's agriculture economy, red signifies the blood shed in the fight for freedom, and blue symbolizes the bounty of the sea; the wreath-olive branch symbol is similar to that on the first flag of Eritrea from 1952; the shape of the red triangle broadly mimics the shape of the country
Estonia
three equal horizontal bands of blue (top), black, and white; various interpretations are linked to the flag colors; blue represents faith, loyalty, and devotion, while also reminiscent of the sky, sea, and lakes of the country; black symbolizes the soil of the country and the dark past and suffering endured by the Estonian people; white refers to the striving towards enlightenment and virtue, and is the color of birch bark and snow, as well as summer nights illuminated by the midnight sun
Ethiopia
three equal horizontal bands of green (top), yellow, and red, with a yellow pentagram and single yellow rays emanating from the angles between the points on a light blue disk centered on the three bands; green represents hope and the fertility of the land, yellow symbolizes justice and harmony, while red stands for sacrifice and heroism in the defense of the land; the blue of the disk symbolizes peace and the pentagram represents the unity and equality of the nationalities and peoples of Ethiopia
note: Ethiopia is the oldest independent country in Africa, and the three main colors of her flag (adopted ca. 1895) were so often adopted by other African countries upon independence that they became known as the Pan-African colors; the emblem in the center of the current flag was added in 1996
F
Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
blue with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side quadrant and the Falkland Island coat of arms centered on the outer half of the flag; the coat of arms contains a white ram (sheep raising was once the major economic activity) above the sailing ship Desire (whose crew discovered the islands) with a scroll at the bottom bearing the motto DESIRE THE RIGHT
Faroe Islands
white with a red cross outlined in blue extending to the edges of the flag; the vertical part of the cross is shifted toward the hoist side in the style of the Dannebrog (Danish flag); referred to as Merkid, meaning "the banner" or "the mark," the flag resembles those of neighboring Iceland and Norway, and uses the same three colors - but in a different sequence; white represents the clear Faroese sky as well as the foam of the waves; red and blue are traditional Faroese colors
Fiji
light blue with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side quadrant and the Fijian shield centered on the outer half of the flag; the blue symbolizes the Pacific ocean and the Union Jack reflects the links with Great Britain; the shield - taken from Fiji's coat of arms - depicts a yellow lion above a white field quartered by the cross of Saint George; the four quarters depict stalks of sugarcane, a palm tree, bananas, and a white dove
Finland
white with a blue cross extending to the edges of the flag; the vertical part of the cross is shifted to the hoist side in the style of the Dannebrog (Danish flag); the blue represents the thousands of lakes scattered across the country, while the white is for the snow that covers the land in winter
France
three equal vertical bands of blue (hoist side), white, and red; known as the "Le drapeau tricolore" (French Tricolor), the origin of the flag dates to 1790 and the French Revolution when the "ancient French color" of white was combined with the blue and red colors of the Parisian militia; the official flag for all French dependent areas
note: the design and/or colors are similar to a number of other flags, including those of Belgium, Chad, Cote d'Ivoire, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, and Netherlands
French Polynesia
two red horizontal bands encase a wide white band in a 1:2:1 ratio; centered on the white band is a disk with a blue and white wave pattern depicting the sea on the lower half and a gold and white ray pattern depicting the sun on the upper half; a Polynesian canoe rides on the wave pattern; the canoe has a crew of five represented by five stars that symbolize the five island groups; red and white are traditional Polynesian colors
note: similar to the red-white-red flag of Tahiti, the largest of the islands in French Polynesia, which has no emblem in the white band; the flag of France is used for official occasions
the flag of France is used
G
Georgia
white rectangle with a central red cross extending to all four sides of the flag; each of the four quadrants displays a small red bolnur-katskhuri cross; sometimes referred to as the Five-Cross Flag; although adopted as the official Georgian flag in 2004, the five-cross design appears to date back to the 14th century
Germany
three equal horizontal bands of black (top), red, and gold; these colors have played an important role in German history and can be traced back to the medieval banner of the Holy Roman Emperor - a black eagle with red claws and beak on a gold field
Ghana
three equal horizontal bands of red (top), yellow, and green, with a large black five-pointed star centered in the yellow band; red symbolizes the blood shed for independence, yellow represents the country's mineral wealth, while green stands for its forests and natural wealth; the black star is said to be the lodestar of African freedom
note: uses the popular Pan-African colors of Ethiopia; similar to the flag of Bolivia, which has a coat of arms centered in the yellow band
Gibraltar
two horizontal bands of white (top, double width) and red with a three-towered red castle in the center of the white band; hanging from the castle gate is a gold key centered in the red band; the design is that of Gibraltar's coat of arms granted on 10 July 1502 by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain; the castle symbolizes Gibraltar as a fortress, while the key represents Gibraltar's strategic importance - the key to the Mediterranean
Greece
nine equal horizontal stripes of blue alternating with white; a blue square bearing a white cross appears in the upper hoist-side corner; the cross symbolizes Greek Orthodoxy, the established religion of the country; there is no agreed upon meaning for the nine stripes or for the colors; the exact shade of blue has never been set by law and has varied from a light to a dark blue over time
Greenland
two equal horizontal bands of white (top) and red with a large disk slightly to the hoist side of center - the top half of the disk is red, the bottom half is white; the design represents the sun reflecting off a field of ice; the colors are the same as those of the Danish flag and symbolize Greenland's links to the Kingdom of Denmark
Grenada
a rectangle divided diagonally into yellow triangles (top and bottom) and green triangles (hoist side and outer side), with a red border around the flag; there are seven yellow, five-pointed stars with three centered in the top red border, three centered in the bottom red border, and one on a red disk superimposed at the center of the flag; there is also a symbolic nutmeg pod on the hoist-side triangle (Grenada is the world's second-largest producer of nutmeg, after Indonesia); the seven stars stand for the seven administrative divisions, with the central star denoting the capital, St. George; yellow represents the sun and the warmth of the people, green stands for vegetation and agriculture, and red symbolizes harmony, unity, and courage
Guam
territorial flag is dark blue with a narrow red border on all four sides; centered is a red-bordered, pointed, vertical ellipse containing a beach scene, a proa or outrigger canoe with sail, and a palm tree with the word GUAM superimposed in bold red letters; the proa is sailing in Agana Bay with the promontory of Punta Dos Amantes, near the capital, in the background; blue represents the sea and red the blood shed in the struggle against oppression
note: the US flag is the national flag
Guatemala
three equal vertical bands of light blue (hoist side), white, and light blue, with the coat of arms centered in the white band; the coat of arms includes a green and red quetzal (the national bird) representing liberty and a scroll bearing the inscription LIBERTAD 15 DE SEPTIEMBRE DE 1821 (the original date of independence from Spain) all superimposed on a pair of crossed rifles signifying Guatemala's willingness to defend itself and a pair of crossed swords representing honor and framed by a laurel wreath symbolizing victory; the blue bands represent the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea; the white band denotes peace and purity
Guernsey
white with the red cross of Saint George (patron saint of England) extending to the edges of the flag and a yellow equal-armed cross of William the Conqueror superimposed on the Saint George cross; the red cross represents the old ties with England and the fact that Guernsey is a British Crown dependency; the gold cross is a replica of the one used by Duke William of Normandy at the Battle of Hastings
Guinea
three equal vertical bands of red (hoist side), yellow, and green; red represents the people's sacrifice for liberation and work; yellow stands for the sun, for the riches of the earth, and for justice; green symbolizes the country's vegetation and unity
note: uses the popular Pan-African colors of Ethiopia; the colors from left to right are the reverse of those on the flags of neighboring Mali and Senegal
Guinea-Bissau
two equal horizontal bands of yellow (top) and green with a vertical red band on the hoist side; there is a black five-pointed star centered in the red band; yellow symbolizes the sun; green denotes hope; red represents blood shed during the struggle for independence; the black star stands for African unity
note: uses the popular Pan-African colors of Ethiopia; the flag design was heavily influenced by the Ghanaian flag
Guyana
green, with a red isosceles triangle (based on the hoist side) superimposed on a long, yellow arrowhead; there is a narrow, black border between the red and yellow, and a narrow, white border between the yellow and the green; green represents forest and foliage; yellow stands for mineral resources and a bright future; white symbolizes Guyana's rivers; red signifies zeal and the sacrifice of the people; black indicates perseverance
H
Haiti
two equal horizontal bands of blue (top) and red with a centered white rectangle bearing the coat of arms, which contains a palm tree flanked by flags and two cannons above a scroll bearing the motto L'UNION FAIT LA FORCE (Union Makes Strength); the colors are taken from the French Tricolor and represent the union of blacks and mulattoes
Holy See (Vatican City)
two vertical bands of yellow (hoist side) and white with the arms of the Holy See, consisting of the crossed keys of Saint Peter surmounted by the three-tiered papal tiara, centered in the white band; the yellow color represents the pope's spiritual power, the white his worldly power
Honduras
three equal horizontal bands of blue (top), white, and blue, with five blue, five-pointed stars arranged in an X pattern centered in the white band; the stars represent the members of the former Federal Republic of Central America - Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua; the blue bands symbolize the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea; the white band represents the land between the two bodies of water and the peace and prosperity of its people
note: similar to the flag of El Salvador, which features a round emblem encircled by the words REPUBLICA DE EL SALVADOR EN LA AMERICA CENTRAL centered in the white band; also similar to the flag of Nicaragua, which features a triangle encircled by the words REPUBLICA DE NICARAGUA on top and AMERICA CENTRAL on the bottom, centered in the white band
Hong Kong
red with a stylized, white, five-petal Bauhinia flower in the center; each petal contains a small, red, five-pointed star in its middle; the red color is the same as that on the Chinese flag and represents the motherland; the fragrant Bauhinia - developed in Hong Kong the late 19th century - has come to symbolize the region; the five stars echo those on the flag of China
Hungary
three equal horizontal bands of red (top), white, and green; the flag dates to the national movement of the 18th and 19th centuries, and fuses the medieval colors of the Hungarian coat of arms with the revolutionary tricolor form of the French flag; folklore attributes virtues to the colors: red for strength, white for faithfulness, and green for hope; alternatively, the red is seen as being for the blood spilled in defense of the land, white for freedom, and green for the pasturelands that make up so much of the country
I
Iceland
blue with a red cross outlined in white extending to the edges of the flag; the vertical part of the cross is shifted to the hoist side in the style of the Dannebrog (Danish flag); the colors represent three of the elements that make up the island: red is for the island's volcanic fires, white recalls the snow and ice fields of the island, and blue is for the surrounding ocean
India
three equal horizontal bands of saffron (subdued orange) (top), white, and green, with a blue chakra (24-spoked wheel) centered in the white band; saffron represents courage, sacrifice, and the spirit of renunciation; white signifies purity and truth; green stands for faith and fertility; the blue chakra symbolizes the wheel of life in movement and death in stagnation
note: similar to the flag of Niger, which has a small orange disk centered in the white band
Indonesia
two equal horizontal bands of red (top) and white; the colors derive from the banner of the Majapahit Empire of the 13th-15th centuries; red symbolizes courage, white represents purity
note: similar to the flag of Monaco, which is shorter; also similar to the flag of Poland, which is white (top) and red
Iran
three equal horizontal bands of green (top), white, and red; the national emblem (a stylized representation of the word Allah in the shape of a tulip, a symbol of martyrdom) in red is centered in the white band; ALLAH AKBAR (God is Great) in white Arabic script is repeated 11 times along the bottom edge of the green band and 11 times along the top edge of the red band; green is the color of Islam and also represents growth, white symbolizes honesty and peace, red stands for bravery and martyrdom
Iraq
three equal horizontal bands of red (top), white, and black; the Takbir (Arabic expression meaning "God is great") in green Arabic script is centered in the white band; the band colors derive from the Arab Liberation flag and represent oppression (black), overcome through bloody struggle (red), to be replaced by a bright future (white); the Council of Representatives approved this flag in 2008 as a compromise temporary replacement for the Ba'athist Saddam-era flag
note: similar to the flag of Syria, which has two stars but no script, Yemen, which has a plain white band, and that of Egypt, which has a gold Eagle of Saladin centered in the white band
Ireland
three equal vertical bands of green (hoist side), white, and orange; officially the flag colors have no meaning, but a common interpretation is that the green represents the Irish nationalist (Gaelic) tradition of Ireland; orange represents the Orange tradition (minority supporters of William of Orange); white symbolizes peace (or a lasting truce) between the green and the orange
note: similar to the flag of Cote d'Ivoire, which is shorter and has the colors reversed - orange (hoist side), white, and green; also similar to the flag of Italy, which is shorter and has colors of green (hoist side), white, and red
Isle of Man
red with the Three Legs of Man emblem (triskelion), in the center; the three legs are joined at the thigh and bent at the knee; in order to have the toes pointing clockwise on both sides of the flag, a two-sided emblem is used; the flag is based on the coat-of-arms of the last recognized Norse King of Mann, Magnus III (r. 1252-65); the triskelion has its roots in an early Celtic sun symbol
Israel
white with a blue hexagram (six-pointed linear star) known as the Magen David (Star of David or Shield of David) centered between two equal horizontal blue bands near the top and bottom edges of the flag; the basic design resembles a traditional Jewish prayer shawl (tallit), which is white with blue stripes; the hexagram as a Jewish symbol dates back to medieval times
Italy
three equal vertical bands of green (hoist side), white, and red; design inspired by the French flag brought to Italy by Napoleon in 1797; colors are those of Milan (red and white) combined with the green uniform color of the Milanese civic guard
note: similar to the flag of Mexico, which is longer, uses darker shades of red and green, and has its coat of arms centered on the white band; Ireland, which is longer and is green (hoist side), white, and orange; also similar to the flag of the Cote d'Ivoire, which has the colors reversed - orange (hoist side), white, and green
J
Jamaica
diagonal yellow cross divides the flag into four triangles - green (top and bottom) and black (hoist side and outer side); green represents hope, vegetation, and agriculture, black reflects hardships overcome and to be faced, and yellow recalls golden sunshine and the island's natural resources
Jersey
white with a diagonal red cross extending to the corners of the flag; in the upper quadrant, surmounted by a yellow crown, a red shield with three lions in yellow; according to tradition, the ships of Jersey - in an attempt to differentiate themselves from English ships flying the horizontal cross of St. George - rotated the cross to the "X" (saltire) configuration; because this arrangement still resembled the Irish cross of St. Patrick, the yellow Plantagenet crown and Jersey coat of arms were added
Jordan
three equal horizontal bands of black (top), representing the Abbassid Caliphate, white, representing the Ummayyad Caliphate, and green, representing the Fatimid Caliphate; a red isosceles triangle on the hoist side, representing the Great Arab Revolt of 1916, and bearing a small white seven-pointed star symbolizing the seven verses of the opening Sura (Al-Fatiha) of the Holy Koran; the seven points on the star represent faith in One God, humanity, national spirit, humility, social justice, virtue, and aspirations; design is based on the Arab Revolt flag of World War I
K
Kazakhstan
a gold sun with 32 rays above a soaring golden steppe eagle, both centered on a sky blue background; the hoist side displays a national ornamental pattern "koshkar-muiz" (the horns of the ram) in gold; the blue color is of religious significance to the Turkic peoples of the country, and so symbolizes cultural and ethnic unity; it also represents the endless sky as well as water; the sun, a source of life and energy, exemplifies wealth and plenitude; the sun's rays are shaped like grain, which is the basis of abundance and prosperity; the eagle has appeared on the flags of Kazakh tribes for centuries and represents freedom, power, and the flight to the future
Kenya
three equal horizontal bands of black (top), red, and green; the red band is edged in white; a large Maasai warrior's shield covering crossed spears is superimposed at the center; black symbolizes the majority population, red the blood shed in the struggle for freedom, green stands for natural wealth, and white for peace; the shield and crossed spears symbolize the defense of freedom
Kiribati
the upper half is red with a yellow frigatebird flying over a yellow rising sun, and the lower half is blue with three horizontal wavy white stripes to represent the Pacific ocean; the white stripes represent the three island groups - the Gilbert, Line, and Phoenix Islands; the 17 rays of the sun represent the 16 Gilbert Islands and Banaba (formerly Ocean Island); the frigatebird symbolizes authority and freedom
Korea, North
three horizontal bands of blue (top), red (triple width), and blue; the red band is edged in white; on the hoist side of the red band is a white disk with a red five-pointed star; the broad red band symbolizes revolutionary traditions; the narrow white bands stands for purity, strength, and dignity; the blue bands signify sovereignty, peace, and friendship; the red star represents socialism
Korea, South
white with a red (top) and blue yin-yang symbol in the center; there is a different black trigram from the ancient I Ching (Book of Changes) in each corner of the white field; the South Korean national flag is called Taegukki; white is a traditional Korean color and represents peace and purity; the blue section represents the negative cosmic forces of the yin, while the red symbolizes the opposite positive forces of the yang; each trigram (kwae) denotes one of the four universal elements, which together express the principle of movement and harmony
Kosovo
centered on a dark blue field is the geographical shape of Kosovo in a gold color surmounted by six white, five-pointed stars arrayed in a slight arc; each star represents one of the major ethnic groups of Kosovo: Albanians, Serbs, Turks, Gorani, Roma, and Bosniaks
Kuwait
three equal horizontal bands of green (top), white, and red with a black trapezoid based on the hoist side; colors and design are based on the Arab Revolt flag of World War I; green represents fertile fields, white stands for purity, red denotes blood on Kuwaiti swords, black signifies the defeat of the enemy
Kyrgyzstan
red field with a yellow sun in the center having 40 rays representing the 40 Kyrgyz tribes; on the obverse side the rays run counterclockwise, on the reverse, clockwise; in the center of the sun is a red ring crossed by two sets of three lines, a stylized representation of a "tunduk" - the crown of a traditional Kyrgyz yurt; red symbolizes bravery and valor, the sun evinces peace and wealth
L
Laos
three horizontal bands of red (top), blue (double width), and red with a large white disk centered in the blue band; the red bands recall the blood shed for liberation; the blue band represents the Mekong River and prosperity; the white disk symbolizes the full moon against the Mekong River, but also signifies the unity of the people under the Lao People's Revolutionary Party, as well as the country's bright future
Lebanon
three horizontal bands consisting of red (top), white (middle, double width), and red (bottom) with a green cedar tree centered in the white band; the red bands symbolize blood shed for liberation, the white band denotes peace, the snow of the mountains, and purity; the green cedar tree is the symbol of Lebanon and represents eternity, steadiness, happiness, and prosperity
Lesotho
three horizontal stripes of blue (top), white, and green in the proportions of 3:4:3; the colors represent rain, peace, and prosperity respectively; centered in the white stripe is a black Basotho hat representing the indigenous people; the flag was unfurled in October 2006 to celebrate 40 years of independence
Liberia
11 equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom) alternating with white; a white five-pointed star appears on a blue square in the upper hoist-side corner; the stripes symbolize the signatories of the Liberian Declaration of Independence; the blue square represents the African mainland, and the star represents the freedom granted to the ex-slaves; according to the constitution, the blue color signifies liberty, justice, and fidelity, the white color purity, cleanliness, and guilelessness, and the red color steadfastness, valor, and fervor
note: the design is based on the US flag
Libya
three horizontal bands of red (top), black (double width), and green with a white crescent and star centered on the black stripe; the National Transitional Council reintroduced this flag design of the former Kingdom of Libya (1951-1969) on 27 February 2011; it replaced the former all-green banner promulgated by the QADHAFI regime in 1977; the colors represent the three major regions of the country: red stands for Fezzan, black symbolizes Cyrenaica, and green denotes Tripolitania; the crescent and star represent Islam, the main religion of the country
Liechtenstein
two equal horizontal bands of blue (top) and red with a gold crown on the hoist side of the blue band; the colors may derive from the blue and red livery design used in the principality's household in the 18th century; the prince's crown was introduced in 1937 to distinguish the flag from that of Haiti
Lithuania
three equal horizontal bands of yellow (top), green, and red; yellow symbolizes golden fields, as well as the sun, light, and goodness; green represents the forests of the countryside, in addition to nature, freedom, and hope; red stands for courage and the blood spilled in defense of the homeland
Luxembourg
three equal horizontal bands of red (top), white, and light blue; similar to the flag of the Netherlands, which uses a darker blue and is shorter; the coloring is derived from the Grand Duke's coat of arms (a red lion on a white and blue striped field)
M
Macau
green with a lotus flower above a stylized bridge and water in white, beneath an arc of five gold, five-pointed stars: one large in the center of the arc and two smaller on either side; the lotus is the floral emblem of Macau, the three petals represent the peninsula and two islands that make up Macau; the five stars echo those on the flag of China
Malawi
three equal horizontal bands of black (top), red, and green with a radiant, rising, red sun centered on the black band; black represents the native peoples, red the blood shed in their struggle for freedom, and green the color of nature; the rising sun represents the hope of freedom for the continent of Africa
Malaysia
14 equal horizontal stripes of red (top) alternating with white (bottom); there is a blue rectangle in the upper hoist-side corner bearing a yellow crescent and a yellow 14-pointed star; the flag is often referred to as Jalur Gemilang (Stripes of Glory); the 14 stripes stand for the equal status in the federation of the 13 member states and the federal government; the 14 points on the star represent the unity between these entities; the crescent is a traditional symbol of Islam; blue symbolizes the unity of the Malay people and yellow is the royal color of Malay rulers
note: the design is based on the flag of the US
Maldives
red with a large green rectangle in the center bearing a vertical white crescent moon; the closed side of the crescent is on the hoist side of the flag; red recalls those who have sacrificed their lives in defense of their country, the green rectangle represents peace and prosperity, and the white crescent signifies Islam
Mali
three equal vertical bands of green (hoist side), yellow, and red
note: uses the popular Pan-African colors of Ethiopia; the colors from left to right are the same as those of neighboring Senegal (which has an additional green central star) and the reverse of those on the flag of neighboring Guinea
Malta
two equal vertical bands of white (hoist side) and red; in the upper hoist-side corner is a representation of the George Cross, edged in red; according to legend, the colors are taken from the red and white checkered banner of Count Roger of Sicily who removed a bi-colored corner and granted it to Malta in 1091; an uncontested explanation is that the colors are those of the Knights of Saint John who ruled Malta from 1530 to 1798; in 1942, King George VI of the United Kingdom awarded the George Cross to the islanders for their exceptional bravery and gallantry in World War II; since independence in 1964, the George Cross bordered in red has appeared directly on the white field
Marshall Islands
blue with two stripes radiating from the lower hoist-side corner - orange (top) and white; a white star with four large rays and 20 small rays appears on the hoist side above the two stripes; blue represents the Pacific Ocean, the orange stripe signifies the Ralik Chain or sunset and courage, while the white stripe signifies the Ratak Chain or sunrise and peace; the star symbolizes the cross of Christianity, each of the 24 rays designates one of the electoral districts in the country and the four larger rays highlight the principal cultural centers of Majuro, Jaluit, Wotje, and Ebeye; the rising diagonal band can also be interpreted as representing the equator, with the star showing the archipelago's position just to the north
Mauritius
four equal horizontal bands of red (top), blue, yellow, and green; red represents self-determination and independence, blue the Indian Ocean surrounding the island, yellow has been interpreted as the new light of independence, golden sunshine, or the bright future, and green can symbolize either agriculture or the lush vegetation of the island
Mexico
three equal vertical bands of green (hoist side), white, and red; Mexico's coat of arms (an eagle with a snake in its beak perched on a cactus) is centered in the white band; green signifies hope, joy, and love; white represents peace and honesty; red stands for hardiness, bravery, strength, and valor; the coat of arms is derived from a legend that the wandering Aztec people were to settle at a location where they would see an eagle on a cactus eating a snake; the city they founded, Tenochtitlan, is now Mexico City
note: similar to the flag of Italy, which is shorter, uses lighter shades of red and green, and does not have anything in its white band
Moldova
three equal vertical bands of blue (hoist side), yellow, and red; emblem in center of flag is of a Roman eagle of gold outlined in black with a red beak and talons carrying a yellow cross in its beak and a green olive branch in its right talons and a yellow scepter in its left talons; on its breast is a shield divided horizontally red over blue with a stylized aurochs head, star, rose, and crescent all in black-outlined yellow; based on the color scheme of the flag of Romania - with which Moldova shares a history and culture - but Moldova's blue band is lighter; the reverse of the flag does not display any coat of arms
note: one of only three national flags that differ on their obverse and reverse sides - the others are Paraguay and Saudi Arabia
Monaco
two equal horizontal bands of red (top) and white; the colors are those of the ruling House of Grimaldi and have been in use since 1339, making the flag one of the world's oldest national banners
note: similar to the flag of Indonesia which is longer and the flag of Poland which is white (top) and red
Mongolia
three equal, vertical bands of red (hoist side), blue, and red; centered on the hoist-side red band in yellow is the national emblem ("soyombo" - a columnar arrangement of abstract and geometric representation for fire, sun, moon, earth, water, and the yin-yang symbol); blue represents the sky, red symbolizes progress and prosperity
Montenegro
a red field bordered by a narrow golden-yellow stripe with the Montenegrin coat of arms centered; the arms consist of a double-headed golden eagle - symbolizing the unity of church and state - surmounted by a crown; the eagle holds a golden scepter in its right claw and a blue orb in its left; the breast shield over the eagle shows a golden lion passant on a green field in front of a blue sky; the lion is symbol of episcopal authority and harkens back to the three and a half centuries that Montenegro was ruled as a theocracy
Montserrat
blue, with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side quadrant and the Montserratian coat of arms centered in the outer half of the flag; the arms feature a woman in green dress, Erin, the female personification of Ireland, standing beside a yellow harp and embracing a large dark cross with her right arm; Erin and the harp are symbols of Ireland reflecting the territory's Irish ancestry; blue represents awareness, trustworthiness, determination, and righteousness
Morocco
red with a green pentacle (five-pointed, linear star) known as Sulayman's (Solomon's) seal in the center of the flag; red and green are traditional colors in Arab flags, although the use of red is more commonly associated with the Arab states of the Persian gulf; the pentacle represents the five pillars of Islam and signifies the association between God and the nation; design dates to 1912
Mozambique
three equal horizontal bands of green (top), black, and yellow with a red isosceles triangle based on the hoist side; the black band is edged in white; centered in the triangle is a yellow five-pointed star bearing a crossed rifle and hoe in black superimposed on an open white book; green represents the riches of the land, white peace, black the African continent, yellow the country's minerals, and red the struggle for independence; the rifle symbolizes defense and vigilance, the hoe refers to the country's agriculture, the open book stresses the importance of education, and the star represents Marxism and internationalism
N
Namibia
a wide red stripe edged by narrow white stripes divides the flag diagonally from lower hoist corner to upper fly corner; the upper hoist-side triangle is blue and charged with a yellow, 12-rayed sunburst; the lower fly-side triangle is green; red signifies the heroism of the people and their determination to build a future of equal opportunity for all; white stands for peace, unity, tranquility, and harmony; blue represents the Namibian sky and the Atlantic Ocean, the country's precious water resources and rain; the yellow sun denotes power and existence; green symbolizes vegetation and agricultural resources
Nauru
blue with a narrow, horizontal, yellow stripe across the center and a large white 12-pointed star below the stripe on the hoist side; blue stands for the Pacific Ocean, the star indicates the country's location in relation to the Equator (the yellow stripe) and the 12 points symbolize the 12 original tribes of Nauru
Nepal
red with a blue border around the unique shape of two overlapping right triangles; the smaller, upper triangle bears a white stylized moon and the larger, lower triangle displays a white 12-pointed sun; the color red represents the rhododendron (Nepal's national flower) and is a sign of victory and bravery, the blue border signifies peace and harmony; the two right triangles are a combination of two single pennons (pennants) that originally symbolized the Himalaya Mountains while their charges represented the families of the king (upper) and the prime minister, but today they are understood to denote Hinduism and Buddhism, the country's two main religions; the moon represents the serenity of the Nepalese people and the shade and cool weather in the Himalayas, while the sun depicts the heat and higher temperatures of the lower parts of Nepal; the moon and the sun are also said to express the hope that the nation will endure as long as these heavenly bodies
note: Nepal is the only country in the world whose flag is not rectangular or square
Netherlands
three equal horizontal bands of red (top), white, and blue; similar to the flag of Luxembourg, which uses a lighter blue and is longer; the colors were those of WILLIAM I, Prince of Orange, who led the Dutch Revolt against Spanish sovereignty in the latter half of the 16th century; originally the upper band was orange, but because it tended to fade to red over time, the red shade was eventually made the permanent color; the banner is perhaps the oldest tricolor in continuous use
Nicaragua
three equal horizontal bands of blue (top), white, and blue with the national coat of arms centered in the white band; the coat of arms features a triangle encircled by the words REPUBLICA DE NICARAGUA on the top and AMERICA CENTRAL on the bottom; the banner is based on the former blue-white-blue flag of the Federal Republic of Central America; the blue bands symbolize the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, while the white band represents the land between the two bodies of water
note: similar to the flag of El Salvador, which features a round emblem encircled by the words REPUBLICA DE EL SALVADOR EN LA AMERICA CENTRAL centered in the white band; also similar to the flag of Honduras, which has five blue stars arranged in an X pattern centered in the white band
Niger
three equal horizontal bands of orange (top), white, and green with a small orange disk centered in the white band; the orange band denotes the drier northern regions of the Sahara; white stands for purity and innocence; green symbolizes hope and the fertile and productive southern and western areas, as well as the Niger River; the orange disc represents the sun and the sacrifices made by the people
note: similar to the flag of India, which has a blue spoked wheel centered in the white band
Niue
yellow with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side quadrant; the flag of the UK bears five yellow five-pointed stars - a large star on a blue disk in the center and a smaller star on each arm of the bold red cross; the larger star stands for Niue, the smaller stars recall the Southern Cross constellation on the New Zealand flag and symbolize links with that country; yellow represents the bright sunshine of Niue and the warmth and friendship between Niue and New Zealand
Norfolk Island
three vertical bands of green (hoist side), white, and green with a large green Norfolk Island pine tree centered in the slightly wider white band; green stands for the rich vegetation on the island, and the pine tree - endemic to the island - is a symbol of Norfolk Island
note: somewhat reminiscent of the flag of Canada with its use of only two colors and depiction of a prominent local floral symbol in the central white band
Northern Mariana Islands
blue, with a white, five-pointed star superimposed on a gray latte stone (the traditional foundation stone used in building) in the center, surrounded by a wreath; blue symbolizes the Pacific Ocean, the star represents the Commonwealth; the latte stone and the floral head wreath display elements of the native Chamorro culture
Norway
red with a blue cross outlined in white that extends to the edges of the flag; the vertical part of the cross is shifted to the hoist side in the style of the Dannebrog (Danish flag); the colors recall Norway's past political unions with Denmark (red and white) and Sweden (blue)
O
Oman
three horizontal bands of white, red, and green of equal width with a broad, vertical, red band on the hoist side; the national emblem (a khanjar dagger in its sheath superimposed on two crossed swords in scabbards) in white is centered near the top of the vertical band; white represents peace and prosperity, red recalls battles against foreign invaders, and green symbolizes the Jebel Akhdar (Green Mountains) and fertility
P
Palau
light blue with a large yellow disk shifted slightly to the hoist side; the blue color represents the ocean, the disk represents the moon; Palauans consider the full moon to be the optimum time for human activity; it is also considered a symbol of peace, love, and tranquility
Panama
divided into four, equal rectangles; the top quadrants are white (hoist side) with a blue five-pointed star in the center and plain red; the bottom quadrants are plain blue (hoist side) and white with a red five-pointed star in the center; the blue and red colors are those of the main political parties (Conservatives and Liberals respectively) and the white denotes peace between them; the blue star stands for the civic virtues of purity and honesty, the red star signifies authority and law
Papua New Guinea
divided diagonally from upper hoist-side corner; the upper triangle is red with a soaring yellow bird of paradise centered; the lower triangle is black with five, white, five-pointed stars of the Southern Cross constellation centered; red, black, and yellow are traditional colors of Papua New Guinea; the bird of paradise - endemic to the island of New Guinea - is an emblem of regional tribal culture and represents the emergence of Papua New Guinea as a nation; the Southern Cross, visible in the night sky, symbolizes Papua New Guinea's connection with Australia and several other countries in the South Pacific
Paraguay
three equal, horizontal bands of red (top), white, and blue with an emblem centered in the white band; unusual flag in that the emblem is different on each side; the obverse (hoist side at the left) bears the national coat of arms (a yellow five-pointed star within a green wreath capped by the words REPUBLICA DEL PARAGUAY, all within two circles); the reverse (hoist side at the right) bears a circular seal of the treasury (a yellow lion below a red Cap of Liberty and the words PAZ Y JUSTICIA (Peace and Justice)); red symbolizes bravery and patriotism, white represents integrity and peace, and blue denotes liberty and generosity
note: the three color bands resemble those on the flag of the Netherlands; one of only three national flags that differ on their obverse and reverse sides - the others are Moldova and Saudi Arabia
Peru
three equal, vertical bands of red (hoist side), white, and red with the coat of arms centered in the white band; the coat of arms features a shield bearing a vicuna (representing fauna), a cinchona tree (the source of quinine, signifying flora), and a yellow cornucopia spilling out coins (denoting mineral wealth); red recalls blood shed for independence, white symbolizes peace
Philippines
two equal horizontal bands of blue (top) and red; a white equilateral triangle is based on the hoist side; the center of the triangle displays a yellow sun with eight primary rays; each corner of the triangle contains a small, yellow, five-pointed star; blue stands for peace and justice, red symbolizes courage, the white equal-sided triangle represents equality; the rays recall the first eight provinces that sought independence from Spain, while the stars represent the three major geographical divisions of the country: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao; the design of the flag dates to 1897
note: in wartime the flag is flown upside down with the red band at the top
Pitcairn Islands
blue with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side quadrant and the Pitcairn Islander coat of arms centered on the outer half of the flag; the green, yellow, and blue of the shield represents the island rising from the ocean; the green field features a yellow anchor surmounted by a bible (both the anchor and the bible were items found on the HMS Bounty); sitting on the crest is a Pitcairn Island wheelbarrow from which springs a slip of miro (a local plant)
two equal horizontal bands of white (top) and red; colors derive from the Polish emblem - a white eagle on a red field
note: similar to the flags of Indonesia and Monaco which are red (top) and white
Portugal
two vertical bands of green (hoist side, two-fifths) and red (three-fifths) with the national coat of arms (armillary sphere and Portuguese shield) centered on the dividing line; explanations for the color meanings are ambiguous, but a popular interpretation has green symbolizing hope and red the blood of those defending the nation
Puerto Rico
five equal horizontal bands of red (top and bottom) alternating with white; a blue isosceles triangle based on the hoist side bears a large, white, five-pointed star in the center; the white star symbolizes Puerto Rico; the three sides of the triangle signify the executive, legislative and judicial parts of the government; blue stands for the sky and the coastal waters; red symbolizes the blood shed by warriors, while white represents liberty, victory, and peace
note: design initially influenced by the US flag, but similar to the Cuban flag, with the colors of the bands and triangle reversed
Q
Qatar
maroon with a broad white serrated band (nine white points) on the hoist side; maroon represents the blood shed in Qatari wars, white stands for peace; the nine-pointed serrated edge signifies Qatar as the ninth member of the "reconciled emirates" in the wake of the Qatari-British treaty of 1916
note: the other eight emirates are the seven that compose the UAE and Bahrain; according to some sources, the dominant color was formerly red, but this darkened to maroon upon exposure to the sun and the new shade was eventually adopted
R
Romania
three equal vertical bands of blue (hoist side), yellow, and red; modeled after the flag of France, the colors are those of the principalities of Walachia (red and yellow) and Moldavia (red and blue), which united in 1862 to form Romania; the national coat of arms that used to be centered in the yellow band has been removed
note: now similar to the flag of Chad, whose blue band is darker; also resembles the flags of Andorra and Moldova
Russia
three equal horizontal bands of white (top), blue, and red
note: the colors may have been based on those of the Dutch flag; despite many popular interpretations, there is no official meaning assigned to the colors of the Russian flag; this flag inspired other Slav countries to adopt horizontal tricolors of the same colors but in different arrangements, and so red, blue, and white became the Pan-Slav colors
Rwanda
three horizontal bands of sky blue (top, double width), yellow, and green, with a golden sun with 24 rays near the fly end of the blue band; blue represents happiness and peace, yellow economic development and mineral wealth, green hope of prosperity and natural resources; the sun symbolizes unity, as well as enlightenment and transparency from ignorance
S
Saint Helena, Ascension, and Tristan da Cunha
blue with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side quadrant and the Saint Helenian shield centered on the outer half of the flag; the upper third of the shield depicts a white plover (wire bird) on a yellow field; the remainder of the shield depicts a rocky coastline on the left, offshore is a three-masted sailing ship with sails furled but flying an English flag
Saint Kitts and Nevis
divided diagonally from the lower hoist side by a broad black band bearing two white, five-pointed stars; the black band is edged in yellow; the upper triangle is green, the lower triangle is red; green signifies the island's fertility, red symbolizes the struggles of the people from slavery, yellow denotes year-round sunshine, and black represents the African heritage of the people; the white stars stand for the islands of Saint Kitts and Nevis, but can also express hope and liberty, or independence and optimism
Saint Lucia
blue, with a gold isosceles triangle below a black arrowhead; the upper edges of the arrowhead have a white border; the blue color represents the sky and sea, gold stands for sunshine and prosperity, and white and black the racial composition of the island (with the latter being dominant); the two major triangles invoke the twin Pitons (Gros Piton and Petit Piton), cone-shaped volcanic plugs that are a symbol of the island
Saint Pierre and Miquelon
a yellow three-masted sailing ship facing the hoist side rides on a blue background with scattered, white, wavy lines under the ship; a continuous black-over-white wavy line divides the ship from the white wavy lines; on the hoist side, a vertical band is divided into three parts: the top part (called ikkurina) is red with a green diagonal cross extending to the corners overlaid by a white cross dividing the rectangle into four sections; the middle part has a white background with an ermine pattern; the third part has a red background with two stylized yellow lions outlined in black, one above the other; these three heraldic arms represent settlement by colonists from the Basque Country (top), Brittany, and Normandy; the blue on the main portion of the flag symbolizes the Atlantic Ocean and the stylized ship represents the Grande Hermine in which Jacques Cartier "discovered" the islands in 1536
note: the flag of France used for official occasions
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
three vertical bands of blue (hoist side), gold (double width), and green; the gold band bears three green diamonds arranged in a V pattern, which stands for Vincent; the diamonds recall the islands as the "Gems of the Antilles"; blue conveys the colors of a tropical sky and crystal waters, yellow signifies the golden Grenadine sands, and green represents lush vegetation
San Marino
two equal horizontal bands of white (top) and light blue with the national coat of arms superimposed in the center; the main colors derive from the shield of the coat of arms, which features three white towers on three peaks on a blue field; the towers represent three castles built on San Marino's highest feature, Mount Titano: Guaita, Cesta, and Montale; the coat of arms is flanked by a wreath, below a crown and above a scroll bearing the word LIBERTAS (Liberty); the white and blue colors are also said to stand for peace and liberty respectively
Sao Tome and Principe
three horizontal bands of green (top), yellow (double width), and green with two black five-pointed stars placed side by side in the center of the yellow band and a red isosceles triangle based on the hoist side; green stands for the country's rich vegetation, red recalls the struggle for independence, and yellow represents cocoa, one of the country's main agricultural products; the two stars symbolize the two main islands
note: uses the popular Pan-African colors of Ethiopia
Saudi Arabia
green, a traditional color in Islamic flags, with the Shahada or Muslim creed in large white Arabic script (translated as "There is no god but God; Muhammad is the Messenger of God") above a white horizontal saber (the tip points to the hoist side); design dates to the early twentieth century and is closely associated with the Al Saud family which established the kingdom in 1932; the flag is manufactured with differing obverse and reverse sides so that the Shahada reads - and the sword points - correctly from right to left on both sides
note: one of only three national flags that differ on their obverse and reverse sides - the others are Moldova and Paraguay
Senegal
three equal vertical bands of green (hoist side), yellow, and red with a small green five-pointed star centered in the yellow band; green represents Islam, progress, and hope; yellow signifies natural wealth and progress; red symbolizes sacrifice and determination; the star denotes unity and hope
note: uses the popular Pan-African colors of Ethiopia; the colors from left to right are the same as those of neighboring Mali and the reverse of those on the flag of neighboring Guinea
Serbia
three equal horizontal stripes of red (top), blue, and white - the Pan-Slav colors representing freedom and revolutionary ideals; charged with the coat of arms of Serbia shifted slightly to the hoist side; the principal field of the coat of arms represents the Serbian state and displays a white two-headed eagle on a red shield; a smaller red shield on the eagle represents the Serbian nation, and is divided into four quarters by a white cross; interpretations vary as to the meaning and origin of the white, curved symbols resembling firesteels or Cyrillic "C's" in each quarter; a royal crown surmounts the coat of arms
note: the Pan-Slav colors were inspired by the 19th-century flag of Russia
Seychelles
five oblique bands of blue (hoist side), yellow, red, white, and green (bottom) radiating from the bottom of the hoist side; the oblique bands are meant to symbolize a dynamic new country moving into the future; blue represents sky and sea, yellow the sun giving light and life, red the peoples' determination to work for the future in unity and love, white social justice and harmony, green the land and natural environment
Singapore
two equal horizontal bands of red (top) and white; near the hoist side of the red band, there is a vertical, white crescent (closed portion is toward the hoist side) partially enclosing five white five-pointed stars arranged in a circle; red denotes brotherhood and equality; white signifies purity and virtue; the waxing crescent moon symbolizes a young nation on the ascendancy; the five stars represent the nation's ideals of democracy, peace, progress, justice, and equality
Sint Maarten
two equal horizontal bands of red (top) and blue with a white isosceles triangle based on the hoist side; the center of the triangle displays the Sint Maarten coat of arms; the arms consist of an orange-bordered blue shield prominently displaying the white court house in Philipsburg, as well as a bouquet of yellow sage (the national flower) in the upper left, and the silhouette of a Dutch-French friendship monument in the upper right; the shield is surmounted by a yellow rising sun in front of which is a Brown Pelican in flight; a yellow scroll below the shield bears the motto: SEMPER PROGREDIENS (Always Progressing); the three main colors are identical to those on the Dutch flag
note: the flag somewhat resembles that of the Philippines, but with the main red and blue bands reversed; the banner more closely evokes the wartime Philippine flag
Slovakia
three equal horizontal bands of white (top), blue, and red derive from the Pan-Slav colors; the Slovakian coat of arms (consisting of a red shield bordered in white and bearing a white double-barred cross of St. Cyril and St. Methodius surmounting three blue hills) is centered over the bands but offset slightly to the hoist side
note: the Pan-Slav colors were inspired by the 19th-century flag of Russia
Slovenia
three equal horizontal bands of white (top), blue, and red, derive from the medieval coat of arms of the Duchy of Carniola; the Slovenian seal (a shield with the image of Triglav, Slovenia's highest peak, in white against a blue background at the center; beneath it are two wavy blue lines depicting seas and rivers, and above it are three six-pointed stars arranged in an inverted triangle, which are taken from the coat of arms of the Counts of Celje, the great Slovene dynastic house of the late 14th and early 15th centuries) appears in the upper hoist side of the flag centered on the white and blue bands
Solomon Islands
divided diagonally by a thin yellow stripe from the lower hoist-side corner; the upper triangle (hoist side) is blue with five white five-pointed stars arranged in an X pattern; the lower triangle is green; blue represents the ocean; green the land; and yellow sunshine; the five stars stand for the five main island groups of the Solomon Islands
Somalia
light blue with a large white five-pointed star in the center; the blue field was originally influenced by the flag of the UN, but today is said to denote the sky and the neighboring Indian Ocean; the five points of the star represent the five regions in the horn of Africa that are inhabited by Somali people: the former British Somaliland and Italian Somaliland (which together make up Somalia), Djibouti, Ogaden (Ethiopia), and the North East Province (Kenya)
South Africa
two equal width horizontal bands of red (top) and blue separated by a central green band that splits into a horizontal Y, the arms of which end at the corners of the hoist side; the Y embraces a black isosceles triangle from which the arms are separated by narrow yellow bands; the red and blue bands are separated from the green band and its arms by narrow white stripes; the flag colors do not have any official symbolism, but the Y stands for the "convergence of diverse elements within South African society, taking the road ahead in unity"; black, yellow, and green are found on the flag of the African National Congress, while red, white, and blue are the colors in the flags of the Netherlands and the UK, whose settlers ruled South Africa during the colonial era
note: the South African flag is one of only two national flags to display six colors as part of its primary design, the other is South Sudan's
South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands
blue, with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side quadrant and the South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands coat of arms centered on the outer half of the flag; the coat of arms features a shield with a golden lion rampant, holding a torch; the shield is supported by a fur seal on the left and a Macaroni penguin on the right; a reindeer appears above the crest, and below the shield on a scroll is the motto LEO TERRAM PROPRIAM PROTEGAT (Let the Lion Protect its Own Land)); the lion with the torch represents the UK and discovery; the background of the shield, blue and white estoiles, are found in the coat of arms of James Cook, discoverer of the islands; all the outer supporting animals represented are native to the islands
South Sudan
three equal horizontal bands of black (top), red, and green; the red band is edged in white; a blue isosceles triangle based on the hoist side contains a gold, five-pointed star; black represents the people of South Sudan, red the blood shed in the struggle for freedom, green the verdant land, and blue the waters of the Nile; the gold star represents the unity of the states making up South Sudan
note: resembles the flag of Kenya; one of only two national flags to display six colors as part of its primary design, the other is South Africa's
Spain
three horizontal bands of red (top), yellow (double width), and red with the national coat of arms on the hoist side of the yellow band; the coat of arms is quartered to display the emblems of the traditional kingdoms of Spain (clockwise from upper left, Castile, Leon, Navarre, and Aragon) while Granada is represented by the stylized pomegranate at the bottom of the shield; the arms are framed by two columns representing the Pillars of Hercules, which are the two promontories (Gibraltar and Ceuta) on either side of the eastern end of the Strait of Gibraltar; the red scroll across the two columns bears the imperial motto of "Plus Ultra" (further beyond) referring to Spanish lands beyond Europe; the triband arrangement with the center stripe twice the width of the outer dates to the 18th century
note: the red and yellow colors are related to those of the oldest Spanish kingdoms: Aragon, Castile, Leon, and Navarre
Sri Lanka
yellow with two panels; the smaller hoist-side panel has two equal vertical bands of green (hoist side) and orange; the other larger panel depicts a yellow lion holding a sword on a dark red rectangular field that also displays a yellow bo leaf in each corner; the yellow field appears as a border around the entire flag and extends between the two panels; the lion represents Sinhalese ethnicity, the strength of the nation, and bravery; the sword demonstrates the sovereignty of the nation; the four bo leaves - symbolizing Buddhism and its influence on the country - stand for the four virtues of kindness, friendliness, happiness, and equanimity; orange signifies Sri Lankan Tamils, green the Sri Lankan Moors; dark red represents the European Burghers, but also refers to the rich colonial background of the country; yellow denotes other ethnic groups; also referred to as the Lion Flag
Sudan
three equal horizontal bands of red (top), white, and black with a green isosceles triangle based on the hoist side; colors and design based on the Arab Revolt flag of World War I, but the meanings of the colors are expressed as follows: red signifies the struggle for freedom, white is the color of peace, light, and love, black represents Sudan itself (in Arabic 'Sudan' means black), green is the color of Islam, agriculture, and prosperity
Suriname
five horizontal bands of green (top, double width), white, red (quadruple width), white, and green (double width); a large, yellow, five-pointed star is centered in the red band; red stands for progress and love; green symbolizes hope and fertility; white signifies peace, justice, and freedom; the star represents the unity of all ethnic groups; from its yellow light the nation draws strength to bear sacrifices patiently while working toward a golden future
Swaziland
three horizontal bands of blue (top), red (triple width), and blue; the red band is edged in yellow; centered in the red band is a large black and white shield covering two spears and a staff decorated with feather tassels, all placed horizontally; blue stands for peace and stability, red represents past struggles, and yellow the mineral resources of the country; the shield, spears, and staff symbolize protection from the country's enemies, while the black and white of the shield are meant to portray black and white people living in peaceful coexistence
Sweden
blue with a golden yellow cross extending to the edges of the flag; the vertical part of the cross is shifted to the hoist side in the style of the Dannebrog (Danish flag); the colors reflect those of the Swedish coat of arms - three gold crowns on a blue field
Switzerland
red square with a bold, equilateral white cross in the center that does not extend to the edges of the flag; various medieval legends purport to describe the origin of the flag; a white cross used as identification for troops of the Swiss Confederation is first attested at the Battle of Laupen (1339)
Tajikistan
three horizontal stripes of red (top), a wider stripe of white, and green; a gold crown surmounted by seven gold, five-pointed stars is located in the center of the white stripe; red represents the sun, victory, and the unity of the nation, white stands for purity, cotton, and mountain snows, while green is the color of Islam and the bounty of nature; the crown symbolizes the Tajik people; the seven stars signify the Tajik magic number "seven" - a symbol of perfection and the embodiment of happiness
Tanzania
divided diagonally by a yellow-edged black band from the lower hoist-side corner; the upper triangle (hoist side) is green and the lower triangle is blue; the banner combines colors found on the flags of Tanganyika and Zanzibar; green represents the natural vegetation of the country, gold its rich mineral deposits, black the native Swahili people, and blue the country's many lakes and rivers, as well as the Indian Ocean
five horizontal bands of red (top), white, blue (double width), white, and red; the red color symbolizes the nation and the blood of life; white represents religion and the purity of Buddhism; blue stands for the monarchy
note: similar to the flag of Costa Rica but with the blue and red colors reversed
Timor-Leste
red, with a black isosceles triangle (based on the hoist side) superimposed on a slightly longer yellow arrowhead that extends to the center of the flag; a white star - pointing to the upper hoist-side corner of the flag - is in the center of the black triangle; yellow denotes the colonialism in Timor-Leste's past; black represents the obscurantism that needs to be overcome; red stands for the national liberation struggle; the white star symbolizes peace and serves as a guiding light
Togo
five equal horizontal bands of green (top and bottom) alternating with yellow; a white five-pointed star on a red square is in the upper hoist-side corner; the five horizontal stripes stand for the five different regions of the country; the red square is meant to express the loyalty and patriotism of the people; green symbolizes hope, fertility, and agriculture; yellow represents mineral wealth and faith that hard work and strength will bring prosperity; the star symbolizes life, purity, peace, dignity, and Togo's independence
note: uses the popular Pan-African colors of Ethiopia
Tokelau
a yellow stylized Tokelauan canoe on a dark blue field sails toward the manu - the Southern Cross constellation of four, white, five-pointed stars at the hoist side; the Southern Cross represents the role of Christianity in Tokelauan culture and, in conjunction with the canoe, symbolizes the country navigating into the future; the color yellow indicates happiness and peace, and the blue field represents the ocean on which the community relies
Trinidad and Tobago
red with a white-edged black diagonal band from the upper hoist side to the lower fly side; the colors represent the elements of earth, water, and fire; black stands for the wealth of the land and the dedication of the people; white symbolizes the sea surrounding the islands, the purity of the country's aspirations, and equality; red symbolizes the warmth and energy of the sun, the vitality of the land, and the courage and friendliness of its people
Tunisia
red with a white disk in the center bearing a red crescent nearly encircling a red five-pointed star; resembles the Ottoman flag (red banner with white crescent and star) and recalls Tunisia's history as part of the Ottoman Empire; red represents the blood shed by martyrs in the struggle against oppression, white stands for peace; the crescent and star are traditional symbols of Islam
note: the flag is based on that of Turkey, itself a successor state to the Ottoman Empire
Turkey
red with a vertical white crescent moon (the closed portion is toward the hoist side) and white five-pointed star centered just outside the crescent opening; the flag colors and designs closely resemble those on the banner of the Ottoman Empire, which preceded modern-day Turkey; the crescent moon and star serve as insignia for the Turks, as well as being traditional symbols of Islam; according to legend, the flag represents the reflection of the moon and a star in a pool of blood of Turkish warriors
Turkmenistan
green field with a vertical red stripe near the hoist side, containing five tribal guls (designs used in producing carpets) stacked above two crossed olive branches; five white stars and a white crescent moon appear in the upper corner of the field just to the fly side of the red stripe; the green color and crescent moon represent Islam; the five stars symbolize the regions or welayats of Turkmenistan; the guls reflect the national identity of Turkmenistan where carpet-making has long been a part of traditional nomadic life
note: the flag of Turkmenistan is the most intricate of all national flags
Turks and Caicos Islands
blue, with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side quadrant and the colonial shield centered on the outer half of the flag; the shield is yellow and displays a conch shell, a spiny lobster, and Turks Head cactus - three common elements of the islands' biota
United Arab Emirates
three equal horizontal bands of green (top), white, and black with a wider vertical red band on the hoist side; the flag incorporates all four Pan-Arab colors, which in this case represent fertility (green), neutrality (white), petroleum resources (black), and unity (red); red was the traditional color incorporated into all flags of the emirates before their unification
United Kingdom
blue field with the red cross of Saint George (patron saint of England) edged in white superimposed on the diagonal red cross of Saint Patrick (patron saint of Ireland), which is superimposed on the diagonal white cross of Saint Andrew (patron saint of Scotland); properly known as the Union Flag, but commonly called the Union Jack; the design and colors (especially the Blue Ensign) have been the basis for a number of other flags including other Commonwealth countries and their constituent states or provinces, and British overseas territories
United States
13 equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom) alternating with white; there is a blue rectangle in the upper hoist-side corner bearing 50 small, white, five-pointed stars arranged in nine offset horizontal rows of six stars (top and bottom) alternating with rows of five stars; the 50 stars represent the 50 states, the 13 stripes represent the 13 original colonies; the blue stands for loyalty, devotion, truth, justice, and friendship; red symbolizes courage, zeal, and fervency, while white denotes purity and rectitude of conduct; commonly referred to by its nickname of Old Glory
note: the design and colors have been the basis for a number of other flags, including Chile, Liberia, Malaysia, and Puerto Rico
Uruguay
nine equal horizontal stripes of white (top and bottom) alternating with blue; a white square in the upper hoist-side corner with a yellow sun bearing a human face known as the Sun of May with 16 rays that alternate between triangular and wavy; the stripes represent the nine original departments of Uruguay; the sun symbol evokes the legend of the sun breaking through the clouds on 25 May 1810 as independence was first declared from Spain (Uruguay subsequently won its independence from Brazil)
note: the banner was inspired by the national colors of Argentina and by the design of the US flag
Vanuatu
two equal horizontal bands of red (top) and green with a black isosceles triangle (based on the hoist side) all separated by a black-edged yellow stripe in the shape of a horizontal Y (the two points of the Y face the hoist side and enclose the triangle); centered in the triangle is a boar's tusk encircling two crossed namele fern fronds, all in yellow; red represents the blood of boars and men, green the richness of the islands, and black the ni-Vanuatu people; the yellow Y-shape - which reflects the pattern of the islands in the Pacific Ocean - symbolizes the light of the Gospel spreading through the islands; the boar's tusk is a symbol of prosperity frequently worn as a pendant on the islands; the fern fronds represent peace
Venezuela
three equal horizontal bands of yellow (top), blue, and red with the coat of arms on the hoist side of the yellow band and an arc of eight white five-pointed stars centered in the blue band; the flag retains the three equal horizontal bands and three main colors of the banner of Gran Colombia, the South American republic that broke up in 1830; yellow is interpreted as standing for the riches of the land, blue for the courage of its people, and red for the blood shed in attaining independence; the seven stars on the original flag represented the seven provinces in Venezuela that united in the war of independence; in 2006, then President Hugo CHAVEZ ordered an eighth star added to the star arc - a decision that sparked much controversy - to conform with the flag proclaimed by Simon Bolivar in 1827 and to represent the province of Guayana
Zambia
green field with a panel of three vertical bands of red (hoist side), black, and orange below a soaring orange eagle, on the outer edge of the flag; green stands for the country's natural resources and vegetation, red symbolizes the struggle for freedom, black the people of Zambia, and orange the country's mineral wealth; the eagle represents the people's ability to rise above the nation's problems
Zimbabwe
seven equal horizontal bands of green, yellow, red, black, red, yellow, and green with a white isosceles triangle edged in black with its base on the hoist side; a yellow Zimbabwe bird representing the long history of the country is superimposed on a red five-pointed star in the center of the triangle, which symbolizes peace; green represents agriculture, yellow mineral wealth, red the blood shed to achieve independence, and black stands for the native people
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In literature, who wrote 'Salem's Lot' and 'Carrie'?
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Flags with descriptions
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Flags with descriptions
European Union
a blue field with 12 five-pointed gold stars arranged in a circle in the center; blue represents the sky of the Western world, the stars are the peoples of Europe in a circle, a symbol of unity; the number of stars is fixed
Taiwan
red field with a dark blue rectangle in the upper hoist-side corner bearing a white sun with 12 triangular rays; the blue and white design of the canton (symbolizing the sun of progress) dates to 1895; it was later adopted as the flag of the Kuomintang Party; blue signifies liberty, justice, and democracy; red stands for fraternity, sacrifice, and nationalism, white represents equality, frankness, and the people's livelihood; the 12 rays of the sun are those of the months and the twelve traditional Chinese hours (each ray equals two hours)
A
Afghanistan
three equal vertical bands of black (hoist side), red, and green, with the national emblem in white centered on the red band and slightly overlapping the other two bands; the center of the emblem features a mosque with pulpit and flags on either side, below the mosque are numerals for the solar year 1298 (1919 in the Gregorian calendar, the year of Afghan independence from the UK); this central image is circled by a border consisting of sheaves of wheat on the left and right, in the upper-center is an Arabic inscription of the Shahada (Muslim creed) below which are rays of the rising sun over the Takbir (Arabic expression meaning "God is great"), and at bottom center is a scroll bearing the name Afghanistan; black signifies the past, red is for the blood shed for independence, and green can represent either hope for the future, agricultural prosperity, or Islam
note: Afghanistan had more changes to its national flag in the 20th century than any other country; the colors black, red, and green appeared on most of them
Albania
red with a black two-headed eagle in the center; the design is claimed to be that of 15th-century hero George Kastrioti SKANDERBEG, who led a successful uprising against the Turks that resulted in a short-lived independence for some Albanian regions (1443-78); an unsubstantiated explanation for the eagle symbol is the tradition that Albanians see themselves as descendants of the eagle; they refer to themselves as "Shqipetare," which translates as "sons of the eagle"
Algeria
two equal vertical bands of green (hoist side) and white; a red, five-pointed star within a red crescent centered over the two-color boundary; the colors represent Islam (green), purity and peace (white), and liberty (red); the crescent and star are also Islamic symbols, but the crescent is more closed than those of other Muslim countries because the Algerians believe the long crescent horns bring happiness
American Samoa
blue, with a white triangle edged in red that is based on the fly side and extends to the hoist side; a brown and white American bald eagle flying toward the hoist side is carrying two traditional Samoan symbols of authority, a war club known as a "Fa'alaufa'i" (upper; left talon), and a coconut fiber fly whisk known as a "Fue" (lower; right talon); the combination of symbols broadly mimics that seen on the US Great Seal and reflects the relationship between the United States and American Samoa
Andorra
three vertical bands of blue (hoist side), yellow, and red, with the national coat of arms centered in the yellow band; the latter band is slightly wider than the other two so that the ratio of band widths is 8:9:8; the coat of arms features a quartered shield with the emblems of (starting in the upper left and proceeding clockwise): Urgell, Foix, Bearn, and Catalonia; the motto reads VIRTUS UNITA FORTIOR (Strength United is Stronger); the flag combines the blue and red French colors with the red and yellow of Spain to show Franco-Spanish protection
note: similar to the flags of Chad and Romania, which do not have a national coat of arms in the center, and the flag of Moldova, which does bear a national emblem
Angola
two equal horizontal bands of red (top) and black with a centered yellow emblem consisting of a five-pointed star within half a cogwheel crossed by a machete (in the style of a hammer and sickle); red represents liberty, black the African continent, the symbols characterize workers and peasants
Anguilla
blue, with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side quadrant and the Anguillan coat of arms centered in the outer half of the flag; the coat of arms depicts three orange dolphins in an interlocking circular design on a white background with a turquoise-blue field below; the white in the background represents peace; the blue base symbolizes the surrounding sea, as well as faith, youth, and hope; the three dolphins stand for endurance, unity, and strength
Antigua and Barbuda
red, with an inverted isosceles triangle based on the top edge of the flag; the triangle contains three horizontal bands of black (top), light blue, and white, with a yellow rising sun in the black band; the sun symbolizes the dawn of a new era, black represents the African heritage of most of the population, blue is for hope, and red is for the dynamism of the people; the "V" stands for victory; the successive yellow, blue, and white coloring is also meant to evoke the country's tourist attractions of sun, sea, and sand
Argentina
three equal horizontal bands of light blue (top), white, and light blue; centered in the white band is a radiant yellow sun with a human face known as the Sun of May; the colors represent the clear skies and snow of the Andes; the sun symbol commemorates the appearance of the sun through cloudy skies on 25 May 1810 during the first mass demonstration in favor of independence; the sun features are those of Inti, the Inca god of the sun
Aruba
blue, with two narrow, horizontal, yellow stripes across the lower portion and a red, four-pointed star outlined in white in the upper hoist-side corner; the star represents Aruba and its red soil and white beaches, its four points the four major languages (Papiamento, Dutch, Spanish, English) as well as the four points of a compass, to indicate that its inhabitants come from all over the world; the blue symbolizes Caribbean waters and skies; the stripes represent the island's two main "industries": the flow of tourists to the sun-drenched beaches and the flow of minerals from the earth
Australia
blue with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side quadrant and a large seven-pointed star in the lower hoist-side quadrant known as the Commonwealth or Federation Star, representing the federation of the colonies of Australia in 1901; the star depicts one point for each of the six original states and one representing all of Australia's internal and external territories; on the fly half is a representation of the Southern Cross constellation in white with one small, five-pointed star and four larger, seven-pointed stars
Austria
three equal horizontal bands of red (top), white, and red; the flag design is certainly one of the oldest - if not the oldest - national banners in the world; according to tradition, in 1191, following a fierce battle in the Third Crusade, Duke Leopold V of Austria's white tunic became completely blood-spattered; upon removal of his wide belt or sash, a white band was revealed; the red-white-red color combination was subsequently adopted as his banner
Azerbaijan
three equal horizontal bands of blue (top), red, and green; a crescent and eight-pointed star in white are centered in the red band; the blue band recalls Azerbaijan's Turkic heritage, red stands for modernization and progress, and green refers to Islam; the crescent moon is an Islamic symbol, while the eight-pointed star represents the eight Turkic peoples of the world
B
Bahamas, The
three equal horizontal bands of aquamarine (top), gold, and aquamarine, with a black equilateral triangle based on the hoist side; the band colors represent the golden beaches of the islands surrounded by the aquamarine sea; black represents the vigor and force of a united people, while the pointing triangle indicates the enterprise and determination of the Bahamian people to develop the rich resources of land and sea
Bahrain
red, the traditional color for flags of Persian Gulf states, with a white serrated band (five white points) on the hoist side; the five points represent the five pillars of Islam
note: until 2002 the flag had eight white points, but this was reduced to five to avoid confusion with the Qatari flag
Barbados
three equal vertical bands of blue (hoist side), gold, and blue with the head of a black trident centered on the gold band; the band colors represent the blue of the sea and sky and the gold of the beaches; the trident head represents independence and a break with the past (the colonial coat of arms contained a complete trident)
Belarus
red horizontal band (top) and green horizontal band one-half the width of the red band; a white vertical stripe on the hoist side bears Belarusian national ornamentation in red; the red band color recalls past struggles from oppression, the green band represents hope and the many forests of the country
Belgium
three equal vertical bands of black (hoist side), yellow, and red; the vertical design was based on the flag of France; the colors are those of the arms of the duchy of Brabant (yellow lion with red claws and tongue on a black field)
Belize
blue with a narrow red stripe along the top and the bottom edges; centered is a large white disk bearing the coat of arms; the coat of arms features a shield flanked by two workers in front of a mahogany tree with the related motto SUB UMBRA FLOREO (I Flourish in the Shade) on a scroll at the bottom, all encircled by a green garland of 50 mahogany leaves; the colors are those of the two main political parties: blue for the PUP and red for the UDP; various elements of the coat of arms - the figures, the tools, the mahogany tree, and the garland of leaves - recall the logging industry that led to British settlement of Belize
note: Belize's flag is the only national flag that depicts human beings; two British overseas territories, Montserrat and the British Virgin Islands, also depict humans
two equal horizontal bands of yellow (top) and red (bottom) with a vertical green band on the hoist side; green symbolizes hope and revival, yellow wealth, and red courage
note: uses the popular Pan-African colors of Ethiopia
Bermuda
red, with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side quadrant and the Bermudian coat of arms (a white shield with a red lion standing on a green grassy field holding a scrolled shield showing the sinking of the ship Sea Venture off Bermuda in 1609) centered on the outer half of the flag; it was the shipwreck of the vessel, filled with English colonists originally bound for Virginia, that led to settling of Bermuda
note: the flag is unusual in that it is only British overseas territory that uses a red ensign, all others use blue
Bhutan
divided diagonally from the lower hoist-side corner; the upper triangle is yellow and the lower triangle is orange; centered along the dividing line is a large black and white dragon facing away from the hoist side; the dragon, called the Druk (Thunder Dragon), is the emblem of the nation; its white color stands for purity and the jewels in its claws symbolize wealth; the background colors represent spiritual and secular powers within Bhutan: the orange is associated with Buddhism, while the yellow denotes the ruling dynasty
Bolivia
three equal horizontal bands of red (top), yellow, and green with the coat of arms centered on the yellow band; red stands for bravery and the blood of national heroes, yellow for the nation's mineral resources, and green for the fertility of the land
note: similar to the flag of Ghana, which has a large black five-pointed star centered in the yellow band; in 2009, a presidential decree made it mandatory for a so-called wiphala - a square, multi-colored flag representing the country's indigenous peoples - to be used alongside the traditional flag
Bosnia and Herzegovina
a wide medium blue vertical band on the fly side with a yellow isosceles triangle abutting the band and the top of the flag; the remainder of the flag is medium blue with seven full five-pointed white stars and two half stars top and bottom along the hypotenuse of the triangle; the triangle approximates the shape of the country and its three points stand for the constituent peoples - Bosniaks, Croats, and Serbs; the stars represent Europe and are meant to be continuous (thus the half stars at top and bottom); the colors (white, blue, and yellow) are often associated with neutrality and peace, and traditionally are linked with Bosnia
Brazil
green with a large yellow diamond in the center bearing a blue celestial globe with 27 white five-pointed stars; the globe has a white equatorial band with the motto ORDEM E PROGRESSO (Order and Progress); the current flag was inspired by the banner of the former Empire of Brazil (1822-1889); on the imperial flag, the green represented the House of Braganza of Pedro I, the first Emperor of Brazil, while the yellow stood for the Habsburg Family of his wife; on the modern flag the green represents the forests of the country and the yellow rhombus its mineral wealth; the blue circle and stars, which replaced the coat of arms of the original flag, depict the sky over Rio de Janeiro on the morning of 15 November 1889 - the day the Republic of Brazil was declared; the number of stars has changed with the creation of new states and has risen from an original 21 to the current 27 (one for each state and the Federal District)
British Indian Ocean Territory
white with six blue wavy horizontal stripes; the flag of the UK is in the upper hoist-side quadrant; the striped section bears a palm tree and yellow crown (the symbols of the territory) centered on the outer half of the flag; the wavy stripes represent the Indian Ocean; although not officially described, the six blue stripes may stand for the six main atolls of the archipelago
British Virgin Islands
blue, with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side quadrant and the Virgin Islander coat of arms centered in the outer half of the flag; the coat of arms depicts a woman flanked on either side by a vertical column of six oil lamps above a scroll bearing the Latin word VIGILATE (Be Watchful); the islands were named by COLUMBUS in 1493 in honor of Saint Ursula and her 11 virgin followers (some sources say 11,000) who reputedly were martyred by the Huns in the 4th or 5th century; the figure on the banner holding a lamp represents the saint, the other lamps symbolize her followers
Brunei
yellow with two diagonal bands of white (top, almost double width) and black starting from the upper hoist side; the national emblem in red is superimposed at the center; yellow is the color of royalty and symbolizes the sultanate; the white and black bands denote Brunei's chief ministers; the emblem includes five main components: a swallow-tailed flag, the royal umbrella representing the monarchy, the wings of four feathers symbolizing justice, tranquility, prosperity, and peace, the two upraised hands signifying the government's pledge to preserve and promote the welfare of the people, and the crescent moon denoting Islam, the state religion; the state motto "Always render service with God's guidance" appears in yellow Arabic script on the crescent; a ribbon below the crescent reads "Brunei, the Abode of Peace"
three equal horizontal bands of white (top), green, and red; the pan-Slavic white-blue-red colors were modified by substituting a green band (representing freedom) for the blue
note: the national emblem, formerly on the hoist side of the white stripe, has been removed
two equal horizontal bands of red (top) and green with a yellow five-pointed star in the center; red recalls the country's struggle for independence, green is for hope and abundance, and yellow represents the country's mineral wealth
note: uses the popular Pan-African colors of Ethiopia
Burma
design consists of three equal horizontal stripes of yellow (top), green, and red; centered on the green band is a large white five-pointed star that partially overlaps onto the adjacent colored stripes; the design revives the triband colors used by Burma from 1943-45, during the Japanese occupation
Burundi
divided by a white diagonal cross into red panels (top and bottom) and green panels (hoist side and fly side) with a white disk superimposed at the center bearing three red six-pointed stars outlined in green arranged in a triangular design (one star above, two stars below); green symbolizes hope and optimism, white purity and peace, and red the blood shed in the struggle for independence; the three stars in the disk represent the three major ethnic groups: Hutu, Twa, Tutsi, as well as the three elements in the national motto: unity, work, progress
C
Cabo Verde
five unequal horizontal bands; the top-most band of blue - equal to one half the width of the flag - is followed by three bands of white, red, and white, each equal to 1/12 of the width, and a bottom stripe of blue equal to one quarter of the flag width; a circle of 10, yellow, five-pointed stars is centered on the red stripe and positioned 3/8 of the length of the flag from the hoist side; blue stands for the sea and the sky, the circle of stars represents the 10 major islands united into a nation, the stripes symbolize the road to formation of the country through peace (white) and effort (red)
three horizontal bands of blue (top), red (double width), and blue with a white three-towered temple representing Angkor Wat outlined in black in the center of the red band; red and blue are traditional Cambodian colors
note: only national flag to incorporate an actual building in its design
Cameroon
three equal vertical bands of green (hoist side), red, and yellow, with a yellow five-pointed star centered in the red band; the vertical tricolor recalls the flag of France; red symbolizes unity, yellow the sun, happiness, and the savannahs in the north, and green hope and the forests in the south; the star is referred to as the "star of unity"
note: uses the popular Pan-African colors of Ethiopia
Canada
two vertical bands of red (hoist and fly side, half width) with white square between them; an 11-pointed red maple leaf is centered in the white square; the maple leaf has long been a Canadian symbol; the official colors of Canada are red and white
Cayman Islands
a blue field, with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side quadrant and the Caymanian coat of arms centered on the outer half of the flag; the coat of arms includes a crest with a pineapple, representing the connection with Jamaica, and a turtle, representing Cayman's seafaring tradition, above a shield bearing a golden lion, symbolizing Great Britain, below which are three green stars (representing the three islands) surmounting white and blue wavy lines representing the sea and a scroll at the bottom bearing the motto HE HATH FOUNDED IT UPON THE SEAS
Central African Republic
four equal horizontal bands of blue (top), white, green, and yellow with a vertical red band in center; a yellow five-pointed star to the hoist side of the blue band; banner combines the Pan-African and French flag colors; red symbolizes the blood spilled in the struggle for independence, blue represents the sky and freedom, white peace and dignity, green hope and faith, and yellow tolerance; the star represents aspiration towards a vibrant future
Chad
three equal vertical bands of blue (hoist side), yellow, and red; the flag combines the blue and red French (former colonial) colors with the red and yellow of the Pan-African colors; blue symbolizes the sky, hope, and the south of the country, which is relatively well-watered; yellow represents the sun, as well as the desert in the north of the country; red stands for progress, unity, and sacrifice
note: similar to the flag of Romania; also similar to the flags of Andorra and Moldova, both of which have a national coat of arms centered in the yellow band; design was based on the flag of France
Chile
two equal horizontal bands of white (top) and red; a blue square the same height as the white band at the hoist-side end of the white band; the square bears a white five-pointed star in the center representing a guide to progress and honor; blue symbolizes the sky, white is for the snow-covered Andes, and red represents the blood spilled to achieve independence
note: design was influenced by the US flag
China
red with a large yellow five-pointed star and four smaller yellow five-pointed stars (arranged in a vertical arc toward the middle of the flag) in the upper hoist-side corner; the color red represents revolution, while the stars symbolize the four social classes - the working class, the peasantry, the urban petty bourgeoisie, and the national bourgeoisie (capitalists) - united under the Communist Party of China
Christmas Island
territorial flag; divided diagonally from upper hoist to lower fly; the upper triangle is green with a yellow image of the Golden Bosun Bird superimposed; the lower triangle is blue with the Southern Cross constellation, representing Australia, superimposed; a centered yellow disk displays a green map of the island
note: the flag of Australia is used for official purposes
Colombia
three horizontal bands of yellow (top, double-width), blue, and red; the flag retains the three main colors of the banner of Gran Colombia, the short-lived South American republic that broke up in 1830; various interpretations of the colors exist and include: yellow for the gold in Colombia's land, blue for the seas on its shores, and red for the blood spilled in attaining freedom; alternatively, the colors have been described as representing more elemental concepts such as sovereignty and justice (yellow), loyalty and vigilance (blue), and valor and generosity (red); or simply the principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity
note: similar to the flag of Ecuador, which is longer and bears the Ecuadorian coat of arms superimposed in the center
Comoros
four equal horizontal bands of yellow (top), white, red, and blue, with a green isosceles triangle based on the hoist; centered within the triangle is a white crescent with the convex side facing the hoist and four white, five-pointed stars placed vertically in a line between the points of the crescent; the horizontal bands and the four stars represent the four main islands of the archipelago - Mwali, N'gazidja, Ndzuwani, and Mahore (Mayotte - department of France, but claimed by Comoros)
note: the crescent, stars, and color green are traditional symbols of Islam
Congo, Democratic Republic of the
sky blue field divided diagonally from the lower hoist corner to upper fly corner by a red stripe bordered by two narrow yellow stripes; a yellow, five-pointed star appears in the upper hoist corner; blue represents peace and hope, red the blood of the country's martyrs, and yellow the country's wealth and prosperity; the star symbolizes unity and the brilliant future for the country
Congo, Republic of the
divided diagonally from the lower hoist side by a yellow band; the upper triangle (hoist side) is green and the lower triangle is red; green symbolizes agriculture and forests, yellow the friendship and nobility of the people, red is unexplained but has been associated with the struggle for independence
note: uses the popular Pan-African colors of Ethiopia
Costa Rica
five horizontal bands of blue (top), white, red (double width), white, and blue, with the coat of arms in a white elliptical disk toward the hoist side of the red band; Costa Rica retained the earlier blue-white-blue flag of Central America until 1848 when, in response to revolutionary activity in Europe, it was decided to incorporate the French colors into the national flag and a central red stripe was added; today the blue color is said to stand for the sky, opportunity, and perseverance, white denotes peace, happiness, and wisdom, while red represents the blood shed for freedom, as well as the generosity and vibrancy of the people
note: somewhat resembles the flag of North Korea; similar to the flag of Thailand but with the blue and red colors reversed
Cote d'Ivoire
three equal vertical bands of orange (hoist side), white, and green; orange symbolizes the land (savannah) of the north and fertility, white stands for peace and unity, green represents the forests of the south and the hope for a bright future
note: similar to the flag of Ireland, which is longer and has the colors reversed - green (hoist side), white, and orange; also similar to the flag of Italy, which is green (hoist side), white, and red; design was based on the flag of France
Croatia
three equal horizontal bands of red (top), white, and blue - the Pan-Slav colors - superimposed by the Croatian coat of arms; the coat of arms consists of one main shield (a checkerboard of 13 red and 12 silver (white) fields) surmounted by five smaller shields that form a crown over the main shield; the five small shields represent five historic regions, they are (from left to right): Croatia, Dubrovnik, Dalmatia, Istria, and Slavonia
note: the Pan-Slav colors were inspired by the 19th-century flag of Russia
Cuba
five equal horizontal bands of blue (top, center, and bottom) alternating with white; a red equilateral triangle based on the hoist side bears a white, five-pointed star in the center; the blue bands refer to the three old divisions of the island: central, occidental, and oriental; the white bands describe the purity of the independence ideal; the triangle symbolizes liberty, equality, and fraternity, while the red color stands for the blood shed in the independence struggle; the white star, called La Estrella Solitaria (the Lone Star) lights the way to freedom and was taken from the flag of Texas
note: design similar to the Puerto Rican flag, with the colors of the bands and triangle reversed
Curacao
on a blue field a horizontal yellow band somewhat below the center divides the flag into proportions of 5:1:2; two five-pointed white stars - the smaller above and to the left of the larger - appear in the canton; the blue of the upper and lower sections symbolizes the sky and sea respectively; yellow represents the sun; the stars symbolize Curacao and its uninhabited smaller sister island of Klein Curacao; the five star points signify the five continents from which Curacao's people derive
Cyprus
white with a copper-colored silhouette of the island (the name Cyprus is derived from the Greek word for copper) above two green crossed olive branches in the center of the flag; the branches symbolize the hope for peace and reconciliation between the Greek and Turkish communities
note: the "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus" flag retains the white field of the Cyprus national flag but displays narrow horizontal red stripes positioned a small distance from the top and bottom edges between which are centered a red crescent and a red five-pointed star; the banner is modeled after the Turkish national flag but with the colors reversed
two equal horizontal bands of white (top) and red with a blue isosceles triangle based on the hoist side
note: is identical to the flag of the former Czechoslovakia
D
Denmark
red with a white cross that extends to the edges of the flag; the vertical part of the cross is shifted to the hoist side; the banner is referred to as the Dannebrog (Danish flag) and is one of the oldest national flags in the world; traditions as to the origin of the flag design vary, but the best known is a legend that the banner fell from the sky during an early-13th century battle; caught up by the Danish king before it ever touched the earth, this heavenly talisman inspired the royal army to victory; in actuality, the flag may derive from a crusade banner or ensign
note: the shifted design element was subsequently adopted by the other Nordic countries of Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden
Djibouti
two equal horizontal bands of light blue (top) and light green with a white isosceles triangle based on the hoist side bearing a red five-pointed star in the center; blue stands for sea and sky and the Issa Somali people; green symbolizes earth and the Afar people; white represents peace; the red star recalls the struggle for independence and stands for unity
Dominica
green, with a centered cross of three equal bands - the vertical part is yellow (hoist side), black, and white and the horizontal part is yellow (top), black, and white; superimposed in the center of the cross is a red disk bearing a Sisserou parrot, unique to Dominica, encircled by 10 green, five-pointed stars edged in yellow; the 10 stars represent the 10 administrative divisions (parishes); green symbolizes the island's lush vegetation; the triple-colored cross represents the Christian Trinity; the yellow color denotes sunshine, the main agricultural products (citrus and bananas), and the native Carib Indians; black is for the rich soil and the African heritage of most citizens; white signifies rivers, waterfalls, and the purity of aspirations; the red disc stands for social justice
Dominican Republic
a centered white cross that extends to the edges divides the flag into four rectangles - the top ones are blue (hoist side) and red, and the bottom ones are red (hoist side) and blue; a small coat of arms featuring a shield supported by a laurel branch (left) and a palm branch (right) is at the center of the cross; above the shield a blue ribbon displays the motto, DIOS, PATRIA, LIBERTAD (God, Fatherland, Liberty), and below the shield, REPUBLICA DOMINICANA appears on a red ribbon; in the shield a bible is opened to a verse that reads "Y la verdad nos hara libre" (And the truth shall set you free); blue stands for liberty, white for salvation, and red for the blood of heroes
E
Ecuador
three horizontal bands of yellow (top, double width), blue, and red with the coat of arms superimposed at the center of the flag; the flag retains the three main colors of the banner of Gran Columbia, the South American republic that broke up in 1830; the yellow color represents sunshine, grain, and mineral wealth, blue the sky, sea, and rivers, and red the blood of patriots spilled in the struggle for freedom and justice
note: similar to the flag of Colombia, which is shorter and does not bear a coat of arms
Egypt
three equal horizontal bands of red (top), white, and black; the national emblem (a gold Eagle of Saladin facing the hoist side with a shield superimposed on its chest above a scroll bearing the name of the country in Arabic) centered in the white band; the band colors derive from the Arab Liberation flag and represent oppression (black), overcome through bloody struggle (red), to be replaced by a bright future (white)
note: similar to the flag of Syria, which has two green stars in the white band, Iraq, which has an Arabic inscription centered in the white band, and Yemen, which has a plain white band
El Salvador
three equal horizontal bands of blue (top), white, and blue with the national coat of arms centered in the white band; the coat of arms features a round emblem encircled by the words REPUBLICA DE EL SALVADOR EN LA AMERICA CENTRAL; the banner is based on the former blue-white-blue flag of the Federal Republic of Central America; the blue bands symbolize the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, while the white band represents the land between the two bodies of water, as well as peace and prosperity
note: similar to the flag of Nicaragua, which has a different coat of arms centered in the white band - it features a triangle encircled by the words REPUBLICA DE NICARAGUA on top and AMERICA CENTRAL on the bottom; also similar to the flag of Honduras, which has five blue stars arranged in an X pattern centered in the white band
Equatorial Guinea
three equal horizontal bands of green (top), white, and red, with a blue isosceles triangle based on the hoist side and the coat of arms centered in the white band; the coat of arms has six yellow six-pointed stars (representing the mainland and five offshore islands) above a gray shield bearing a silk-cotton tree and below which is a scroll with the motto UNIDAD, PAZ, JUSTICIA (Unity, Peace, Justice); green symbolizes the jungle and natural resources, blue represents the sea that connects the mainland to the islands, white stands for peace, and red recalls the fight for independence
Eritrea
red isosceles triangle (based on the hoist side) dividing the flag into two right triangles; the upper triangle is green, the lower one is blue; a gold wreath encircling a gold olive branch is centered on the hoist side of the red triangle; green stands for the country's agriculture economy, red signifies the blood shed in the fight for freedom, and blue symbolizes the bounty of the sea; the wreath-olive branch symbol is similar to that on the first flag of Eritrea from 1952; the shape of the red triangle broadly mimics the shape of the country
Estonia
three equal horizontal bands of blue (top), black, and white; various interpretations are linked to the flag colors; blue represents faith, loyalty, and devotion, while also reminiscent of the sky, sea, and lakes of the country; black symbolizes the soil of the country and the dark past and suffering endured by the Estonian people; white refers to the striving towards enlightenment and virtue, and is the color of birch bark and snow, as well as summer nights illuminated by the midnight sun
Ethiopia
three equal horizontal bands of green (top), yellow, and red, with a yellow pentagram and single yellow rays emanating from the angles between the points on a light blue disk centered on the three bands; green represents hope and the fertility of the land, yellow symbolizes justice and harmony, while red stands for sacrifice and heroism in the defense of the land; the blue of the disk symbolizes peace and the pentagram represents the unity and equality of the nationalities and peoples of Ethiopia
note: Ethiopia is the oldest independent country in Africa, and the three main colors of her flag (adopted ca. 1895) were so often adopted by other African countries upon independence that they became known as the Pan-African colors; the emblem in the center of the current flag was added in 1996
F
Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
blue with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side quadrant and the Falkland Island coat of arms centered on the outer half of the flag; the coat of arms contains a white ram (sheep raising was once the major economic activity) above the sailing ship Desire (whose crew discovered the islands) with a scroll at the bottom bearing the motto DESIRE THE RIGHT
Faroe Islands
white with a red cross outlined in blue extending to the edges of the flag; the vertical part of the cross is shifted toward the hoist side in the style of the Dannebrog (Danish flag); referred to as Merkid, meaning "the banner" or "the mark," the flag resembles those of neighboring Iceland and Norway, and uses the same three colors - but in a different sequence; white represents the clear Faroese sky as well as the foam of the waves; red and blue are traditional Faroese colors
Fiji
light blue with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side quadrant and the Fijian shield centered on the outer half of the flag; the blue symbolizes the Pacific ocean and the Union Jack reflects the links with Great Britain; the shield - taken from Fiji's coat of arms - depicts a yellow lion above a white field quartered by the cross of Saint George; the four quarters depict stalks of sugarcane, a palm tree, bananas, and a white dove
Finland
white with a blue cross extending to the edges of the flag; the vertical part of the cross is shifted to the hoist side in the style of the Dannebrog (Danish flag); the blue represents the thousands of lakes scattered across the country, while the white is for the snow that covers the land in winter
France
three equal vertical bands of blue (hoist side), white, and red; known as the "Le drapeau tricolore" (French Tricolor), the origin of the flag dates to 1790 and the French Revolution when the "ancient French color" of white was combined with the blue and red colors of the Parisian militia; the official flag for all French dependent areas
note: the design and/or colors are similar to a number of other flags, including those of Belgium, Chad, Cote d'Ivoire, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, and Netherlands
French Polynesia
two red horizontal bands encase a wide white band in a 1:2:1 ratio; centered on the white band is a disk with a blue and white wave pattern depicting the sea on the lower half and a gold and white ray pattern depicting the sun on the upper half; a Polynesian canoe rides on the wave pattern; the canoe has a crew of five represented by five stars that symbolize the five island groups; red and white are traditional Polynesian colors
note: similar to the red-white-red flag of Tahiti, the largest of the islands in French Polynesia, which has no emblem in the white band; the flag of France is used for official occasions
the flag of France is used
G
Georgia
white rectangle with a central red cross extending to all four sides of the flag; each of the four quadrants displays a small red bolnur-katskhuri cross; sometimes referred to as the Five-Cross Flag; although adopted as the official Georgian flag in 2004, the five-cross design appears to date back to the 14th century
Germany
three equal horizontal bands of black (top), red, and gold; these colors have played an important role in German history and can be traced back to the medieval banner of the Holy Roman Emperor - a black eagle with red claws and beak on a gold field
Ghana
three equal horizontal bands of red (top), yellow, and green, with a large black five-pointed star centered in the yellow band; red symbolizes the blood shed for independence, yellow represents the country's mineral wealth, while green stands for its forests and natural wealth; the black star is said to be the lodestar of African freedom
note: uses the popular Pan-African colors of Ethiopia; similar to the flag of Bolivia, which has a coat of arms centered in the yellow band
Gibraltar
two horizontal bands of white (top, double width) and red with a three-towered red castle in the center of the white band; hanging from the castle gate is a gold key centered in the red band; the design is that of Gibraltar's coat of arms granted on 10 July 1502 by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain; the castle symbolizes Gibraltar as a fortress, while the key represents Gibraltar's strategic importance - the key to the Mediterranean
Greece
nine equal horizontal stripes of blue alternating with white; a blue square bearing a white cross appears in the upper hoist-side corner; the cross symbolizes Greek Orthodoxy, the established religion of the country; there is no agreed upon meaning for the nine stripes or for the colors; the exact shade of blue has never been set by law and has varied from a light to a dark blue over time
Greenland
two equal horizontal bands of white (top) and red with a large disk slightly to the hoist side of center - the top half of the disk is red, the bottom half is white; the design represents the sun reflecting off a field of ice; the colors are the same as those of the Danish flag and symbolize Greenland's links to the Kingdom of Denmark
Grenada
a rectangle divided diagonally into yellow triangles (top and bottom) and green triangles (hoist side and outer side), with a red border around the flag; there are seven yellow, five-pointed stars with three centered in the top red border, three centered in the bottom red border, and one on a red disk superimposed at the center of the flag; there is also a symbolic nutmeg pod on the hoist-side triangle (Grenada is the world's second-largest producer of nutmeg, after Indonesia); the seven stars stand for the seven administrative divisions, with the central star denoting the capital, St. George; yellow represents the sun and the warmth of the people, green stands for vegetation and agriculture, and red symbolizes harmony, unity, and courage
Guam
territorial flag is dark blue with a narrow red border on all four sides; centered is a red-bordered, pointed, vertical ellipse containing a beach scene, a proa or outrigger canoe with sail, and a palm tree with the word GUAM superimposed in bold red letters; the proa is sailing in Agana Bay with the promontory of Punta Dos Amantes, near the capital, in the background; blue represents the sea and red the blood shed in the struggle against oppression
note: the US flag is the national flag
Guatemala
three equal vertical bands of light blue (hoist side), white, and light blue, with the coat of arms centered in the white band; the coat of arms includes a green and red quetzal (the national bird) representing liberty and a scroll bearing the inscription LIBERTAD 15 DE SEPTIEMBRE DE 1821 (the original date of independence from Spain) all superimposed on a pair of crossed rifles signifying Guatemala's willingness to defend itself and a pair of crossed swords representing honor and framed by a laurel wreath symbolizing victory; the blue bands represent the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea; the white band denotes peace and purity
Guernsey
white with the red cross of Saint George (patron saint of England) extending to the edges of the flag and a yellow equal-armed cross of William the Conqueror superimposed on the Saint George cross; the red cross represents the old ties with England and the fact that Guernsey is a British Crown dependency; the gold cross is a replica of the one used by Duke William of Normandy at the Battle of Hastings
Guinea
three equal vertical bands of red (hoist side), yellow, and green; red represents the people's sacrifice for liberation and work; yellow stands for the sun, for the riches of the earth, and for justice; green symbolizes the country's vegetation and unity
note: uses the popular Pan-African colors of Ethiopia; the colors from left to right are the reverse of those on the flags of neighboring Mali and Senegal
Guinea-Bissau
two equal horizontal bands of yellow (top) and green with a vertical red band on the hoist side; there is a black five-pointed star centered in the red band; yellow symbolizes the sun; green denotes hope; red represents blood shed during the struggle for independence; the black star stands for African unity
note: uses the popular Pan-African colors of Ethiopia; the flag design was heavily influenced by the Ghanaian flag
Guyana
green, with a red isosceles triangle (based on the hoist side) superimposed on a long, yellow arrowhead; there is a narrow, black border between the red and yellow, and a narrow, white border between the yellow and the green; green represents forest and foliage; yellow stands for mineral resources and a bright future; white symbolizes Guyana's rivers; red signifies zeal and the sacrifice of the people; black indicates perseverance
H
Haiti
two equal horizontal bands of blue (top) and red with a centered white rectangle bearing the coat of arms, which contains a palm tree flanked by flags and two cannons above a scroll bearing the motto L'UNION FAIT LA FORCE (Union Makes Strength); the colors are taken from the French Tricolor and represent the union of blacks and mulattoes
Holy See (Vatican City)
two vertical bands of yellow (hoist side) and white with the arms of the Holy See, consisting of the crossed keys of Saint Peter surmounted by the three-tiered papal tiara, centered in the white band; the yellow color represents the pope's spiritual power, the white his worldly power
Honduras
three equal horizontal bands of blue (top), white, and blue, with five blue, five-pointed stars arranged in an X pattern centered in the white band; the stars represent the members of the former Federal Republic of Central America - Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua; the blue bands symbolize the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea; the white band represents the land between the two bodies of water and the peace and prosperity of its people
note: similar to the flag of El Salvador, which features a round emblem encircled by the words REPUBLICA DE EL SALVADOR EN LA AMERICA CENTRAL centered in the white band; also similar to the flag of Nicaragua, which features a triangle encircled by the words REPUBLICA DE NICARAGUA on top and AMERICA CENTRAL on the bottom, centered in the white band
Hong Kong
red with a stylized, white, five-petal Bauhinia flower in the center; each petal contains a small, red, five-pointed star in its middle; the red color is the same as that on the Chinese flag and represents the motherland; the fragrant Bauhinia - developed in Hong Kong the late 19th century - has come to symbolize the region; the five stars echo those on the flag of China
Hungary
three equal horizontal bands of red (top), white, and green; the flag dates to the national movement of the 18th and 19th centuries, and fuses the medieval colors of the Hungarian coat of arms with the revolutionary tricolor form of the French flag; folklore attributes virtues to the colors: red for strength, white for faithfulness, and green for hope; alternatively, the red is seen as being for the blood spilled in defense of the land, white for freedom, and green for the pasturelands that make up so much of the country
I
Iceland
blue with a red cross outlined in white extending to the edges of the flag; the vertical part of the cross is shifted to the hoist side in the style of the Dannebrog (Danish flag); the colors represent three of the elements that make up the island: red is for the island's volcanic fires, white recalls the snow and ice fields of the island, and blue is for the surrounding ocean
India
three equal horizontal bands of saffron (subdued orange) (top), white, and green, with a blue chakra (24-spoked wheel) centered in the white band; saffron represents courage, sacrifice, and the spirit of renunciation; white signifies purity and truth; green stands for faith and fertility; the blue chakra symbolizes the wheel of life in movement and death in stagnation
note: similar to the flag of Niger, which has a small orange disk centered in the white band
Indonesia
two equal horizontal bands of red (top) and white; the colors derive from the banner of the Majapahit Empire of the 13th-15th centuries; red symbolizes courage, white represents purity
note: similar to the flag of Monaco, which is shorter; also similar to the flag of Poland, which is white (top) and red
Iran
three equal horizontal bands of green (top), white, and red; the national emblem (a stylized representation of the word Allah in the shape of a tulip, a symbol of martyrdom) in red is centered in the white band; ALLAH AKBAR (God is Great) in white Arabic script is repeated 11 times along the bottom edge of the green band and 11 times along the top edge of the red band; green is the color of Islam and also represents growth, white symbolizes honesty and peace, red stands for bravery and martyrdom
Iraq
three equal horizontal bands of red (top), white, and black; the Takbir (Arabic expression meaning "God is great") in green Arabic script is centered in the white band; the band colors derive from the Arab Liberation flag and represent oppression (black), overcome through bloody struggle (red), to be replaced by a bright future (white); the Council of Representatives approved this flag in 2008 as a compromise temporary replacement for the Ba'athist Saddam-era flag
note: similar to the flag of Syria, which has two stars but no script, Yemen, which has a plain white band, and that of Egypt, which has a gold Eagle of Saladin centered in the white band
Ireland
three equal vertical bands of green (hoist side), white, and orange; officially the flag colors have no meaning, but a common interpretation is that the green represents the Irish nationalist (Gaelic) tradition of Ireland; orange represents the Orange tradition (minority supporters of William of Orange); white symbolizes peace (or a lasting truce) between the green and the orange
note: similar to the flag of Cote d'Ivoire, which is shorter and has the colors reversed - orange (hoist side), white, and green; also similar to the flag of Italy, which is shorter and has colors of green (hoist side), white, and red
Isle of Man
red with the Three Legs of Man emblem (triskelion), in the center; the three legs are joined at the thigh and bent at the knee; in order to have the toes pointing clockwise on both sides of the flag, a two-sided emblem is used; the flag is based on the coat-of-arms of the last recognized Norse King of Mann, Magnus III (r. 1252-65); the triskelion has its roots in an early Celtic sun symbol
Israel
white with a blue hexagram (six-pointed linear star) known as the Magen David (Star of David or Shield of David) centered between two equal horizontal blue bands near the top and bottom edges of the flag; the basic design resembles a traditional Jewish prayer shawl (tallit), which is white with blue stripes; the hexagram as a Jewish symbol dates back to medieval times
Italy
three equal vertical bands of green (hoist side), white, and red; design inspired by the French flag brought to Italy by Napoleon in 1797; colors are those of Milan (red and white) combined with the green uniform color of the Milanese civic guard
note: similar to the flag of Mexico, which is longer, uses darker shades of red and green, and has its coat of arms centered on the white band; Ireland, which is longer and is green (hoist side), white, and orange; also similar to the flag of the Cote d'Ivoire, which has the colors reversed - orange (hoist side), white, and green
J
Jamaica
diagonal yellow cross divides the flag into four triangles - green (top and bottom) and black (hoist side and outer side); green represents hope, vegetation, and agriculture, black reflects hardships overcome and to be faced, and yellow recalls golden sunshine and the island's natural resources
Jersey
white with a diagonal red cross extending to the corners of the flag; in the upper quadrant, surmounted by a yellow crown, a red shield with three lions in yellow; according to tradition, the ships of Jersey - in an attempt to differentiate themselves from English ships flying the horizontal cross of St. George - rotated the cross to the "X" (saltire) configuration; because this arrangement still resembled the Irish cross of St. Patrick, the yellow Plantagenet crown and Jersey coat of arms were added
Jordan
three equal horizontal bands of black (top), representing the Abbassid Caliphate, white, representing the Ummayyad Caliphate, and green, representing the Fatimid Caliphate; a red isosceles triangle on the hoist side, representing the Great Arab Revolt of 1916, and bearing a small white seven-pointed star symbolizing the seven verses of the opening Sura (Al-Fatiha) of the Holy Koran; the seven points on the star represent faith in One God, humanity, national spirit, humility, social justice, virtue, and aspirations; design is based on the Arab Revolt flag of World War I
K
Kazakhstan
a gold sun with 32 rays above a soaring golden steppe eagle, both centered on a sky blue background; the hoist side displays a national ornamental pattern "koshkar-muiz" (the horns of the ram) in gold; the blue color is of religious significance to the Turkic peoples of the country, and so symbolizes cultural and ethnic unity; it also represents the endless sky as well as water; the sun, a source of life and energy, exemplifies wealth and plenitude; the sun's rays are shaped like grain, which is the basis of abundance and prosperity; the eagle has appeared on the flags of Kazakh tribes for centuries and represents freedom, power, and the flight to the future
Kenya
three equal horizontal bands of black (top), red, and green; the red band is edged in white; a large Maasai warrior's shield covering crossed spears is superimposed at the center; black symbolizes the majority population, red the blood shed in the struggle for freedom, green stands for natural wealth, and white for peace; the shield and crossed spears symbolize the defense of freedom
Kiribati
the upper half is red with a yellow frigatebird flying over a yellow rising sun, and the lower half is blue with three horizontal wavy white stripes to represent the Pacific ocean; the white stripes represent the three island groups - the Gilbert, Line, and Phoenix Islands; the 17 rays of the sun represent the 16 Gilbert Islands and Banaba (formerly Ocean Island); the frigatebird symbolizes authority and freedom
Korea, North
three horizontal bands of blue (top), red (triple width), and blue; the red band is edged in white; on the hoist side of the red band is a white disk with a red five-pointed star; the broad red band symbolizes revolutionary traditions; the narrow white bands stands for purity, strength, and dignity; the blue bands signify sovereignty, peace, and friendship; the red star represents socialism
Korea, South
white with a red (top) and blue yin-yang symbol in the center; there is a different black trigram from the ancient I Ching (Book of Changes) in each corner of the white field; the South Korean national flag is called Taegukki; white is a traditional Korean color and represents peace and purity; the blue section represents the negative cosmic forces of the yin, while the red symbolizes the opposite positive forces of the yang; each trigram (kwae) denotes one of the four universal elements, which together express the principle of movement and harmony
Kosovo
centered on a dark blue field is the geographical shape of Kosovo in a gold color surmounted by six white, five-pointed stars arrayed in a slight arc; each star represents one of the major ethnic groups of Kosovo: Albanians, Serbs, Turks, Gorani, Roma, and Bosniaks
Kuwait
three equal horizontal bands of green (top), white, and red with a black trapezoid based on the hoist side; colors and design are based on the Arab Revolt flag of World War I; green represents fertile fields, white stands for purity, red denotes blood on Kuwaiti swords, black signifies the defeat of the enemy
Kyrgyzstan
red field with a yellow sun in the center having 40 rays representing the 40 Kyrgyz tribes; on the obverse side the rays run counterclockwise, on the reverse, clockwise; in the center of the sun is a red ring crossed by two sets of three lines, a stylized representation of a "tunduk" - the crown of a traditional Kyrgyz yurt; red symbolizes bravery and valor, the sun evinces peace and wealth
L
Laos
three horizontal bands of red (top), blue (double width), and red with a large white disk centered in the blue band; the red bands recall the blood shed for liberation; the blue band represents the Mekong River and prosperity; the white disk symbolizes the full moon against the Mekong River, but also signifies the unity of the people under the Lao People's Revolutionary Party, as well as the country's bright future
Lebanon
three horizontal bands consisting of red (top), white (middle, double width), and red (bottom) with a green cedar tree centered in the white band; the red bands symbolize blood shed for liberation, the white band denotes peace, the snow of the mountains, and purity; the green cedar tree is the symbol of Lebanon and represents eternity, steadiness, happiness, and prosperity
Lesotho
three horizontal stripes of blue (top), white, and green in the proportions of 3:4:3; the colors represent rain, peace, and prosperity respectively; centered in the white stripe is a black Basotho hat representing the indigenous people; the flag was unfurled in October 2006 to celebrate 40 years of independence
Liberia
11 equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom) alternating with white; a white five-pointed star appears on a blue square in the upper hoist-side corner; the stripes symbolize the signatories of the Liberian Declaration of Independence; the blue square represents the African mainland, and the star represents the freedom granted to the ex-slaves; according to the constitution, the blue color signifies liberty, justice, and fidelity, the white color purity, cleanliness, and guilelessness, and the red color steadfastness, valor, and fervor
note: the design is based on the US flag
Libya
three horizontal bands of red (top), black (double width), and green with a white crescent and star centered on the black stripe; the National Transitional Council reintroduced this flag design of the former Kingdom of Libya (1951-1969) on 27 February 2011; it replaced the former all-green banner promulgated by the QADHAFI regime in 1977; the colors represent the three major regions of the country: red stands for Fezzan, black symbolizes Cyrenaica, and green denotes Tripolitania; the crescent and star represent Islam, the main religion of the country
Liechtenstein
two equal horizontal bands of blue (top) and red with a gold crown on the hoist side of the blue band; the colors may derive from the blue and red livery design used in the principality's household in the 18th century; the prince's crown was introduced in 1937 to distinguish the flag from that of Haiti
Lithuania
three equal horizontal bands of yellow (top), green, and red; yellow symbolizes golden fields, as well as the sun, light, and goodness; green represents the forests of the countryside, in addition to nature, freedom, and hope; red stands for courage and the blood spilled in defense of the homeland
Luxembourg
three equal horizontal bands of red (top), white, and light blue; similar to the flag of the Netherlands, which uses a darker blue and is shorter; the coloring is derived from the Grand Duke's coat of arms (a red lion on a white and blue striped field)
M
Macau
green with a lotus flower above a stylized bridge and water in white, beneath an arc of five gold, five-pointed stars: one large in the center of the arc and two smaller on either side; the lotus is the floral emblem of Macau, the three petals represent the peninsula and two islands that make up Macau; the five stars echo those on the flag of China
Malawi
three equal horizontal bands of black (top), red, and green with a radiant, rising, red sun centered on the black band; black represents the native peoples, red the blood shed in their struggle for freedom, and green the color of nature; the rising sun represents the hope of freedom for the continent of Africa
Malaysia
14 equal horizontal stripes of red (top) alternating with white (bottom); there is a blue rectangle in the upper hoist-side corner bearing a yellow crescent and a yellow 14-pointed star; the flag is often referred to as Jalur Gemilang (Stripes of Glory); the 14 stripes stand for the equal status in the federation of the 13 member states and the federal government; the 14 points on the star represent the unity between these entities; the crescent is a traditional symbol of Islam; blue symbolizes the unity of the Malay people and yellow is the royal color of Malay rulers
note: the design is based on the flag of the US
Maldives
red with a large green rectangle in the center bearing a vertical white crescent moon; the closed side of the crescent is on the hoist side of the flag; red recalls those who have sacrificed their lives in defense of their country, the green rectangle represents peace and prosperity, and the white crescent signifies Islam
Mali
three equal vertical bands of green (hoist side), yellow, and red
note: uses the popular Pan-African colors of Ethiopia; the colors from left to right are the same as those of neighboring Senegal (which has an additional green central star) and the reverse of those on the flag of neighboring Guinea
Malta
two equal vertical bands of white (hoist side) and red; in the upper hoist-side corner is a representation of the George Cross, edged in red; according to legend, the colors are taken from the red and white checkered banner of Count Roger of Sicily who removed a bi-colored corner and granted it to Malta in 1091; an uncontested explanation is that the colors are those of the Knights of Saint John who ruled Malta from 1530 to 1798; in 1942, King George VI of the United Kingdom awarded the George Cross to the islanders for their exceptional bravery and gallantry in World War II; since independence in 1964, the George Cross bordered in red has appeared directly on the white field
Marshall Islands
blue with two stripes radiating from the lower hoist-side corner - orange (top) and white; a white star with four large rays and 20 small rays appears on the hoist side above the two stripes; blue represents the Pacific Ocean, the orange stripe signifies the Ralik Chain or sunset and courage, while the white stripe signifies the Ratak Chain or sunrise and peace; the star symbolizes the cross of Christianity, each of the 24 rays designates one of the electoral districts in the country and the four larger rays highlight the principal cultural centers of Majuro, Jaluit, Wotje, and Ebeye; the rising diagonal band can also be interpreted as representing the equator, with the star showing the archipelago's position just to the north
Mauritius
four equal horizontal bands of red (top), blue, yellow, and green; red represents self-determination and independence, blue the Indian Ocean surrounding the island, yellow has been interpreted as the new light of independence, golden sunshine, or the bright future, and green can symbolize either agriculture or the lush vegetation of the island
Mexico
three equal vertical bands of green (hoist side), white, and red; Mexico's coat of arms (an eagle with a snake in its beak perched on a cactus) is centered in the white band; green signifies hope, joy, and love; white represents peace and honesty; red stands for hardiness, bravery, strength, and valor; the coat of arms is derived from a legend that the wandering Aztec people were to settle at a location where they would see an eagle on a cactus eating a snake; the city they founded, Tenochtitlan, is now Mexico City
note: similar to the flag of Italy, which is shorter, uses lighter shades of red and green, and does not have anything in its white band
Moldova
three equal vertical bands of blue (hoist side), yellow, and red; emblem in center of flag is of a Roman eagle of gold outlined in black with a red beak and talons carrying a yellow cross in its beak and a green olive branch in its right talons and a yellow scepter in its left talons; on its breast is a shield divided horizontally red over blue with a stylized aurochs head, star, rose, and crescent all in black-outlined yellow; based on the color scheme of the flag of Romania - with which Moldova shares a history and culture - but Moldova's blue band is lighter; the reverse of the flag does not display any coat of arms
note: one of only three national flags that differ on their obverse and reverse sides - the others are Paraguay and Saudi Arabia
Monaco
two equal horizontal bands of red (top) and white; the colors are those of the ruling House of Grimaldi and have been in use since 1339, making the flag one of the world's oldest national banners
note: similar to the flag of Indonesia which is longer and the flag of Poland which is white (top) and red
Mongolia
three equal, vertical bands of red (hoist side), blue, and red; centered on the hoist-side red band in yellow is the national emblem ("soyombo" - a columnar arrangement of abstract and geometric representation for fire, sun, moon, earth, water, and the yin-yang symbol); blue represents the sky, red symbolizes progress and prosperity
Montenegro
a red field bordered by a narrow golden-yellow stripe with the Montenegrin coat of arms centered; the arms consist of a double-headed golden eagle - symbolizing the unity of church and state - surmounted by a crown; the eagle holds a golden scepter in its right claw and a blue orb in its left; the breast shield over the eagle shows a golden lion passant on a green field in front of a blue sky; the lion is symbol of episcopal authority and harkens back to the three and a half centuries that Montenegro was ruled as a theocracy
Montserrat
blue, with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side quadrant and the Montserratian coat of arms centered in the outer half of the flag; the arms feature a woman in green dress, Erin, the female personification of Ireland, standing beside a yellow harp and embracing a large dark cross with her right arm; Erin and the harp are symbols of Ireland reflecting the territory's Irish ancestry; blue represents awareness, trustworthiness, determination, and righteousness
Morocco
red with a green pentacle (five-pointed, linear star) known as Sulayman's (Solomon's) seal in the center of the flag; red and green are traditional colors in Arab flags, although the use of red is more commonly associated with the Arab states of the Persian gulf; the pentacle represents the five pillars of Islam and signifies the association between God and the nation; design dates to 1912
Mozambique
three equal horizontal bands of green (top), black, and yellow with a red isosceles triangle based on the hoist side; the black band is edged in white; centered in the triangle is a yellow five-pointed star bearing a crossed rifle and hoe in black superimposed on an open white book; green represents the riches of the land, white peace, black the African continent, yellow the country's minerals, and red the struggle for independence; the rifle symbolizes defense and vigilance, the hoe refers to the country's agriculture, the open book stresses the importance of education, and the star represents Marxism and internationalism
N
Namibia
a wide red stripe edged by narrow white stripes divides the flag diagonally from lower hoist corner to upper fly corner; the upper hoist-side triangle is blue and charged with a yellow, 12-rayed sunburst; the lower fly-side triangle is green; red signifies the heroism of the people and their determination to build a future of equal opportunity for all; white stands for peace, unity, tranquility, and harmony; blue represents the Namibian sky and the Atlantic Ocean, the country's precious water resources and rain; the yellow sun denotes power and existence; green symbolizes vegetation and agricultural resources
Nauru
blue with a narrow, horizontal, yellow stripe across the center and a large white 12-pointed star below the stripe on the hoist side; blue stands for the Pacific Ocean, the star indicates the country's location in relation to the Equator (the yellow stripe) and the 12 points symbolize the 12 original tribes of Nauru
Nepal
red with a blue border around the unique shape of two overlapping right triangles; the smaller, upper triangle bears a white stylized moon and the larger, lower triangle displays a white 12-pointed sun; the color red represents the rhododendron (Nepal's national flower) and is a sign of victory and bravery, the blue border signifies peace and harmony; the two right triangles are a combination of two single pennons (pennants) that originally symbolized the Himalaya Mountains while their charges represented the families of the king (upper) and the prime minister, but today they are understood to denote Hinduism and Buddhism, the country's two main religions; the moon represents the serenity of the Nepalese people and the shade and cool weather in the Himalayas, while the sun depicts the heat and higher temperatures of the lower parts of Nepal; the moon and the sun are also said to express the hope that the nation will endure as long as these heavenly bodies
note: Nepal is the only country in the world whose flag is not rectangular or square
Netherlands
three equal horizontal bands of red (top), white, and blue; similar to the flag of Luxembourg, which uses a lighter blue and is longer; the colors were those of WILLIAM I, Prince of Orange, who led the Dutch Revolt against Spanish sovereignty in the latter half of the 16th century; originally the upper band was orange, but because it tended to fade to red over time, the red shade was eventually made the permanent color; the banner is perhaps the oldest tricolor in continuous use
Nicaragua
three equal horizontal bands of blue (top), white, and blue with the national coat of arms centered in the white band; the coat of arms features a triangle encircled by the words REPUBLICA DE NICARAGUA on the top and AMERICA CENTRAL on the bottom; the banner is based on the former blue-white-blue flag of the Federal Republic of Central America; the blue bands symbolize the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, while the white band represents the land between the two bodies of water
note: similar to the flag of El Salvador, which features a round emblem encircled by the words REPUBLICA DE EL SALVADOR EN LA AMERICA CENTRAL centered in the white band; also similar to the flag of Honduras, which has five blue stars arranged in an X pattern centered in the white band
Niger
three equal horizontal bands of orange (top), white, and green with a small orange disk centered in the white band; the orange band denotes the drier northern regions of the Sahara; white stands for purity and innocence; green symbolizes hope and the fertile and productive southern and western areas, as well as the Niger River; the orange disc represents the sun and the sacrifices made by the people
note: similar to the flag of India, which has a blue spoked wheel centered in the white band
Niue
yellow with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side quadrant; the flag of the UK bears five yellow five-pointed stars - a large star on a blue disk in the center and a smaller star on each arm of the bold red cross; the larger star stands for Niue, the smaller stars recall the Southern Cross constellation on the New Zealand flag and symbolize links with that country; yellow represents the bright sunshine of Niue and the warmth and friendship between Niue and New Zealand
Norfolk Island
three vertical bands of green (hoist side), white, and green with a large green Norfolk Island pine tree centered in the slightly wider white band; green stands for the rich vegetation on the island, and the pine tree - endemic to the island - is a symbol of Norfolk Island
note: somewhat reminiscent of the flag of Canada with its use of only two colors and depiction of a prominent local floral symbol in the central white band
Northern Mariana Islands
blue, with a white, five-pointed star superimposed on a gray latte stone (the traditional foundation stone used in building) in the center, surrounded by a wreath; blue symbolizes the Pacific Ocean, the star represents the Commonwealth; the latte stone and the floral head wreath display elements of the native Chamorro culture
Norway
red with a blue cross outlined in white that extends to the edges of the flag; the vertical part of the cross is shifted to the hoist side in the style of the Dannebrog (Danish flag); the colors recall Norway's past political unions with Denmark (red and white) and Sweden (blue)
O
Oman
three horizontal bands of white, red, and green of equal width with a broad, vertical, red band on the hoist side; the national emblem (a khanjar dagger in its sheath superimposed on two crossed swords in scabbards) in white is centered near the top of the vertical band; white represents peace and prosperity, red recalls battles against foreign invaders, and green symbolizes the Jebel Akhdar (Green Mountains) and fertility
P
Palau
light blue with a large yellow disk shifted slightly to the hoist side; the blue color represents the ocean, the disk represents the moon; Palauans consider the full moon to be the optimum time for human activity; it is also considered a symbol of peace, love, and tranquility
Panama
divided into four, equal rectangles; the top quadrants are white (hoist side) with a blue five-pointed star in the center and plain red; the bottom quadrants are plain blue (hoist side) and white with a red five-pointed star in the center; the blue and red colors are those of the main political parties (Conservatives and Liberals respectively) and the white denotes peace between them; the blue star stands for the civic virtues of purity and honesty, the red star signifies authority and law
Papua New Guinea
divided diagonally from upper hoist-side corner; the upper triangle is red with a soaring yellow bird of paradise centered; the lower triangle is black with five, white, five-pointed stars of the Southern Cross constellation centered; red, black, and yellow are traditional colors of Papua New Guinea; the bird of paradise - endemic to the island of New Guinea - is an emblem of regional tribal culture and represents the emergence of Papua New Guinea as a nation; the Southern Cross, visible in the night sky, symbolizes Papua New Guinea's connection with Australia and several other countries in the South Pacific
Paraguay
three equal, horizontal bands of red (top), white, and blue with an emblem centered in the white band; unusual flag in that the emblem is different on each side; the obverse (hoist side at the left) bears the national coat of arms (a yellow five-pointed star within a green wreath capped by the words REPUBLICA DEL PARAGUAY, all within two circles); the reverse (hoist side at the right) bears a circular seal of the treasury (a yellow lion below a red Cap of Liberty and the words PAZ Y JUSTICIA (Peace and Justice)); red symbolizes bravery and patriotism, white represents integrity and peace, and blue denotes liberty and generosity
note: the three color bands resemble those on the flag of the Netherlands; one of only three national flags that differ on their obverse and reverse sides - the others are Moldova and Saudi Arabia
Peru
three equal, vertical bands of red (hoist side), white, and red with the coat of arms centered in the white band; the coat of arms features a shield bearing a vicuna (representing fauna), a cinchona tree (the source of quinine, signifying flora), and a yellow cornucopia spilling out coins (denoting mineral wealth); red recalls blood shed for independence, white symbolizes peace
Philippines
two equal horizontal bands of blue (top) and red; a white equilateral triangle is based on the hoist side; the center of the triangle displays a yellow sun with eight primary rays; each corner of the triangle contains a small, yellow, five-pointed star; blue stands for peace and justice, red symbolizes courage, the white equal-sided triangle represents equality; the rays recall the first eight provinces that sought independence from Spain, while the stars represent the three major geographical divisions of the country: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao; the design of the flag dates to 1897
note: in wartime the flag is flown upside down with the red band at the top
Pitcairn Islands
blue with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side quadrant and the Pitcairn Islander coat of arms centered on the outer half of the flag; the green, yellow, and blue of the shield represents the island rising from the ocean; the green field features a yellow anchor surmounted by a bible (both the anchor and the bible were items found on the HMS Bounty); sitting on the crest is a Pitcairn Island wheelbarrow from which springs a slip of miro (a local plant)
two equal horizontal bands of white (top) and red; colors derive from the Polish emblem - a white eagle on a red field
note: similar to the flags of Indonesia and Monaco which are red (top) and white
Portugal
two vertical bands of green (hoist side, two-fifths) and red (three-fifths) with the national coat of arms (armillary sphere and Portuguese shield) centered on the dividing line; explanations for the color meanings are ambiguous, but a popular interpretation has green symbolizing hope and red the blood of those defending the nation
Puerto Rico
five equal horizontal bands of red (top and bottom) alternating with white; a blue isosceles triangle based on the hoist side bears a large, white, five-pointed star in the center; the white star symbolizes Puerto Rico; the three sides of the triangle signify the executive, legislative and judicial parts of the government; blue stands for the sky and the coastal waters; red symbolizes the blood shed by warriors, while white represents liberty, victory, and peace
note: design initially influenced by the US flag, but similar to the Cuban flag, with the colors of the bands and triangle reversed
Q
Qatar
maroon with a broad white serrated band (nine white points) on the hoist side; maroon represents the blood shed in Qatari wars, white stands for peace; the nine-pointed serrated edge signifies Qatar as the ninth member of the "reconciled emirates" in the wake of the Qatari-British treaty of 1916
note: the other eight emirates are the seven that compose the UAE and Bahrain; according to some sources, the dominant color was formerly red, but this darkened to maroon upon exposure to the sun and the new shade was eventually adopted
R
Romania
three equal vertical bands of blue (hoist side), yellow, and red; modeled after the flag of France, the colors are those of the principalities of Walachia (red and yellow) and Moldavia (red and blue), which united in 1862 to form Romania; the national coat of arms that used to be centered in the yellow band has been removed
note: now similar to the flag of Chad, whose blue band is darker; also resembles the flags of Andorra and Moldova
Russia
three equal horizontal bands of white (top), blue, and red
note: the colors may have been based on those of the Dutch flag; despite many popular interpretations, there is no official meaning assigned to the colors of the Russian flag; this flag inspired other Slav countries to adopt horizontal tricolors of the same colors but in different arrangements, and so red, blue, and white became the Pan-Slav colors
Rwanda
three horizontal bands of sky blue (top, double width), yellow, and green, with a golden sun with 24 rays near the fly end of the blue band; blue represents happiness and peace, yellow economic development and mineral wealth, green hope of prosperity and natural resources; the sun symbolizes unity, as well as enlightenment and transparency from ignorance
S
Saint Helena, Ascension, and Tristan da Cunha
blue with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side quadrant and the Saint Helenian shield centered on the outer half of the flag; the upper third of the shield depicts a white plover (wire bird) on a yellow field; the remainder of the shield depicts a rocky coastline on the left, offshore is a three-masted sailing ship with sails furled but flying an English flag
Saint Kitts and Nevis
divided diagonally from the lower hoist side by a broad black band bearing two white, five-pointed stars; the black band is edged in yellow; the upper triangle is green, the lower triangle is red; green signifies the island's fertility, red symbolizes the struggles of the people from slavery, yellow denotes year-round sunshine, and black represents the African heritage of the people; the white stars stand for the islands of Saint Kitts and Nevis, but can also express hope and liberty, or independence and optimism
Saint Lucia
blue, with a gold isosceles triangle below a black arrowhead; the upper edges of the arrowhead have a white border; the blue color represents the sky and sea, gold stands for sunshine and prosperity, and white and black the racial composition of the island (with the latter being dominant); the two major triangles invoke the twin Pitons (Gros Piton and Petit Piton), cone-shaped volcanic plugs that are a symbol of the island
Saint Pierre and Miquelon
a yellow three-masted sailing ship facing the hoist side rides on a blue background with scattered, white, wavy lines under the ship; a continuous black-over-white wavy line divides the ship from the white wavy lines; on the hoist side, a vertical band is divided into three parts: the top part (called ikkurina) is red with a green diagonal cross extending to the corners overlaid by a white cross dividing the rectangle into four sections; the middle part has a white background with an ermine pattern; the third part has a red background with two stylized yellow lions outlined in black, one above the other; these three heraldic arms represent settlement by colonists from the Basque Country (top), Brittany, and Normandy; the blue on the main portion of the flag symbolizes the Atlantic Ocean and the stylized ship represents the Grande Hermine in which Jacques Cartier "discovered" the islands in 1536
note: the flag of France used for official occasions
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
three vertical bands of blue (hoist side), gold (double width), and green; the gold band bears three green diamonds arranged in a V pattern, which stands for Vincent; the diamonds recall the islands as the "Gems of the Antilles"; blue conveys the colors of a tropical sky and crystal waters, yellow signifies the golden Grenadine sands, and green represents lush vegetation
San Marino
two equal horizontal bands of white (top) and light blue with the national coat of arms superimposed in the center; the main colors derive from the shield of the coat of arms, which features three white towers on three peaks on a blue field; the towers represent three castles built on San Marino's highest feature, Mount Titano: Guaita, Cesta, and Montale; the coat of arms is flanked by a wreath, below a crown and above a scroll bearing the word LIBERTAS (Liberty); the white and blue colors are also said to stand for peace and liberty respectively
Sao Tome and Principe
three horizontal bands of green (top), yellow (double width), and green with two black five-pointed stars placed side by side in the center of the yellow band and a red isosceles triangle based on the hoist side; green stands for the country's rich vegetation, red recalls the struggle for independence, and yellow represents cocoa, one of the country's main agricultural products; the two stars symbolize the two main islands
note: uses the popular Pan-African colors of Ethiopia
Saudi Arabia
green, a traditional color in Islamic flags, with the Shahada or Muslim creed in large white Arabic script (translated as "There is no god but God; Muhammad is the Messenger of God") above a white horizontal saber (the tip points to the hoist side); design dates to the early twentieth century and is closely associated with the Al Saud family which established the kingdom in 1932; the flag is manufactured with differing obverse and reverse sides so that the Shahada reads - and the sword points - correctly from right to left on both sides
note: one of only three national flags that differ on their obverse and reverse sides - the others are Moldova and Paraguay
Senegal
three equal vertical bands of green (hoist side), yellow, and red with a small green five-pointed star centered in the yellow band; green represents Islam, progress, and hope; yellow signifies natural wealth and progress; red symbolizes sacrifice and determination; the star denotes unity and hope
note: uses the popular Pan-African colors of Ethiopia; the colors from left to right are the same as those of neighboring Mali and the reverse of those on the flag of neighboring Guinea
Serbia
three equal horizontal stripes of red (top), blue, and white - the Pan-Slav colors representing freedom and revolutionary ideals; charged with the coat of arms of Serbia shifted slightly to the hoist side; the principal field of the coat of arms represents the Serbian state and displays a white two-headed eagle on a red shield; a smaller red shield on the eagle represents the Serbian nation, and is divided into four quarters by a white cross; interpretations vary as to the meaning and origin of the white, curved symbols resembling firesteels or Cyrillic "C's" in each quarter; a royal crown surmounts the coat of arms
note: the Pan-Slav colors were inspired by the 19th-century flag of Russia
Seychelles
five oblique bands of blue (hoist side), yellow, red, white, and green (bottom) radiating from the bottom of the hoist side; the oblique bands are meant to symbolize a dynamic new country moving into the future; blue represents sky and sea, yellow the sun giving light and life, red the peoples' determination to work for the future in unity and love, white social justice and harmony, green the land and natural environment
Singapore
two equal horizontal bands of red (top) and white; near the hoist side of the red band, there is a vertical, white crescent (closed portion is toward the hoist side) partially enclosing five white five-pointed stars arranged in a circle; red denotes brotherhood and equality; white signifies purity and virtue; the waxing crescent moon symbolizes a young nation on the ascendancy; the five stars represent the nation's ideals of democracy, peace, progress, justice, and equality
Sint Maarten
two equal horizontal bands of red (top) and blue with a white isosceles triangle based on the hoist side; the center of the triangle displays the Sint Maarten coat of arms; the arms consist of an orange-bordered blue shield prominently displaying the white court house in Philipsburg, as well as a bouquet of yellow sage (the national flower) in the upper left, and the silhouette of a Dutch-French friendship monument in the upper right; the shield is surmounted by a yellow rising sun in front of which is a Brown Pelican in flight; a yellow scroll below the shield bears the motto: SEMPER PROGREDIENS (Always Progressing); the three main colors are identical to those on the Dutch flag
note: the flag somewhat resembles that of the Philippines, but with the main red and blue bands reversed; the banner more closely evokes the wartime Philippine flag
Slovakia
three equal horizontal bands of white (top), blue, and red derive from the Pan-Slav colors; the Slovakian coat of arms (consisting of a red shield bordered in white and bearing a white double-barred cross of St. Cyril and St. Methodius surmounting three blue hills) is centered over the bands but offset slightly to the hoist side
note: the Pan-Slav colors were inspired by the 19th-century flag of Russia
Slovenia
three equal horizontal bands of white (top), blue, and red, derive from the medieval coat of arms of the Duchy of Carniola; the Slovenian seal (a shield with the image of Triglav, Slovenia's highest peak, in white against a blue background at the center; beneath it are two wavy blue lines depicting seas and rivers, and above it are three six-pointed stars arranged in an inverted triangle, which are taken from the coat of arms of the Counts of Celje, the great Slovene dynastic house of the late 14th and early 15th centuries) appears in the upper hoist side of the flag centered on the white and blue bands
Solomon Islands
divided diagonally by a thin yellow stripe from the lower hoist-side corner; the upper triangle (hoist side) is blue with five white five-pointed stars arranged in an X pattern; the lower triangle is green; blue represents the ocean; green the land; and yellow sunshine; the five stars stand for the five main island groups of the Solomon Islands
Somalia
light blue with a large white five-pointed star in the center; the blue field was originally influenced by the flag of the UN, but today is said to denote the sky and the neighboring Indian Ocean; the five points of the star represent the five regions in the horn of Africa that are inhabited by Somali people: the former British Somaliland and Italian Somaliland (which together make up Somalia), Djibouti, Ogaden (Ethiopia), and the North East Province (Kenya)
South Africa
two equal width horizontal bands of red (top) and blue separated by a central green band that splits into a horizontal Y, the arms of which end at the corners of the hoist side; the Y embraces a black isosceles triangle from which the arms are separated by narrow yellow bands; the red and blue bands are separated from the green band and its arms by narrow white stripes; the flag colors do not have any official symbolism, but the Y stands for the "convergence of diverse elements within South African society, taking the road ahead in unity"; black, yellow, and green are found on the flag of the African National Congress, while red, white, and blue are the colors in the flags of the Netherlands and the UK, whose settlers ruled South Africa during the colonial era
note: the South African flag is one of only two national flags to display six colors as part of its primary design, the other is South Sudan's
South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands
blue, with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side quadrant and the South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands coat of arms centered on the outer half of the flag; the coat of arms features a shield with a golden lion rampant, holding a torch; the shield is supported by a fur seal on the left and a Macaroni penguin on the right; a reindeer appears above the crest, and below the shield on a scroll is the motto LEO TERRAM PROPRIAM PROTEGAT (Let the Lion Protect its Own Land)); the lion with the torch represents the UK and discovery; the background of the shield, blue and white estoiles, are found in the coat of arms of James Cook, discoverer of the islands; all the outer supporting animals represented are native to the islands
South Sudan
three equal horizontal bands of black (top), red, and green; the red band is edged in white; a blue isosceles triangle based on the hoist side contains a gold, five-pointed star; black represents the people of South Sudan, red the blood shed in the struggle for freedom, green the verdant land, and blue the waters of the Nile; the gold star represents the unity of the states making up South Sudan
note: resembles the flag of Kenya; one of only two national flags to display six colors as part of its primary design, the other is South Africa's
Spain
three horizontal bands of red (top), yellow (double width), and red with the national coat of arms on the hoist side of the yellow band; the coat of arms is quartered to display the emblems of the traditional kingdoms of Spain (clockwise from upper left, Castile, Leon, Navarre, and Aragon) while Granada is represented by the stylized pomegranate at the bottom of the shield; the arms are framed by two columns representing the Pillars of Hercules, which are the two promontories (Gibraltar and Ceuta) on either side of the eastern end of the Strait of Gibraltar; the red scroll across the two columns bears the imperial motto of "Plus Ultra" (further beyond) referring to Spanish lands beyond Europe; the triband arrangement with the center stripe twice the width of the outer dates to the 18th century
note: the red and yellow colors are related to those of the oldest Spanish kingdoms: Aragon, Castile, Leon, and Navarre
Sri Lanka
yellow with two panels; the smaller hoist-side panel has two equal vertical bands of green (hoist side) and orange; the other larger panel depicts a yellow lion holding a sword on a dark red rectangular field that also displays a yellow bo leaf in each corner; the yellow field appears as a border around the entire flag and extends between the two panels; the lion represents Sinhalese ethnicity, the strength of the nation, and bravery; the sword demonstrates the sovereignty of the nation; the four bo leaves - symbolizing Buddhism and its influence on the country - stand for the four virtues of kindness, friendliness, happiness, and equanimity; orange signifies Sri Lankan Tamils, green the Sri Lankan Moors; dark red represents the European Burghers, but also refers to the rich colonial background of the country; yellow denotes other ethnic groups; also referred to as the Lion Flag
Sudan
three equal horizontal bands of red (top), white, and black with a green isosceles triangle based on the hoist side; colors and design based on the Arab Revolt flag of World War I, but the meanings of the colors are expressed as follows: red signifies the struggle for freedom, white is the color of peace, light, and love, black represents Sudan itself (in Arabic 'Sudan' means black), green is the color of Islam, agriculture, and prosperity
Suriname
five horizontal bands of green (top, double width), white, red (quadruple width), white, and green (double width); a large, yellow, five-pointed star is centered in the red band; red stands for progress and love; green symbolizes hope and fertility; white signifies peace, justice, and freedom; the star represents the unity of all ethnic groups; from its yellow light the nation draws strength to bear sacrifices patiently while working toward a golden future
Swaziland
three horizontal bands of blue (top), red (triple width), and blue; the red band is edged in yellow; centered in the red band is a large black and white shield covering two spears and a staff decorated with feather tassels, all placed horizontally; blue stands for peace and stability, red represents past struggles, and yellow the mineral resources of the country; the shield, spears, and staff symbolize protection from the country's enemies, while the black and white of the shield are meant to portray black and white people living in peaceful coexistence
Sweden
blue with a golden yellow cross extending to the edges of the flag; the vertical part of the cross is shifted to the hoist side in the style of the Dannebrog (Danish flag); the colors reflect those of the Swedish coat of arms - three gold crowns on a blue field
Switzerland
red square with a bold, equilateral white cross in the center that does not extend to the edges of the flag; various medieval legends purport to describe the origin of the flag; a white cross used as identification for troops of the Swiss Confederation is first attested at the Battle of Laupen (1339)
Tajikistan
three horizontal stripes of red (top), a wider stripe of white, and green; a gold crown surmounted by seven gold, five-pointed stars is located in the center of the white stripe; red represents the sun, victory, and the unity of the nation, white stands for purity, cotton, and mountain snows, while green is the color of Islam and the bounty of nature; the crown symbolizes the Tajik people; the seven stars signify the Tajik magic number "seven" - a symbol of perfection and the embodiment of happiness
Tanzania
divided diagonally by a yellow-edged black band from the lower hoist-side corner; the upper triangle (hoist side) is green and the lower triangle is blue; the banner combines colors found on the flags of Tanganyika and Zanzibar; green represents the natural vegetation of the country, gold its rich mineral deposits, black the native Swahili people, and blue the country's many lakes and rivers, as well as the Indian Ocean
five horizontal bands of red (top), white, blue (double width), white, and red; the red color symbolizes the nation and the blood of life; white represents religion and the purity of Buddhism; blue stands for the monarchy
note: similar to the flag of Costa Rica but with the blue and red colors reversed
Timor-Leste
red, with a black isosceles triangle (based on the hoist side) superimposed on a slightly longer yellow arrowhead that extends to the center of the flag; a white star - pointing to the upper hoist-side corner of the flag - is in the center of the black triangle; yellow denotes the colonialism in Timor-Leste's past; black represents the obscurantism that needs to be overcome; red stands for the national liberation struggle; the white star symbolizes peace and serves as a guiding light
Togo
five equal horizontal bands of green (top and bottom) alternating with yellow; a white five-pointed star on a red square is in the upper hoist-side corner; the five horizontal stripes stand for the five different regions of the country; the red square is meant to express the loyalty and patriotism of the people; green symbolizes hope, fertility, and agriculture; yellow represents mineral wealth and faith that hard work and strength will bring prosperity; the star symbolizes life, purity, peace, dignity, and Togo's independence
note: uses the popular Pan-African colors of Ethiopia
Tokelau
a yellow stylized Tokelauan canoe on a dark blue field sails toward the manu - the Southern Cross constellation of four, white, five-pointed stars at the hoist side; the Southern Cross represents the role of Christianity in Tokelauan culture and, in conjunction with the canoe, symbolizes the country navigating into the future; the color yellow indicates happiness and peace, and the blue field represents the ocean on which the community relies
Trinidad and Tobago
red with a white-edged black diagonal band from the upper hoist side to the lower fly side; the colors represent the elements of earth, water, and fire; black stands for the wealth of the land and the dedication of the people; white symbolizes the sea surrounding the islands, the purity of the country's aspirations, and equality; red symbolizes the warmth and energy of the sun, the vitality of the land, and the courage and friendliness of its people
Tunisia
red with a white disk in the center bearing a red crescent nearly encircling a red five-pointed star; resembles the Ottoman flag (red banner with white crescent and star) and recalls Tunisia's history as part of the Ottoman Empire; red represents the blood shed by martyrs in the struggle against oppression, white stands for peace; the crescent and star are traditional symbols of Islam
note: the flag is based on that of Turkey, itself a successor state to the Ottoman Empire
Turkey
red with a vertical white crescent moon (the closed portion is toward the hoist side) and white five-pointed star centered just outside the crescent opening; the flag colors and designs closely resemble those on the banner of the Ottoman Empire, which preceded modern-day Turkey; the crescent moon and star serve as insignia for the Turks, as well as being traditional symbols of Islam; according to legend, the flag represents the reflection of the moon and a star in a pool of blood of Turkish warriors
Turkmenistan
green field with a vertical red stripe near the hoist side, containing five tribal guls (designs used in producing carpets) stacked above two crossed olive branches; five white stars and a white crescent moon appear in the upper corner of the field just to the fly side of the red stripe; the green color and crescent moon represent Islam; the five stars symbolize the regions or welayats of Turkmenistan; the guls reflect the national identity of Turkmenistan where carpet-making has long been a part of traditional nomadic life
note: the flag of Turkmenistan is the most intricate of all national flags
Turks and Caicos Islands
blue, with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side quadrant and the colonial shield centered on the outer half of the flag; the shield is yellow and displays a conch shell, a spiny lobster, and Turks Head cactus - three common elements of the islands' biota
United Arab Emirates
three equal horizontal bands of green (top), white, and black with a wider vertical red band on the hoist side; the flag incorporates all four Pan-Arab colors, which in this case represent fertility (green), neutrality (white), petroleum resources (black), and unity (red); red was the traditional color incorporated into all flags of the emirates before their unification
United Kingdom
blue field with the red cross of Saint George (patron saint of England) edged in white superimposed on the diagonal red cross of Saint Patrick (patron saint of Ireland), which is superimposed on the diagonal white cross of Saint Andrew (patron saint of Scotland); properly known as the Union Flag, but commonly called the Union Jack; the design and colors (especially the Blue Ensign) have been the basis for a number of other flags including other Commonwealth countries and their constituent states or provinces, and British overseas territories
United States
13 equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom) alternating with white; there is a blue rectangle in the upper hoist-side corner bearing 50 small, white, five-pointed stars arranged in nine offset horizontal rows of six stars (top and bottom) alternating with rows of five stars; the 50 stars represent the 50 states, the 13 stripes represent the 13 original colonies; the blue stands for loyalty, devotion, truth, justice, and friendship; red symbolizes courage, zeal, and fervency, while white denotes purity and rectitude of conduct; commonly referred to by its nickname of Old Glory
note: the design and colors have been the basis for a number of other flags, including Chile, Liberia, Malaysia, and Puerto Rico
Uruguay
nine equal horizontal stripes of white (top and bottom) alternating with blue; a white square in the upper hoist-side corner with a yellow sun bearing a human face known as the Sun of May with 16 rays that alternate between triangular and wavy; the stripes represent the nine original departments of Uruguay; the sun symbol evokes the legend of the sun breaking through the clouds on 25 May 1810 as independence was first declared from Spain (Uruguay subsequently won its independence from Brazil)
note: the banner was inspired by the national colors of Argentina and by the design of the US flag
Vanuatu
two equal horizontal bands of red (top) and green with a black isosceles triangle (based on the hoist side) all separated by a black-edged yellow stripe in the shape of a horizontal Y (the two points of the Y face the hoist side and enclose the triangle); centered in the triangle is a boar's tusk encircling two crossed namele fern fronds, all in yellow; red represents the blood of boars and men, green the richness of the islands, and black the ni-Vanuatu people; the yellow Y-shape - which reflects the pattern of the islands in the Pacific Ocean - symbolizes the light of the Gospel spreading through the islands; the boar's tusk is a symbol of prosperity frequently worn as a pendant on the islands; the fern fronds represent peace
Venezuela
three equal horizontal bands of yellow (top), blue, and red with the coat of arms on the hoist side of the yellow band and an arc of eight white five-pointed stars centered in the blue band; the flag retains the three equal horizontal bands and three main colors of the banner of Gran Colombia, the South American republic that broke up in 1830; yellow is interpreted as standing for the riches of the land, blue for the courage of its people, and red for the blood shed in attaining independence; the seven stars on the original flag represented the seven provinces in Venezuela that united in the war of independence; in 2006, then President Hugo CHAVEZ ordered an eighth star added to the star arc - a decision that sparked much controversy - to conform with the flag proclaimed by Simon Bolivar in 1827 and to represent the province of Guayana
Zambia
green field with a panel of three vertical bands of red (hoist side), black, and orange below a soaring orange eagle, on the outer edge of the flag; green stands for the country's natural resources and vegetation, red symbolizes the struggle for freedom, black the people of Zambia, and orange the country's mineral wealth; the eagle represents the people's ability to rise above the nation's problems
Zimbabwe
seven equal horizontal bands of green, yellow, red, black, red, yellow, and green with a white isosceles triangle edged in black with its base on the hoist side; a yellow Zimbabwe bird representing the long history of the country is superimposed on a red five-pointed star in the center of the triangle, which symbolizes peace; green represents agriculture, yellow mineral wealth, red the blood shed to achieve independence, and black stands for the native people
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What is the occupation of Zandra Rhodes?
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Queen's Honours: Day-Lewis receives knighthood - BBC News
Queen's Honours: Day-Lewis receives knighthood
13 June 2014
Image copyright Getty Images/AFP
Triple Oscar-winning actor Daniel Day-Lewis has been made a knight in the Queen's Birthday Honours.
The Lincoln star joins Wolf Hall novelist Hilary Mantel and fashion designer Zandra Rhodes, who are both made dames.
Dame Maggie Smith becomes a Companion of Honour. The actress joins 65 individuals recognised for "services of national importance".
American actress Angelina Jolie is being awarded an honorary damehood.
Her work to end sexual violence around the world sees her featured on the Diplomatic Service and Overseas Birthday 2014 Honours list, for exceptional service to Britain overseas.
Pianist Andras Schiff receives a knighthood for services to music, while Homeland star Damian Lewis is made an OBE.
Also on the list - released to mark the Queen's official birthday - are Beatles biographer Hunter Davies and singer and DJ Cerys Matthews.
Writer Davies is made an OBE alongside composer Talvin Singh and actress Phyllida Law, mother to actresses Emma and Sophie Thompson.
There are MBEs for BBC 6 Music host Matthews, journalist and children's book specialist Julia Eccleshare and Torchwood star John Barrowman.
David Lan, artistic director at the Young Vic, becomes a CBE.
Dame Maggie Smith
Honour: Companion of Honour, for services to drama
Image copyright Getty Images
For more than six decades, Dame Maggie has honed her talents across the stage, TV and cinema, consistently winning numerous awards.
She is probably best known for early works, such as the titular role in The Pride of Miss Jean Brodie in 1969, for which she won a best actress Oscar.
A second supporting actress Oscar came in 1978 for California Suite.
Other accolades include five Baftas, three Emmys, three Golden Globes, three Screen Actors Guild Awards and a Tony Award.
She was made a dame in 1990 for services to the performing arts.
Smith currently stars as Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham, in ITV's hit drama series Downton Abbey.
It was recently announced she will star in a film version of Alan Bennett's play The Lady in the Van - a role she played on stage in 1999.
Daniel Day-Lewis
Honour: Knighthood
Image copyright Getty Images
Daniel Day-Lewis said he was "entirely amazed and utterly delighted in equal measure" to receive the honour.
He is known for being one of the UK's most intense and talented actors and is highly selective with his roles.
The 57-year-old puts a huge amount of preparation into his characters and often remains in character for the duration of a film's shoot.
In 2013, he made Oscar history by becoming the first man to win the best actor award three times.
The son of poet Cecil Day-Lewis and actress Jill Balcon, he won his first Academy Award in 1990 for My Left Foot, his second in 2008 for There Will Be Blood and his third last year, as President Abraham Lincoln.
He captured the public's attention with his roles in 1985 in My Beautiful Laundrette and A Room with a View, and establishing himself as a leading man in The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988).
He has won further accolades for his work in In The Name of the Father, The Age of Innocence and Gangs of New York.
The actor, who has both British and Irish citizenship, has not appeared in a role on stage since he dramatically withdrew from the National Theatre production of Hamlet in 1992, citing exhaustion.
Hilary Mantel
Occupation: Novelist
Honour: Damehood, for services to literature
In 2012, Hilary Mantel became the first woman and the first living British author to win the Man Booker prize twice for her historical novels Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies.
The two novels, which follow the rise of Thomas Cromwell from blacksmith's son to Henry VIII's right-hand man, also marked out Mantel as the first person to win the Booker prize for a direct sequel.
Mantel, who is working on the last part of the trilogy, The Mirror and the Light, said she was "delighted" with the honour.
"It's given for 'services to literature' but I see it not so much as a reward for the past, more as encouragement for the future. It means a great deal to have my efforts recognised, especially as I feel I've come to a new phase in my creative life.
"I hope it will please the many people who have helped, guided and encouraged me over a writing career of some 30 years."
Derbyshire-born Mantel wrote her first novel - Every Day is Mother's Day - in 1985. She has written a further 11 books on subjects as diverse as Saudi Arabia, the French Revolution and a tormented medium in 2005's Beyond Black.
She was made a CBE in 2006, but it was not until 2009's Wolf Hall that Mantel became a household name.
An Royal Shakespeare Company adaptation of the first two books is playing in London's West End, while a BBC adaptation of Wolf Hall is due next year.
Andras Schiff
Honour: Knighthood, for services to music
Image copyright Nadia F Romanini/ECM
Schiff has been hailed as the greatest musician Hungary has produced since the composers Bela Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly.
Born in Budapest, he studied music in his hometown and latterly London, where he was a finalist at the Leeds International Piano Competition in 1975.
He emigrated in 1979, becoming a British citizen in 2001.
Alongside his brilliance as a pianist, he has a reputation as one of the great musical thinkers. His lectures on Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas remain a central tenet of music broadcasting.
Recent awards include the Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal in December 2013.
Zandra Rhodes
Honour: Damehood, for services to British fashion and textiles
Image copyright Getty Images
Rhodes is instantly recognisable by her pink hair, dramatic make-up and iconic jewellery.
Once dubbed the Princess of Punk, her early outfits and bold textiles were initially spurned by the conservative British public.
She found a foothold in New York in the late 1960s when Diana Vreeland featured her garments in American Vogue, and gradually made her mark on the British market - going on to be named Designer of the Year in 1972
The late Diana, Princess of Wales, Elizabeth Taylor and Freddie Mercury have all worn her clothes. Kylie Minogue, Dame Helen Mirren and Naomi Campbell are among her current fans.
In recent years, she has diversified into set and costume design for opera, and founded the London Fashion and Textile Museum in 2003.
She was made a CBE in 1997.
Angelina Jolie
Occupation: Actress, director and campaigner
Honour: Honorary damehood, for services to UK foreign policy and the campaign to end war zone sexual violence
Image copyright AP
Oscar-winning actress Jolie, who topped the UK and US box office earlier this month in Disney's Maleficent, is also special envoy for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
In May 2012 she co-founded the Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative (PSVI) with William Hague and is described as having made an "exceptional contribution".
"To receive an honour related to foreign policy means a great deal to me, as it is what I wish to dedicate my working life to," said Jolie.
"Working on the Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative and with survivors of rape is an honour in itself. I know that succeeding in our goals will take a lifetime, and I am dedicated to it for all of mine."
Jolie - who has six children with partner Brad Pitt - told BBC Breakfast last month that a life-changing trip to Sierra Leone around the time she starred in 2001's Lara Croft: Tomb Raider kick-started her humanitarian work.
"I realised how sheltered I'd been and how fortunate I was and I felt horrible for ever having been self-destructive or self-pitying... I just felt a responsibility to be a better person."
Last year the 38-year-old revealed she had chosen to have a double mastectomy after discovering she had an 86% chance of developing breast cancer.
Jolie, whose mother fought cancer for nearly a decade, has since said she is "very happy" with her decision and plans to have further surgery to reduce the risk of ovarian cancer in the near future.
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Fashion design
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Which architect designed Coventry Cathedral?
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Day-Lewis knighted in Honours list
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Day-Lewis knighted in Honours list
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Daniel Day-Lewis
© Getty Images
Triple Oscar-winning actor Daniel Day-Lewis has been made a knight in the Queen's Birthday Honours.
The Lincoln star joins Wolf Hall novelist Hilary Mantel and fashion designer Zandra Rhodes, who are both made dames.
Dame Maggie Smith becomes a Companion of Honour. The actress joins 65 individuals recognised for "services of national importance".
American actress Angelina Jolie is being awarded an honorary damehood.
Her work to end sexual violence around the world sees her featured on the Diplomatic Service and Overseas Birthday 2014 Honours list, for exceptional service to Britain overseas.
Pianist Andras Schiff receives a knighthood for services to music, while Homeland star Damian Lewis is made an OBE.
Also on the list - released to mark the Queen's official birthday - are Beatles biographer Hunter Davies and singer and DJ Cerys Matthews.
Writer Davies is made an OBE alongside composer Talvin Singh and actress Phyllida Law, mother to actresses Emma and Sophie Thompson.
There are MBEs for BBC 6 Music host Matthews, journalist and children's book specialist Julia Eccleshare and Torchwood star John Barrowman.
David Lan, artistic director at the Young Vic, becomes a CBE.
Dame Maggie Smith
Occupation: Actress
Honour: Companion of Honour, for services to drama
For more than six decades, Dame Maggie has honed her talents across the stage, TV and cinema, consistently winning numerous awards.
She is probably best known for early works, such as the titular role in The Pride of Miss Jean Brodie in 1969, for which she won a best actress Oscar.
A second supporting actress Oscar came in 1978 for California Suite.
Other accolades include five Baftas, three Emmys, three Golden Globes, three Screen Actors Guild Awards and a Tony Award.
She was made a dame in 1990 for services to the performing arts.
Smith currently stars as Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham, in ITV's hit drama series Downton Abbey.
It was recently announced she will star in a film version of Alan Bennett's play The Lady in the Van - a role she played on stage in 1999.
Daniel Day-Lewis
Occupation: Actor
Honour: Knighthood
Daniel Day-Lewis said he was "entirely amazed and utterly delighted in equal measure" to receive the honour.
He is known for being one of the UK's most intense and talented actors and is highly selective with his roles.
The 57-year-old puts a huge amount of preparation into his characters and often remains in character for the duration of a film's shoot.
In 2013, he made Oscar history by becoming the first man to win the best actor award three times.
The son of poet Cecil Day-Lewis and actress Jill Balcon, he won his first Academy Award in 1990 for My Left Foot, his second in 2008 for There Will Be Blood and his third last year, as President Abraham Lincoln.
He captured the public's attention with his roles in 1985 in My Beautiful Laundrette and A Room with a View, and establishing himself as a leading man in The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988).
He has won further accolades for his work in In The Name of the Father, The Age of Innocence and Gangs of New York.
The actor, who has both British and Irish citizenship, has not appeared in a role on stage since he dramatically withdrew from the National Theatre production of Hamlet in 1992, citing exhaustion.
Hilary Mantel
Occupation: Novelist
Honour: Damehood, for services to literature
In 2012, Hilary Mantel became the first woman and the first living British author to win the Man Booker prize twice for her historical novels Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies.
The two novels, which follow the rise of Thomas Cromwell from blacksmith's son to Henry VIII's right-hand man, also marked out Mantel as the first person to win the Booker prize for a direct sequel.
Mantel, who is working on the last part of the trilogy, The Mirror and the Light, said she was "delighted" with the honour.
"It's given for 'services to literature' but I see it not so much as a reward for the past, more as encouragement for the future. It means a great deal to have my efforts recognised, especially as I feel I've come to a new phase in my creative life.
"I hope it will please the many people who have helped, guided and encouraged me over a writing career of some 30 years."
Derbyshire-born Mantel wrote her first novel - Every Day is Mother's Day - in 1985. She has written a further 11 books on subjects as diverse as Saudi Arabia, the French Revolution and a tormented medium in 2005's Beyond Black.
She was made a CBE in 2006, but it was not until 2009's Wolf Hall that Mantel became a household name.
An Royal Shakespeare Company adaptation of the first two books is playing in London's West End, while a BBC adaptation of Wolf Hall is due next year.
Andras Schiff
Occupation: Pianist
Honour: Knighthood, for services to music
Schiff has been hailed as the greatest musician Hungary has produced since the composers Bela Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly.
Born in Budapest, he studied music in his hometown and latterly London, where he was a finalist at the Leeds International Piano Competition in 1975.
He emigrated in 1979, becoming a British citizen in 2001.
Alongside his brilliance as a pianist, he has a reputation as one of the great musical thinkers. His lectures on Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas remain a central tenet of music broadcasting.
Recent awards include the Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal in December 2013.
Zandra Rhodes
Honour: Damehood, for services to British fashion and textiles
Rhodes is instantly recognisable by her pink hair, dramatic make-up and iconic jewellery.
Once dubbed the Princess of Punk, her early outfits and bold textiles were initially spurned by the conservative British public.
She found a foothold in New York in the late 1960s when Diana Vreeland featured her garments in American Vogue, and gradually made her mark on the British market - going on to be named Designer of the Year in 1972
The late Diana, Princess of Wales, Elizabeth Taylor and Freddie Mercury have all worn her clothes. Kylie Minogue, Dame Helen Mirren and Naomi Campbell are among her current fans.
In recent years, she has diversified into set and costume design for opera, and founded the London Fashion and Textile Museum in 2003.
She was made a CBE in 1997.
Angelina Jolie
Occupation: Actress, director and campaigner
Honour: Honorary damehood, for services to UK foreign policy and the campaign to end war zone sexual violence
Oscar-winning actress Jolie, who topped the UK and US box office earlier this month in Disney's Maleficent, is also special envoy for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
In May 2012 she co-founded the Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative (PSVI) with William Hague and is described as having made an "exceptional contribution".
"To receive an honour related to foreign policy means a great deal to me, as it is what I wish to dedicate my working life to," said Jolie.
"Working on the Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative and with survivors of rape is an honour in itself. I know that succeeding in our goals will take a lifetime, and I am dedicated to it for all of mine."
Jolie - who has six children with partner Brad Pitt - told BBC Breakfast last month that a life-changing trip to Sierra Leone around the time she starred in 2001's Lara Croft: Tomb Raider kick-started her humanitarian work.
"I realised how sheltered I'd been and how fortunate I was and I felt horrible for ever having been self-destructive or self-pitying... I just felt a responsibility to be a better person."
Last year the 38-year-old revealed she had chosen to have a double mastectomy after discovering she had an 86% chance of developing breast cancer.
Jolie, whose mother fought cancer for nearly a decade, has since said she is "very happy" with her decision and plans to have further surgery to reduce the risk of ovarian cancer in the near future.
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i don't know
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From New Zealand, what are 'Kea's' and 'Kaka's'?
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Kaka | New Zealand Birds Online
Jean-Claude Stahl
Kaka. Adult North Island kaka feeding on kowhai flowers. Wilton, Wellington, September 2013. Image © Jean-Claude Stahl by Jean-Claude Stahl
Breeding and ecology
Generally heard before they are seen, kaka are large, forest-dwelling parrots that are found on all three main islands of New Zealand and on several offshore islands. Much reduced in range and abundance in the North and South islands due to forest clearance and predation by introduced mammals, kaka are most abundant on offshore islands that have no introduced mammals, or at least no stoats. They remain locally common at some sites on the main islands that are close to offshore island refuges, and have increased in abundance at others where mammalian pests have been controlled. Kaka can be found in a wide variety of native forest types including podocarp and beech forest. They are a common sight in Wellington city, having spread from Zealandia / Karori Sanctuary.
Identification
A large, olive-brown parrot with grey-white crown and bright, red-orange underwing and deep crimson belly and under-tail coverts. Males have a noticeably longer and deeper upper mandible and bigger head than females but this is generally only apparent when the two sexes are seen side by side.
Voice: a harsh, repeated, rhythmic “ka-aa” when flying above the forest canopy, harsh grating “kraak” alarm call when disturbed. Also a variety of loud, musical whistles, but these vary markedly from place to place. Males give a soft “tsee-tsee-tsee” call during the pre-copulatory display and when showing potential nest sites to females. Females soliciting food from their mates, and juveniles soliciting food from their parents, utter a guttural, repeated “aa-aa” call.
Similar species: the only species likely to be confused with the kaka is the kea, which is larger, olive-green rather than olive-brown, and confined to the South Island.
Distribution and habitat
Kaka are rare to uncommon in native forest throughout the three main islands of New Zealand except for areas adjacent to offshore island strongholds such as the Hen and Chicken Islands, Little Barrier Island, Kapiti Island, Ulva Island and Codfish Island. They are also common on Great Barrier and Mayor Islands, and have recovered at some sites where control of mammalian predators is undertaken, such as The Rotoiti Nature Recovery Programme Area in Nelson Lakes National Park and the Eglinton Valley in Fiordland National Park. Reintroduction programmes have been remarkably successful at a few sites. A large wild kaka flock is a feature at the Pukaha Mt Bruce National Wildlife Centre in the Wairarapa, and kaka are commonly seen throughout the Wellington city green belt, following their reintroduction to Zealandia / Karori Sanctuary. Kaka also visit Auckland and Hamilton cities during winter, but there are few sites there where they are regularly seen.
Population
Probably fewer than 10,000 birds. There appears to be sufficient gene flow between most populations to prevent the development of significant genetic differences between them.
Threats and conservation
Although forest clearance has destroyed all but a fraction of the kaka’s former habitat, the biggest threat to their survival is introduced mammalian predators, particularly the stoat, but also the brush-tailed possum. It is predation by these pests, particularly of nesting females, that is the reason for general rarity of kaka on the main islands compared to their forested offshore island strongholds.Kaka can coexist with rats, and possibly also with possums, but not with stoats. Kaka populations can, however, recover when stoats and other pests are controlled by trapping and or poisoning.
Breeding
Kaka mainly breed in spring and summer, but occasional second broods can extend breeding into winter. Nests are generally in tree cavities over 5 metres above the ground, but can be at ground level on offshore islands. The nest floor is lined with small wood chips. The typical clutch size is 4. The female alone incubates the eggs and cares for the nestlings but is fed by the male throughout the breeding season. Both parents feed the fledglings which often fledge before they are able to fly, or even climb, effectively.
Behaviour and ecology
Kaka are obligate forest birds that obtain all their food from trees. They are adept fliers, capable of weaving through trunks and branches, and can cover long distances, including over water. Radio-tracking and banding studies revealed that the kaka of the Hen and Chickens, Little Barrier and Great Barrier Islands are effectively one population, even though these islands are separated by as much as 25 km of open water. Kaka congregate at localised food sources such as flowering rata, but often forage alone for wood-boring insect larvae, fruit or seeds. As conspicuous as they can be when in a group, kaka are typically cryptic when alone, often the only thing to betray their presence is the sound of wood or seed fragments dropped by the bird as it forages.
Food
Kaka consume seeds, fruit, nectar, sap, honeydew and tree-dwelling, especially wood-boring, invertebrates. There are also two records of kaka preying on the eggs of small passerines. Kaka are seasonal specialists, moving from food source to food source as different fruits, seeds and nectar become available.
Weblinks
References
Heather, B.D.; Robertson, H.A. 1996. The field guide to the birds of New Zealand. Auckland, Viking.
Higgins, P.J. (ed.) 1999. Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic birds. Vol. 4, parrots to dollarbird. Oxford University Press.
Moorhouse, R.J. 1997. The diet of the North Island kaka (Nestor meridionalis septentrionalis) on Kapiti Island. New Zealand Journal of Ecology 21: 141-152.
Moorhouse, R.J.; Greene, T. 1995. Identification of fledgling and juvenile North Island kaka. Notornis 42: 187-196.
Moorhouse, R.; Greene, T.; Dilks, P.; Powlesland, R.; Moran, L.; Taylor, G.; Jones, A. et al. 2003. Control of introduced mammalian predators improves kaka Nestor meridionalis breeding success: reversing the decline of a threatened New Zealand parrot. Biological Conservation 110: 33-44.
Moorhouse, R.J.; Sibley, M.D.; Lloyd, B.D.; Greene, T.C. 1999. Sexual dimorphism in the North Island kaka Nestor meridionalis septentrionalis: selection for enhanced male provisioning ability? Ibis 141: 644-651.
Powlesland, R.G.; Greene, T.C.; Dilks, P.J.; Moorhouse, R.J.; Moran, L.R.; Taylor, G.; Jones, A. et al. 2009. Breeding biology of the New Zealand kaka (Nestor merdionalis) (Psittacidae, Nestorinae). Notornis 56: 11-33.
Sainsbury, J. P.; Greene, T.C.; Moorhouse, R.J.; Daugherty, C.H.; Chambers, G.K. 2006. Microsatellite analysis reveals substantial levels of genetic variation but low levels of genetic divergence among isolated populations of kaka (Nestor meridionalis). Emu 106: 329-338.
Wilson, P.; Karl, B.; Toft, R.; Beggs, J.; Taylor, R. 1998. The role of introduced predators and competitors in the decline of kaka (Nestor meridionalis) populations in New Zealand. Biological Conservation 83: 175-185.
Recommended citation
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Parrot
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"""The splendour falls on castle walls/And snowy summits old story"" is the beginning of a poem by whom?"
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Image: Sabine Bernert ©
Video
Kea nest on the ground, and monitoring indicates up to 60% of nests can be attacked by predators during breeding.
Kea are at risk from a predator plague caused by high levels of seed production ('beech mast'). Battle for our Birds protects kea and other native species from predators.
Protecting Our Place
As part of the Protecting Our Place partnership with DOC, Dulux New Zealand is contributing $50,000 annually from 2013 towards the Kea Conservation Trusts' nest monitoring programme. In addition to that funding any funds raised through the consumer donation programmes will go to the Trust.
Dulux's involvement in the programme means the Trusts’ nest monitoring programme can grow and extend further in addition to the existing monitoring sites in the Nelson Lakes area.
Facts about kea
Kea (Nestor notabilis) are an endemic parrot of the South Island's high country. Although they are seen in reasonable numbers throughout the South Island, the size of the wild population is unknown - but is estimated at between 1,000 and 5,000 birds.
If you are a frequent visitor to or live in an alpine environment you will know the kea well. Raucous cries of "keeaa" often give away the presence of these highly social and inquisitive birds. However, their endearing and mischievous behaviour can cause conflict with people. Kea will often congregate around novel objects, and their strong beaks have enormous manipulative power.
Kea grow up to 50 cm long and although mostly vegetarian, also enjoy grubs and insects.
The kea is related to the forest kaka (Nestor meridionalis). It is thought to have developed its own special characteristics during the last great ice age, by using its unusual powers of curiosity in its search for food in a harsh landscape.
Nests are usually found among boulders in high altitude forest where the birds lay between two and four eggs during the breeding season from July and January.
Sound recording
Kea song (MP3, 977K)
1 minute 2 second recording of kea responding to recordings of their calls.
Note: Right-click the song link for options to save. Bird songs may be reused according to our copyright terms. More help on files .
Threats
Human development in the alpine zone has reduced the sources of natural foods available to kea and they find our fat-laden human foods inviting. However, human foods encourage kea to come into closer contact with humans, often resulting in mischievous behaviour. Feeding young kea also discourages them from looking for and learning about natural foods, and it can make them dependent on human scraps.
Kea, like many other native birds, have suffered from predation by cats, stoats, ferrets and possums. Keas are particularly vulnerable to predation because they nest in holes in the ground that are easy to find and easy to get in to.
Stoats and possums eat kea
Evidence shows possums are eating kea. Researchers using nest-cameras have for the first time witnessed the gruesome reality inside defenceless kea nests invaded by stoats and possums in South Westland.
Large numbers of kea nests are failing in the wild and these nest-cameras have finally been able to reveal what’s going on. At a monitored site in South Westland, midway through the 2010 breeding season, researchers discovered three out of 11 nests under surveillance had been devastated by stoats and possums, with a loss of six chicks.
Possum caught eating a young kea in Ōkārito Forest
Possums have previously been filmed killing an adult kaka but until now we were completely unaware of their direct impact on kea nests. This constitutes a huge risk to our lowland populations as nearly all of our nests are being visited by possums.
The research has also shown how long it takes chicks to die during a prolonged attack by stoats. One attack lasted two and a half hours with the stoat remaining in the recesses of the nest hole and repeating its assault on the two dying chicks.
One chick died at the end of the torment but the other lived for 40-hours with its injuries before disappearing. The mother was also injured.
More about possums and stoats eating kea
Work of kea research team
The kea research team is monitoring nests in the Ōkarito Forest and in the area from the Copland Valley to the Paringa River, south of Fox Glacier. These areas are steep and thickly forested making it difficult to track wild kea and carry camera equipment and large batteries around in.
The research team are also monitoring trees for signs of excessive fruiting which would trigger a chain of events starting with a rat plague and ending with a plague of stoats.
Minimising the risk of 1080 to kea
The kea research programme has adopted 1080 pest control methods to benefit kea populations in New Zealand's South Island. The project is studying nesting success, and researching operational methods that provide the least risk and most benefit to kea.
Possums, stoats and rats all destroy kea nests. New Zealand is one of the few countries where biodegradable 1080 poison can be used to control these pests.
Our work
In past decades there has been increasing human activity in alpine environments. Associated with this activity is the food scraps that accompany people. For kea, our food sources have become a welcome high energy food source and groups of kea frequent public sites around Fiordland like Milford Road carparks and at Milford Sound.
However, because these kea do not have to spend a large amount of time foraging for low energy natural foods, they have plenty of spare time to explore the many and varied new objects placed in their environment by people. Juvenile male birds seem to make up the majority of these loitering groups.
This exploration by kea has resulted in damage to property, especially around camping grounds and in carparks. Although a large number of kea may be watching, it is normally only a few mischievous birds which are doing any damage. A key to solving kea mischievousness is to remove all artificial food sources form their environment.
This means resisting the temptation to feed kea. The Department of Conservation is banding kea to help identify problem birds. Another reason why it is important not to feed keas is that a kea's natural food is mainly plant material such as berries, roots, shoots and insect larvae. Eating human food is as bad for keas as living on a daily diet of junk food would be for humans.
Feeding young kea also discourages them from looking for and learning about natural foods. They can become dependent on human scraps.
Reports
Defining the parameters for a sustainable, advocacy-directed captive population of kea (PDF, 1420K)
You can help
Help from the public is important to identify banded birds. If you see a banded bird note what it was doing (including any damage it was doing - if any) and report the band colour combination or numbers to the nearest DOC office.
Remove temptation
By removing temptations from kea, at human haunts, like boots, packs, food, car window wipers and brightly coloured objects, you can help minimise contact with kea and help to keep this alpine character wild.
Do not feed kea.
Join the Kea Conservation Trust
Visit the Kea Conservation Trust website to find out how you can become a member, sponsor, volunteer or donate to help contribute to kea conservation.
Help protect New Zealand's native birds
Volunteer with DOC or other groups to control predators and restore bird habitats.
Don’t throw rubbish into water ways or storm drains.
Set traps for stoats or rats on your property. Get more information from your local DOC office.
Put a bell on your cat's collar, feed it well, and keep it indoors at night.
Plant a range of native plants that provide food year-round to encourage birds into your garden.
When visiting parks and beaches
Only take dogs to areas that allow them, and keep your dog under control.
Prevent the spread of pests. Check your gear for mice and rats when visiting pest-free islands .
Use available access ways to get to the beach. Stay out of fenced-off areas. Leave nesting shore birds alone.
Get your dog trained in avian awareness, and help save forest birds like kiwi and weka.
Follow the water care code. Keep water craft speed to 5 knots within 200 metres of the shore.
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i don't know
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What is the technical term for the outer layer of a mushroom cap?
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Pellicle | Define Pellicle at Dictionary.com
pellicle
[pel-i-kuh l] /ˈpɛl ɪ kəl/
Spell
a thin skin or membrane; film; scum.
2.
Photography. a thin, partially reflective coating, as on a beam splitter or pellicle mirror .
Origin of pellicle
1535-45; < Latin pellicul(a), equivalent to pelli(s) skin + -cula -cle 1
Related forms
[puh-lik-yuh-ler] /pəˈlɪk yə lər/ (Show IPA), pelliculate
[puh-lik-yuh-lit, -leyt] /pəˈlɪk yə lɪt, -ˌleɪt/ (Show IPA), adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Examples from the Web for pellicle
Expand
Historical Examples
Remains of the thin white test of the second stage may sometimes be seen on the pellicle.
British Dictionary definitions for pellicle
Expand
a thin skin or film
2.
the hard protective outer layer of certain protozoans, such as those of the genus Paramecium
3.
the thin outer layer of a mushroom cap
a growth on the surface of a liquid culture
4.
(photog) the thin layer of emulsion covering a plate, film, or paper
Derived Forms
C16: via French from Latin pellicula, from pellis skin
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for pellicle
Expand
n.
1540s, from Middle French pellicle (Modern French pellicule), from Latin pellicula "small or thin skin," diminutive of pellis "skin, leather, parchment, hide" (see film (n.)). Related: Pellicular.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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Pellicle
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In which sport would you stand on the 'Hack Stay' behind the 'Hogline', aiming for the 'Tee' at the centre of the 'House'?
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Pellicle - definition of pellicle by The Free Dictionary
Pellicle - definition of pellicle by The Free Dictionary
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/pellicle
Related to pellicle: Dental pellicle
pel·li·cle
n.
A thin skin or film, such as an organic membrane or liquid film.
[French, from Latin pellicula, husk, diminutive of pellis, skin; see pel-3 in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.]
pel·lic′u·lar (pə-lĭk′yə-lər) adj.
pellicle
n
1. a thin skin or film
2. (Zoology) the hard protective outer layer of certain protozoans, such as those of the genus Paramecium
3. (Botany) botany
a. the thin outer layer of a mushroom cap
b. a growth on the surface of a liquid culture
4. (Photography) photog the thin layer of emulsion covering a plate, film, or paper
[C16: via French from Latin pellicula, from pellis skin]
pellicular adj
a thin skin or membrane; film; scum.
[1535–45; < Latin pellicula=pelli(s) skin + -cula -cle 1]
pellicle
The fine “skin” that forms when oil paint dries.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
pellicle - thin protective membrane in some protozoa
investment - outer layer or covering of an organ or part or organism
Translations
pellicle
n → Film m; (Zool: = membrane) → Pellicula f
Want to thank TFD for its existence? Tell a friend about us , add a link to this page, or visit the webmaster's page for free fun content .
Link to this page:
investment
References in classic literature ?
This certainly would be the case, were it not that the young fruit, encased in a soft green husk, with the incipient meat adhering in a jelly-like pellicle to its sides, and containing a bumper of the most delicious nectar, is what they chiefly prize.
View in context
I should wish also that such persons were carefully shown the eleven pellicles which, like so many small valves, open and shut the four orifices that are in these two cavities, viz.
This physician likewise abundantly establishes what he has advanced respecting the motion of the blood, from the existence of certain pellicles, so disposed in various places along the course of the veins, in the manner of small valves, as not to permit the blood to pass from the middle of the body towards the extremities, but only to return from the extremities to the heart; and farther, from experience which shows that all the blood which is in the body may flow out of it in a very short time through a single artery that has been cut, even although this had been closely tied in the immediate neighborhood of the heart and cut between the heart and the ligature, so as to prevent the supposition that the blood flowing out of it could come from any other quarter than the heart.
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i don't know
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"""I remember, I remember,/ The house were I was born"", is the beginning of a poem by whom?"
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I Remember, I Remember by Mary Ruefle | Poetry Magazine
I Remember, I Remember by Mary Ruefle
Poetry
By Mary Ruefle
I remember being so young I thought all artists were famous.
I remember being so young I thought all artists were good, kind, loving, exceptionally interesting, and exemplary human beings.
I remember—I must have been eight or nine—wandering out to the ungrassed backyard of our newly constructed suburban house and seeing that the earth was dry and cracked in irregular squares and other shapes, and I felt I was looking at a map and I was completely overcome by this description, my first experience of making a metaphor, and I felt weird and shaky and went inside and wrote it down: the cracked earth is a map. Although it only takes a little time to tell it, and it is hardly interesting, it filled a big moment at the time, it was an enormous ever-expanding room of a moment, a chunk of time that has expanded ever since and that my whole life keeps fitting into.
I remember writing a letter to President John F. Kennedy and a few weeks after mailing it finding it in the bottom of my mother’s drawer.
I remember sending my poems to Little, Brown and Company and suggesting they title the collection “The Little Golden Book of Verse,” and I remember their rejection was very kind and I was stunned when they made a guess at my age and were correct, I was in the fourth grade, and I felt the people at Little, Brown and Company were so smart they could read minds.
I remember I chose Little, Brown and Company for a very special reason: they were the publishers of my favorite author, Laura Ingalls Wilder, who wrote the Little House on the Prairie books (this was long before the television series). And although Little, Brown and Company sent me a very kind letter indeed, and guessed my age, they also did something I could never forgive them for, something that upset me for days and weeks and months. They sent me a picture of Laura Ingalls Wilder as a ninety-year-old woman; they told me she was dead, her mother and father and sisters were all dead too, and her husband, and that one of my favorite characters had died in a threshing machine accident—a threshing machine accident—it was so specific I was able to picture it vividly in my imagination, the mangled body in its overalls, the hat fallen off, some blood on the ground, the machine stopped in the noonday sun, one of its wheels bent out of shape, or some spoke or cog, and a leg or arm was in there, and the whole scene took place in the center of miles and miles and miles—as far as you could see—of beautiful golden grain, all the same length, like a crew cut.
I remember I was not exactly sure what a threshing machine was.
I remember they said that although Pa was dead, his fiddle was in a museum somewhere, and once a year somebody took it out of its case and played it. I remember feeling sorry for the violin, and thinking how lonely it must be to live like that, in a museum.
I remember when I was in the fifth grade my grandfather died and it was my first funeral and when everyone was filing out of the funeral parlor I remember asking if Grandpap was going to stay in there all alone at night and they said yes and I thought that would be awfully scary, lying in a coffin in an empty building, just like the fiddle in its case.
I remember when I was forty-five and my mother died it poured the day we buried her and late at night I thought of how cold her body must be, with the freezing rain pouring down on it, and how much she would hate being out in the cold and rain if she were alive. She would want to be under the blankets of her own bed on such a night, with a cup of coffee on the nightstand, and the coffee would be on top of the first art object I ever made, at the age of five, a ceramic coaster: a white tile with my face drawn on it in brown lines. For forty years her coffee cup must have burned my face, and since my mother died by fire, I did not want to think of it anymore.
“I remember, I remember,/The house where I was born” are the first two lines of a famous poem called “I Remember, I Remember” by a not-so-famous poet named Thomas Hood, and it was in the first poetry book I ever owned, The Golden Treasury of Poetry, edited by Louis Untermeyer.
I remember (later) thinking it was a curious thing, that there were so many famous poems by not-so-famous poets.
I remember (later) being shocked when I discovered Hood was a contemporary of Keats, only four years younger; I always thought of him as a later Victorian, for the diction of the two poets is remarkably different. No matter how you look at this, the implications are truly startling: either the lesser Hood was ahead of his time, or the greater Keats (Miltonian) was behind his time. It means poetry is more than the sum of its diction.
I remember I recognized the allusion when I read Philip Larkin’s version of “I Remember, I Remember.” Larkin’s poem is also called “I Remember, I Remember,” and in it his train happens to stop in Coventry and he happens to remember he was born there. The last line of the poem is “Nothing, like something, happens anywhere.”
I remember my Thanksgiving poem being pinned to the school bulletin board, where everyone could see it, and leaves cut out of orange construction paper were stapled all around it. It began, “We thank God for the living land.”
I remember in high school there was a girl named Lizette. She had black hair and a very pale face and because her mother was French she was an outsider and to make matters worse she was not the best student but was awfully good at art and took all the art classes and we worked on the literary magazine together and I liked her very much but I was afraid to be her friend because after all she was strange and I think I was jealous of her strangeness at the same time as I was afraid of it, and when we were together we read our poems out loud to each other, and in this way, through poetry, it was always safe to communicate.
I remember (much later) wondering what ever happened to Lizette.
I remember another friend in high school whose mother was an artist and their house was full of statues—the Buddha and nymphs—and the furniture looked like it was hundreds of years old and there were paintings on the wall and her mother had a separate apartment called a studio and in it were figures of clay on pedestals and in one corner an old hand-cranked Gramophone and I liked being in there but it was kinda scary too, it seemed forbidden in some way I couldn’t figure out; art was scary, strange, forbidden, and the really confusing part was I wanted it and needed it.
I remember one afternoon my friend and I were in the studio and all the clay figures on pedestals were draped with white sheets and my friend told me her mother did that when she didn’t want to look at them anymore and I was totally confused.
I remember standing in a field in Switzerland at dusk, surrounded by cows with bells around their necks, and reading John Keats’s “Ode to a Nightingale” out loud from an open book I was holding in my hands, and I started to weep—weep is a better word for it than cry—and I remember the tears slowly streaming down my face, it was that beautiful to me, and I loved poetry that much. I was eighteen.
I remember (later) thinking that it was actually hilarious that I used to read poetry to cows, that they were an integral part of my most serious moment.
I remember in junior high my leg was in a cast and it was summer and I was lying on a sofa in the basement where it was cool; there was a tv down there, and an ironing board, and a room for my sister to stay in when she came home from college, and my sister was ironing—she was always ironing, sewing, or cooking, she was majoring in Home Economics—and to pass the time she gave me one of her college textbooks, a book of poems by the British Romantics, and the only other thing I can remember is that my life changed that summer. My life changed for good.
I remember when I graduated from college, we were asked to submit exactly how we wanted our names to appear on our diplomas, and I spelled my middle name (which is Lorraine) Low Rain, because the day before I had been reading W.S. Merwin’s new book and in it was some kind of brief Japanese thing along the lines of “Low Rain, Roof Fell.”
I remember when my parents saw my diploma, they were horrified and kept asking me how I could have done such a thing, after they paid for my education and all.
I remember finding the diploma among my mother’s things after she died, and throwing it away.
I remember I never did like to save things much.
I remember saving everything.
I remember the afternoon I sat in a literature class, my hardback edition of The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens open before me, a book I had already owned for years, the pages worn and softened by endless turning and fingering, page after page filled with marginalia, notes, the definitions of words, question marks, exclamation marks, and underlinings, all in the soft gray graphite of my own living penciling hand, when a distracted classmate I did not know very well leaned over my book and wrote in it with her ballpoint pen: I’m so bored!!! Are you going to the party tonight? I remember feeling like my blood had stopped and reversed course, not in the heart, where that is supposed to happen, but midvein, the feeling medically called shock. I remember trembling and soaring with anger, and I remember the weekend after the unfortunate incident took place, sitting for hours and hours in my room with a new book, trying to cope, copying by hand everything I had ever written in the old book, with the exception of that one bold, sorry, uninvited guest.
I remember, in college, trying to write a poem while I was stoned, and thinking it was the best thing I had ever written.
I remember reading it in the morning, and throwing it out.
I remember thinking, if W.S. Merwin could do it, why couldn’t I?
I remember thinking, because he is a god and I am a handmaiden with a broken urn.
I remember the first poetry reading I ever went to; I was in college and it was W.S. Merwin. He sat on a stool under a spotlight and the audience sat at his feet. He had a halo of curls and he looked like a god with his face in the spotlight. He wore blue velvet knee breeches, a flowing white shirt, and soft, flat yellow leather boots—more like slippers really—that came up to his knees, where his trousers began. Surely this is an imaginary memory, surely he never owned such clothing.
I remember liking the reading.
I remember being young and liking everything.
I remember liking a great many readings that, if I were to sit through them now, I would not like.
I remember hearing the great Spanish poet Rafael Alberti read. I was very young and so he seemed very old to me, with his shoulder-length white hair and his white suit. I was also shocked that he was accompanied by a woman who did not seem to be much older than I was; she wore a skirt so short you could see her underwear when she walked, and white plastic go-go boots, as they were called. I remember one of them carried a birdcage with a white dove in it, but to tell the truth I may have made this detail up, in my mind over the years, perhaps to emphasize to myself that it was, and remains, the strangest poetry reading I ever attended. Alberti read his poems in Spanish and his American translator, Ben Belitt, read them in English. Ben was sober, shy, outwardly conservative; he wore a tweed jacket and tie. Alberti gave Ben a toy pistol, what was called a cap gun, a toy capable of making very loud noises, and told Ben to shoot himself in the head whenever he, Alberti, gave the signal, and that is exactly what happened: Alberti would be reading in Spanish, pause, look at Ben, and Ben would reluctantly shoot himself in the head. But when Ben read the poems in English, Alberti had the pistol and from time to time shot himself in the head with real gusto. I felt it was a great lesson in translation.
I remember hearing James Merrill read, in August, in Vermont, in a barn. He wore a white linen suit and read to a very small group of people (no more than twenty) sitting on folding metal chairs; I remember a shaft of light coming in through an open window and that I spent most of the reading watching the dust motes floating there. Beyond that—nothing, except one detail, the memory of which overrides all else: outside, a car was parked (had he arrived in it?), its rear window was filthy, and someone had written in the dust clean me, in Greek. I always instinctively knew he had written it, and that rear window is my memory of James Merrill.
I remember my first Ashbery reading, also in college. Ashbery was reading from his new book, Three Poems, and he said that it was a lot like watching tv—you could open the book anywhere and begin reading, and flip around the book as much as you wanted to. I remember hating him for saying this. I remember the word sacrilege came to mind. I remember not liking that reading.
I remember, two years later, reading Three Poems on a grassy slope while across the road three men put a new roof on an old house, and I was in love with one of them. I could watch the men working as I read. I remember that everything I was reading was everything that was happening across the way—I would read a little, then look up, read a little, then look up, and I was blown apart by the feeling this little book was about my life at that moment, exactly as I was living it. I remember loving the book, and that it was one of the memorable reading experiences of my life.
I remember reading Rilke’s Duino Elegies again and again and again, until I “got” them, until something burst over me like a flood, and I remember, once again, weeping and weeping with a book in my hands.
I remember a reading W.S. Merwin gave in a tiny chapel, with the audience sitting in the pews, and how after a while we were all lost in a suspension of time—I know I was—and after the reading there was a qa and someone asked a bizarre question, she asked what time it was, and Merwin looked at the clock (there was a clock on the wall) and every one of us could see it had stopped, it had stopped in the middle of his reading, literal proof of what we already felt to be true, this spectacular thing, the dream of all poetry, to cut a hole in time.
I remember wanting to hear Anne Carson read, but I was very ill and had to be admitted to the hospital, and I postponed my going into the hospital until the next morning, after I had heard her read. I remember I needed a ride to the hospital but none of my friends could take me, they wouldn’t take me, because there were a lot of famous poets in town, and they wanted to hear them all. I remember this made me angry beyond words, but at the same time it was hypocritical of me, because I myself had put off my hospitalization until after a reading.
I remember the year after college I was broke, and Bernard Malamud, who had been a teacher of mine, sent me a check for $25 and told me to buy food with it, and I went downtown and bought The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats.
I remember John Moore, another teacher, who did the damnedest thing. We were studying Yeats, and at the beginning of one class Mr. Moore asked us if we would like to see a picture of Yeats. We nodded, and he held up a photograph of Yeats taken when he was six months old, a baby dressed in a long white gown. Maybe he was even younger, maybe he was an infant. I thought it was the funniest thing anyone had ever done, the strangest, most ridiculous, absurd thing to have done. But nobody laughed and if Mr. Moore thought it was funny, you couldn’t tell by his face. I always liked him for that. The poems we were reading in class were not written by a baby. And yet whenever I think of Yeats, I see him as a tiny baby wearing a dress—that photograph is part of my conception of the great Irish poet. And I love that it is so. We are all so small.
I remember going to New York for an awards ceremony, for I had won an award, and standing awkwardly in a grand lobby, and noticing an old man in a white hat who looked rather lost, and thinking he had come to see someone get an award, perhaps a granddaughter or someone like that, and I went up to him and asked him if I could help him, and he asked me where the men’s room was, and I walked him there, and while we were walking I asked him if perhaps a member of his family was receiving an award, and he said not that he knew of, and then he went into the bathroom and I waited for him outside and while I was waiting I remember thinking how surprised he would be when he found out that I, the woman who showed him the bathroom, was receiving an award, and then a man and a woman walked by in an important kind of hurry, saying, “We have lost Arthur Miller,” and then Mr. Miller came out of the bathroom, and smiled at me and shrugged his shoulders and went away with them.
I remember my first electric typewriter.
I remember sending my first short story out to a national magazine the summer after I had graduated from college and receiving the reply, “We are terribly sorry, but we don’t publish poetry.” I remember never looking back.
I remember meeting an Irish poet who had just come from Georgie Yeats’s funeral, and was still drunk, though he had also just flown from Ireland to the United States. He was furious and maudlin because Georgie, who outlived her husband by thirty years, died only weeks after she had given all her husband’s manuscripts to the Irish State, manuscripts she could have sold to an American university for millions of dollars; she did this because she had no money, was an alcoholic, and very much afraid in a moment of weakness she would break down and sell the manuscripts after all; the thought of such a betrayal she could not bear, so she gave the papers to the Irish State, died a few weeks later, and had a three-hundred-mile funeral cortege with only six people present—the poet who told me this was one of them—and not a single representative of the Irish State was among them.
I remember another thing the Irish poet told me: once, drinking in Dublin with Berryman, they had a shot of ouzo and Berryman immediately disappeared. It was a matter of hours before they discovered he had walked out of the bar, taken a taxi to the airport and flown directly to Athens using his American Express card.
I remember reading John Berryman’s “Dream Song #14” in my twenties, with its famous opening words, “Life, friends, is boring.” I remember being struck by its wit, irony, playfulness, delight: it is the kind of poem students read aloud to each other in a pool of laughter and admiration, and there is nothing wrong with that, for it reinforces their sense of cynicism and superiority, and it is crucial at that age we find a like-minded group to whom we can belong. I remember rereading the poem, not for the second time, some thirty years later, and being struck by its excruciating pain, which is entirely without irony. Many persons who knew Berryman have remarked that he spoke, always, without irony, which means, simply, that he always meant what he said. If you are going through a particularly stable period of your life, and you encounter his bleakest statements, you will react with chagrin and disbelief, as if listening to the ablest jester. If you are going through a particularly unstable period of your life, the straightforward articulation of suffering that has already twisted and dislocated its bearer renders a tension that will very nearly kill you. But I did not know this then.
I remember reading in the newspaper that Ernest Hemingway was dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, and reading the whole article to the end, which is a very strange memory, as I was ten years old and did not read the newspaper.
I remember figuring out Djuna Barnes was alive and living in Greenwich Village when I was in college and for a long time afterward, and I could have gone and visited her, but I assumed the author of my most beloved book had died before I was born.
I remember repeating this mistake for many years.
I remember making it yesterday.
I remember that Djuna Barnes was living in total obscurity that last decade of her life, and so was I—if we can extend the meaning of the word obscurity to include a state of non-alert mind.
I remember that I did not always know authors were ordinary people living ordinary lives, and that an ordinary life was an obscure life, if we can extend the meaning of obscure to mean covered up by dailiness, glorious dailiness, shameful dailiness, dailiness that is difficult to figure out, that is not always clear until a long time afterward. Obscure: not readily noticed, easily understood, or clearly expressed. Which is a pretty good definition of life.
I remember, I remember the house where I was born.
I remember driving by the hospital where I was born and glancing at it—I was in a car going sixty miles an hour—and feeling a fleeting twinge of specialness after which I had no choice but to let it go and get over it, at sixty miles an hour.
I remember I was a child, and when I grew up I was a poet. It all happened at sixty miles an hour and on days when the clock stopped and all of humanity fit into a little chapel, into a pinecone, a shot of ouzo, a snail’s shell, a piece of soggy rye on the pavement.
I remember the day I stood in front of a great, famous sculpture by a great, famous sculptor and didn’t like it. Such a moment is a landmark in the life of any young artist. It begins in confusion and guilt and self-doubt and ends in a triumphant breakthrough: I see the world and I see that I am free before it, I am not at the mercy of historical opinion and what I want to turn away from, I turn away from, what I want to approach, I approach. Twenty-five years later I read an essay by John Berger on Rodin and in it Berger was able to articulate all that I felt on that afternoon, standing in front of a great Rodin. But by then I was old and vain and the pride of being vindicated was, I admit, just as exciting as Berger’s intellectual condemnation of Rodin’s desire toward dominance.
I remember thinking my feelings implicated me with Rodin and though now I liked him less than ever, my repulsion was braided with a profound sympathy inseparable from my feelings for myself. And that is a landmark in the life of an old artist looking at art: the realization that none of us can ever be free from ourselves.
I remember the first time I realized the world we are born into is not the one we leave.
I remember feeling my head was made of sandpaper.
I remember feeling my head was made of the smoothest silver driftwood.
I remember Ben Belitt, Pablo Neruda’s friend and translator, bent down to pick up the New York Times from his doorstep one rainy morning (this was before they had figured out you could put the newspaper in a plastic sleeve) and the first thing he noticed was that the “newspaper had been crying,” as he put it, that the newsprint was smudged and ran together in watery lines down the page, just like mascara, and then he saw the announcement of Neruda’s death: Neruda had died the night before.
I remember telling this story many times, but leaving Ben out of it, pretending it was me it had happened to.
I remember the night I decided I would call myself a poet. I had been invited to a dinner party of literati, and I knew I would inevitably be asked what I did. I usually said I was a teacher; I was twenty-seven years old and had been writing poems since I was nine. I made up my mind that if anyone asked, I would say I was a poet; I left my apartment with resolve, a sense of mission, and security. And someone asked. Alain, a charismatic French poet wearing a blue velvet jacket and a long white scarf, asked me what I did; I took a deep breath and said I was a poet; his face distorted into a human field of disgust: “A poet!” he cried. “If you call yourself a poet then you cannot possibly be one; poets live in shadows and never admit and do not discuss, and besides, a real poet knows that all the poems in the world do not a poet make. I would no more call myself a poet than call myself a man—it is the height of arrogance, as any dog knows.” Dear me! I left the party in tears—hard cold tears of confusion and humiliation. It seemed my final hour.
I remember, I remember, everything you said to me. We went walking out in silence, underneath the cherry tree. Falling blossom, falling blossom, falling from the cherry tree. I remember, I remember, everything you did to me: Annie Lennox, “Twisted.” There, the famous refrain from English poetry finds its way into rock and roll, more than a hundred years later.
I remember “remember” means to put the arms and legs back on, and sometimes the head.
I remember, on the first Tuesday of every year, that I became a poet for a single, simple reason: I liked making similes for the moon. And when things get tough and complicated and threaten to drown me in their innuendoes, I come back to this clear, simple, and elemental fact, out of all facts the one most like the moon itself. O night, sleep, death and the stars!
I remember the moon was covered with dust and I used my finger to write clean me on its surface, and my finger was ever after covered with a fine gray blanket, as when you pull lint from the dryer.
I remember more than I can tell.
I remember heaven.
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Thomas Hood
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Which European country's flag is a dark blue rectangle on which is mounted an inverted gold right angled triangle and a line of nine white stars?
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The Poetry Library | Poetry queries | FAPs
It was famously recited in the film Four Weddings and a Funeral .
The poem can be found in Auden's Collected Shorter Poems (Faber and Faber, 1966), and in the following anthologies: Modern British Poetry (Harcourt, Brace, 1962), 7th rev. ed. The Rattle Bag (Faber and Faber, 1982).
You can find out about W.H. Auden on our links page.
"The life that I have is all that I have..."
The poem you are looking for is 'Code Poem for the French Resistance' by Leo Marks. It can be found in A Poem a Day (Steer Forth Press, 1996), Poetry Please! (Everyman, 1996), or The Life that I Have by Leo Marks (Souvenir Press, 1999).
"What is this life if, full of care"
The poem you are looking for is by W.H. Davies, and it is called 'Leisure'. It can be found in the following anthologies:
Anglo-Welsh Poetry, published by Poetry Wales Press in 1984
Book of a Thousand Poems, published by Peter Bedrick Books in 1983
Common Ground, published by Carcanet in 1989
Oxford Book of Victorian Verse, published by OUP in 1971
A Poem a Day, published by Steer Forth in 1996
"When I am an old woman I shall wear purple"
This line comes from Jenny Joseph's poem 'Warning'.
First Line: When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
Last Line: When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.
The poem can be found in Jenny Joseph's Selected Poems (Bloodaxe, 1992), The Faber Book of Twentieth Century Women's Poetry (Faber, 1987) and Poetry With an Edge (Bloodaxe, 1988).
The Poetry Library also holds a cassette of this and other poems on a similar theme entitled When I Am an Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple (Audio Literature, 1995). If you have sight problems, you could order this cassette through our Visually Impaired service. For more details, click here .
A Song of England
"There is a song of England that none shall ever sing ...
The throstle has a stave of it,
The sea a breaking wave of it.
It mounts into the sun-rise like a falcon on the wing.
It rides the windes of heaven.
It steals thro' lanes in Devon."
This poem is by Alfred Noyes (1880-1958), and is found in his Collected Poems (William Blackwood, 1927).
Abou Ben Adhem
Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase!)
Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace
And saw within the moonlight in his room,
Making it rich and like a lily in bloom,
An angel writing in a book of gold:
Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold,
And to the presence in the room he said,
"What writest thou?" The vision raised its head,
And, with a look made of all sweet accord,
Answered,"The names of those who love the Lord."
"And is mine one?" said Abou. "Nay, not so,"
Replied the angel. Abou spoke more low,
But cheerly still; and said, "I pray thee, then,
Write me as one that loves his fellow-men."
The angel wrote, and vanished. The next night
It came again with a great wakening light,
And showed the names whom love of God had blessed, --
And lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest!
by Leigh Hunt
Found in The Faber Popular Reciter (Faber and Faber, 1978)
A pound of tea at one and three
And a pot of raspberry jam
Two new laid eggs a dozen pegs
And a pound of rashers of ham.
I'll say it over all the way
And then I'm sure not to forget
For if I chance to bring things wrong
My Mother gets in such a sweat.
A pound of tea at one and three
And a pot of raspberry jam
Two new laid eggs a dozen pegs
And a pound of rashers of ham.
There in the hay the children play
They're having such fine fun
I'll go there too that's what I?ll do
As soon as my errands are done
A pound of tea at one and three
A pot of er new laid jam
Two raspberry eggs with a dozen pegs
And a pound of rashers of ham.
There's Teddy White flying his kite
He thinks himself grand I declare
I'd like to make it fly up sky high
Ever so much higher than the old church spire
And then - but there
A pound of three at one and tea
A pot of new laid jam
Two dozen eggs, some raspberry pegs
And a pound of rashers of ham.
Now here's the shop outside I'll stop
And run my orders through again
I haven't forgot - it's better not
It shows I'm pretty quick that's plain.
A pound of tea at one and three
A dozen of raspberry ham
A pot of eggs with a dozen pegs
And a rasher of new laid jam.
by Anonymous
found in This England's Book of Parlour Poetry ed. Roy Faiers (This England Books, 1989)
I Remember, I Remember
This poem is by Thomas Hood (1799-1845), and can be found in a number of anthologies, including the following:
The Faber Popular Reciter (Faber and Faber, 1978)
Immortal Poems of the English Language (Simon and Schuster, 1952)
Favourite Poems Old and New (Doubleday, 1957)
The Pleasure of Poetry (Cassell, 1990)
The Top 500 Poems (Columbia University Press, 1992)
I Remember, I Remember (Red Fox, 1993)
The title given is sometimes 'I Remember, I Remember', other times 'Past and Present':
I remember, I remember
The house where I was born,
The little window where the sun
Came peeping in at morn.
He never came a wink too soon,
Nor brought too long a day;
But now I often wish the night
Had borne my breath away!
I remember, I remember
The roses, red and white,
The violets, and the lily-cups, --
Those flowers made of light!
The lilacs where the robin built,
And where my brother set
The laburnum on his birthday, --
The tree is living yet!
I remember, I remember
Where I was used to swing,
And thought the air must rush as fresh
To swallows on the wing;
My spirit flew in feathers then,
That is so heavy now,
And summer pools could hardly cool
The fever on my brow!
I remember, I remember
The fir-trees dark and high;
I used to think their slender tops
Were close against the sky.
It was a childish ignorance,
But now 'tis little joy
To know I'm farther off from heaven
Than when I was a boy.
Thomas Hood
First Line: If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you
Last line: Yours is the earth and everything that's in it,
And -- which is more -- you'll be a Man, my son!
found in The Oxford Book of Twentieth Century Verse ed. Philip Larkin (OUP 1973)
Life Unbroken
This poem is by Harry Scott-Holland. Scott-Holland was the Canon of St. Paul's and died in 1918. The poem is often read at funerals.
Death is nothing at all
I have only slipped into the next room.
I am I, and you are you:
Whatever we were to each other, we are still.
Call me by my old familiar name;
Speak to me in the easy way you always used
Put no difference into your tone;
Wear no air of solemnity or sorrow;
Laugh as we always laughed
At the little jokes we enjoyed together;
Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.
Let my name be ever
The household word that it always was.
Let it be spoken without effect;
Without the ghost of a shadow on it.
Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same as it ever was.
There is absolutely unbroken continuity.
What is this death but negligible accident?
Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?
I am but waiting for you,
For an interval, somewhere, very near
Just around the corner.
Lines on a Clock in Chester Cathedral
When as a child, I laughed and wept,
Time crept.
When as a youth, I dreamt and talked,
Time walked.
When I became a full-grown man,
Time ran.
When older still I daily grew,
Time flew.
Soon I shall find on travelling on-
Time gone.
O Christ, wilt Thou have saved me then?
Amen.
Poem can be found in A Puffin Book of Verse (Puffin, 1953)
Naming of Parts
First line: To-day we have the naming of parts. Yesterday
Last line: For to-day we have the naming of parts
This poem is by Henry Reed (1914-86), and describes army training. The poem can be found in the following books:
Common Ground (Carcanet, 1989)
Faber Book of English History in Verse (Faber, 1988)
Unauthorized Versions: Poems and Their Parodies (Faber, 1990)
A Poem a Day (Steer Forth Press, 1996)
Pedlar's Caravan
This poem is by Walter Brighty Rands (1823-1880), and can be found in The Book of a Thousand Poems (published by Peter Bedrick Books in 1983), The Oxford Book of Children's Verse (OUP, 1973) and The Poolbeg Book of Children's Verse (Poolbeg, 1987).
The Pedlar's Caravan
I wish I lived in a caravan,
With a horse to drive, like a pedlar-man!
Where he comes from nobody knows,
Nor where he goes to, but on he goes.
His caravan has windows two,
With a chimney of tin that the smoke comes through,
He has a wife, and a baby brown,
And they go riding from town to town.
Chairs to mend and delf to sell --
He clashes the basins like a bell.
Tea-trays, baskets, ranged in order,
Plates, with the alphabet round the border.
The roads are brown, and the sea is green,
But his house is just like a bathing-machine.
The world is round, but he can ride,
Rumble, and splash to the other side.
With the pedlar-man I should like to roam,
And write a book when I come home.
All the people would read my book,
Just like the Travels of Captain Cook.
William Brighty Rands
Remember me when I am gone away...
Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you planned:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.
by Christina Rossetti
found in The Complete Poems of Christina Rossetti; (Louisiana State University Press 1979-1990)
She Pops Home
Cal Clothier poem, read on BBC's Poetry Please on 3rd October 2004. The Poetry Library does not have a copy of this poem. The reference given by the BBC was: She Pops Home by Cal Clothier ©Mrs Molly Temple, Pro Vice Chancelor, University of Sunderland
The poem is available on a CD in the Library's collection - Poetry Please: The Anniversary Edition. Here the poem is read by the actor Gareth Armstrong.
Silver
First line: Slowly, silently now the moon
Last line: By silver reeds in a silver stream
by Walter De La Mare
found in:
Book of a Thousand Poems (Peter Bedrick, 1983)
Random House Book of Poetry for Children (Random House, 1983)
Collected Rhymes and Verse by Walter De La Mare (Faber, 1978)
Sir Smasham Uppe
"The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees,
The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,
The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,
And the highwayman came riding--
Riding--riding--
The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door."
by Alfred Noyes (1880-1958)
The poem can be found in the following books:
Best Loved Story Poems (Garden City, 1941)
Everyman's Book of Narrative Verse (J.M. Dent, 1990)
The Family Book of Verse (Harper & Row, 1961)
The full text of 'The Highwayman' can also be found on the Academy of American Poets website .
The Puk-Wudjies
found in The Book of a Thousand Poems(ED) MacBain, J. Murray (Peter Bedrick Books 1986)
The Train to Glasgow
"Here is the train to Glasgow.
Here is the driver,
Who drove the train to Glasgow.
Here is the guard from Donibristle..."
by Wilma Horsbrugh
found in Once Upon a Rhyme (Hodder Children's Books, 2001) and Up to the Stars (Hodder, 2001)
What is Dying?
I am standing on the sea shore.
A ship at my side spreads her
white sails in the morning breeze
and starts for the blue ocean.
She is an object of beauty and I
stand and watch her until at last
she fades on the horizon.
Then someone at my side says
There, she has gone -
Gone from my sight - that is all
She is just as large in the mast,
hull and spars as she was
when she left my side....
The diminished size
and total loss of sight
is in me and not in her,
and just at the moment when
someone by my side says
"She is gone"
others take up the glad shout
"There she comes"
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i don't know
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The Empress Eugenie (1826-1920) was the wife of which European leader?
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1000+ images about Empress Eugenie on Pinterest | Napoleon, The empress and Franz xaver winterhalter
Learn more at en.wikipedia.org
Doña María Eugenia Ignacia Augustina de Palafox-Portocarrero de Guzmán y Kirkpatrick, 16th Countess of Teba and 15th Marquise of Ardales (5 May 1826 – 11 July 1920), known as Eugénie de Montijo, was the last Empress consort of the French from 1853 to 1871 as the wife of Napoleon III, Emperor of the French.
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Napoleon III
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Which Middle Eastern country's flag is a rectangle divided horizontally into three equal bands green (top) on white on black with a broader vertical red band at the hoist side?
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Empress Eugénie and the Arts: Politics and Visual Culture in the Nineteenth Century (Hardback) - Routledge
Empress Eugénie and the Arts
Politics and Visual Culture in the Nineteenth Century
Subjects
About the Book
Reconstructing Empress Eugénie's position as a private collector and a public patron of a broad range of media, this study is the first to examine Eugénie (1826-1920), whose patronage of the arts has been overlooked even by her many biographers. The empress's patronage and collecting is considered within the context of her political roles in the development of France's institutions and international relations. Empress Eugénie and the Arts: Politics and Visual Culture in the Nineteenth Century also examines representations of the empress, and the artistic transformation of a Hispanic woman into a leading figure in French politics. Based on extensive research at architectural sites and in archives, museums, and libraries throughout Europe, and in Britain and the United States, this book offers in-depth analysis of many works that have never before received scholarly attention - including reconstruction and analysis of Eugénie's apartment at the Tuileries. From her self-definition as empress through her collections, to her later days in exile in England, art was integral to Eugénie's social and political position.
Reviews
Winner of a Fondation Napoléon History Prize for 2011.
'The Empress Eugénie has found an able advocate in Alison McQueen, who places her squarely within the lineage of rulers and consorts of the modern period. As a result of her extensive research in previously unexplored sources and documents, McQueen has given us the first complete picture of Eugénie’s important role in the worlds of art and politics.' Patricia Mainardi, Graduate Center, City University of New York, USA
'Professor McQueen's important and highly readable book provides a necessary corrective to the views commonly held about Eugénie and her place in history. The close analysis of images reinforces the text which, thanks to Professor McQueen's thorough research, uses many previously untapped sources.' William H.C. Smith, University of London
'Empress Eugénie, wife of Napoléon III, was an essential participant in the history of France through her role in the arts. In this well-documented study of her buildings, her collections, and her patronage, Alison McQueen restores this controversial figure to her rightful place and makes us revisit a whole side of nineteenth-century French art that has been neglected by historians.' Michel Melot, Former Director of the Département des estampes et de la photographie, Bibliothèque nationale de France
'McQueen’s mission and accomplishment in this assiduously researched book is to reconstruct Empress Eugénie’s position as private collector and public patron during the 18 years of the Second Empire in which she reigned beside her husband. McQueen has taken the subject and shaken it hard and interestingly, to reveal new truths about Empress Eugénie; and her book is a valuable contribution to the bookshelf.' Cassone
'… McQueen has produced a valuable, readable, jargon-free text that will be appreciated by scholars of French history, art history, women's studies and many other fields. With the publication of McQueen's book, Eugenie has regained her rightful place in the history of nineteenth-century art and politics, to which she can now be clearly seen as a key figure in this history. It is apparent that McQueen has spent the last decade working diligently not only to restore Eugenie's reputation, but to reposition her as a crucial advocate for the arts, education, social justice and her husband's legacy during the almost twenty years she was empress and during fifty years that she lived after the fall of the Second Empire. McQueen has unquestionably reestablished Eugenie's reputation for future generations.' H-France
'… McQueen harnesses an impressive array of primary and secondary sources to correct basic facts… Readers will discover many unfamiliar 19th-century works of art that McQueen masterfully analyzes and incorporates into her argument… Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.' Choice
'McQueen's book is especially noteworthy for her painstaking archival research, by which she reconstructs all of Eugenie's charitable and artistic commissions.' Woman's Art Journal
'This summary cannot do justice to the book, which presents an enormous wealth of surprising facts and insights about Eugenie's life and activities, nor to the complex, in-depth analyses of its selected artworks and projects. This combination of biographical information with discussions of a wide variety of artworks is, indeed, one of the book's greatest strengths. McQueen's study enriches our understanding of a woman of power and independence during the nineteenth century; a figure that stands out, even more so since the French were particularly anxious about female participation in politics… a fascinating account of how the public persona of empress Eugenie was constructed through artworks of all kinds.' Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide
'In this pioneering study, Alison McQueen examines an important and yet largely overlooked phenomenon: the engagement with the visual arts of Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon III. McQueen draws upon her extensive work in the archives throughout Europe and years of sustained consideration of this subject to argue that Eugenie's patronage and collecting activities were distinctly political in nature, critical to the fashioning of her private and public personae, and central to the art world… with Empress Eugenie and the Arts: Politics and Visual Culture in the Nineteenth Century, McQueen presents a treasure trove of information on Eugenie's involvement with the visual arts, and this book will serve as an invaluable resource on the subject.' CAA Reviews
'… McQueen has undertaken ambitious investigation of primary sources and archival information. Existing misinformation is corrected, familiar topics are fleshed out, and new material is introduced… she opens new perspectives regarding the profound symbiosis of visual culture and the political under the Second Empire.' French Studies
'… its strengths are such that Empress Eugenie and the Arts will serve as a wonderful resource for scholars of Second Empire art, history, politics and gender studies.' Nineteenth Century French Studies
Table of Contents
Contents: Introduction; Shaping a nation-state: the politics of piety, charity and education; Imperial identities: the 'ornament of the throne'; Collecting an imperial persona: collecting practices and intimate spaces; International diplomacy and transnationalism; Family, memory and dynastic nostalgia; Epilogue; Bibliography; Index.
About the Author
Alison McQueen is Professor of Art History at McMaster University. She is author of The Rise of the Cult of Rembrandt: Reinventing an Old Master in Nineteenth-Century France (2003).
Subject Categories
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i don't know
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"Politics. Who in his speech to the House of Commons on the 4th April 1940 said, ""Hitler has missed the bus""?"
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Neville Chamberlain - Wikiquote
Neville Chamberlain
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Arthur Neville Chamberlain ( March 18 , 1869 – November 9 , 1940) was a British politician from a famous political dynasty. After being Mayor of Birmingham, he went into national politics and was Chairman of the Conservative Party from 1929 to 1931. during the National Government of Ramsay Macdonald, Chamberlain served as Chancellor of the Exchequer. He later succeeded Stanley Baldwin as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in 1937; his government was marked by the build-up to war with Germany. Chamberlain negotiated an agreement with Adolf Hitler which Hitler never intended to honour; he declared war in September 1939 owing to a mutual defence pact with Poland , which Hitler's Germany had invaded.
Sourced[ edit ]
Without underrating the hardships of our situation, the long tragedy of the unemployed, the grievous burden of taxation, the arduous and painful struggle of those engaged in trade and industry, at any rate we are free from that fear which besets so many less fortunately placed, the fear that things are going to get worse. We owe our freedom from that fear to the fact that we have balanced our budget.
Speech in the House of Commons as Chancellor of the Exchequer (25 April 1933)
The Labour Party, obviously intends to fasten upon our backs the accusation of being 'warmongers' and they are suggesting that we have 'hush hush' plans for rearmament which we are concealing from the people. As a matter of fact we are working on plans for rearmament at an early date for the situation in Europe is most alarming...We are not sufficiently advanced to reveal our ideas to the public, but of course we cannot deny the general charge of rearmament and no doubt if we try to keep our ideas secret till after the election, we should either fail, or if we succeeded, lay ourselves open to the far more damaging accusation that we had deliberately deceived the people...I have therefore suggested that we should take the bold course of actually appealing to the country on a defence programme, thus turning the Labour party's dishonest weapon into a boomerang.
Diary entry (2 August 1935), quoted in Maurice Cowling, The Impact of Hitler. British Politics and British Policy. 1933-1940 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975), p. 92.
In war, whichever side may call itself the victor, there are no winners, but all are losers.
Speech at Kettering, (3 July 1938), The Times (4 July 1938)
How horrible, fantastic, incredible it is that we should be digging trenches and trying on gas-masks here because of a quarrel in a far away country between people of whom we know nothing. It seems still more impossible that a quarrel which has already been settled in principle should be the subject of war.
Broadcast (27 September 1938), quoted in "Prime Minister on the Issues", The Times (28 September 1938), p. 10
Referring to the Czechoslovakia crisis
Armed conflict between nations is a nightmare to me, but if I were convinced that any nation had made up its mind to dominate the world by fear of its force I should feel it should be resisted.
Speech (26 September 1938)
This morning I had another talk with the German Chancellor, Herr Hitler, and here is the paper which bears his name upon it as well as mine.... We regard the agreement signed last night and the Anglo-German Naval Agreement, as symbolic of the desire of our two peoples never to go to war with one another again.
Speech at Heston Airport (30 September 1938), quoted in The Times (1 October 1938) Oxford Book of Modern Quotes (pdf)
Peace for our time
Speech at Heston Airport (30 September, 1938) 1938: 'Peace for our time' - Chamberlain part of the BBC "On this day" series]
This is the second time in our history that there has come back from Germany to Downing Street peace with honour. I believe it is peace in our time.
"Neville Chamberlain 1937-40 Conservative" , 10 Downing Street, number10.gov.uk (accessed 2006-06-11 )
On returning to England from Munich in 1938; cf. Benjamin Disraeli 's return from the Congress of Berlin in 1878
This morning the British Ambassador in Berlin handed the German Government a final note, stating that, unless we heard from them by 11 o'clock that they were prepared at once to withdraw their troops from Poland, a state of war would exist between us. I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received and that consequently this country is at war with Germany. … It is evil things that we will be fighting against—brute force, bad faith, injustice, oppression and persecution—and against them I am certain that the right will prevail.
Broadcast from the Cabinet Rooms at 10 Downing Street (3 September 1939)
I often think to myself that it's not I but someone else who is P.M. and is the recipient of those continuous marks of respect and affection from the general public who called in Downing Street or at the station to take off their hats and cheer. And then I go back to the House of Commons and listen to the unending stream of abuse of the P.M., his faithlessness, his weakness, his wickedness, his innate sympathy with Fascism and his obstinate hatred of the working classes.
Letter to Hilda Chamberlain (28 May 1939), quoted in Maurice Cowling, The Impact of Hitler. British Politics and British Policy. 1933-1940 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975), p. 293.
No doubt the Jews aren't a lovable people; I don't care about them myself; but that is not sufficient to explain the Pogrom .
Letter to a sister, Chamberlain Papers (30 July 1939)
As you know I have always been more afraid of a peace offer than of an air raid.
Letter to Ida Chamberlain (8 October 1939), quoted in Maurice Cowling, The Impact of Hitler. British Politics and British Policy. 1933-1940 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975), p. 355.
I stick to the view I have always held that Hitler missed the bus in September 1938. He could have dealt France and ourselves a terrible, perhaps a mortal, blow then. The opportunity will not recur.
Letter to Hilda Chamberlain (30 December 1939), quoted in Maurice Cowling, The Impact of Hitler. British Politics and British Policy. 1933-1940 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975), p. 355.
The result was that when war did break out German preparations were far ahead of our own, and it was natural then to expect that the enemy would take advantage of his initial superiority to make an endeavour to overwhelm us and France before we had time to make good our deficiencies. Is it not a very extraordinary thing that no such attempt was made? Whatever may be the reason—whether it was that Hitler thought he might get away with what he had got without fighting for it, or whether it was that after all the preparations were not sufficiently complete—however, one thing is certain: he missed the bus.
Speech to the Central Council of the National Union of Conservative and Unionist Associations at Central Hall, Westminster (4 April 1940), quoted in "Confident of Victory," The Times (5 April 1940), p. 8.
Hitler began the 'Westfeldzug' five weeks later and entered France at the beginning of june. June 10th, Paris was declared to be an 'open town.
from Munich yesterday, and K
ING
and people alike have shown by the manner of their reception their sense of his achievement.
"A New Dawn", The Times , 1 October 1938 ; opening words of the leader on the Munich Agreement.
If ever that silly old man comes interfering here again with his umbrella, I'll kick him downstairs and jump on his stomach in front of the photographers.
Adolf Hitler after the Munich Agreement, quoted by Sir Ivone Kirkpatrick, The Inner Circle Macmillan (1959), p. 135
Neville annoys me by mouthing the arguments of complete pacifism while piling up armaments.
Clement Attlee in a letter to Tom Attlee (22 February 1939), quoted in Maurice Cowling, The Impact of Hitler. British Politics and British Policy. 1933-1940 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975), p. 177.
Mr Chamberlain views everything through the wrong end of a municipal drain-pipe.
David Lloyd George , as quoted in Rats! (1941) by "The Pied Piper", p. 108; similar remarks have also been attributed to Winston Churchill in later works, including Neville Chamberlain : A Biography (2006) by Robert C. Self, p. 12
Monsieur J'aime Berlin [Mr. I-love-Berlin].
French nickname for Chamberlain (punning on the sound of "Chamberlain" in French)
It fell to Neville Chamberlain in one of the supreme crises of the world to be contradicted by events, to be disappointed in his hopes, and to be deceived and cheated by a wicked man. But what were these hopes in which he was disappointed? What were these wishes in which he was frustrated? What was that faith that was abused? They were surely among the most noble and benevolent instincts of the human heart-the love of peace, the toil for peace, the strife for peace, the pursuit of peace, even at great peril, and certainly to the utter disdain of popularity or clamour.
Winston Churchill , Speech to House of Commons on 12th November 1940, 3 days after his death.
What a Chamberlain government would have done had there been no war in 1939 will never be known, but an election was due in 1940, and the manifesto proposals outlined by the Conservative Research Department embraced family allowances and the inclusion of insured persons' dependants in health cover—about half the advances usually attributed to Beveridge. As Lady Cecily Debenham wrote to Chamberlain's widow, Anne, after his death: "Neville was a Radical to the end of his days. It makes my blood boil when I see his ‘Tory’ and ‘Reactionary’ outlook taken as a matter of course because the Whirligig of Politics made him leader of the Tory party."
Andrew J. Crozier, ‘ Chamberlain, (Arthur) Neville (1869–1940) ’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2011, accessed 19 April 2013.
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Neville Chamberlain
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What was the address of Tony Hancock in 'Hancock's Half Hour'?
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Communists planned an attack on Hitler, Blomberg, G�ring, G�bbels and Hess.
Group Markwitz 1935
Location: unknown
The group Markwitz wanted to kill Hitler, but the Gestapo infiltrated the group. All the members of the group were killed.
Hagana 1936
During 1936, David Frankfurter, a Jewish medical student living in Berne, killed Wilhelm Gustloff, Hitler's deputy in Switzerland. Gustloff became Frankfurter's substitute target when the assassin realized his primary target, Adolf Hitler, was beyond his reach. A year later it was learned through SS contacts with the Hagna, the Jewish intelligence service in Palestine, that Gustloff's murder was part of a failed assassination plan against Hitler by a Paris-based group known as the Alliance Isra�lite Universelle.
Strasser�s Plan December 1936
Location: N�rnberg Stadium
In December 1936, a young German Jew who had been living in Prague infiltrated into Germany as part of a plot to kill Hitler by blowing up a building in the Nuremberg Stadium. Helmut Hirsch, acting under the influence of Otto Strasser, one of Hitler's most virulent opponents, agreed to plant the bomb built by another of Strasser's followers.
Hirsch arrived in Stuttgart on December 20, three days before the scheduled meeting with his contact, a Strasser disciple who was to deliver the bomb. Hirsch did not know his contact had been arrested crossing the German-Polish border with the bomb, and under questioning by the Gestapo he revealed the bombing plan and identified the would-be bomber. Since Hirsch had used his own name at the hotel when he completed the forms required of all guests, it was a simple matter to track him down and arrest him.
On 8 March 1937, Helmut Hirsch was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death by beheading. The execution was carried out on 4 June in Pl�tzensee.
Otto Strasser probably instigated more than a few death plots against Hitler. Otto and his brother, Gregor, were socialists before joining Hitler's National Socialist Party. Gregor entered into an unqualified allegiance to Hitler, but Otto held some serious reservations. He openly disagreed with Hitler on important issues such as a major strike by metalworkers in Saxony. Otto Strasser championed the workers; Hitler, who was being subsidized by wealthy industrialists, was ordered by them to disclaim Strasser and condemn his support for the strikers. Hitler and Strasser met twice in Berlin's Hotel Sanssouci on 21 and 22 May 1930, to reconcile their differences. Neither man budged from his position and they parted enemies. Expelled from the Party, Otto Strasser formed his own socialist organization, which he called the Schwarze Front (Black Front).
When Gregor Strasser died in Hitler's attack on the SA, Otto realized that he had lost the protection his brother's position in the Nazi Party had afforded him and that his own life was now in danger. He fled Germany and continued to scheme against Hitler from asylum in Poland, Czechoslovakia, and later Paris. Throughout 1937 and 1938, German intelligence uncovered a steady flow of information revealing plots to kill Hitler by the Black Front, as well as other opponents of the F�hrer, many of whom were German �migr�s.
Josef Thomas 1937, November 26
Location: Reichskanzlei Berlin
A mentaly ill man called Josef Thomas from Ebersfeld ran around in the Reichskanzlei. He got arrested. No one ever heard from him again.
Bomb 1937
Location: Sportpalast Berlin
An unknown person puts a bomb in the speakers platform of the Sportpalast. It is said that the bomb didn�t go off because the guy who placed it got, in some way, stuck in the toilets.
Dohnanyi 1937
Dr. Johannes von Dohnanyi of the Abwehr, personal advisor to Reich Minister of Justice Franz Gurtner, had disapproved of Hitler and his Nazi Party almost from the beginning when, through his post in the attorney general's office, in Hamburg, he was exposed firsthand to Nazi brutality. As early as 1937 Dohnanyi tried to recruit Hitler's adjutant, Hans Wiedemann, in a plot to shoot the F�hrer.
Maurice Bavaud 1938
Location: various
The year 1938 was a busy time for another would-be assassin, Maurice Bavaud. Through a strangely twisted logical reasoning, Bavaud concluded he must kill Hitler because the German dictator had reneged on his promise to squash the communists. Bavaud was a Swiss citizen attending a French Catholic seminary in Brittany when he came under the influence of another seminarian, Marcel Gerbohay. Gerbohay founded a small secret society of seminarians who called themselves the Compagnie du Myst�re. This group was pledged to fight communism wherever it appeared, especially in Russia.
Gerbohay portrayed himself as a descendant of the Romanov dynasty that had ruled Russia for over three hundred years. He prophesied they would rule again when the communists were overthrown. Hitler, whom many thought would be the instrument for the destruction of the Russian communists, was now showing every indication that he intended to co-exist peacefully with the Soviet Communist regime.
At Gerbohay's bidding, Bavaud set off from the seminary on a mission to assassinate Hitler because of his outward tolerance of the communists. He returned to his family's home in the west Switzerland town of NeuchU00E2tel and lived briefly with his parents and his five brothers and sisters. While he earned his keep helping his mother in a small grocery she ran to supplement her husband's postal workers salary, Bavaud studied German and read the French translation of "Mein Kampf".
On October 9 he bid his family farewell and set off on an odyssey that would crisscross Germany in pursuit of Adolf Hitler. He told his family he was going to Germany to find work as a draftsman, a trade he had learned before joining the seminary. He spent a fortnight visiting relatives in the German resort town of Baden-Baden. Telling these relatives he was going to Mannheim to seek work, he instead left Baden-Baden and proceeded south to the Swiss border town of Basel, where he purchased a 6.35-millimeter Schmeisser automatic pistol. He then traveled four hundred miles by rail to Berlin, where he expected to find Hitler.
In Berlin Bavaud learned that the F�hrer was at his mountain retreat near Berchtesgaden. Determined to kill his quarry, Bavaud immediately entrained for the resort three hundred miles to the south. Arriving in Berchtesgaden on October 25, he checked into an inexpensive hotel, the Stiftskeller, and found a source where he purchased extra ammunition for his pistol. To improve his nonexistent shooting skills he went deep into the woods and used trees for target practice. He decided that he would be able to shoot Hitler if he could get within twenty-five feet of him. It apparently did not occur to Bavaud that there was no guarantee that if he was successful in shooting Hitler the F�hrer would necessarily die.
Unfortunately, Bavaud again missed connections when Hitler left Berchtesgaden shortly after he arrived. Dejected over this second failure to find his target, Bavaud decided to plan more carefully by learning as much as possible about Hitler's movements before taking further action. However, his German was only rudimentary, and he was severely handicapped in these inquiries.
One afternoon while eating lunch he met two French instructors with whom he carried on a lively conversation, claiming to be an ardent admirer of Hitler who wanted to meet the F�hrer. Although his companions could not be of any help, the conversation was overheard by a police captain sitting at the next table who spoke French. Captain Karl Derkert told Bavaud that he was connected with Hitler's security and assured the young Swiss that to arrange a personal audience with Hitler would require a letter of introduction from a high-ranking foreign official. But if he only wanted to see Hitler up close, Deckert advised, he should go to Munich in time for the anniversary of the 9 November 1923 Putsch. Hitler traditionally led a parade through the city's streets that retraced the route he and his band had taken in 1923.
On October 31 Bavaud once again boarded a train, this time for Munich, where he rented a furnished room. Using a tourist map, Bavaud plotted the route of the march during the days preceding the celebration, looking for a vantage point from which to shoot Hitler. A series of grandstands had been constructed along the route, and for one of them he was able to obtain a ticket by impersonating a reporter for a Swiss newspaper.
Not entirely confident with his marksmanship, he located a suitable site about twenty-five miles from the city where he could safely practice his shooting skills.
The morning of November 9 was cold and clear. Dressed in a heavy overcoat, with his pistol inside the coat pocket, Bavaud made his way through the thousands who thronged the streets of Munich and arrived at the grandstand near the Marienplatz with time to spare. He found a front-row seat and sat quietly, hoping to remain inconspicuous while he waited for Hitler. The street in front of him, as well as along the entire march route, was flanked on both sides with two rows of burly SA men who stood shoulder to shoulder to keep the crowd from rushing into the streets. The intended assassin knew he would have to shoot Hitler from the grandstand because it would be impossible for him to push his way through the brown-shirted guards. Suddenly the cry went up, "The F�hrer is coming!"
Rising as one, the people in the grandstand, Bavaud included, stood to view the approaching parade. Inside his pocket his hand gripped the pistol tightly, ready to remove it quickly when Hitler came within range. With his heart pounding, the young man stood poised to act as the line of marchers approached. When the parade drew abreast of Bavaud, disappointment gripped him as he realized that Hitler was marching on the opposite side of the street, not in the center as he had expected.
This placed his target more than fifty feet away, twice his confidence range with his weapon. Bavaud released his hold on the Schmeisser and could do nothing except watch Hitler and his entourage turn a corner and disappear from view.
Bavaud was disappointed but far from discouraged. He purchased some tastefully expensive stationery and envelopes and returned to his room, where he proceeded to forge a letter of introduction to Hitler from French Foreign Minister Pierre Flandin.
The letter stated that Bavaud carried a second letter that was to be read by Adolf Hitler only. It was a poorly conceived ruse born of desperation. That Bavaud even imagined such a letter would gain him admittance to Hitler's presence is incredible. To believe that the foreign minister of France would use this young Swiss citizen to carry important correspondence to the F�hrer of Germany instead of his own ambassador was the height of foolishness.
Hearing erroneously that Hitler had returned to his retreat, Bavaud again boarded a train for Berchtesgaden. At the station he hired a taxi to take him to the Berghof, but he was prevented from entering the grounds by the armed guards who told him Hitler was not there, but still in Munich. Bavaud rushed back to the railroad station and took the next train to Munich, arriving there about the same time Hitler's private train left on its way to Berchtesgaden.
Frustrated and nearly out of money, Bavaud gave up his quest to kill Hitler and decided to leave the country. He did not have enough money to travel to Switzerland, so he hid aboard a train bound for Paris where he hoped to obtain from the Swiss embassy sufficient funds to return to his parents' home. When he was discovered by a railroad conductor he was turned over to the police at Augsburg, who handed him to the Gestapo because he was a foreigner and because he was carrying a gun and letter addressed to Hitler. For some insane reason Bavaud had failed to dispose of the incriminating letters and the weapon he intended to use against Hitler.
Under arduous interrogation Bavaud eventually confessed his plan to the Gestapo. He was put on trial, found guilty, and on 14 May 1941, was beheaded
Having traveled hundreds of miles pursuing his fantasy to kill Hitler, Marcel Bavaud succeeded only in bringing about his own demise. Perhaps he would have accomplished his mission had he been a bit more imaginative and more resourceful, but he was doomed from the beginning because of a grievous lack of planning. Even when certain failure became apparent, the poor fellow was not smart enough to rid himself of the evidence that ultimately incriminated him.
Maurice Bavaud (January 15, 1916 in Neuch�tel - May 14, 1941 in Berlin-Pl�tzensee) was a Roman Catholic Swiss citizen who in 1938 attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler.
Bavaud was a Catholic theology student, attending the Saint Ilan Seminary, Saint-Brieuc, Brittany, and a member of an anti-communist student group in France called Compagnie du Myst�re. The group's leader, Marcel Gerbohay, had a lot of influence over Bavaud. Gerbohay claimed that he was a member of the Romanov Dynasty, and convinced Bavaud that when communism was destroyed, the Romanovs would once again rule Russia, in the person of Gerbohay. Bavaud believed what Gerbohay had told him, became obsessed with the idea that killing Hitler would help the plans to materialise, and finally decided to carry out the assassination himself.
On 9 October 1938, Bavaud travelled from Brittany to Baden-Baden, then on to Basel, where he bought a Schmeisser 6.35 mm (.25 ACP) semi-automatic pistol. In Berlin, a policeman, Karl Deckert, overheard Bavaud saying that he would like to meet Hitler personally. Deckert advised Bavaud that a private audience could be arranged if Bavaud could obtain a letter of introduction from a suitable foreign VIP. Deckert advised him to travel to Munich for the anniversary of the 1923 "Beer Hall Putsch", which Hitler attended every year. Bavaud followed those instructions by buying a ticket for a seat on the reviewing stand by posing as a Swiss reporter, intending to shoot Hitler as the latter passed during the parade. Bavaud abandoned this attempt when, on November 9, Hitler turned out to be marching in the company of other Nazi leaders whom Bavaud did not want to injure.
Bavaud next purchased expensive stationery and forged a letter of introduction in the name of the French nationalist leader Pierre Taittinger, which claimed that Bavaud had a second letter for Hitler's eyes only. He travelled to Berchtesgaden in the belief that Hitler had returned there, only to find that Hitler was still in Munich. When Bavaud returned to Munich, he discovered that Hitler was just leaving for Berchtesgaden.
Having exhausted his money, Bavaud stowed away on a train to Paris, where he was discovered by a conductor who turned him over to the police. He was interrogated by the Gestapo and admitted his plans to assassinate Hitler.
Bavaud was tried by the Volksgerichtshof on 18 December 1939, naming as his motives that he considered Hitler a danger to humanity in general, to Swiss independence, and to Catholicism in Germany. Swiss diplomacy made no effort to save Bavaud; Hans Fr�hlicher, the Swiss ambassador to Germany even publicly condemned Bavaud's assassination attempt. An offer from the Germans to exchange Bavaud for a German spy was turned down, and Bavaud was sentenced to death. He was executed by guillotine in the Berlin-Pl�tzensee prison on the morning of 14 May 1941.
Aftermath
Bavaud's father Alfred attempted to rehabilitate his son's name and reputation, resulting in a court decision on 12 December 1955 reverting the death sentence but posthumously condemning Bavaud to a five-year sentence, arguing that Hitler's life was protected by law just as any other life. A second verdict of 1956 reverted the prison sentence and Germany paid Bavaud's family the sum of CHF 40,000 in reparation.
In 1976, Rolf Hochhuth idealized Bavaud as a "new William Tell", while in 1980 Klaus Urner relativized Hochhuth's heroic picture, analyzing psychological aspects of Bavaud's motivation. In 1989 and again in 1998, the Swiss Federal Council admitted that the Swiss authorities did not make a sufficient effort to save Bavaud. Finally, in 2008, the Swiss government honored the life and effort of Bavaud. In 2011, a small monument was erected in Hauterive near Neuch�tel.
Oster group, 1938, September 28
Location: unknown
Members of the resistance were scattered throughout the army, the Foreign Ministry, the police, and nongovernmental circles and were essentially a small minority in a totalitarian state that engaged freely in terror, imprisonment, and murder against its enemies, real or imagined.. They could not meet in large numbers to engender support for their struggle against the Nazis without arousing Gestapo interest in them. Nor could many of them risk being seen with each other because of government restrictions. Contact between different government agencies was strictly limited and in some cases forbidden, such as between officials of the Foreign Ministry and the General Staff, unless the individual involved was a liaison officer. Gestapo and SS secret police units worked ceaselessly to uncover opponents of the regime. Considering the overwhelming resources against them, it is miraculous that practically anyone who joined the 1938 resistance movement survived long enough to be executed by the Nazis in 1944 and 1945.
During 1938 latent anti-Nazi and anti-war sentiment among individual officers in the German army gradually coalesced into a hardcore group determined to depose Hitler. Early in the year the first tentative beginnings of an organized coup took form. By year's end a solid nucleus of ranking officers was plotting to kill the F�hrer. However, many of the generals who recognized that Hitler's plans for conquering Europe harbored the seeds of Germany's destruction rejected assassination, opting instead for arrest and imprisonment.
Lieutenant Colonel Hans Oster, Chief of Staff of the Abwer, the counterintelligence section of the military High Command, was a much-decorated veteran of World War I. He was a deeply religious parson's son, a highly charged and temperamental man, without personal ambitions. Oster viewed Nazism as anti-Christian and persisted in his efforts to depose Hitler until his own execution in 1945.
A group of military conspirators around him planned a coup when the troups to enter Czechoslovakia were mobilised. Hitler's ultimate fate had not yet been decided, but most senior officers believed he should be tried on charges of treason for committing Germany to a senseless war, or declared insane and committed to an asylum. Little is known about the detailed military plans for the coup. Except for General Franz Halder, a deeply religious and sensitive man from a background steeped in military tradition, none of the ranking army officers who were involved survived the war. General Halder stated that he left the details to General Erwin von Witzleben, keeping for himself only the final authority to issue the order that would begin the coup.
Everyone now waited for the order to come from General Halder, who in turn waited for Hitler's orders to prepare to attack Czechoslovakia before he would commit the coup's forces to action. During this slack period the conspirators debated Hitler's fate. Although Halder despised the Nazis and deplored their tyrannical rule over Germany, he also believed strongly in his personal oath of loyalty to Hitler. Halder opposed outright assassination, which might besmirch the army's reputation. If Hitler had to die, Halder preferred it to happen in some way not directly connected with the army or the army's actions in conducting the coup. Other senior officers, including Beck, Witzleben, and Canaris, wanted Hitler brought to trial for the crimes committed by his regime. They wanted the public to clearly understand what these crimes were, so the army could never be accused of stabbing Germany in the back, a reference to the "stab in the back" theory expounded at the end of World War I and which Hitler used to great advantage in his rise to power. The theory, invented by Hindenburg and Luddendorf, held that democratic-minded politicians had stabbed the German army in the back, by calling for armistice, just when it was poised to win its greatest victory in the war.
Hans Oster and others, including Dr. Hans von Dohnanyi, wanted to have Hitler declared insane by a panel of doctors. Dohnanyi had been collecting evidence to submit to such a panel for over five years, and his psychiatrist father-in-law, Professor Karl Bonh�ffer, had already agreed to chair the panel.
Major Heinz and his well-armed escort team (which was to fight its way into the Chancellory) thought otherwise. In Heinz's words, "Hitler alive has more weight than all the troops at our disposal". His plan was to entice Hitler into some action that would provoke a gun battle in which the F�hrer would be killed. At first Oster refused to go along with murdering Hitler, but Heinz's premise that a live Hitler was too dangerous a force to permit the establishment of a stable government in Germany was persuasive enough to win him over. They agreed, however, that no senior officer, not even Witzleben, was to know of their decision to kill Hitler.
By 15 September 15, Heinz's assault squad was poised for action. They were secreted at the Berlin safe houses maintained by the Abwehr. Throughout Berlin and the surrounding suburbs military officers, police officials, and civilians, all members of the conspiracy to overthrow the Nazi regime, waited tensely for the word to begin. They all felt certain of three facts. First, that Hitler would issue the order to attack Czechoslovakia; second, that Britain and France would declare war on Germany, or at least rattle enough sabers to make it clear that they were about to declare war; and third, that the coup would succeed in deposing the Nazis and the war would be prevented. What they did not expect was the willingness of Neville Chamberlain to throw Czech independence to the wolves and allow Hitler to do as he pleased.
Then the unthinkable happened. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain decided to confer with Hitler personally. On 14 September, Chamberlain announced in the House of Commons that he would meet with the Reich Chancellor the following day.
In Britain the forces for appeasement mobilized to gather public support for Chamberlain's peace plan of giving Hitler what he wanted. Chamberlain's Air Minister, Sir Kingsley Wood, doctored a report from the Air Staff estimating that Germany's entire bomber force was under fifteen hundred planes, with less than one-third of them capable of being a threat to Britain in case of war. The altered report, which was leaked to the press, said that Germany was capable of sending fifteen hundred bombers against Britain, causing a half a million casualties in three weeks. The British public was painted a picture of skies darkened by masses of German bombers turning London and other major cities into infernos.
At the final Munich meeting on 28 September Hitler renounced his plans to destroy Czechoslovakia. France and Britain allowed him to intervene in Czechoslovakia by occupying the Sudetenland with German troops. The threat of war was averted. So, too, was the threat to Hitler's life that had been mounted by the coup's assault squad hidden in buildings all around the Chancellory. The assault squad was dispersed and their weapons returned to the Abwehr warehouse.
Everyone who knew of the planned coup recognized that the regular conscript troops would probably refuse to obey orders to arrest Hitler after such a great victory. Nevile Henderson, the Germanophile British ambassador, wrote to Lord Halifax, "by keeping the peace, we have saved Hitler and his regime".
The full import of the Munich debacle did not become entirely clear until after the war. At the Nuremberg trials, Marshal Keitel was asked whether Hitler would have attacked Czechoslovakia had France and Britain taken a stronger stand behind the Czechs. Wilhelm Keitel, who served Hitler faithfully throughout the war, answered, "Certainly not. We were not strong enough militarily".
American historian William Shirer, in his "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" (1960), took the view that although Hitler was not bluffing about his intention to invade, Czechoslovakia would have been able to offer significant resistance. Shirer believed that Britain and France had sufficient air defences to avoid serious bombing of London and Paris and would have been able to pursue a rapid and successful war against Germany. He quotes Churchill as saying the Munich agreement meant that "Britain and France were in a much worse position compared to Hitler's Germany". After Adolf Hitler personally inspected the Czech fortifications, he privately said to Josef G�bbels, "we would have shed a lot of blood" and that it was fortunate that there had been no fighting. [Josef G�bbels diary, 2 October 1938]
Hitler's bloodless victory in Munich disheartened the resistance. Never before had Hitler's popularity been higher than when the Sudetenland was annexed to the Reich. Some of those who took part in the planned coup would never again consider such activities favorably. They felt betrayed by the Allies' spineless capitulation to Hitler's blackmail.
Others remained dedicated to the cause of overthrowing Hitler: men like General Witzleben, General Beck, Lieutenant Colonel Oster, Gisevius, Schulenburg, and Major Heinz, joined by new resistance members, they regrouped to prepare for a renewed opportunity.
Also active in 1938 had been a group of would-be assassins gathered together by Dr. Wilhelm Abegg, a former Prussian state secretary. Abegg's plan was to build a compact bomb small enough to be concealed inside the clothing of an assassin yet powerful enough to cause widespread damage when it exploded. Abegg sought to eliminate as many Nazi leaders as possible along with Hitler.
Abegg devised an imaginative scheme to accost Hitler and the other Nazis with a deception that just might have worked. He formed a team of ten assassins, all former Prussian police officers who had served time in Nazi concentration camps and who had been ransomed by Abegg. The Prussians were to be dressed in stolen uniforms of Italian army courier officers. Each man was assigned a target whom he would approach, presumably with an important message from the Italian government. The man assigned to Hitler was to blow himself up along with his target, while the others were to shoot their assigned targets at the same time.
Abegg's plan was never activated because he had difficulty constructing a suitable bomb. After learning through contacts in the military that high-ranking officers were planning a coup against Hitler, he decided to step aside and leave Hitler's assassination to the generals. He believed they could carry it out much more effectively than he could.
During the period between the signing of the Munich accord and the invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, the resistance movement, which had been less an organized movement and more a disjointed series of anti-Nazi or anti-war groups and individuals who had managed against all odds to unite in the 1938 coup, suffered dismemberment. Military officers were moved to new postings, and government officials, especially those in the Foreign Ministry, were transferred to new locations throughout the Reich.
General Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord 1939, September
The coming of war, followed two days later by declarations of war against Germany by Great Britain and France, generated a flurry of activity among officers and others who felt that Germany was doomed unless Hitler was dead. In one instance, Albrecht von Kessel and Adam von Trott zu Solz, both members of Weizs�cker's Foreign Ministry circle, proposed to Lieutenant General Alexander von Falkenhausen that he invite Hitler to inspect the fortifications on the Bohemian border. Once there, Hitler's schedule would include a tour of a bunker where the general or a close aide would detonate a live grenade. The scheme was a bit bizarre, and Falkenhausen, although a coup sympathizer, did not think the plan was workable. He never sent the invitation.
Hitler did receive another invitation, however. This one was from Colonel General Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord, an independent-minded and tough officer who despised Hitler and the Nazis. Having retired as Commander-in-Chief of the army in 1933, he was recalled during the mobilization for the Polish invasion and appointed commander of Army Detachment A on the Lower Rhine. Although frustrated because his headquarters was in Cologne, far from Hitler, Hammerstein-Equord began plotting ways to kill Hitler as soon as he arrived at his command.
Since it was impossible for him to travel to Berlin without express permission, Hammerstein-Equord decided to invite Hitler to visit him. His persuasion for this visit was that the Allies would hear about Hitler inspecting the western defenses, and this would encourage their belief that Germany's western frontier was well defended. Once he lured Hitler within his reach, he would "render him harmless once and for all." Confidants who knew of his intention to kill Hitler did not doubt that this general, known as the "man of iron nerve," could do it if Hitler accepted his invitation.
Adolf Hitler was acutely aware of General Hammerstein-Equord's sentiments toward the Nazi Party, and he had no wish to jeopardize his safety by placing himself within the general's reach. He declined to visit Cologne. Shortly afterward, Hammerstein-Equord was transferred to Silesia and then quickly placed into permanent retirement. Before he died in April 1943, he confided to a friend his disappointment at the generals' placid submission to Hitler's authority, and how most refused to support the movement to overthrow the Nazis. "These fellows," he said, "make me, an old soldier, an anti-militarist." It is unfortunate that in 1938, when the case for action against Hitler became apparent, Hammerstein-Equord had no troops under his command and could not carry out an earlier pledge to kill Hitler if he were given troops.
Although both Britain and France declared war on Germany after the invasion of Poland, the Allies took no direct military action against Germany. This absence of real war, which later became known as the "phony war," gave many Germans hope of escaping another war of the magnitude of the 1914 to 1918 conflict. The absence of actual fighting between the Allies and Germany gave rise to the premise that a compromise could be found to re-establish peace.
All possibility for a peaceful solution vanished on September 27, 1939, when the F�hrer told the officers commanding the army, air force, and navy that he was determined to "destroy the enemy." He would, he told them, attack France and Great Britain. The neutrality of Belgium and Holland would be swept aside as German forces overran the French in their own country, leaving Great Britain to carry on alone.
As word spread of Hitler's intention to start a shooting war with the Western Allies, the resistance was given a new life and a new cause, to save the peace by preventing a war almost every competent observer knew would ultimately mean the destruction of Germany. Many of the men now proposing to depose the dictator had also been involved in the aborted coup of September 1938. Again they risked the possibility their actions might result in a civil war between their camp and the masses of new army recruits and the civilian population, most of whom viewed Hitler as a modern Caesar. In addition, what weighed heaviest on General Halder's mind was the fact that Germany was now officially at war with Great Britain and France. He did not want a coup attempt to cause turmoil within Germany that the Allies could exploit by invading the country during the transition from one government to another.
It is significant that the men who planned the overthrow and killing of Hitler did so because they were German patriots. While they had no quarrel with many of Hitler's earlier policies, especially reclaiming territory taken from Germany by the treaties following World War I, they did not want to acquire the land by force. Many believed that despite their just cause, force would lead to retaliation against Germany and finally to another war, perhaps another World War.
Warsaw 1939, October 5
Location: crossing Aleje Jerozolimskie - Nowy Swiat
The Polish army wanted to blow up Hitlers car, when it crossed the (now called) Square Charles de Gaulles. A human error prevetend the bomb to explode.
Himmler's Bomb Plot 1939, November 8
Location: B�rgerbr�ukeller, M�nchen
Heinrich Himmler was undeniably Adolf Hitler's most sadistic henchman, an epitaph befitting the abominable crimes he committed against humanity. When this unimposing, pudgy little man wearing pince-nez spectacles bit open a cyanide capsule lodged between two teeth on the right side of his mouth during an examination by a British army doctor on 23 May 1945, he took many secrets with him. The most ominous was his role in a bombing that barely missed killing Hitler in 1939.
Hitler customarily participated at the annual meeting in Munich commemorating the failed putsch of November 8-9, 1923. The meeting, held in a large hall of the B�rgerbr�ukeller, was always well attended by the "Old Fighters" who had participated in Hitler's first attempt to seize power.
The SS routinely began guarding closely any facility in which the F�hrer was scheduled to appear at least several days before his arrival. This tight advance security was calculated to preclude the possibility of a political antagonist placing a bomb in the building set to explode during Hitler's visit. The "Old Fighters" convention was no exception to this practice. Several days before the meeting, crack SS guards placed the hall under maximum security.
Despite stringent security precautions, a thirty-six-year-old artisan named Georg Elser who was both a trained carpenter and master electrician unaccountably managed to slip undetected into the vast beer hall over a span of several nights just before the meeting. Elser had only recently been discharged from the concentration camp at Dachau where he was serving an indeterminate sentence for his activities as a member of a communist organization, the Red Front Fighters League.
Each night Elser worked quietly at his deadly task alone in the darkened hall. A diminutive man with a pale complexion and long dark hair offset by bright darting eyes, Elser bent to his work preparing the instrument for Adolf Hitler's demise with a special dedication.
Directly behind the platform from which Hitler traditionally delivered his speech was a pillar that was a main support for the roof. Dark wood paneling encased the support column. Elser cut an opening into the paneling allowing him entree to a narrow space between the panel and the support. The opening was sufficiently wide to permit him access to the space, yet small enough to escape notice by a casual observer. He fashioned a tiny door from a matching piece of paneling to disguise the opening. Elser's only fear was that a close examination of the pillar would expose his miniature door.
Incredibly, Elser managed to conceal himself inside the hall, undetected, on thirty-five separate occasions. As the date for Hitler's speech drew near, Elser worked feverishly to complete the preparations for his bomb.
As part of his death plot he had taken a job at a quarry specifically to enable him to steal Donarit, an explosive with the properties he required. He added to the Donarit some black powder and the explosive removed from a stolen 75-millimeter shell. The final touch was two Westminster clocks synchronized to pinpoint the timing of the explosion.
Because the F�hrer was in the midst of the invasion of Poland, and because Germany was technically at war with both France and Britain, the meeting organizers planned a scaled down program for the 1939 ceremonies. At first Hitler decided to forego his customary speech and delegate his second in command, Rudolf Hess, to broadcast a nationwide radio address commemorating the anniversary. At the eleventh hour Hitler changed his mind. He would attend the ceremonies and deliver the speech in person.
On November 8 Hitler flew to Munich, but in deference to the foggy November weather he ordered that his personal train meet him there for the return trip. To avoid disrupting the normal train traffic, Hitler's train was scheduled to leave the Munich station at 9:31 P.M. that evening. To meet this departure time he would have to leave the beer hall no later than 9:10 P.M. Hitler's previous habit at these gatherings was to begin his speech at 8:30 P.M., speak for about one hour, and then spend approximately thirty minutes sipping weak beer and chatting with the rank and file members who had supported him from the early years.
When the F�hrer arrived, the large hall, gaily decorated with flags and banners, was packed with three thousand celebrants. The Blood Banner, the Nazi flag that had been used on the day of the putsch, was in its place of honor, and the party luminaries who were attending had taken their seats. Most prominent among them were Heinrich Himmler, Josef G�bbels, Hans Frank, and Alfred Rosenberg.
The crowd rose to its feet and cheered when Hitler strode in at 8:00 P.M. He waved and smiled broadly. Hitler stepped to the platform and waited the better part of ten minutes, allowing the ovation to die down before beginning his speech. When the room was finally quiet he launched into a diatribe against Great Britain that lasted nearly one hour.
Predictably, Hitler accused Britain of fighting in World War I and then, just a month earlier, declaring war on Germany again purely for her own imperialist motives. He denounced the British claim that they were fighting for liberty and justice, and he mockingly shouted that God had rewarded Britain's good deeds with 480 million people around the world to dominate. Again and again his speech was interrupted by wild cheering.
Seated in the front row was a nervous Max W�nsche, the F�hrer's young military aide, who kept checking his watch. He feared Hitler's speech would run too long and he would miss the train. W�nsche had given the train crew strict orders to leave the station precisely at 9:31 P.M., as Hitler had instructed. While a backup train would arrive a short time later as a security precaution, the young officer did not relish the prospect of waiting around the empty station for the alternate train while the F�hrer's temper rose.
As Hitler continued his attack on Great Britain, only a few feet behind him Georg Elser's two Westminster clocks quietly ticked away the minutes.
Hitler laughed at the British claim that they were fighting for civilization, and he questioned whether the civilization for which they fought was to be found in the mining districts of Newcastle or the urban slums of London. Meanwhile, the Westminster clocks ticked off their inexorable countdown to destruction.
At seven minutes after nine Hitler ended his speech. Joined by Himmler, G�bbels, and his personal bodyguard, he promptly left the hall amid the deafening cheers of his supporters. Hitler's party boarded a fleet of waiting automobiles and sped directly to the railroad station. W�nsche was enormously relieved; the convoy would arrive in time to depart on the first train.
Thirteen minutes after leaving the hall, as the entourage proceeded through the city toward the station, a loud explosion was heard coming from the direction of the hall. Everyone turned instinctively to the rear window of their cars, but they were too far from the explosion to see what had caused the blast. By the time they arrived at the station the night was filled with the sounds of police and ambulance sirens and the ringing of fire bells.
Minutes before Hitler's train left the station, Eva Braun and her close friend, Herta Schneider, were welcomed aboard. As the train gathered speed through the darkness, the privileged passengers partied, with Hitler the only teetotaller aboard. When the train arrived in Nuremberg, G�bbels got off and entered the stationmaster's office to send several messages and receive the latest dispatches.
The propaganda chief returned pale and obviously shaken. In a trembling voice he told Hitler of the bombing of the B�rgerbr�ukeller. At first Hitler thought G�bbels was joking, but when he realized it was true he too turned pale and sat quietly for a few minutes to regain his composure. As the color returned to his face he spoke with controlled emotion. He attributed his timely exit from the hall only minutes before the explosion to a benevolent Providence and insisted it was a sure sign he was destined to reach his goal.
Hitler spoke by telephone with SS General von Eberstein, the Munich police chief (who had been flatly forbidden to encroach on this strictly Party preserve with regular police security measures), and consoled the anguished SS general: Don't worry-it was not your fault. The casualties are regrettable, but all's well that ends well." By 7 A.M. the news was that six people had been killed (the death toll later rose to eight) and over sixty injured.
- David Irving, "Hitler's War"
Hitler then commanded his personal adjutant, Julius Schaub, to ensure that everything possible would be done for the victims of the explosion.
Georg Elser's bomb caused a section of the B�rgerbr�ukeller's roof to collapse on the Nazi Party gathering. Eight people died and sixty-three were injured. Eva Braun's father was among the injured. The ensuing peculiar series of events defies logic.
Ever wary of the omnipresent British Intelligence, Hitler quickly concluded that two British agents operating in Holland were responsible for the bombing. The two agents, Major R. H. Stevens and Captain S. Payne-Best, were negotiating with a man they believed to be a member of an anti-Nazi conspiracy in the German High Command. The man was actually an SS double agent.
Late that night Himmler telephoned the agent, SS Major Walter Schellenberg, in Venlo, a hamlet just across the Dutch border. He instructed Schellenberg to break off negotiations with the two British officers, kidnap them, and bring them into Germany. Schellenberg was hesitant at first, but Himmler made it clear the order came directly from Hitler.
The following day Schellenberg waited at a cafe in Venlo for his scheduled meeting with Stevens, Payne-Best, and a Dutch military intelligence officer, Lieutenant Klop. When the Buick carrying the three arrived at the cafe at precisely 4:00 P.M., the man known to them as Major Sch�mmel was seated on the cafe terrace casually sipping an aperitif. Suspecting nothing, the trio stepped from the car and immediately came under deadly fire from a crack squad of SS Security Service men commanded by the notorious Alfred Helmut Naujocks.
Naujocks had been responsible for the staged attack on a German radio station in Gleiwitz, using prison camp inmates dressed in stolen Polish army uniforms. The incident had provided Hitler with an excuse for attacking Poland. A man of useful SS talents, Naujocks later disguised German soldiers as Dutch and Belgian border guards to prepare for the German invasion of those countries in May 1940.
In the gunfight that erupted behind the Venlo cafe, Lieutenant Klop was mortally wounded and both British officers taken prisoner. The SS squad then towed the disabled Buick across the frontier, less than two hundred feet away.
On the same day, Georg Elser was arrested near the town of Constance as he attempted, along with thousands of others, to flee into Switzerland. A search uncovered a large amount of incriminating evidence, including an unused postcard from the B�rgerbr�ukeller, drawings of detonators and shells, parts of a detonator, his old membership card in the Red Front Fighters League, and a substantial sum of money in Swiss and German currency.
The kidnapping of Stevens and Payne-Best proved futile. Intense questioning of the two men failed to produce the slightest shred of evidence that they were even remotely connected to the Munich bombing. Elser, however, confessed to setting the bomb but refused to implicate anyone else. He told his interrogators that he had acted alone and had told no one of his scheme to kill Hitler. When they demanded to know why he wanted to kill the F�hrer, Elser said he thought it was the only way to prevent Germany from going to war.
Despite repeated beatings and torture by Gestapo agents, Georg Elser insisted he had acted alone. Meanwhile, Hitler publicized the bombing as an "English plot." He wisely recognized the propaganda value of the assassination attempt, and he shrewdly used it to incite German public resentment against Great Britain. On November 21, Hitler declared he had incontrovertible proof that the British Secret Service was behind the bombing and that two British agents had been arrested near the Dutch border.
Finally, in the official explanation of the conspiracy to kill him, Hitler strung together every faction or individual that had ever opposed him. Elser was labeled a communist activist (to which there was some truth) who had been persuaded to become a British agent by Hitler's old National Socialist nemesis, Otto Strasser. The British were accused of supplying Elser with the materials to construct the bomb and promising him safe passage to sanctuary in Switzerland after the assassination.
In a Gestapo-produced film, Georg Elser actually demonstrated how he had manufactured the bomb that devastated the B�rgerbr�ukeller meeting hall, and he explained how he had planted it behind the wood paneling covering the support pillar. When Himmler brought the film and the Gestapo report to the F�hrer, he refused to view the movie. Hitler categorically denounced the conclusion, which Himmler supported, that Elser had acted alone. Hitler rejected the report and attacked Himmler personally for failing to expose the conspiracy.
Himmler's advocacy of the conclusion that Elser acted alone in spite of his knowledge that Hitler believed the bomber was part of a conspiracy -- and wanted the Gestapo investigation to indicate so -- is out of character for a man whose reputation was one of total subservience to the F�hrer's wishes. The logical position was for him to agree with Hitler and place the blame on the two British intelligence officers whom Schellenberg had kidnapped. It was completely unlike Himmler, and without explanation, to take the position he did, unless he was withholding information about the bombing from Hitler.
Major Stevens and Captain Payne-Best spent five years in various concentration camps but managed to survive the war. Shuttled from camp to camp, the two were eventually confined at Niederdorf in South Tyrol. There American forces liberated them on 28 April 1945. Several survivors of plots to kill Hitler on 20 July 1944, were rescued at the same time.
Himmler rewarded Schellenberg for his kidnapping of the two British officers by promoting him to major-general in the SS. He soon became a specialist in foreign espionage, and in early 1940 he furnished Hitler with a report that claimed to prove the existence of close ties between British military intelligence and Dutch military intelligence agencies. Hitler cited that report as part of his justification for invading Holland, which was a neutral country.
Georg Elser's punishment for attempting to kill Hitler was most unusual. It raises provocative questions about exactly who was actually behind the B�rgerbr�ukeller bombing. Dictators such as Hitler and Stalin relish a prominent, well publicized trial of their enemies, real or imagined. It allows them to convince the public that evil men and women exist who plot against their authority, thereby justifying the need for draconian security measures. Holding these show trial victims up as examples, even if the evidence is fabricated by the prosecution, serves as a powerful deterrent to other potential opponents. There was ample precedence to expect that the Nazis would parade the Munich bomber before the public in a show trial, presenting all manner of evidence to implicate Hitler's personal and public enemies, especially the British. Incredibly, no such trial ever took place. Not until after the war was lost did Elser pay with his life for the attempted assassination.
Instead of a trial and public execution, Georg Elser was interned as a prisoner with special privileges by Himmler's SS. In a succession of concentration camps he was treated decidedly better than other inmates. He was referred to as a "special prisoner" known under the code name "Eller." In his biography of Adolf Hitler, Robert Payne described Elser as a prisoner who was to be feared or at least respected because he possessed important state secrets.
Ironically, although Elser did not know Stevens and Payne-Best, who were both alleged by the Nazis to be his accomplices, he met them in prison. At Sachsenhausen Elser met Payne-Best, whom he learned the Nazis wanted to implicate in the bombing. Elser told the Briton a fascinating story about how he had come to plant the bomb.
According to Elser, he was arrested as a communist activist in Munich during the summer of 1939 and sent to Dachau for re-education training. One day during his stay at Dachau he was summoned to the commandant's office, where he was questioned about his carpentry and electrical skills. His interrogators confided to him that several high-ranking Party officials were suspected of plotting to kill Hitler, but despite sufficient evidence the Gestapo was reluctant to arrest them because of the chaos it would cause in the upper echelons of government while the country was at war. Elser was asked if he would build and plant a bomb timed to explode shortly after Hitler completed his speech at the annual Munich celebration. In return for his co-operation he would be released from the camp, given a large sum of money, and allowed to escape to Switzerland.
Elser accepted the offer. After he fulfilled his part, he was arrested in a gross breach of the agreement. Following his arrest he was told it was a mistake because several overzealous border guards had not been informed of the plan. While he was held in custody, Gestapo agents coached him in testimony he was to deliver implicating both Stevens and Payne-Best in the bombing. Unaccountably, the expected trial never took place.
Later, after he was transferred from Sachsenhausen to Dachau, Elser related essentially the same story he had told Payne-Best to a noted Dachau inmate, the prominent anti-Nazi pastor, Reverend Martin Niem�ller.
Georg Elser finally paid for his crime four and one-half years later, just weeks before the end of the war. In the declining months of the Third Reich, many opponents of the regime being held in concentration camps and prisons were slaughtered by the Nazis. Elser's death was made to look as if it happened during an Allied bombing raid.
Among the documents uncovered after the war was a letter from Gestapo chief Heinrich M�ller to the commandant of Dachau, SS-Obersturmbannf�hrer Eduard Weiter, instructing him to kill Elser during the next air raid. M�ller even told Weiter the exact words to use when announcing Elser's death. On 16 April 1945, Weiter announced that Georg Elser had been mortally wounded during an Allied bombing raid.
Unfortunately for historical accuracy, the elusive answer to the question of who was actually behind the bombing of the Munich beer hall will probably never be resolved. Three viable possibilities exist: (1) Himmler arranged the bombing with Hitler's approval to stir up anti-British hatred among the German population; (2) Himmler arranged the bombing, without Hitler's knowledge, for whatever personal reason he may have had; and (3) Elser accomplished the entire task by himself.
Taking the last first, practically no one with any understanding of the workings of Nazi Germany could conclude that Georg Elser, a man of limited intelligence, could possibly have succeeded in placing the bomb undetected by security agents. Most historians agree that Himmler, for some unclear motive, planned the entire incident. At the time of the bombing, William L. Shirer wrote in his diary the phrase, "smells of another Reichstag fire". Robert Payne concluded that Elser had been Himmler's tool.
If in fact Shirer and Payne are correct and Himmler actually did arrange the bombing, an important new question requires an answer. Was the bomb planted with Adolf Hitler's knowledge and approval? This question may be easy to answer by looking at the political result of the explosion. Hitler used the attempt on his life to arouse German resentment against Britain. He accused the British of trying to win the war by killing him. His strategy worked. Hitler's wild, unsupported accusations radically increased anti-British feelings among the German population.
It is difficult, though, to imagine Adolf Hitler allowing Himmler or anyone else to plant a time bomb just a few feet away from where he stood. It is even more difficult to imagine Hitler permitting a known communist and enemy to plant the bomb. Without question, if the bomb had exploded while Hitler was speaking, he would have died. It is hard to believe that even Hitler would take such a chance with his life merely for propaganda reasons. Surely the same thing could have been accomplished by the arrest of known British agents, such as Stevens and Payne-Best, and by prosecuting them before a Nazi court on fabricated charges using bribed or coerced witnesses to testify that the two had planned to kill Hitler. The effect might have been less spectacular than a bomb that killed eight people, but the result would have probably been no less effective in its impact on the public's perception. It is unlikely that Hitler would actually risk his life to achieve such a questionable propaganda advantage.
When all the facts are assembled, it seems reasonable to assume that Heinrich Himmler plotted the bombing. If, as is likely, Hitler knew nothing of the plan in advance, it is clearly possible that Himmler, an ambitious schemer who longed for great military power (as evidenced by his ultimately building the SS into a private army of thirty-five divisions), could have contrived to kill Hitler so he could replace him as Germany's triumphant head of state just as the Third Reich stood on the verge of military conquest.
Georg Elser has been the subject of rumours and various conspiracy theories since the B�rgerbr�ukeller bombing. After the war, Protestant pastor and theologian Martin Niem�ller, also in custody in the 'Bunker' at Sachsenhausen, gave credence to the rumour that Elser had been a member of the SS and that the whole assassination attempt had been staged by the Nazis to portray Hitler as being protected by Providence.
In 1948 Allen Welsh Dulles, the future Director of Central Intelligence (de facto head of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency) possibly summed up the full range of conspiracy theories when he wrote:
"On 8 November a bomb exploded in B�rgerbr�ukeller in Munich shortly after Hitler had given his annual speech on the anniversary of the beer hall putsch of 1923 and after he had left the building. This event still remains unresolved.
"Some evidence suggests that the infernal machine was exploded with the knowledge of Hitler and Himmler in order to consolidate the German sense of community, or, as in the case of the Reichstag fire, to give rise to a new wave of terror. I heard there were photographs showing a high-ranking SS officer standing next to Hitler with a watch in hand, to take care that the leaders escaped in time. Others claim the attack was the work of communists acting independently and without the knowledge of other anti-Nazi groups. A new report presents the plot as the attempted assassination of an illegal socialist group".
Julius Schaub, who was responsible for seeing to it that his chief reached the railroad station on time, nervously passed him cards on which he had scrawled increasingly urgent admonitions: "Ten minutes!" then "Five!" and finally a peremptory "Stop!"-a method he had previously had to use to remind his F�hrer, who never used a watch, of the passage of mortal time. "Party members, comrades of our National Socialist movement, our German people, and above all our victorious Wehrmacht: Siegheil !" Hitler concluded, and stepped into the midst of the Party officials who thronged forward. A harassed Julius Schaub managed to shepherd the F�hrer out of the hall at twelve minutes past nine. The express was due to leave from the main railway station in nineteen minutes.
- David Irving, "Hitler's War"
In 1969 historical research by Anton Hoch based on "The Gestapo Protokoll" (interrogation report) dated 19�23 November 1939, found that Elser had acted alone and there was no evidence to involve the Nazi regime or any outside group in the assassination attempt.
Coup 1939, November
Location: unknown
By late October 1939, General Halder was surrounded by coup conspirators. His deputy and senior quartermaster of the General Staff, General Karl Heinrich von St�lpnagel, was an active participant in urging Halder to begin planning for a new coup attempt to avoid a shooting war with the Allies. Other officers of colonel and lower rank rallied behind St�lpnagel, including one, Lieutenant Colonel Henning von Tresckow, who would eventually head a future conspiracy to kill Hitler.
Finally, events began to take shape when Hitler announced that his attack on the neutral countries would take place between November 15 and 20. The coup planned for 1939 was not as well organized or armed as the coup planned in 1938, but it still had a chance to succeed if Halder could gather the courage to give the command. Halder was already sensitive about his role in the impending coup. He remembered the June 1934 massacre Hitler had perpetrated on the SA, and he surmised that Hitler had learned of their plans and intended to do the same to the OKH. He envisioned army headquarters surrounded by armed SS groups, the building searched by Gestapo agents, and possibly the members of the General Staff murdered like R�hm and his associates. This fantasy drove Halder to desperate measures, since not enough armed guards were posted at OKH headquarters to withstand an assault by the SS.
Halder proposed to Admiral Canaris he would be ready to act if the Abweher chief would take the responsibility of killing Hitler. The Admiral exploded in anger and replied that Halder should "shoulder the responsibility in a clear-cut fashion."
The men who had spent tense hours anxiously waiting for the coup to begin heard nothing from Halder. His promised order never came, and they now sat around in small groups at OKH and Abwehr wondering what to do next. Although they were clear about their goals, without a leader they could not order out the troops necessary for the coup.
Hitler began a new series of postponements of the offensive, first to November 19, then November 22, then December 3. His indecision continued until May 1940, when the attack was finally launched. During this time people like Oster, Gisevius, Groscurth, Canaris, and the other hard line plotters tried unsuccessfully to persuade Halder to set the coup in motion before the shooting began. As each new date was fixed, the coup leaders reacted with increased tension not unlike the anticipation felt by soldiers who, knowing an attack is about to start, wait tensely for the final order to begin. After each emotional high of preparation there was a letdown in frustration as Hitler once again postponed the attack. Further, many resistance members saw this interval as their last opportunity to elicit from the Allies an agreement to refrain from attacking Germany while a coup was in process. They expected that after the violation of neutral countries and the spilling of French and British blood, the Allies would be in no mood to deal with any Germans, Nazi or not.
The irresolute behavior of top army leaders, which led to the failure of the two planned coups, the first in 1938 and the second in 1939, convinced most of the conspirators that an elaborately organized coup might not be the best way to topple Hitler. What was required was to present the leading generals with a fait accompli, Hitler's death. From now until 1944, elaborate coup plans took a back seat to efforts by individuals and small groups to assassinate Hitler.
Group Oster 1939, November
Location: Reichskanzlei
Erich Kordt of the Foreign Ministry decided to take an action that he hoped would free the generals from their oath of allegiance to Hitler. He was one of the few conspirators who had access to the F�hrer, although it was limited to Hitler's anteroom. He was well known in the Chancellory and could enter the anteroom with impunity. Now his visits became more frequent and his behavior more conspicuous, a tactic calculated to ensure that all the guards got to recognize him as a routine visitor. Oster promised to furnish explosives from the Abwehr supply for Kordt's use. His plan was simple. When Hitler emerged from his inner office and entered the anteroom (as was his practice either to give instructions to an aide or to welcome his next appointment), Kordt would approach him, grab him tightly, and explode the bomb, which would kill both men.
The opportunity never materialized because the Gestapo had assumed control of all explosives in the Reich, including those in the Abwehr arsenal. Gestapo control meant that the distribution of explosives was strictly limited to those who could demonstrate an approved need, which few conspirators could. This answers the many critics who ask, "Why didn't someone blow Hitler up during a meeting, or simply shoot him?" It was almost impossible to enter the F�hrer's presence without being searched, and carrying a weapon was forbidden. Kordt would certainly have been arrested if he was discovered with his pistol in Hitler's presence.
Erich Kordt (10 December 1903 � 11 November 1969), was a German diplomat who was involved in the German Resistance to the regime of Adolf Hitler.
A convinced Anglophile, Kordt spoke perfect English after gaining a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University. He joined the German Foreign Office in 1928, and was posted to Geneva and Bern in Switzerland. He then served as Legationsrat (counsellor) in the London Embassy under Ambassdor Joachim von Ribbentrop, for whom he developed both a personal dislike and a professional disdain. Despite this, he became a member of the Nazi Party in November 1937, and in February 1938, when Ribbentrop became Foreign Minister, he was appointed head of the Foreign Office's "Ministerial Bureau".
Both Erich Kordt and his brother, Theodor, played a part in the Oster Conspiracy of 1938, which was a proposed plan to assassinate Adolf Hitler if Germany went to war with Czechoslovakia over the Sudetenland.
Theodor Kordt, who acted as Charg� d'Affaires at the London embassy, was considered a vital contact with the British on whom the success of the plot depended; the conspirators needed strong British opposition to Hitler's seizure of the Sudetenland. Erich used his brother as an envoy to urge the British government to stand up to Hitler over the Czechoslovakia crisis, in the hope that Army officers would stage a coup against Hitler.
However, in the event, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, apprehensive of the possibility of war, negotiated interminably with Hitler and eventually conceded to him. This destroyed any chance of the plot succeeding since Hitler was then seen in Germany as the "greatest statesman of all times at the moment of his greatest triumph".
In June 1939, Kordt went to London to warn Robert Vansittart, the diplomatic advisor to the British government, of the secret negotiations between Germany and the Soviet Union which were to lead to the Nazi-Soviet Pact. He was dismayed that all approaches made by the German resistance movement within the German Foreign Office were ignored by the British.
In April 1941, Kordt was posted to Tokyo as German embassy First Secretary and later to Nanking as German Consul, where he worked as an agent for the Soviet spy Richard Sorge until 1944. He narrowly avoided being killed by a Japanese hitman when Japanese Intelligence discovered his espionage activities.
Postwar
In June 1948, at the Nuremberg Trials, Kordt testified on behalf of Ernst von Weizs�cker, State Secretary of the Foreign Ministry of Nazi Germany, and later German ambassador to the Vatican. Weizs�cker was on trial for his role in Hitler's aggressive foreign policy. Partly as a result of Kordt's testimony, Weizs�cker was acquitted. This aroused the hostility of Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, who blocked Kordt's return to a career at the Foreign Office. From 1951, Kordt was a professor of international law at the University of Cologne.
NKVD attack 1939
Location: Osteria Bavaria, M�nchen
English agents of the Russian NKVD investigated Hitlers habits in order to kill him. They plan to blow Hitler up in the restaurant Osteria Bavaria. When Germeny reached an agreement with Russia the plans get cancelled.
Paris 1940, July 27
Location: Champs-Elys�es
All chance of organizing a coup ended, at least temporarily, on 19 May 1940, when German panzers stormed into Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, and France with startling success. In a stunning defeat, France signed an armistice on June 22 conceding to Germany the right to occupy half the country. The Low Countries had capitulated within days of the attack.
Decisive victory boosted Hitler's stature with the German people to even greater levels, while the generals who predicted disaster looked patently foolish. The resistance members now faced the prospect of having no support from troop commanders. Even General, now Field Marshal, Witzleben, a firebrand of anti-Hitlerism, said he had abandoned all hope of a coup because Hitler was far too popular with the people. He said the younger army officers and men would not support a coup because they could see no reason why the man who had restored Germany's national pride and regained the territory taken from her in 1918 should be replaced by force.
With plans for a coup suspended indefinitely, the more virulent anti-Nazis now turned to the remaining alternative, a simple assassination of Hitler. If it succeeded, they hoped the army would act to prevent G�bbels, Himmler, or G�ring from taking power. Much like the earlier attempts on Hitler's life by political opponents, assassination plots developed by military officers usually involved a tight circle of conspirators and placed the plotters in grave danger.
At this point in the war, as Hitler began preparations to invade the Soviet Union, virtually every ranking member of the conspiracy against him -- including its leaders, General Beck -- was reconciled to the inescapable truth that arresting and imprisoning Hitler was no longer a viable option. The Nazi organizations, especially the SS, had grown too large and powerful and would not abdicate their privileges without a struggle, which would result in a civil war. This was especially true if Hitler remained alive and his supporters thought there was a chance they could free him. Except for a small few whose religious beliefs forbade tyrannicide, everyone agreed with Major Wilhelm Heinz, who had commanded the assault squad designated to shoot Hitler in the 1938 coup: "The Living Hitler must die".
During the next four years no fewer than twelve bona fide attempts to kill Hitler were made by military officers. Many took their lead from General Hammerstein's 1939 strategy and sought to induce the F�hrer to visit an army field headquarters.
The first of these assassination intrigues was scheduled soon after the French signed the armistice. Plans were immediately made for a victory parade in Paris, which everyone expected the F�hrer to review. The parade was set for July 27, and a flood of troops were moved toward the former French capital to take part in the celebration.
In Paris, two men planned Hitler's death. They were Lieutenant Fritz-Dietlof Graf von der Schulenburg and Dr. Eugen Gerstenmaier. Schulenburg was a reserve officer who, as vice president of the Berlin police, had been an active participant in earlier attempted coups in Berlin. He was called to active duty in May 1940. Gerstenmaier was an official of the Evangelical Church who worked in the Information Division of the Foreign Ministry. The two had talked earlier in Berlin of organizing a small officer's cadre to arrest Hitler, but nothing came of it. Now they decided to carry out their mission to unseat the Nazis by killing the Party leader, Adolf Hitler. The coming victory parade in Paris provided the opportunity they needed. Their plan called for shooting Hitler while he stood in the reviewing stand along the parade route.
On July 20 Hitler cancelled the parade. He quietly slipped unannounced into Paris in the early morning hours of July 23 and visited several places of personal interest, including Napoleon's tomb, the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, and the Palace of Justice. Just as discreetly he left the city, his would-be assassins unaware of his brief sojourn there.
Paris 1941, May 21
Location: unknown
In May 1941, a parade of German troops was again scheduled for Paris. German army and SS divisions were assembled and a reviewing stand for Hitler and other dignitaries was constructed near the Place de la Concorde for the parade on the Champs-Elys�es.
A plan to kill Hitler while he reviewed the parade was worked out by staff officers of Field Marshal von Witzleben's headquarters. Witzleben was Commander-in-Chief West, with headquarters outside Paris in St. Germain. The staff members and an operations officer from the Paris commander's staff were to shoot Hitler point-blank. If they failed to kill him, another officer was assigned to throw a bomb at him. The shooters were Captain Graf Schwerin von Schwanenfeld and Major Hans Alexander von Voss, both of Witzleben's staff, and Captain Graf von Waldersee of the Paris staff. Hitler frustrated his enemies once again, declining at the last minute to make the trip to Paris.
A third Paris-based attempt on Hitler's life, of which little is known, allegedly involved Witzleben's replacement as Commander-in-Chief West, Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, SS-Sturmbannf�hrer Hans-Victor von Salviati, and Major Achim Oster. The plotters again invited Hitler to visit Paris in 1942, but the wary F�hrer refused their invitation.
Most assassination plots relied on Hitler's adherence to a predetermined agenda, but the assassins were invariably thwarted by Hitler's practice of avoiding routine or established schedules in his travels. Hitler's policy was to live his life "irregularly," as he put it. "Walk, drive and travel at irregular times and unexpectedly" was his personal formula for security against assassins.
Borisov 1941, August 4
Location: Heeresgruppe Mitte
War with Russia, which began on 22 June 1941, with a threepronged German attack across Soviet borders, opened new opportunities to eliminate Hitler. Because many German field marshals and generals considered the invasion a potential disaster rivaling Napoleon's ill-fated 1812 Russian campaign, several of them flirted, although briefly, with the resistance, but some came to stay.
Major General Henning von Tresckow.was a Prussian who had served as a platoon commander during World War I, traveled internationally for a bank following the war, re-entered the army in 1924, and served in various posts, including several years on the General Staff.
Growing disgust for the Nazi war crimes enabled Tresckow to expand his resistance base. He used his position as senior operations officer on Field Marshal von Bock's staff to mold the staff into the core of a new resistance movement against Hitler. Among the dissenters who operated at Army Group Center under Tresckow's leadership were Lieutenant Fabian von Schlabrendorff, the man who had informed the British of General Hammerstein's plan to kill Hitler; Lieutenant Colonel Hans Alexander von Voss, who had planned to shoot Hitler in Paris during the planned May 1941 parade; Lieutenant Colonel Georg Schulze-Buttger; Lieutenant Colonel Berndt von Kleist, who maintained communications with the resistance in Berlin; and Colonel Rudolf-Christoph Freiherr von Gersdorff, who would later make a suicide attempt on Hitler's life.
Schlabrendorff, who survived the war and wrote his memoirs of the resistance, traveled to Berlin in October 1941 to examine the possibility of rescuing the coup with resistance leaders there. He met with von Hassell to explore the Allies' attitude toward fostering a change of government, and he was told that the German resistance could expect no help from the Allies but could doubtlessly negotiate a reasonable peace if Hitler was removed.
Tresckow first planned to assassinate Hitler in the late summer of 1941, while the Russian campaign was still going well for the Germans. Bock's troops were only two hundred miles from Moscow, which many of the generals deemed the most important target in the Soviet empire, when Hitler issued an order to divide Army Group Center's Panzer and other mobile forces in half, transferring half to Army Group North for its thrust against Leningrad, and half to Army Group South to help von Rundstedt's drive to capture Kiev, capital of Ukraine. Army Group Center would then have basically only infantry troops for its attack on Moscow.
Halder and Brauchitsch at OKH, and Bock at Army Group Center, objected strenuously to Hitler's plan -- so strenuously that the F�hrer decided to visit Army Group Center to personally deliver the order to Bock. Tresckow and Schlabrendorff welcomed this opportunity to kill Hitler and arranged, with a small group of officers, to shoot him when he entered one of their headquarters buildings.
Unfortunately, the conspirators were committed to fighting a war, and their energies were divided between pursuing combat plans and organizing the assassination. Also working against them was Hitler's obsession with the "irregular" in his actions.
The visit was scheduled several times only to be cancelled, rescheduled, then cancelled again.
Finally, in early August a fleet of cars arrived from the F�hrer Headquarters in East Prussia to await Hitler's arrival. Hitler refused to use cars supplied by the army for fear they might be booby trapped with explosives. When he finally arrived at Bock's headquarters in Borrisov, Tresckow and his fellow conspirators were overwhelmed at the amount of security people that accompanied him and the rigid security measures they imposed. The would-be assassins barely caught a glimpse of Hitler, much less an opportunity to shoot him.
Orsja 1941, November 13 (not proven and unconfirmed attack)
Location: unknown
Stalin heard from the English that Hitlers train Europa came to Orsja on 13 November. The place where the train stood was bombed. But Hitler wasn�t there. He was at the Wolfschanze at that time. The story was never confirmed, not by the Russians and not by the Germans. There�s no proof of a bombing at all.
Moskow 1941
Location: unknown, not important
The NKVD made plans to kill Hitler in Moskow after the city fell in German hands. But it didn�t.
Poland 1942, June 8
Location: railway between Dirschau (Tczew) and Konitz (Chojnice)
There are stories about the Polish resistance derailing a train. They thought it was Hitlers train Amerika, but it wasn�t. There�s not much sure about this story, though.
Soviet planes 1942
Sovijet planes shoot at Hitlers plane. Some bullets hit the plane.
Airfield Zaporozje February 1943
Location: east of the city
When Hitler met Manstein in Zaporozje, his pilot was waiting for him on the airfield. Russian tanks came very close to the airfield, but because they didn�t have enough fuel and because they thought there were a lot of heavily armed Germans in the area, they decided not to attack. This obviously doesn�t really count as an attack on Hitlers life.
Poltava 1943
Location: Headquarters Heeresgruppe B
Another plot to assassinate Hitler was hatched at Army Group B Headquarters at Walki near Poltava in the Ukraine. This time the conspirators were General Hubert Lanz, his Chief of Staff, Major-General Dr. Hans Speidel and Colonel Count von Strachwitz, the commanding officer of the Grossdeutschland Tank Regiment. The plan was to arrest Hitler on his anticipated visit to Army Group B in the spring of 1943. Hitler, at the last minute, changed his mind and instead decided to fly to Zaporosje, further east, on 15 February 1943 to meet Fieldmarshall Von Manstein instead of going to Poltava.
Cointreau bomb March 1943
Location: Smolensk, Heeresgruppe Mitte
Field Marshal G�nther von Kluge, commander of Army Group Center on the eastern front, finally managed to lure Hitler into visiting his headquarters at Smolensk. Colonel Henning von Tresckow, who hated Hitler and the Nazis, together with Lt. Fabian von Schlabrendorff, Colonel Rudolf von Gersdorff and Cavalry Captain Georg von B�selager had hatched plans to get rid of their F�hrer. The final one was to destroy Hitler's plane in midflight. This option had several distinct advantages: Field Marshal Kluge's approval was not necessary, and Hitler's death would not directly involve army officers who could have underlying misgivings because of their oath.
It did, however, require two vital ingredients: (1) a detailed schematic of Hitler's plane, especially the armored compartment where the F�hrer stayed during flight, and (2) enough sophisticated explosives to do the job. The force of the explosives was critical because Hitler's armored compartment was constructed in such a manner that if his plane was disabled the compartment could be detached from the aircraft and float gently down, using special parachutes that were connected to it. It was therefore vital to destroy the armored section of the plane to succeed.
Tresckow contacted Captain Ludwig Gehre, a member of the conspiracy in Berlin, and asked him to obtain copies of the prints for Hitler's Condor aircraft. Gehre called a close friend and member of the resistance, Otto John, who was employed by Lufthansa, and invited him to his house. Swearing John to secrecy, Gehre outlined the scheme to bomb Hitler's personal aircraft and asked John if he could get plans of the craft. John cautioned Gehre that it would be next to impossible to plant a bomb on the F�hrer's Focke-Wulf 200 Condor. The aircraft was kept under tight security by armed SS guards who searched every person approaching the plane, including the ground crews who serviced and cleaned it. John, however, was able to get drawings of the craft, and these were forwarded to Tresckow in Smolensk.
Next Tresckow and Schlabrendorff needed the explosives with which to do the job. It would seem that senior officers attached to a frontline army headquarters would have easy access to explosives, but this was not the case. All explosive materials in the Third Reich were kept under tight inventory control by the Gestapo. The material for their bomb would have to be acquired in small amounts over a period of time.
Tresckow assigned this task to Colonel Rudolf-Christoph Baron von Gersdorff, the Army Group Center Intelligence Officer. What was required, Tresckow explained to Gersdorff, was an explosive material that was compact yet yielded a high energy explosion using noiseless time delay fuses.
Gersdorff told Tresckow that German-made time delay fuses were unworkable because they all emitted an audible hiss. He canvassed several Abwehr supply depots, finding what he needed at an arsenal maintained by the Sabotage Division. Explaining that he was training a cadre to counteract disruptive partisan activity, he asked the officer in charge of the arsenal if he could demonstrate several different types of explosives his teams might use.
Gersdorff settled on "Plastic C," a volatile substance the British regularly supplied to partisan bands throughout occupied Europe. Quantities had fallen into the Abwer's hands when German army units either tracked British parachute drops or recovered them from captured partisans. Plastic C consisted of over 88 percent hexogen, with the remainder an amalgam of materials such as axle grease to prevent the hexogen from crystallizing. An officer who was knowledgeable in the use of Plastic C proudly showed Gersdorff what less than a pound would do, when he detonated it under the turret of a captured Soviet tank. The force of the explosion blew the turret off the tank, hurling it more than twenty yards away.
Gersdorff asked the arsenal commander, Lieutenant Buchholz, for samples of Plastic C, along with various fuses and detonators to demonstrate the explosive for Field Marshal Kluge. After signing the required receipts and receiving thorough instructions on handling the material and the detonators, he was provided a modest quantity. A few more trips to other supply depots gave Gersdorff enough Plastic C to make several test runs, with enough left to sabotage Hitler's plane.
Tresckow, Gersdorff, and Schlabrendorff experimented with the explosive and found its only disadvantage was that at temperatures below zero degrees Centigrade it sometimes failed to explode. Satisfied that Plastic C would do the job, providing the temperature was not too cold, they fashioned a package to look like two bottles of Cointreau, a premium brandy bottled in square decanters. The square shape was easy to duplicate, making the package appear authentic. The package was heavily wrapped and tied tightly with cord to discourage closer inspection.
An ingenious device to detonate the bomb was chosen from Gersdorff's selection. When a small vial of acid in the device was crushed, the acid spilled into a wad of cotton. The acid then ate through a tiny trip wire that released a plunger that drove the detonator into the explosive. Once the capsule was broken, the acid would require thirty minutes until it was absorbed by the cotton and the spring was released.
When the deadly package was ready, Schlabrendorff kept it inside a metal box in his quarters, awaiting Hitler's visit. The conspirators at Army Group Center now had preparations solidly in place for two alternative plans to kill Hitler. No one connected with the plot doubted that if one misfired the other would succeed. As far as the plotters were concerned, when Hitler made his expected visit he was as good as dead.
On 13 March 1943, the sky over Smolensk was a cloudless blue expanse. The operations officer at the small airfield near headquarters heard the steady drone of approaching aircraft and watched the distant specks take sharper form as he called Kluge's duty officer with the news that the F�hrer's plane was about to land. Tresckow and the field marshal hurried into staff cars for the short ride to the airstrip. Overhead, three Condors approached the runway escorted by a formation of Messerschmidt-109 fighters. While Kluge and Tresckow went to greet Hitler, Schlabrendorff telephoned Gehre in Berlin to alert him that Operation Flash was about to begin. Gehre immediately informed Olbricht, then Dohnanyi, who promptly told Oster. Oster, in turn, contacted Beck with the news. The resistance waited anxiously for the word to strike.
The Condors landed and taxied off the runway to allow the fighter escort room to land. Hitler stepped from the lead Condor, descended the steps, and greeted Kluge and his staff warmly. He declined Kluge's invitation to drive him to headquarters in his staff car. Hitler, appearing older than most of those present remembered him, and exhibiting a noticeable stoop, proceeded to his personal car, which his chauffeur, Erich Kempka, had driven to Smolensk. The detachment of SS guards that accompanied Kempka was supplemented by a platoon flown in on the second Condor.
Rounding out the entourage were several staff officers; Hitler's personal physician, Dr. Theodor Morell; a stenographer; Hitler's personal chef; and a photographer to record highlights of the visit for posterity. The chef personally prepared all Hitler's meals. Dr. Morell, who like his arch-rival G�ring had grown rich and fat off his relationship with the F�hrer, always tasted Hitler's food in his presence before the F�hrer ate anything.On an earlier visit to a frontline headquarters several Soviet tanks had come ominously close to Hitler's plane, prompting the SS to beef up the F�hrer's security force. His escort for this visit was double the usual complement. Sensing Hitler's preoccupation with security, Army Group Center seized on this opportunity to volunteer a squadron of Cavalry Regiment Center's troops, under command of Major K�nig, to augment Hitler's security shield. The officers of this squadron, who had sworn to shoot Hitler, were now perfectly positioned to kill him while he walked from his car to the headquarters building, or when he was returning to the car. An earlier suggestion to shoot Hitler while he ate in the mess was rejected by Kluge because he felt it unseemly to shoot a man while he was eating. Also, there was the risk of hitting one of the officers seated with Hitler, possibly even Kluge, whom the conspirators expected would assume command of the entire front and stabilize the situation until a truce was arranged.
The assassins in Cavalry Regiment Center never received the order to shoot, possibly (as explained later by Major K�nig) because Hitler changed his original route and the mounted guard did not have a clear shot at him. It is also not improbable that the SS guards, fingers tight around the triggers of their submachine guns, kept too close a watch on the armed soldiers whom they might have viewed as a potential threat. In any event, no shots were fired.
During lunch Tresckow approached one of Hitler's staff officers, Colonel Heinz Brandt, whom Tresckow saw alight from the F�hrer's own plane. He asked Brandt if he could take a package of two bottles of Cointreau with him to High Command Headquarters. They were a gift for Colonel Helmuth Stieff, Tresckow explained, and he did not want to risk their being broken if he sent them through the normal mail. Brandt cheerfully agreed.
When lunch was over and Hitler prepared to depart, Lieutenant Schlabrendorff slipped off to his quarters and retrieved the bomb. At the airport he waited until Hitler said his farewells and started to board his plane, followed closely by members of his entourage. Tresckow nodded to Schlabrendorff, who pressed a key against the package, crushing the capsule of acid, then with a broad smile handed the package to Colonel Brandt, who carried it aboard Hitler's plane.
The fighters took off first, circled the field several times, and signaled the all clear. Within minutes all three Condors were airborne, flying a course for Rastenburg in East Prussia.
Tresckow and Schlabrendorff returned to their headquarters, where the latter called Gehre in Berlin to tell him that Operation Flash was in its second stage, meaning they were waiting for confirmation of Hitler's death. Tresckow estimated that Hitler's Condor would mysteriously explode somewhere in the vicinity of Minsk, a half-hour's flying time from Smolensk.
For two anxious hours Tresckow and Schlabrendorff waited for news that Hitler's plane had crashed. They expected the first announcement to come from the commander of the fighter planes that escorted Hitler, but no word came. Finally a confirmation was received from Rastenburg that the F�hrer's plane had landed there safely. Stunned, the two officers could not believe their ears. Schlabrendorff immediately called Gehre and gave him the coded message that Operation Flash had failed. Gehre, sickened by the tension and the disappointment, passed the word to General Olbricht and then Oster and Dohnanyi.
Tresckow and Schlabrendorff were at a loss about what to do next. Obviously, the bomb had not exploded. Had the secret of their lethal package been discovered before it could explode? If so, the Gestapo was surely on the way to arrest them. If the bomb failed to explode because of a defect, the package would have to be retrieved before it was delivered to Colonel Stieff. Either way, the two men could be in grievous trouble.
They had to know what had happened. Finally, Tresckow called Colonel Brandt in Rastenburg and casually asked if he had delivered the package to Stieff. To his great relief, Brandt said he had not had a chance to deliver it yet. Tresckow then explained that Brandt had been given the wrong package, and would he hold on to it until the next day when it would be exchanged for the correct package. Brandt replied that he would be glad to, and the conversation ended.
The following morning Schlabrendorff took a scheduled courier flight to Rastenburg bearing a package containing two bottles of Cointreau. When he arrived at Brandt's office, the colonel playfully tossed the package containing the bomb from one hand to the other, joking about dropping the two bottles of expensive brandy he thought it contained. Schlabrendorff, trying to remain calm, exchanged the packages and withdrew as quickly as possible. He had no idea why the bomb had not exploded and he was afraid that Brandt's juggling would cause the explosion right there. Leaving the building, he took a staff car to the railroad station in nearby Korschen, where he boarded a train to Berlin.
On board the train Schlabrendorff locked himself inside the private compartment he had reserved and carefully opened the package. Examining the bomb, he immediately saw what had happened. The capsule had broken under the pressure of his key and the acid had permeated the cotton, causing the wire to break and the spring to release the detonator, which slammed home causing a blackened mark where it struck, but for some unknown reason the Plastic C had failed to ignite. What probably happened was that Colonel Brandt left the package in the unheated luggage compartment instead of taking it into the heated passenger section with him. The extreme cold caused the explosive material to crystallize immediately -- and when the strike hit, nothing happened.
In Berlin Schlabrendorff met with Oster and the other conspirators. He showed them the flawed bomb and how close they had come to killing Hitler.
Von Gertsdorff attempt 1943, March 21
Location: Zeughaus, Unter den Linden, Berlin
On March 21 the country would observe a national holiday known as Heroes' Memorial Day. Traditionally the F�hrer participated in the ceremonies honoring German soldiers who had died in previous wars. Schlabrendorff was still in Berlin when Tresckow proposed to Gersdorff a way to kill Hitler when he came to the event. As part of the program, Hitler was to inspect an assortment of captured Soviet weapons on display in the Berlin Armory. Because the weapons had been captured largely by Army Group Center, an officer from that army was invited to accompany Hitler on the tour to answer any technical questions he might have. This was an important duty because Hitler was always fascinated by new weapons developments and usually asked tough questions. Gersdorff had been selected for this job.
During their conversation, Gersdorff and Tresckow concluded that the only way to kill Hitler during the tour was through a suicide mission. Gersdorff would have to set off a bomb hidden on his person, then wrap his arms around the F�hrer tightly until the explosion killed them both. Tresckow was reluctant to ask this of his comrade in the conspiracy, but Gersdorff confessed that since his wife's death a year earlier he really had little to live for, and if through his death he could accomplish the great patriotic good that would come from killing Hitler, he was more than willing to make the sacrifice
Gersdorff arrived in Berlin two days before the ceremonies and established himself in the Hotel Eden. The following morning Schlabrendorff brought him the bomb package that had been placed on Hitler's plane on March 13. Gersdorff chose from a variety of British fuses. He discarded several instantaneous fuses because he would need time to grab Hitler and hold on to him. He decided to use a ten-minute fuse, which was the shortest timed fuse he had aside from the instantaneous fuses. This would provide sufficient time to set the fuse in action and get close enough to Hitler to grab him in case they were separated. He knew from the schedule, which he had obtained from General Schmundt, Hitler's Chief Adjutant, that the F�hrer was allotting ten minutes for the weapons tour, so he planned to set the fuse off just before the tour began.
Just after noon on March 21 Hitler arrived for the ceremonies and was greeted by the chiefs of the armed forces and other government and Party dignitaries. Inside the hall he delivered a speech for fourteen minutes while Gersdorff, a bomb hidden in each pocket of his greatcoat, waited patiently by the entrance to the weapons exhibit. When Hitler finished speaking he left the platform and walked toward the exhibit. As Hitler approached, Gersdorff reached into his left pocket, a highly risky gesture when Hitler and his bodyguards were around, and released the fuse. He did not want to press his luck by arming the bomb in his right pocket, and he assumed that when one went off it would ignite the other. He had ten minutes until the explosion.
To everyone's amazement, Hitler ignored Gersdorff and strode into the exhibit hall at an ever quickening pace. Gersdorff rushed to catch up with him, attempting to draw his special attention to certain exhibits in an effort to slow him down, but Hitler continued to ignore him and also paid no attention to others, including G�ring, who tried to point out interesting aspects of certain exhibits. Hitler was in and out of the exhibition hall in two minutes, not the ten minutes that had been scheduled.
At the exit Gersdorff was turned back by SS guards, as this was as far as he was supposed to go. The stunned officer watched helplessly as Hitler virtually raced from the hall. Regaining his thoughts amidst the confusion and frustration, he remembered the live bomb in his left pocket. Frantically he looked for some place he could go to deactivate the bomb. He looked at his watch, eight minutes left, and prayed the bomb did not detonate prematurely. Locating a nearby men's room, he quickly went inside and locked himself in a stall. Removing the bomb from his pocket, he pulled off the striker, making the bomb inoperative. Gersdorff collapsed onto the toilet seat and dropped his head into his hands, panting heavily from the tension.
The only positive result of these failed attempts on Hitler's life was that General Olbricht, who had been listening to reports of the ceremonies over the radio and waiting for news of the explosion, uncovered deficiencies in the coup planning that must be corrected before the next attempt. To help with this task, Tresckow asked for and received a sick leave of several months' duration. He spent virtually the entire time working on resistance organizational problems and helping refine the plans for the coup that was used the following year.
Operation �M�nchen�, spring/summer 1943
Location: F�hrerhauptquartier Vinnitsa and its region
The Russian NKVD tried to find out what Hitler�s habits were when he was in Vinnitsa, so they could take him out. But they started their observations too late: in the spring/summer of 1943. Hitler had been there for the last time in March 1943 and he only came back there for a short stay on 27 August 1943. After that the FHQ was destroyed.
Olga Tsjechova 1941-1943
Location: unknown
Wild plans to have Hitler killed by the actress Olga Tsjechova couldn�t be carried out because she didn�t have a lot of contact with Hitler between 1941 and 1943. Hitler spend a lot of time in the Wolfschanze. When the Russians started to win the war, the plans were cancelled.
Did Stalin really stop attempts on Hitler's life?
By Guy Walters
The Telegraph
4 June 2010
Another week, another highly dubious revelation about the Second World War. This time it's from the Russians, specifically from the lips of one General Anatoly Kulikov, who has claimed at a conference on military history in Moscow that Stalin cancelled at least two attempts to kill Hitler. "A concrete plan to assassinate Hitler in his Bunker was developed," said Kulikov, "but Stalin suddenly cancelled it in 1943 over fears that after Hitler's death his associates would conclude a separate peace treaty with Britain and the United States".
Adding that he had documentary evidence to support his claims, the general also claimed that a second plan almost came to fruition, and that the intended assassin had even infiltrated Hitler's entourage, but Stalin once more cancelled any operation.
These stories certainly raise my eyebrows, as I'm sure they do those of many others. While the notion that the Russians had planned Hitler's assassination is feasible � after all the British had their own Operation Foxley � the idea that the Soviets had inveigled someone into Hitler's inner circle seems too fantastical and the stuff of thrillers alone. Last night I consulted Professor Peter Hoffmann, the author of the excellent "Hitler's Personal Security", a peerless account on the attempts on Hitler's life. He told me: "The obvious answer is: Where is the evidence? We should see documents, names, for example especially names of persons who are described as having infiltrated Hitler's entourage and their identification as having been present in Hitler's entourage".
Until General Kulikov presents his evidence, I think we can safely dismiss his stories as Junk History.
Operation Foxley
Location: Obersalzberg
The English gathered a lot of information about Hitler on the Obersalzberg. They wanted to bring snipers to the hill who could kill Hitler. When in 1944 it became very clear that the Germans would lose the war, the plans were cancelled.
Operation Foxley
Adolf Hitler was the centre of the Nazi system. Around him revolved a loose confederation of fiefdoms, whose leaders engaged in a ceaseless struggle to protect and enhance their power. If Operation Foxley, the plan devised by the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) to assassinate Hitler, had succeeded, this system would have been thrown into chaos.
Count von Stauffenberg and various fellow conspirators, whose courage was equalled only by their ineptitude, were plotting a similar operation from the German side. There was, however, not the slightest possibility that they could have taken advantage of the chaos.
Rather more likely was the emergence of a coalition of the major fiefdoms, with Hermann G�ring as Reichsverweser (literally state caretaker), co-existing uneasily with Heinrich Himmler, Albert Speer, Karl D�nitz and a clutch of popular generals such as Erich von Manstein and Erwin Rommel.
The most plausible date for SOE's assassination of Hitler would have been around 13-14 July 1944. By this time the Russians had reached the old Polish-Soviet frontier. From what is now known about the frame of mind of many prominent generals in Germany around this time, we can guess that the new administration would have sent peace feelers to the western allies, who would have reiterated their demand for unconditional surrender.
For Himmler and the SS even a negotiated peace would have posed serious problems. He would have been worried about how he was going to explain the 'final solution' (the extermination of all Jewish people, and other 'Untermenschen', in Nazi-held territories) to the outside world, and might well have decided to close down the gas chambers, and tried to pass the death factories off as labour camps.
Germany still in control of Europe
At this stage, however, a reversal of policy would have been prudent rather than pressing. Germany still controlled Europe - with the exception of southern Italy and the Normandy beachhead - from the Atlantic to the Vistula, the Carpathians and the lower Danube. There were still cards to play, which, if handled skilfully, might yet have elicited from the Anglo-Americans something more palatable than a demand for unconditional surrender.
Moreover, the propaganda machine run by G�bbels would have both lionised the martyred F�hrer - the modern Siegfried - and hinted that with the F�hrer now in Valhalla the war might begin to go better. In the summer of 1944 most of the German people were assailed by doubts about the continuing pursuit of the war, but they were not yet prepared to give up
How would the death of Hitler have affected the Reich's production of war material? Overall very little, except in one important area. In June, Speer and G�ring had pleaded with the F�hrer to abandon the conversion of the Me262 jet fighter into a bomber, but to no effect. With Hitler gone, the Luftwaffe might have had twice as many Me262s available in the autumn of 1944, not enough to establish air parity with the Allies, but enough to have made the air war in the west less one-sided.
Eastern Front
Hitler's death would have had a much greater effect on the conduct of operations. On the Eastern Front, Erich von Manstein, Heinz Guderian and others had already proposed withdrawal from the Baltic states, which Hitler had refused, partly because the navy claimed it needed the coastal waters for training submarine crews. D�nitz would have continued his resistance to the proposal, but without Hitler's support he would have lost the argument and the generals would have had their way.
A new line on the Front would have emerged, running south along the heavily fortified border of East Prussia to the Vistula, and thence along the Carpathians to the lower Danube in Rumania. It would have been shorter than the actual line, and taken advantage of natural defensive features, making it more formidable.
The army already had a contingency plan, Margarethe II, for the occupation of Rumania if the country tried to defect, but Hitler had refused to countenance putting the plan into action, saying that he trusted the Rumanian leader Marshal Ion Antonescu. With Hitler gone, Margarethe II would have swung into action in August, allowing the Germans to block the 200-mile-wide corridor between the Carpathians and the Danube, and thereby halt the Soviet offensive into the Balkans.
Western Front
Operations in the west, too, would have been profoundly affected by the F�hrer's demise. On 28 June Hitler had rejected a plan, put forward by von Rundstedt and Rommel, which suggested a German withdrawal back to the line of the Seine. With Hitler gone, this plan could have been put into effect. There would have been no Mortain counter-attack and no Falaise pocket, with their attendant losses.
Instead a defence of the Seine would have been followed by a defence of the Somme, and then the Meuse and Moselle, and so on back to the Reischswald and eventually the Rhine. This early withdrawal from France - about three weeks sooner than the one that did occur - would have saved some 250,000 men and much equipment, some of which could have been redeployed to the Eastern Front, particularly in Rumania.
Hitler's demise, then, would have allowed Germany to adopt defensive strategies on both western and eastern fronts, fighting on shorter, more defensible lines. And with Rumania still under German control, the oil crisis of late 1944 would have been less severe. In addition, Germany would still have had access to the strategically important minerals of the Balkans and Anatolia, so that many of the log-jams that delayed jet aircraft production would not have occurred.
Moreover, without Hitler there would have been no Ardennes offensive, and consequently no squandering of precious resources. Instead the Germans would have imposed a series of attritional slogging matches on the Anglo-Americans, fought on ground of their own choosing. In the east the fierce resistance offered to the Soviets on the frontiers of East Prussia and the Carpathians would have been stronger yet, while the great tank battles that actually took place on the plains of Hungary at Debrecen, would have been fought to defend the oil fields of far-off Rumania.
The disparity in production and manpower between the Allies and Germany, however, was so great that the Eastern Front would have given at some point, whoever was in charge. On 12 January 1945 the Soviets launched a great offensive in central Poland, which carried them from the Vistula to the Oder - dangerously close to Berlin, in other words - in less than three weeks.
In our alternative world, it is difficult to see how the Vistula - Oder offensive, however vigorously resisted, could have been stopped. Soviet deception had persuaded Hitler to concentrate his forces in Hungary and East Prussia, but there is no reason to suppose that other German generals, even those unhindered by their F�hrer, would not also have fallen victim to false intelligence.
A radical solution to the Soviet advance
On 23 January, Soviet forces reached the Oder, only 60 miles east of Berlin. Shocked by the speed of the Soviet advance, the German naval high command actually discussed a radical solution - opening Germany's western front and allowing the Anglo-Americans unimpeded access through Belgium and the Rhineland into the heart of the Reich.
They hoped the Allies would thus be drawn in to join with Germany in keeping the Russians to the east of the Oder - but this idea was not discussed outside the Naval high command, as there was little trust between them and the other two services. In the absence of Hitler it is likely that such a scenario, in effect an Anglo-American relief in place of the German army, followed by German demobilisation, would have been widely, and in some quarters favourably, canvassed.
Would it have become policy? It is possible, given that the crisis produced by the Vitula-Oder offensive would have fractured the loose coalition running Germany. G�ring and Himmler, now weak and discredited, would have gone to the wall, and a new government composed of Army and Waffen SS generals, could have announced that Germany's western borders were now open.
The Yalta conference, at which the Anglo-Americans and Soviets were to agree the post-war division of Europe, was only two weeks away. With their forces still west of the Meuse, and bogged down in the Appenines in Italy, the Anglo-Americans were expecting to go to Yalta as supplicants, with the Russians in a strong position.
But if the plan had been followed, suddenly Berlin would have been offering unconditional surrender. The dowry would have been significant - not just control over central Europe but over south-eastern Europe to boot. The price of acceptance for the Allies, however, would have been immense - an irrevocable breach with the Soviets. The British, perfidious as ever, would probably have accepted, but there would have been problems with the Americans, who thought they needed Soviet support for the war against Japan.
If the Germans had taken the initiative, and had begun pulling back from their western defences, it is difficult to see how Anglo-American forces could have avoided being sucked into the resulting vacuum, and pushing on to face the Russian advances, no matter what political decision had been made in London and Washington.
Soviet Belligerence
By ending the war three months early, Germany would have escaped the last of the terror raids, particularly the destruction of Dresden. In addition, the bulk of German territory would have been surrendered to a disciplined, civilised enemy, so that the murder, rape and pillage of the Soviet advance would have been confined to areas east of the Oder. There would have been war crimes trials, but possibly not as extensive as those that actually took place.
The long-term political impact of the way the war ended would have been immense if Operation Foxley had succeeded. If it had, and Stalin had been excluded from the Balkans or from Berlin, he would not have accepted the situation. He would probably have launched offensives against the Allies as they advanced into Germany in their attempt to keep Russia out of central Europe. One can imagine Anglo-American and Soviet forces clashing in Carpathian passes, or shelling each other across the Oder.
In this scenario, the Cold War would have started with a bang the moment the Anglo Americans reached the German side of the Eastern Front. In June 1945 Churchill, worried by increasing Soviet belligerence, actually did propose the re- mobilisation of German forces as a way of opposing Stalin, a suggestion that was quickly buried by the chiefs of staff. In the post-Foxley world, he may have got his way.
The spring and early summer of 1945 would have been the period of maximum danger, as Russian and Allied troops faced each other. This confrontation would have eased only with the first successful test of the American atomic bomb on 16 July, which would have dictated a policy of prudence to Stalin.
This end to the war would have left a bad taste in many mouths. The political left in the west would have railed about the betrayal of the Soviet Union, and accorded to the Soviet system much greater legitimacy than it actually had. Conversely the right in Germany would have seen the 'Volk' stabbed yet again in the back, not once but twice (by the Allies and by the treachery of their own generals. They would have said that if Hitler had lived, if the borders had not been opened, Germany might yet have avoided the humiliation of an Anglo-American occupation. There would have been soul searching, but not as much as that produced by the reality of total, utter defeat.
The legacy of betrayal could only have served to make the post-war world more dangerous than it actually was. The Soviet Union, faced with a resurgent, psychologically undefeated Germany allied to Britain and America, may have withdrawn ever deeper into paranoia, perhaps not unreasonably. The crises of the early Cold War years would have happened not in Berlin or Budapest, but in Iran or the Norwegian-Finnish frontier.
These crises might have been containable, but it is unlikely that the world would have been as lucky as it actually was, in October 1962, when the Soviets deployed missiles to Cuba. All that was required to tip the balance in favour of war at that time was a slight increase in paranoia, a condition that is highly likely to have been rampant in the world - if Operation Foxley had succeeded.
Find out more
"Plotting Hitler's Death: The German Resistance to Hitler 1933-1945" by Joachim Fest (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1996)
"Hitler, G�ring and the Obersalzberg" by Bernhard Frank (Anton Plenk, 1989)
"Hitler's Personal Security" by Peter Hoffman (MacMillan, 1979)
"Operation Foxley: The British Plan to Kill Hitler" by Mark Seaman (MacMillan, 1979)
"The Good Nazi: The Life and Lies of Albert Speer" by Dan Van der Vat (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1997)
"Hitler 1936-1945": "Nemesis" by Ian Kershaw (Allen Lane, 2000)
"Inside Hitler's Command" by Geoffrey Megargee (University Press of Kansas, 2002)
Hitler (Introductions to History) by David Welch (UCL Press, 1998)
About the author
Duncan Anderson joined the War Studies Department at Sandhurst as a senior lecturer in 1987, and has been Head of Department since 1997. He has written several books on World War Two, and worked for the British Army and other NATO forces in Germany, both lecturing and conducting staff tours.
Egon Hanfst�ngl, summer 1943
Location: Obersalzberg
Egon Hanfst�ngl, the son of Putzi, presented plans to kill Hitler on the Obersalzberg. Roosevelt rejected the plan.
In 2002 Charles Fenyvesi was combing through the declassified WWII files at the U.S. National Archives when he came across a surprise. In July 1943 Count Helmuth James von Moltke - the German military intelligence service (Abwehr) representative at the German High Command and an anti-Nazi - made a secret visit to the OSS (the predecessor to the CIA) in Istanbul offering to turn Wehrmacht against the Waffen-SS and make a separate peace with the Americans. Moltke also gave the OSS a list of the high rank Germans involved in the conspiracy: Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, Field Marshal Wilhelm List, Colonel General Ludwig Beck, Colonel General Franz Halder.
Tresckow, 1943
Location: Rastenburg
Late in 1943 Tresckow attempted to get himself assigned as Field Marshal Manstein's Chief of Staff in the hope of convincing Manstein to join the resistance. The field marshal rejected the appointment, telling the army personnel chief that while Tresckow had no peer as a staff officer, he had a negative attitude toward National Socialism. This reproach spelled finis to Tresckow's career and his effectiveness in the resistance. He was transferred to the eastern front, where he could do little except wait to hear that Hitler was dead and the coup had begun.
Before his departure Tresckow engineered three final attempts on Hitler's life. In one, Colonel Stieff secretly gathered a large quantity of explosives to use in an attack on Hitler. Two officers took the explosives to the grounds of Hitler's Rastenburg headquarters in East Prussia, where they buried them under a water tower to wait for the right occasion to use them. Inexplicably, the material exploded for no apparent reason, causing consternation among the SS guards and redoubling of security measures.
With unusual good luck for the resistance, one of their member officers was assigned to investigate the incident. Colonel Werner Schrader dragged his inquiry on so long that he never issued a report.
Porn-plan
Location: Obersalzberg
A crazy plan of some American soldiers was to throw down a lot of pornographic material on Hitlers mountain to make the puritan Hitler go mad. The colonel the soldiers discussed the plan with, said that they were maniacs with an insane plan...
Treskow 1943, November or December
Location: Berlin (?), demonstration of uniforms
In late November or early December 1943, Hitler was supposed to view a selection of proposed new uniforms for the army. Several alternative samples were made, and he wanted to have the final word on which were to be produced and distributed, especially to the troops fighting in Russia. One of the officers chosen to model the new uniforms was Captain Axel von dem Bussche, a member of Tresckow's inner circle. Bussche dismantled a German hand grenade and fashioned a bomb with a four-second fuse, which he proposed to carry in the pocket of the greatcoat he was going to model. Once in Hitler's presence, he planned to release the timer and grab Hitler so the two of them would be blown up together.
The viewing was postponed repeatedly while Bussche waited impatiently to perform what he expected would be the final act of his life. The sample uniforms were stored in a railroad boxcar parked on a siding in Berlin. One night during the regular allied bombing, the car received a direct hit and was destroyed, along with the uniforms that were to provide the opportunity to place an assassin within reach of the F�hrer.
On February 11, 1944 another �overcoat� attempt was made. This time the volunteer model was Ewald Heinrich von Kleist, son of one of the original conspirators and included Major General Helmuth Stieff. Again the RAF saved the day with an air-raid just before the demonstration was about to take place forcing its cancellation.
Von Breitenbuch plan 1944, March 11
Location: Obersalzberg
In March 1944, Captain Eberhard von Breitenbuch, personal aide to Field Marshal Busch, told Tresckow that he was going to attend a conference at Hitler's Berchtesgaden headquarters where he would shoot Hitler, knowing full well that he himself would probably be shot to death by the SS guards. Tresckow offered to give him explosives, but Breitenbuch said he was an excellent shot and would require only seconds to draw his pistol, aim at Hitler's head, and squeeze off at least one and possibly several shots. He was confident Hitler would be killed.
On the day of the conference, Busch and his aide arrived in the anteroom at Hitler's quarters where they met other field marshals. When the SS major opened the door to the F�hrer's conference room the conferees entered in ranking order. Breitenbuch, the most junior officer, last. The SS major put his hand out to restrain Breitenbuch and told him that aides were not permitted to attend the meeting. When Busch protested that he required his aide's presence, the major informed the field marshal that it was Hitler's decision and could not be countermanded.
For the next several hours Breitenbuch waited anxiously in the anteroom, brooding over the reason he was excluded from the conference with Hitler. He thought that perhaps someone had learned of his intent to murder the F�hrer. This seemed to be the most logical explanation, and every time an SS man walked through the room Breitenbuch feared the worst. Around noon the meeting broke up and he followed Busch out of the building, looking nervously around, half expecting to be arrested. No explanation was ever given for his exclusion from the conference, but once again fate stepped in and saved Hitler from an assassin.
Operation Hellhound, June 1944
Location: Obersalzberg - Milan
The plans of the American airforce to bomb the Obersalzberg got stranded because of discussions with the British. Only airphotos were made of the area. On 4 November 1944 they did bomb a hotel in Milan, of which was said that Hitler was there at the time. Hitler was at the Wolfschanze at the time.
Stauffenberg in Berchtesgaden 1944, July 6
Location: Berchtesgaden/Salzburg
One needed only to look at Colonel Claus Count von Stauffenberg to know that he had already paid a high price for Hitler's war. A black patch covered the empty socket that had been his left eye. His right hand was missing, as were two fingers of his left hand. Despite these disfigurements, suffered when a U.S. fighter plane attacked his North African Panzer column, Stauffenberg remained a handsome and charming officer.
In the fall of 1943, after several head operations required by his wounds, Stauffenberg recovered enough to join the active resistance at the strong urging of his uncle, Count Nikolaus von Uxkull. His uncle knew of Stauffenberg's attitude toward Hitler and the Nazis, which was formed indelibly from his experiences in the Russian campaign before he was assigned to Africa. Uxkull confided in his nephew that there were other officers who felt as he did, and that they were organized into a formal resistance group determined to kill Hitler and remove the Nazis from power. He asked his nephew to join them.
When Stauffenberg was restored to active duty he reported to Colonel General Kurt Zeitzler, who had replaced Halder as Chief of the General Staff in September 1942. The disabled colonel requested assignment to a frontline unit, but Zeitzler, recognizing his enormous potential, felt Stauffenberg's talents deserved to be nurtured. Zeitzler wanted him to broaden his experience so that one day he could command a corps or perhaps even an army. Instead of sending him to the front, Zeitzler appointed Stauffenberg Chief of Staff of the General Army Office under General Friedrich Olbricht.
The next time he saw his uncle, Stauffenberg told him he had decided to join the resistance. He is also reported to have told him that since the generals had failed to unseat Hitler, now it was time the colonels accomplished the task. It was then Count Uxkull felt it safe to tell him that his new superior officer, General Olbricht, was a key figure in the conspiracy against Hitler.
In September 1943, Stauffenberg helped Olbricht and Tresckow, who was still in Berlin on sick leave, reorganize plans for a renewed coup attempt. They were joined occasionally by General Beck, whose recovery from cancer surgery was taking longer than expected. Pointedly absent from these proceedings was the man who had once been a central figure, Hans Oster. Now under close Gestapo surveillance, Oster had been ordered by Keitel to stay away from military installations. Reluctantly he obeyed, for fear of betraying the identities of the other conspirators.
The new pattern for the coup that evolved from the original concept of 1938 was "highly sophisticated" as the Gestapo would later admit. It centered around the unlikely use of the Replacement Army, which was a reserve force of walking wounded, trainees, cadets in military schools, workers who could quickly be pulled from their jobs, and men on sick leave. It was not an effective fighting force, but was intended originally to be used to supply replacements to frontline units. The Replacement Army was controlled by General Olbricht's superior, Colonel General Friederich Fromm, an overweight bureaucrat filled with his own importance. Fromm refused to have anything to do with the conspiracy unless the plotters killed Hitler; then, he said, they could count on his support.
In early 1943 the conspirators, disadvantaged by the fact that not even their leading military officers commanded troop formations, hit on the idea of molding the Replacement Army into a force to support their coup. Olbricht spoke to Hitler about the internal dangers to the Reich presented by the over four million foreign workers and prisoners of war within its borders. Enemy nationals concentrated in such numbers posed a serious threat if they organized a rebellion in any significant strength against the largely inadequate civil police forces. Olbricht proposed to develop a contingency plan using the Replacement Army as a safety valve that could be called on to put down a worker's revolt, or even move against enemy saboteurs who might infiltrate the Reich. Hitler was enthusiastic about the proposal and told him to work out the details. Tresckow and Stauffenberg concentrated on the project throughout the fall of 1943, assisted by a select committee of dedicated officers.
The idea of employing troops to control potential internal emergencies appealed to the High Command; consequently, they gave the Commander-in-Chief of the Replacement Army, Fromm, wide latitude to requisition and deploy troops in case of a domestic disturbance. This should have aided the conspirators, but an impasse existed between Fromm, who refused to cooperate unless the conspirators demonstrated they could succeed, and resistance leaders, who could do little without a commitment of Replacement Army backing. A possible solution to this dilemma was advanced by Olbricht, who decided that when the time was right he would ask Fromm to commit the Replacement Army and the military district forces to the coup. If Fromm refused, Olbricht would arrest him and issue the orders in his name, anticipating that most troop commanders would carry them out.
A set of substitute orders was prepared and updated regularly by Stauffenberg, changing the original response to the signal "Valkyrie," which meant an internal disturbance, to mean "surround and neutralize all SS and Gestapo installations within the Reich, and commandeer all communications facilities, particularly public radio stations."
Consistent with earlier coup plans, neutralizing the SS was a critical issue, since that organization was devoutly loyal to Hitler.
Now the Waffen SS became equally important. Grown to parallel the regular army, the Waffen SS had its own Panzer and mobilized units, which actually outnumbered the army in some military districts. While a few Waffen SS commanders might throw in their lot with the army if Hitler was dead, many more could be expected to wage a civil war against the army. At the same time, the army would have to maintain its position on all fronts facing the Allies. The speed with which the conspirators moved against these potential opponents was vital to success.
Just as Tresckow before him, Stauffenberg recognized that Hitler's assassination was paramount. With Hitler dead the coup might succeed, but if Hitler was merely arrested or confined, he would be a rallying point for his supporters.
After conferring with other officers who were candidates for the job of assassin, Stauffenberg decided the surest course of action was to do the "dirty work," as the conspirators called it, himself. When in late spring of 1944 he was appointed Chief of Staff to the Commander-in-Chief of the Replacement Army, Stauffenberg soon found the opportunity he needed.
When Stauffenberg became General Fromm's new Chief of Staff on 1 June 1944, an appointment Fromm had requested because of Stauffenberg's organizational skills, he immediately sought ways to try to win Fromm over to the resistance.
Five days later the Allies swept ashore at Normandy in such overwhelming strength that many German army leaders read the invasion as the prelude to disaster. In the south, the Allies were pushing relentlessly up the Italian peninsula. In the east, the German army steeled for the expected Soviet summer offensive. Intelligence reports made it clear that the Soviet army was now far superior in men and material to the German defenders. With Germany being squeezed on all sides into an increasingly tighter circle, and her cities ablaze and crumbling under continuous Allied bombing, Stauffenberg questioned whether the effort to kill Hitler was still worthwhile, since the end of the war was obviously so near.
Stauffenberg asked Tresckow for guidance. Never one to waver, Tresckow, without hesitation, responded as Stauffenberg doubtlessly expected: "The assassination must be attempted at all costs. Even if it should not succeed, an attempt to seize power in Berlin must be undertaken. What matters now is not the practical purpose of the coup, but to prove to the world and for the records of history that the men of the resistance movement dared to take the decisive step. Compared to this objective, nothing else is of consequence".
Encouraged by Tresckow's counsel, Stauffenberg forged ahead with his plans. He was pleased to find that as Chief of Staff to Fromm he would have ample opportunity to kill Hitler. As Commander-in-Chief of the Replacement Army, Fromm now regularly appeared at Hitler's military conferences to report on the status of his forces. His Chief of Staff usually accompanied him.
While his infirmities would seem to make Stauffenberg an unlikely assassin, they also made him the least likely to be suspected by Hitler's security people. Also, he had become virtually the only member of the resistance with direct access to the person of the F�hrer and the resolve to carry out the assassination.
Fate decreed that Stauffenberg was the man. He began preparations for the assassination. Major General Helmuth Stieff had been hoarding a cache of explosives in Rastenberg, and Stauffenberg dispatched two officers who were resistance members to bring them back to Berlin. The explosives used acid-based fuses housed in thin glass tubes about the thickness of a pencil. With both their families moved to the relative safety of the south of Germany, Claus and Berthold Stauffenberg now shared an apartment in a Berlin suburb. Alone in his bedroom each night, Claus practiced with a small pair of pliers squeezing hard enough to break the glass and start the fuse.
On June 7, the day after the Normandy invasion began, Stauffenberg accompanied Fromm on a visit to Hitler's headquarters near Berchtesgaden. The handful of men attending the conference included Himmler and a grossly overweight G�ring. Stauffenberg came away from this conference encouraged. He now had direct access to Hitler, and he had entered his presence without being searched. Even his thickly packed pigskin briefcase had stirred no interest. At this conference the briefcase contained nothing but documents, but it would soon carry the explosive intended as the instrument of Hitler's death.
Acting on the latest advice from Tresckow, Stauffenberg flew to Paris on June 23 to visit his old friend, Colonel Eberhard Finckh, Deputy Chief of Staff to the Commander-in-Chief, West. Stauffenberg told Finckh of his plans to kill Hitler and the coup that would follow to seize the government and control the army. He asked Finckh to pass this information to General Stulpnagel, the Military Governor, whom Stauffenberg knew would support the coup.
Meanwhile, Tresckow sent Colonel von B�selager, the cavalry officer who had planned the shooting of Hitler during his visit to Army Group Center, to ask Field Marshal Kluge to support the coup. Kluge had replaced von Rundstedt as Commander-in-Chief, West, when Hitler tired of the old field marshal's "pessimism." As usual Kluge wavered, and Tresckow regretted he had been unable to make the trip himself because he believed he could still hold sway over Kluge. Tresckow sent a message to Kluge suggesting that he allow the Allies to break through the German lines to force the High Command to see the futility of the situation. Kluge replied that it was unnecessary to do anything to encourage a breakthrough, since it would happen soon enough anyway.
Stauffenberg had no reservations. To him the situation was clear-cut. He could find no other officer with access to Hitler who was willing to attempt the assassination; consequently, he would do it himself. The other resistance leaders did not favor this decision. Stauffenberg was now the driving force behind the coup, and its success relied heavily on his talents. They feared that his absence from Berlin during the critical hours after the assassination, while he was flying back to the capital, would have an adverse effect on the results.
Stauffenberg readied his briefcase, carefully packing it with two pounds of explosives, and waited for his next opportunity. He felt he was destined to do the job, and he prepared to accomplish it as quickly as possible. He looked forward anxiously to his next trip to Hitler's headquarters.
July 1944 began ominously, with the arrest of several resistance members. Rumors spread that the Gestapo had learned of the coup and was about to seize all the plotters, but no further arrests followed and the work went forward. On July 6, Stauffenberg again went to the Berghof to hear Hitler's order for fifteen newly formed grenadier divisions to be rushed to the eastern front to stop the Soviet advance. Stauffenberg took the briefcase bomb into the conference room but made no attempt to trigger it, for reasons known only to himself. At the meeting's end Hitler assigned him the job of locating the personnel necessary to fill the proposed grenadier divisions.
Stauffenberg in Berchtesgaden 1944, July 11
Location: Obersalzberg
Stauffenberg's next chance to put his bomb to use came on Tuesday, July 11. As the growing military crisis threatened the collapse of Germany's eastern front, Hitler called for an update on Stauffenberg's progress in organizing the fifteen new "blocking divisions." Hitler referred to them in this way because he believed they would block the Soviet advance, that they would somehow plug the holes that were expanding daily in the German defenses.
Hitler's attitude before this conference was indicative of his growing panic and vituperative treatment of his lieutenants. Things were going badly on all fronts, and Hitler typically placed the blame squarely on his generals and field marshals who were prudently advocating strategic retreat. Refusing to face reality, something no one around him would point out, he assumed Stauffenberg could create crack grenadier divisions from the worn-out veterans and raw recruits in the Replacement Army.
Stauffenberg went over his plans in his mind during the ninety-minute flight from Berlin to the small airfield in Freilassing, just north of Berchtesgaden. Inside his briefcase, under a fresh uniform shirt, was the bomb and timer fuse. He was accompanied by his acting adjutant, Captain Friedrich Karl Klausing. His regular adjutant, Lieutenant Werner von H�ften (who earlier in the year had volunteered for a suicide attempt on Hitler's life) was too ill to travel.
On landing at Freilassing, Stauffenberg instructed the pilot of his Heinkel HE-111 not to wander too far from the plane because he might have to return to Berlin in a hurry; then he and Klausing got into a waiting staff car for the ride into the nearby mountains to Hitler's retreat.
At the Berghof, Stauffenberg, clutching the briefcase with his one hand, told Klausing to stay with the car and be prepared to race down the mountainside to the waiting aircraft if he exited the meeting without his briefcase. Stauffenberg's plan was to set the acid fuse timer, place the briefcase in the conference room, and leave as unobtrusively as possible before the bomb exploded. As the colonel walked up the terraced steps toward the main building, Klausing checked his watch. It was 1:00 P.M.
Inside the building, Stauffenberg left his revolver and hat on the table reserved for this purpose and entered the conference room carrying the briefcase. He set it down carefully under the conference table and listened to the proceedings.
Stauffenberg surveyed the room. His heart sank when he saw that Himmler was not present. Goring was there, but without Himmler Stauffenberg did not want to leave his bomb. He quietly withdrew from the conference room, knowing that the present discussion would continue for at least several more minutes. He started toward a bank of telephones, but first stopped at a nearby washroom where he splashed cold water on his face to ease his tension and rinse off the sweat streaming down his forehead.
Stauffenberg asked the telephone exchange operator to place a call to General Olbricht in Berlin. When the call went through the two conspirators conversed, using predetermined code words. Stauffenberg reported Himmler's absence and the two agreed to abort the assassination, at least until the next conference. Stauffenberg returned to the conference room and waited to give his progress report on the fifteen new divisions that Hitler was convinced would stem the Soviet advance.
At 3:30 P.M. Stauffenberg returned to the waiting car carrying his briefcase. Noting Klausing's surprise at seeing the briefcase again, he explained to him what had happened. Meanwhile, General Olbricht contacted the resistance members who had been waiting for the signal to begin the coup. Count Helldorf, whose Berlin police forces were poised to arrest leading Nazis, and the officers of the Ninth Infantry Reserve Regiment at Potsdam, who were to lead their troops into the government center in Berlin and isolate it from the rest of the city and country, were told to stand down and await further instructions.
That evening Stauffenberg met with coup leaders in Berlin, including Generals Beck and Olbricht. The conversation focused on what should be done at the next conference if Himmler was not present again. While some saw the need to wait until both Himmler and Hitler could be killed at the same time, others disagreed, saying there was too little time left in which to act before Germany was totally destroyed. They insisted the bomb must be set at the next meeting, whether Himmler was present or not. In the end, no firm decision was reached either way. They would wait to see what happened at the next conference. If Himmler was absent again, Stauffenberg should call Olbricht's office for instructions.
Stauffenberg at the Wolfschanze 1944, July 20
Location: Briefing room
The next few days were dark ones for the resistance. On Sunday, July 16, Stauffenberg received news that General Alexander Falkenhausen, military commander in Belgium and northern France, and a supporter of the coup, had been dismissed. The following day news arrived that Rommel had been severely injured and hospitalized. Although Rommel was not a member of the resistance, Stauffenberg had hoped he would come over once Hitler was dead, especially since he made no effort to hide his pessimism about Germany's future from Hitler, who now brushed off his one-time favorite as a "coward."
On 18 July, Stauffenberg received a report that the Gestapo had been ordered to arrest G�rdeler, a key member of the resistance and the man designated to be Germany's new Chancellor. He warned G�rdeler and told him to go into hiding. Reluctantly, G�rdeler left Berlin for Westphalia.
Tense meetings were held between Stauffenberg, Beck, Olbricht, and other coup conspirators at his residence at No. 8 Tristanstrasse, Wansee. It was finally decided that they no longer wanted to endure the tension of waiting for news of Himmler's presence at one of Hitler's conferences. Things were getting out of hand. Hitler had to be eliminated at all costs.
Stauffenberg was instructed to set his bomb at the next meeting, no matter who was there, as long as Hitler was in the room.
On 19 July, General Heusinger was at Hitler's conference reporting that the Soviets were breaking through all along the eastern front. He told Hitler that additional troops were needed if the Germans had any hope of halting the Soviet advance, and he asked how many men the Replacement Army could provide for this purpose.
Field Marshal Keitel interrupted with a suggestion that Colonel Stauffenberg attend the following day's conference to provide "facts and figures" about the combat readiness of the fifteen new grenadier divisions he had been ordered to organize.
Hitler rose to his feet, terminating the conference, and said, "Good, send for Stauffenberg tomorrow."
Colonel Stauffenberg worked late into the evening of 19 July 1944, making last-minute updates to the operation tables for the fifteen divisions Adolf Hitler had ordered him to create from the military rubble of the Third Reich. It was not a successful undertaking. With increasing frequency in the past two years, Hitler had prescribed imaginary divisions created out of thin air, largely by reducing existing divisions to half their assigned strength and forming additional units with the overflow.
He must have known that the next day the "dirty work" would definitely be done. The decision was now reached that the bomb would be set whether Himmler was present or not. There would be no telephone calls seeking instructions from superiors; he would do it.
Secure in his Wolf's Lair headquarters deep in the East Prussian forest at Rastenburg, Hitler was awake until past 2:00 in the morning. Typically, his practice was to engage in animated conversation with aides until well past midnight and sleep until late in the morning, which is why the "morning military conference" seldom began before 2:00 P.M. On this night he left instructions that he should be awakened at 9:00 A.M., an unheard of hour for the F�hrer; however, he was expecting Mussolini in the afternoon and his "morning military conference" was actually scheduled for late morning.
Daybreak on 20 July 1944, carried with it a promise of oppressive heat and later, w hen he entered the room, Stauffenberg must have realized the bomb he was carrying might not be sufficient for the job. Instead of a solid concrete structure in which these conferences were usually held, this building was constructed of wood and contained several large windows that were open to allow a summer breeze in. Stauffenberg had expected a solidly built conference chamber that would contain the blast and increase the force of the explosion, but now it was obvious that the wood walls and windows of the room being used would allow at least a portion of the blast to escape the room, reducing the damage it would inflict to those inside.
A massive oak table on which several military maps were spread occupied a large portion of the 18-by-40-foot room. Close to either end of the table were thick oak supports practically the width of the tabletop. Over two dozen men stood in place around the table, with Hitler himself standing near the center, his back to the door and facing the open windows.
Stauffenberg, satisfied that his briefcase was placed under the table as close to Hitler as he could get it, and possibly fearing that the unseasonably high temperature could accelerate the chemical reaction and detonate the bomb prematurely, quietly informed Keitel, "Herr Field Marshal, I have to make an urgent call to Berlin." Keitel nodded his permission and Stauffenberg unobtrusively left the meeting. Stauffenberg's departure attracted no particular interest, since officers were constantly entering and leaving the conference room for a variety of reasons.
General Adolf Heusinger was summing up the situation in East Prussia. Just as he said, "If the Army Group does not withdraw from Lake Peipus, a catastrophe will. . . " at 12.42 p.m., a violent blast hurled everyone to the floor, setting fire to hair and uniforms. Over the bedlam several officers could hear the ever-faithful Keitel, unhurt by the blast, calling out, "Where is the F�hrer? Where is the F�hrer?" General Heusinger, who was momentarily knocked unconscious, came to and found himself on his back next to Hitler, who was also unconscious. Heusinger crawled to the door and managed to drag himself painfully into the hall, where several officers and men helped him exit the building. His uniform, face, body, and legs were burned, and both ear drums had been broken. His right arm and hand bled profusely from numerous splinters that had been launched into the air when the table was ripped apart by the bomb.
Keitel groped his way through the thick smoke and dust, past wounded men crying out for help, until he found the F�hrer just regaining consciousness. The Field Marshal helped Hitler to his feet; the latter's pants had been shredded. Hitler looked at Keitel with a dazed expression, then collapsed into his arms. He was carried to his quarters where a doctor dressed his wounds, which turned out to be superficial.
Others in the room were not so lucky. Hitler's stenographer, Heinrich Berger, had both legs blown off and died a few hours later. General Rudolf Schmundt, Hitler's adjutant, lost a leg and died in a hospital on October 1. Two days after the blast General G�nther Korten, Chief of Staff for the Luftwaffe, and Colonel Heinz Brandt died of their wounds. Everyone's uniform was burned or tattered, and most received wounds that required a stay of several days in the hospital at Rastenburg.
Investigators later concluded that had the explosion occurred inside the Bunker-like structure usually used for these conferences, everyone in the room would have been killed, many of the bodies unrecognizable from the blast and fire. When it was learned that Stauffenberg and H�ften had a second bomb identical to the first, most investigators agreed that no one could have survived if both bombs had exploded simultaneously. Once again, Hitler had cheated death.
At Wolf's Lair men were beginning to piece together what had happened. Everyone in the conference was accounted for except Colonel Stauffenberg, who it was quickly learned had sped away immediately following the explosion. When it was found that Stauffenberg's H-111 was airborne, a hurried call was placed to Luftwaffe headquarters in Berlin with orders to scramble a fighter squadron to shoot down a westbound H-111 bearing the identification number of Stauffenberg's plane. The fighters never took off. It is believed that the order was suppressed by Major Friedrich Georgi, General Olbrich's son-in-law on the air staff, who suspected it had something to do with his father-in-law's coup.
If Stauffenberg could have delegated an alternate to plant the bomb while he stayed in Berlin, the coup would have gotten off to a better start; but during this time of indecision the one man who would have been decisive, and who had the respect of all the plotters, was out of touch on the return flight from East Prussia. On the other hand, had this coup been as well organized as the 1938 attempt, it might have succeeded despite Hitler's survival of the Wolf's Lair explosion.
Meanwhile, some basic assumptions were emerging at Wolf's Lair. Once it was determined that the bomb had probably been set by Stauffenberg, the assassination attempt was thought to be the act of a single individual. It did not apparently occur to anyone that the bombing might have been part of a conspiracy. In fact, Hitler himself was the likely author of the single assassin theory. Not until nearly 4:30 P.M. when Hitler lifted his communications blackout and word was received that Operation Valkyrie was in progress, did anyone suspect that a coup attempt was related to the bombing. Until now nothing was done to safeguard the Nazi regime against a coup because none was suspected. Now Himmler entered the investigation, calling on his Berlin Gestapo headquarters to find out what had happened and who was involved. Meanwhile, considerable time had passed, and neither side had actually made any significant headway.
During the next few hours a communications battle was waged between Wolf's Lair and Stauffenberg at the Bendlerstrasse. From Wolf's Lair came regular reports that Hitler was alive and well. Using the telephone and teleprinters at his command, Stauffenberg countered with denials and issued fresh orders for the arrest of all SS and SD members throughout the Reich and the occupied territories.
General von Hase, the City Commandant, had ordered the Grossdeutschland Battalion to surround and seal all entrances and exits to a list of government buildings, including several housing the SS. The battalion was commanded by a young officer, Major Otto Remer, who had a distinguished combat record but whose loyalties had not been determined.
Major Remer followed orders; he surrounded the buildings he had been assigned and set up roadblocks around the government quarter. So far these were the only troops at the disposal of the coup. The police were held in readiness by Count Helldorf, who waited for instructions that never came.
A liaison officer between Remer's battalion and the Propaganda Ministry became suspicious of the orders and slipped off to see the Propaganda Minister, Josef G�bbels, in his apartment on the Hermann-G�ringstrasse. When informed of the army's activities and the rumor that Hitler was dead, a shocked G�bbels agreed that Remer should be brought to him.
After some soul searching about his responsibility as an officer, Remer decided to answer G�bbels's summons. Following a brief discussion during which G�bbels ascertained Remer's loyalty to the F�hrer, he called Wolf's Lair. His call went through with no trouble, demonstrating once again the fatal error on the part of the conspirators of failing to close down even civilian communications within Berlin.
G�bbels explained the situation in Berlin, as he now knew it, to Hitler, and handed the phone to Remer. This single brief telephone conversation was the turning point in Berlin, and it spelled ultimate disaster for the coup. Hitler told Remer that a failed attempt had been made on his life. He placed Remer in charge of all troops in Berlin and instructed him to arrest anyone involved in the coup, and to shoot all who resisted him.
This was an intoxicating moment for the young major. Hitler had made him his personal military representative in Berlin, responsible to the F�hrer only. If Remer had been part of the resistance, perhaps it might have had a better chance at success. Remer immediately recalled his own troops and took control of all other units the coup leaders had ordered into the city. He then surrounded the Replacement Army headquarters on the Bendlerstrasse, signifying to anyone who cared to took that the coup against the Nazi government had failed.
Major Remer surrounded the Replacement Army Operations Center at the Bendlerstrasse, and even worse, Himmler was en route to Berlin to take command of all troop formations in the city and to deal with the traitors.
Stauffenberg and his co-conspirators, H�ften, Olbricht and Mertz von Quirnheim, were arrested and taken to the inner courtyard of the Bendlerstrasse Headquarters where a firing squad was waiting. Several cars and trucks had been drawn in a semicircle with their lights focused on the row of sandbags where the condemned men stood silently. Seconds before the shots were fired, Stauffenberg shouted, "Long live holy Germany". In a final act of loyalty, H�ften threw himself in front of Stauffenberg, who was merely wounded by the first round. A second volley was needed to finish him. The soul of the conspiracy against Hitler died at 12:30 A.M., 21 July 1944.
Before the second round of executions could be carried out, they were stopped by SS Obergruppenf�hrer Ernst Kaltenbrunner, who was acting as Himmler's personal representative, and SS Sturmbannf�hrer Otto Skorzeny, Himmler's choice to command the Replacement Army. They wanted prisoners who could be interrogated, not corpses.
At exactly 1:00 A.M., 21 July, Hitler broadcast a speech that was carried throughout occupied Europe. In his harsh, flat voice the F�hrer announced the unsuccessful attempt on his life: "Men and women of Germany, I do not know how many times there have been plans and attempts to assassinate me. If I speak to you today it is, first of all, in order that you should hear my voice and know that I am unhurt and well, secondly that you should know of a crime unparalleled in German history".
Hitler went on to identify Stauffenberg as the intended assassin of the F�hrer and high-level German military leaders. He called the conspirators a "small clique of ambitious, unscrupulous, and at the same time criminal and stupid officers". He compared them with the anonymous cowards who had stabbed the German army in the back in 1918. To emphasize that the plotters had not infected the army with their poison, he assured his listeners that "this circle of usurpers is very small and has nothing in common with the German Wehrmacht". They were, he went on, "a tiny gang of criminal elements that will be ruthlessly exterminated".
Hitler then described the measures he had taken to excise what he called "this tiny clique of traitors". Himmler was made Commander-in-Chief of the Replacement Army and charged with punishing the conspirators. "This time we are going to settle accounts with them in a manner to which we National Socialists are accustomed". These were chilling words for the conspirators. They knew exactly what Hitler had in store for them. Death would be a slow, torturous agony for the men who had plotted Hitler's death and the destruction of the Nazi government.
Hitler told Joachim von Ribbentrop: "I will crush and destroy the criminals who have dared to oppose themselves to Providence and to me. These traitors to their own people deserve ignominious death, and this is what they shall have. This time the full price will be paid by all those who are involved, and by their families, and by all those who have helped them. This nest of vipers who have tried to sabotage the grandeur of my Germany will be exterminated once and for all".
Members of the SS were never seriously recruited into the 20 July plot, most often since the SS had sworn a personal oath to Hitler that included service above life itself. Therefore, SS members were not considered reliable conspirators for an attempt to kill Hitler. One very notable exception was Arthur Nebe who was implicated in the plot due to his anti-Nazi feelings even though he was a full member of the SS and had even commanded an Einsatzgruppe. Nebe's "fall from grace" was considered due to his many years as a civilian police detective and how he saw most the SS security police as incompetent. Nebe himself was quoted, upon investigating the death of Reinhard Heydrich, that the Gestapo seemed more concerned with reprisals than actually investigating the crime. Even so, Nebe's exact fate after the bomb plot remains unclear to this day. Most reports state he was executed; however, alternate theories suggest Nebe escaped Germany under an assumed name with reports placing him in Ireland as late as 1960.
Arthur Nebe) (13 November 1894 � 21 March 1945) was a key functionary in the security and police apparatus of Nazi Germany. Nebe rose through the ranks of the Berlin and Prussian police forces to become head of Nazi Germany's Criminal Police (Kripo) in 1936, which was folded into the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA) in 1939.
Nebe served as commanding officer of Einsatzgruppe B deployed largely in modern-day Belarus behind Army Group Centre during the German invasion of the Soviet Union. In late 1941, he was posted back to Berlin and resumed his career within the RSHA. Nebe commanded the Kripo until he was denounced and executed after the failed attempt to kill Adolf Hitler in July 1944.
After the close of the World War II, 24 senior leaders of the Einsatzgruppen were prosecuted in the Einsatzgruppen Trial in 1947�48, part of the Subsequent Nuremberg Trials held under United States military authority. The men were charged with crimes against humanity, war crimes, and membership in the SS (which had been declared a criminal organization). Fourteen death sentences and two life sentences were among the judgments; only four executions were carried out, on 7 June 1951; the rest were reduced to lesser sentences. Four additional Einsatzgruppen leaders were later tried and executed by other nations.
Several Einsatzgruppen leaders, including Otto Ohlendorf, claimed at the trial to have received an order before Operation Barbarossa requiring them to murder all Soviet Jews.[145] To date no evidence has been found that such an order was ever issued.[Longerich, Peter (2010). "Holocaust: The Nazi Persecution and Murder of the Jews. Oxford; New York: Oxford University].
German prosecutor Alfred Streim noted that if such an order had been given, post-war courts would only have been able to convict the Einsatzgruppen leaders as accomplices to mass murder. However, if it could be established that the Einsatzgruppen had committed mass murder without orders, then they could have been convicted as perpetrators of mass murder, and hence could have received stiffer sentences, including capital punishment. Streim postulated that the existence of an early comprehensive order was a fabrication created for use in Ohlendorf's defence. This theory is now widely accepted by historians.
Longerich notes that most orders received by the Einsatzgruppen leaders�especially when they were being ordered to carry out criminal activities�were vague, and couched in terminology that had a specific meaning for members of the regime. Leaders were given briefings about the need to be "severe" and "firm"; all Jews were to be viewed as potential enemies that had to be dealt with ruthlessly. British historian Sir Ian Kershaw argues that Hitler's apocalyptic remarks before Barbarossa about the necessity for a war without mercy to "annihilate" the forces of "Judeo-Bolshevism" were interpreted by Einsatzgruppen commanders as permission and encouragement to engage in extreme antisemitic violence, with each Einsatzgruppen commander to use his own discretion about how far he was prepared to go.[Kershaw, Ian (2008). "Hitler, the Germans, and the Final Solution". New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press.]
Most of the perpetrators of Nazi war crimes were never charged, and returned unremarked to civilian life. The West German Central Prosecution Office of Nazi War Criminals only charged about a hundred former Einsatzgruppe members with war crimes. And as time went on, it became more difficult to obtain prosecutions; witnesses grew older and were less likely to be able to offer valuable testimony. Funding for trials was inadequate, and the governments of Austria and Germany became less interested in obtaining convictions for wartime events, preferring to forget the Nazi past.
Born in Berlin, the son of a Berlin school teacher, Nebe volunteered for military service in the 17th Pioneer Battalion during the Great War, where he was wounded twice by poison-gas.
In 1920 Nebe Nebe joined the Berlin detective force known as the Kriminalpolizei (Kripo; Criminal Police), a similar organization to the United Kingdom's Criminal Investigation Department, and attained the rank of Police Commissioner in 1924. In early 1932 Nebe and other detectives formed the NS (National Socialist) Civil Service Society of the Berlin Police.
A professional policeman and the author of an authoritative treatise on criminology, Nebe joined the NSDAP on 1 July 1931 and the SS on 2 December 1936.
Following the Nazi seizure of power, Kurt Dal�ge recommended Nebe in April 1933 to be Chief Executive of the State Police.
Kurt Dal�ge (15 September 1897 � 24 October 1946) was a German Nazi SS-Oberst-Gruppenf�hrer and Generaloberst of the Police (ranks equivalent to colonel-general, or four-star General) as chief of the national uniformed Ordnungspolizei (Order Police), and ruled the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia as Deputy Protector after Reinhard Heydrich's assassination. After the end of World War II, he was extradited to Czechoslovakia, convicted as a war criminal and executed in 1946.
Dal�ge, son of a Prussian state official, was born in the small Upper Silesian town of Kreuzburg (now Kluczbork). He entered the Imperial German Army in 1916 and served with the 7th Garde Infantry Regiment, on the Eastern Front. In October 1917, he attended officer training in Doberitz. During his service on the Western Front, he was severely wounded in the head and shoulder. He was hospitalised and declared 25% disabled. Dal�ge was awarded the Iron Cross, second class (1918) and the Wound Badge in Black (1918).
After World War I, Dal�ge became leader of Selbstschutz Oberschlesien (SSOS) - Upper Silesian Self Defense � an Upper Silesian veterans' organization engaged in combat with the Poles in that region. In 1921, he also became active in the Freikorps Rossbach while studying engineering at the Technical University in Berlin, where he eventually earned a civil engineering degree. Two years later he joined the Nazi Party (NSDAP). In 1926 he joined the Sturmabteilung (SA), eventually becoming the leader of Berlin's SA and G�bbbels' Deputy Gauleiter (or Party leader) in Berlin. Throughout the period 1926�1929, Dal�ge led the Berlin-Brandenburg division of the SA.
In July 1930, in accordance with Hitler's wishes, Dal�ge resigned from the SA and joined the SS with the rank of SS-Oberf�hrer. His main responsibility was to spy on the SA and political opponents of the Nazi Party. Berlin SS headquarters was strategically placed at the corner of L�tzowstrasse and Potsdamerstrasse, opposite the SA headquarters.
In August 1930, when Berlin SA leader Walter Stennes had his men attack the Berlin Party headquarters, it was Dal�ge's SS men who defended it and put the attack down. Sometime afterwards in an open letter to Dal�ge, Adolf Hitler proclaimed "SS Mann, deine Ehre hei�t Treue!" (SS man, your honour is loyalty); and "Meine Ehre hei�t Treue" (My honour is loyalty) was duly adopted by the SS as its motto. Hitler promoted both Dal�ge and Heinrich Himmler to SS-Obergruppenf�hrer, with Dal�ge the SS leader of northern Germany while Himmler controlled the southern SS units out of Munich in addition to serving as national leader for the entire SS. In 1932 Dal�ge became a Nazi Party delegate in the Prussian state parliament, and in November 1932 was elected to the Reichstag representing the Berlin East electoral district, a seat he retained until 1945. At the same time, Hermann G�ring moved Dal�ge to the Prussian Interior Ministry, where he took over the nonpolitical police with the rank of General der Polizei. Intrigue created by G�ring, Himmler and Heydrich surrounding Ernst R�hm led to Dal�ge playing an important role in the infamous Night of the Long Knives during which R�hm along with many leading members of the SA were killed between 30 June to 2 July 1934, thus neutralising the SA and shifting the balance of power within the party to the SS.
Evidence of Dal�ge's ruthlessness goes beyond his intrigue against his former SA comrades and are discernible in his remarks concerning anyone he considered a threat to society. He once argued that, "the consciously asocial enemies of the people (Volksfeinde)" must be eliminated by state intervention "if it hopes to prevent the outbreak of complete moral degeneration". Historian George Browder claims that Dal�ge "bragged that the Police Institute for detective training had especially been reorganized according to NS viewpoints" and that advancement within his organization was contingent to a considerable degree upon the internalization of Nazi ideology.
By November 1934, Dal�ge's authority over the uniformed police was extended beyond Prussia to encompass all of Germany. That meant he commanded municipal police forces, the rural gendarmerie, traffic police, the coastguard, the railway police, the postal protection service, fire brigades, the air-raid services, the emergency technical service, the broadcasting police, the factory protection police, building regulations enforcement, and the commercial police.
In 1936, the entire German police force was reorganized with the administrative functions previously exercised by the now largely defunct federal states reassigned to the nominal control of Reich Interior Ministry, but under the actual control of Himmler's SS. Making the most of his police expertise and coinciding his appointment, Dal�ge wrote and published a book entitled, National-sozialistischer Kampf gegen das Verbrechertum" (NS Struggle against Criminality). That same year, Himmler appointed Dal�ge as chief of the Ordnungspolizei (Orpo), which gave him administrative, though not executive, authority over most of the uniformed police in Nazi Germany. He commanded the Orpo until 1943, rising to the rank of SS-Oberst-Gruppenf�hrer und Generaloberst der Polizei. By August 1939, the strength of the Orpo under Dal�ge's command and control had reached upwards of 120,000 active-duty personnel.
Further indications of the brutality coming from Dal�ge's office (Chief of the Ordnungspolizei), are shown in a report dated 5 September 1939 outlining the methods to be employed during pacification operations in Poland. Concerning uniformed police battalions for planned reprisal actions around the Polish town of Czestochowa, the report gave the following instructions: "the leader of this battalion is ordered to take the most drastic actions and measures such as those in the upper Silesian industrial area, the hanging of Polish franc-tireurs from light poles as a visible symbol for the entire population".
During the war in 1941, he attended a mass shooting of 4,435 Jews by Police-Battalion 307 near Brest-Litowsk and a mass shooting of Jews in Minsk. Further in October 1941, Dal�ge signed deportation orders for Jews from Germany, Austria and the Protectorate to Riga and Minsk. On 7 July 1942, he attended a conference led by Himmler which discussed the "enlargement" of Operation Reinhard, the secretive Nazi plan to mass-murder Polish Jews in the General Government district of occupied Poland and as to other matters involving SS and police policies in the east.
In 1942 Dal�ge became the Deputy Protector of Bohemia and Moravia, following the assassination of Deputy Protector Reinhard Heydrich. Although Konstantin von Neurath was nominally Protector, he had been stripped of his authority in 1941, so Dal�ge was Acting Protector in all but name. In June 1942, along with Karl Hermann Frank and other SS operatives, he ordered the villages of Lidice and Le��ky razed to the ground in reprisal for Heydrich's death. All of the men in both villages were murdered, while many of the women and children were deported to Nazi concentration camps.
In May 1943, Dal�ge became seriously ill after a massive heart attack. In August, he was relieved of all of his day-to-day responsibilities and spent the rest of the war living on a property in western Pomerania given to him by Hitler.
In May 1945, he was arrested by British troops in L�beck and interned in Luxembourg and then at Nuremberg where he was charged as "a major war criminal". In September 1946 after being extradited to Czechoslovakia, he was tried for his many war crimes committed in the Protectorate. Throughout his trial, Dal�e was unrepentant, claiming that he was beloved by "three million policemen", only following Hitler's orders and that he had a clear conscience. He was convicted on all charges and sentenced to death on 23 October 1946. Dal�ge was hanged in Pankr�c prison in Prague on 24 October 1946 after having attempted suicide previously.
In October 1933 Nebe was ordered by Rudolf Diels, then head of the Gestapo, to arrange the liquidation of Hitler's rival Gregor Strasser. This began the process of turning Nebe against the Nazis.
Rudolf Diels (16 December 1900 � 18 November 1957) was a German civil servant and head of the Gestapo in 1933�34. He obtained the rank of SS-Oberf�hrer and was a prot�g� of Hermann G�ring.
Diels was born in Berghausen in the Taunus, the son of a farmer. He served in the army during World War I and afterwards studied law at the University of Marburg from 1919. At university he had a reputation as a drinker and philanderer. While there he also received a number of dueling scars resulting from the academic fencing once practised by young upper-class Austrians and Germans in trying to prove their manhood. The scars did not greatly detract from his good looks and in fact imparted a quite striking appearance.
He joined the Prussian interior ministry in 1930 and was promoted to an advisory position in the Prussian police in 1932, targeting political radicals, both Communists and Nazis. He was head of the Prussian Political Police when Adolf Hitler came to power. G�ring was made minister for Prussia in 1933, replacing Carl Severing, and was impressed with Diels' work and new-found commitment to the Nazi Party. Diels became a prot�g� of G�ring's. In April 1933, G�ring appointed him as chief of the new Prussian state police department 1A, concerned with political crimes. Department 1A was soon renamed the Geheime Staatspolizei (Secret State Police), or Gestapo.
On 27 February 1933 the Reichstag fire occurred and Diels was the main interrogator of the principal accused, Marinus van der Lubbe. He told Hitler he thought that the fire was set by this single man. However, Hitler was convinced it was the Communists. Diels also ordered Arthur Nebe to arrange the killing of Gregor Strasser in October 1933; ironically Strasser was later killed during the Night of the Long Knives in which Diels himself was almost killed.
Diels attracted the attention of political rivals, including SS chief Heinrich Himmler and his deputy, Reinhard Heydricha, who began to spread rumours about his loyalty to Adolf Hitler. One of these stories claimed that Diels had joined the conspiracy being organized by Ernst R�hm.
In 1933 and 1934, Himmler and Heydrich took over the political police of state after state. Soon only Prussia was left outside their control. Concerned that Diels was not ruthless enough to effectively counteract the power of the Sturmabteilung (SA), G�ring handed over control of the Gestapo to Himmler on 20 April 1934. Also on that date, Hitler appointed Himmler chief of all German police outside Prussia.
Heydrich, named chief of the Gestapo by Himmler on 22 April 1934, also continued as head of the SS Security Service (Sicherheitsdienst, SD). Effectively smeared, but with G�ring's aid, Diels narrowly avoided execution during the Night of the Long Knives in the summer of 1934, fleeing his post for five weeks. Thereafter, he was briefly Deputy Police President of Berlin before being appointed Regierungspr�sident (administrative president) of the local government of Cologne.
He maintained his association with G�ring, marrying a cousin of his protector. G�ring often saved him from prison, notably in 1940 when he declined to order the arrest of Jews. He was later arrested by the Gestapo in 1944 after the 20 July Plot to assassinate Hitler and imprisoned, but survived.
He presented a affidavit for the prosecution at the Nuremberg trials but was also summoned to testify by G�ring's defence lawyer. Diels gave evidence against the leaders of the Nazi Government. As he was considered to be innocent of war crimes he was allowed to serve in the post-war government of Lower Saxony from 1950 and then in the Ministry of the Interior until his retirement in 1953.
Diels published his memoirs, "Lucifer Ante Portas", in 1950.
Rudolf Diels was killed on 18 November 1957 as his rifle went off as he was taking it from the trunk of his car, preparing for a hunt.
In 1933 he came to know Hans Bernd Gisevius, then an official in the Berlin Police Headquarters and Gisevius introduced him to Hans Oster
In July 1936, the Kripo became the criminal police department for the entire Reich. It was merged, along with the Gestapo, into the Sicherheitspolizei (SiPo) or Security Police. At that point, Reinhard Heydrich was in overall command of the SiPo (Gestapo and Kripo) and the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) (Security Service), the intelligence service of the SS and the Nazi Party. As chief of the Kripo, Nebe reported to Heydrich. His aversion to Heydrich and Heinrich Himmler grew even though he continued to regularly lunch with them.
In 1938, Nebe joined forces with future fellow conspirator Dr. Karl Sack (Judge Advocate-General of the Wehrmacht) against Himmler and Heydrich's plot against General Werner von Fritsch. That same year, Hans Oster recruited Nebe into the conspiracy for the September 1938 coup attempt, a plot to overthrow Hitler if he went to war with Czechoslovakia over the Sudetenland. Nebe supplied the conspirators with information regarding SS strength, logistics, and safe houses throughout the Berlin area.
Karl Sack (born June 9, 1896 in Bosenheim (now Bad Kreuznach), executed 9 April 1945 in Flossenb�rg concentration camp) was a German jurist and member of the resistance movement during World War II.
Sack studied law in Heidelberg where he joined a 'Burschenschaft' (Burschenschaft Vineta) and after a time in legal practice became district court judge in Hesse. He transfered to the military judiciary in 1934.
The rapid expansion of the Wehrmacht expedited Sack's career in the Reich War Ministry. As a judge in the Reichskriegsgericht (Reich Military Court), Sack was involved in the investigation leading to the proceedings against Chief of Army High Command Colonel-General von Fritsch in 1938. Fritsch was falsely accused by the Gestapo of homosexuality, and Sack was able to prove that these accusations were untenable.
During World War II, Sack maintained contacts within the resistance circles in the Office for Foreign Affairs/Counter Intelligence around Admiral Canaris, Major General Hans Oster, and Hans von Dohn�nyi and with the military opposition.
The conspirators' plans briefly envisioned Karl Sack as Justice Minister within a planned post-coup civilian government. In the wake of the unsuccessful attempt on Hitler's life on 20 July 1944, Karl Sack was arrested on 9 August 1944, and brought before an SS drumhead court-martial presided over by Otto Thorbeck, and sentenced to death. On Hitler's orders, he was executed in the Flossenb�rg concentration camp on 9 April, 1945.
In 1984, Sack's role as a member of the resistance was remembered with a bronze plaque placed in the former Reichskriegsgericht in Berlin-Charlottenburg. There was some opposition to this honour as Sack favoured a far-reaching interpretation of what constituted desertion, which must have led to more than a few death sentences.
Hans von Dohn�nyi (Born 1 January 1902, Vienna, Austria-Hungary - Died 8/9 April 1945) was a German jurist of Hungarian ancestry, rescuer of Jews, and German resistance fighter against the Nazi regime.
Dohn�nyi was born to the Hungarian composer Ern� Dohn�nyi and his wife, the pianist Elisabeth Kunwald. After his parents divorced, he grew up in Berlin. He went to the Gr�newald Gymnasium there, becoming friends with Dietrich and Klaus Bonh�ffer. From 1920 to 1924, he studied law in Berlin. In 1925, he received a doctorate in law with a dissertation on "The International Lease Treaty and Czechoslovakia's Claim on the Lease Area in Hamburg Harbour".
After taking the first state exam in 1924, he married Christel Bonh�ffer, sister of his school friends, in 1925. About this time, he began putting the stress on the "a" in his last name (which is of Hungarian origin, stressed on the first syllable).
Dohn�nyi worked at the Hamburg Senate for a short time and in 1929, began a career at the Reich Ministry of Justice, working as a personal consultant with the title of prosecutor to several justice ministers In 1934, the title was changed to Regierungsrat ("government adviser"). In 1932, he was adjutant to Erwin Bumke, the Imperial Court President (Reichsgerichtspr�sident; at this time, Germany was still officially the Deutsches Reich {German Empire), in which capacity he put together Prussia's lawsuit against the Empire, which Prussia had brought after the Preu�enschlag, Franz von Papen's dissolution of the Prussian social-democratic government through an emergency decree in 1932. As an adviser to Franz G�rtner from 1934�38, Dohn�nyi became acquainted with Adolf Hitler, Josef G�bbels, Heinrich Himmler and Hermann G�ring. He had access to the justice ministry's most secret documents.
Spurred by the murders of alleged plotters of the 1934 Night of the Long Knives, "legitimized" murders carried out on government orders, without trial or sentence, Dohn�nyi began to seek out contacts with German resistance circles. He made records for himself of the regime's crimes, so that in the event of a collapse of the Third Reich, he would have evidence of their crimes. In 1938, once his critical view of Nazi racial politics became known, Martin Bormann had him transferred to the Reichsgericht in Leipzig as an adviser.
Shortly before the outbreak of World War II, Hans Oster called Dohn�nyi into the Abwehr of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht. Led by Wilhelm Canaris, it quite quickly became a hub of resistance activity against Hitler. Dohn�nyi protected Dietrich Bonh�ffer from conscription by bringing him into the Abwehr with the claim Bonh�ffer's numerous ecumenical contacts could be useful for Germany.
Dietrich Bonh�ffer (4 February 1906 � 9 April 1945) was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian, anti-Nazi dissident, and key founding member of the Confessing Church, was known for his staunch resistance to the Nazi dictatorship, including vocal opposition to Hitler's euthanasia program and genocidal persecution of the Jews.
After the failure of the 20 July Plot on Hitler's life in 1944 and the discovery in September 1944 of secret Abwehr documents relating to the conspiracy, Bonh�ffer's connection with the conspirators was discovered. He was transferred from the military prison Tegel in Berlin, where he had been held for 18 months, to the detention cellar of the house prison of the Reich Security Head Office, the Gestapo's high-security prison. In February 1945, he was secretly moved to Buchenwald concentration camp, and finally to Flossenb�rg concentration camp.
On 4 April 1945, the diaries of Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, head of the Abwehr, were discovered, and in a rage upon reading them, Hitler ordered that the Abwehr conspirators be destroyed.
Bonh�ffer was condemned to death on 8 April 1945 by SS judge Otto Thorbeck at a drumhead court-martial without witnesses, records of proceedings or a defense in Flossenb�rg concentration camp. He was executed there by hanging at dawn on 9 April 1945, along with fellow conspirators Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, Canaris's deputy General Hans Oster, military jurist General Karl Sack, General Friedrich von Rabenau, businessman Theodor Str�nck, and German resistance fighter Ludwig Gehre, just two weeks before soldiers from the United States 90th and 97th Infantry Divisions liberated the camp, three weeks before the Soviet capture of Berlin and a month before the capitulation of Nazi Germany.
Bonh�ffer's brother, Klaus Bonh�ffer, and his brother-in-law R�diger Schleicher were executed in Berlin on the night of 22�23 April as Soviet troops were already fighting in the capital.
In 1942, Dohn�nyi made it possible for two Jewish lawyers from Berlin, Friedrich Arnold and Julius Fliess, to flee with their loved ones to Switzerland, disguised as Abwehr agents. Altogether, 13 people were able to leave Germany without hindrance, thanks to Dohn�nyi's forgeries and operation known as U-7. Dohn�nyi covertly went to Switzerland to make certain the refugees would be admitted, and also ensuring they received money to support themselves.
During late February 1943, Dohn�nyi busied himself with Henning von Tresckow's assassination attempt against Hitler and the attendant coup d'�tat. The bomb that was smuggled aboard Hitler's plane in Smolensk after being carried there by Dohn�nyi, however, failed to go off.
On 5 April 1943, Dohn�nyi was arrested at his office by the Gestapo on charges of alleged breach of foreign currency violations: he had transferred funds to a Swiss bank on behalf of the Jews he had saved. Both Bonh�ffer and Christel Dohn�nyi were also arrested, although she was released about a week later.
Military judge Karl Sack, a member of the resistance, deliberately delayed Dohn�nyi's trial, but, in 1944, Dohn�nyi was delivered to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. His involvement in the 20 July Plot came to light after the plan failed. Also, the Gestapo found some of the documents he had earlier saved and hidden and decided Dohn�nyi was "the spiritual head of the conspiracy� against Hitler. On Hitler's orders, on 6 April 1945, he was condemned to death by an SS drumhead court and executed two or three days later (depending on the source).
After the fall of the Nazi r�gime, the chairman of the drumhead court, Otto Thorbeck, and the prosecutor, Walter Huppenkothen, were accused in West Germany of being accessories to murder. After the Bundesgerichtshof (BGH) had at first quashed a lower court's two acquittals, it changed its mind in 1956 during the third revision of the case, quashed Thorbeck's and Huppenkothen's sentences, and acquitted them of the charges of being accessories to murder by their participation in the drumhead trial on grounds that the court had been duly constituted and the sentence had been imposed according to the law then in force, without either of the accused having perverted justice.
On the centenary of Dohn�nyi's birth in 2002, G�nter Hirsch, president of the BGH, called those who had sentenced Dohn�nyi to death "criminals calling themselves judges". Hirsch said the 1956 ruling was shameful because as a result, not a single one of the Nazi-era judges who sentenced 50,000 Nazi opponents to their deaths were themselves found guilty after the war.
On 23 October 2003, Israel honoured Dohn�nyi by recognizing him as one of the Righteous Among the Nations for saving the Arnold and Fliess families, at risk to his own life. His name has been inscribed in the walls at the Holocaust remembrance centre Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.
On 27 September 1939, Himmler ordered the creation of the Reich Main Security Office (Reichssicherheitshauptamt or RSHA); the new organisation encompassed all security services and police, except for the uniformed service. The RSHA was divided into main departments, including SiPo and Kripo, which became Department V of the RSHA. Department V was also known as the Reich Criminal Police Office (Reichskriminalpolizeiamt, or RKPA). Nebe was put in charge of Amt V, and promoted to the rank of SS-Gruppenf�hrer,
Nebe embraced the preventative mission of the Kripo to "exterminate criminality" and fostered Nazi ideology within the police department. Under Nebe's leadership, equipped with arbitrary powers of arrest and detention, the Kripo acted more and more like the Gestapo, including the liberal use of preventative custody, and large-scale roundups of so-called asocials.
Nebe's ties to mass murder may originate in 1939, when he sent a commissioner in his Criminal Police Office, Christian Wirth of Stuttgart, to the Euthanasia organisation.
In 1941, just prior to Operation Barbarossa,perhaps sensing some reluctance on the part of his subordinate to get his hands dirty, Reinhard Heydrich selected Nebe to command Einsatzgruppe B, which would follow the Wehrmacht�s Army Group Center in the invasion of the Soviet Union.
There are reports of his volunteering for this command from Nazis being tried for war crimes themselves after the war and while it is quite possible he did, in fact, volunteer for the position, there is also the distinct possibility that he was assigned the position and the war criminals were lying - they were, at the time, attempting to clear SS Intelligence Chief Reinhard Heydrich of war crimes.
Nebe asked for a transfer to the International Police Commission to avoid this duty, but Heydrich insisted; anti-Nazis Ludwig Beck and Hans Oster urged Nebe to accept, so they would have direct evidence of SS crimes and organization. He worked with Henning von Tresckow and Fabian von Schlabrendorff to reduce the atrocities committed, and often massaged the numbers reported to his superiors (including one claim that his task force was responsible for more than 45,000 killings).
A different picture of Nebe is shown through the August 1941 mass-shooting of 100 people in Minsk. On Himmler's request, Nebe held the demonstration. Himmler attended the shooting; just after the event, he vomited. After regaining his composure, Himmler decided that alternate methods of killing should be found. He told Heydrich that he was concerned for the mental health of the SS men. Himmler wanted Nebe to come up with something less distressing.
With the technical assistance of Dr. Albert Widmann, Nebe experimented with the use of explosives and carbon monoxide gas vans (used to suffocate victims) to kill the mentally defective in lunatic asylums in Minsk and Mogilev, to spare his men the anxiety of shooting them.
Of his work in the east, historian Gerald Reitlinger stated:
�The headquarters of Nebe's extermination group were at Minsk and later Smolensk, where he was in touch with another old friend, Colonel Hans Oster, who was attached to Central Army Group headquarters. Nebe is said to have fought against Heydrich's orders and disclosed them to the Oster circle, who had used him as an information post for the past four years. No doubt that is why Heydrich's reports credit Nebe's stewardship with the quite modest score of 46,000 executions as against Stahlecker's 221,000".
He returned from Russia convinced that the war would end with the military defeat of Germany. In late 1942 after the Wannsee Conference, Nebe informed his fellow conspirators of the plans for the so-called Final Solution.
In March 1944, after the 'Great Escape' from Stalag Luft III POW camp, Nebe was ordered by Heinrich M�ller, Chief of the Gestapo (Amt IV, or Department 4, of the RSHA), to choose 50 of the 73 captured prisoners to be executed in the Stalag Luft III murders. It is reputed that this selection caused Nebe great distress.
Arthur Nebe appears to have been on the fringe of the 20 July 1944 bomb plot to kill Hitler at Rastenburg. Supposedly, his mission in the plot was to lead a team of twelve police officers to assassinate Heinrich Himmler, but his whereabouts on the day remain in question (He may have been in Berlin with conspirator General Paul von Hase) as does the method by which he was to have received the signal to act.
Historian Reitlinger characterized Nebe as "a very questionable member of the Resistance Circle at the time of the great bomb plot".
Nebe � using various disguises after a warrant was issued for his arrest on24 July 24 � fled into hiding. There are many versions of what happened next; one of the most logical is that Nebe contacted a female acquaintance in the police, one Adelheid Gobbin at the end of July, requesting help. She took him to her apartment and then arranged a hiding place with the Walter Frick family at Motzen on Lake Motzen, twenty miles south of Berlin. Gestapo investigator Willy Litzenberg appears to have tracked Gobbin down in January 1945 and in a later interrogation, she revealed Nebe�s hiding place. Nebe, who according to one source attempted to fake his own suicide in January, was arrested in February 1945 and sentenced to death by the People�s Court.
On 21 March 1945, executioners at Pl�tzensee Prison in Berlin hanged Arthur Nebe (and Walter Frick). Contrary to this, sightings of him were reported in Tunin during 1956 and in Ireland during 1960. Whether these reports are truthful or not is still unknown.
To this day, Arthur Nebe remains a controversial figure in the history of the German conspiracy against Hitler
Having been a major figure in Himmler's SS empire as Head of the Kriminalpolizei (Criminal Police) and later having belonged to Einsatzgruppen - B (attached to Army Group Center), Nebe has been posthumously accused of all manners of war crimes. But a careful study of his life reveals the very opposite.
Nebe begins his career in the Criminal Police long before Hitler's accession to power earning an impeccable record in the fight against crime.
Though initially fond of Hitler and his vows to restore Germany to great power status, Nebe soon develops serious doubts about the Nazi regime following the R�hm massacre. As his doubts accumulate, he eventually confides to his close friend and colleague, Hans-Bernd Gisevius, his intention to resign from the force, especially after the Criminal Police is absorbed into the SS empire. Gisevius persuades him to stay on arguing that the conspirators desperately need someone within Himmler's empire to carefully document all the crimes that were being perpetrated by the Nazi regime - evidence the conspirators hope one day to use to bring Hitler, G�ring, Himmler, and the rest to justice before Germany and the world.
Hans Bernd Gisevius (July 14, 1904 � February 23, 1974) was a German diplomat and intelligence officer during World War II. A covert opponent of the Nazi regime, he served as a liaison in Z�rich between Allen Dulles, station chief for the American OSS and the German Resistance forces in Germany.
Gisevius was born in Arnsberg in the Prussian Province of Westphalia. After law school, he joined the Prussian Interior Ministry in 1933 and was assigned to the newly formed Geheime Staatspolizei, or Gestapo. After joining the Gestapo, he immediately had disagreements with his senior, Rudolf Diels, and was discharged. He continued with police work in the Interior Ministry. When Himmler took over Police functions in 1936 in the German Reich, he removed Gisevius from office.
Throughout his time working for the Gestapo Gisevius described himself as living in constant fear, entering and exiting through the back door, clutching a pistol at his side - all resultant from his misgivings with the terror apparatus to which he was assigned, since according to him, it was like "living in a den of murderers".
Gisevius later transferred to the Reich Ministry of the Interior. Although he had no position of power, he maintained connections, notably to Arthur Nebe, that kept him informed of the political background. Gisevius joined the secret opposition to Hitler, began gathering evidence of Nazi crimes (for use in a later prosecution) and attempted to restrain the increasing power of Heinrich Himmler and the SS. He maintained links with Hans Oster and Hjalmar Schacht.
When World War II started, Gisevius joined the German intelligence service, the Abwehr, which was headed by Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, who was secretly an opponent of Hitler. Canaris had surrounded himself with Wehrmacht officers opposed to Hitler and he welcomed Gisevius into this group. Working from the consulate in Z�rich, Hans Gisevius was involved in secret talks with the Vatican. Canaris arranged for the appointment of Gisevius as Vice Consul in Switzerland, where Gisevius met with Allen Dulles in 1943 and agreed to serve as a liaison for the German opposition to Hitler, an assembly which counted among its members General Ludwig Beck, Abwehr Chief Canaris, and Mayor Carl G�rdeler of Leipzig.
Several members of the conspiratorial circle against Hitler including Gisevius, "all kept homes within easy walking distance of each other". According to Gisevius, the original plot to kill Hitler earlier (namely, before the acquiescence of Great Britain over the Sudetenland) was literally derailed by Neville Chamberlain whose actions he claims "saved Hitler".
Upon returning to Germany, he was investigated by the Gestapo, but released. In 1944, after the failed July 20th assassination attempt against Hitler, Gisevius first hid at the home of his future wife, the Swiss national Gerda Woog, and fled to Switzerland in 1945, making him one of the few conspirators to survive the war. There, he contacted the Swiss authorities.
Peter Hoffmann's biography of Hitler assassination conspirator Claus Graf von Stauffenberg ("Stauffenberg, A Family History," 1992) indicates that after the failure of Stauffenberg's bomb plot in July 1944, Gisevius went into hiding until 23 January 1945, when he escaped to Switzerland by using a passport that had belonged to Carl Deichmann, a brother-in-law of German Count Helmuth James von Moltke, who was a specialist in international law serving in the legal branch of the Foreign Countries Group of the OKW (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, "Supreme Command of the Armed Forces"). Through the help of the American Allen Dulles in Berne, Switzerland and of the German Legation (in Berne)'s Georg Federer, the passport was modified and a visa obtained for Gisevius that enabled him to escape to Spain.
Gisevius served as a key witness for the defense at the Nuremberg Trials when he was called as a witness by defendants Hjalmar Schacht and Wilhelm Frick. His testimony was crucial in securing the acquittal of Schacht on all counts, but Frick was found guilty. His testimony was also particularly damaging to Hermann G�ring, Wilhelm Keitel and Ernst Kaltenbrunner, who were all convicted.
His autobiography, "Bis zum bitteren Ende" (To the Bitter End), published in 1946, offered a sharp indictment of the Nazi regime, many of whose leading members Gisevius knew personally, as well as of the German people, who, Gisevius claimed, pretended not to know about the atrocities being committed in its name. At the same time, it also offers an insider's account of the German resistance movement.
In 1946 Gisevius was charged and acquitted by the Swiss authorities in a trial for espionage. Gisevius was later criticized as he diminished the contributions of other members (i.e. Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg) of the opposition to Hitler. Gisevius reported in his 1948 book, "To the Bitter End", that he considered SS Chief Heinrich Himmler a bit of a hypocrite whereas he saw Reinhard Heydrich as one who epitomized a true German, in accordance with Nazi ideals at least.
In the early 1950s he moved to the United States and lived in Dallas, Texas, but soon returned, and lived in Switzerland. Gisevius died in M�llheim in Baden-W�rttemberg in 1974.
In 1938, Nebe joins forces with future co-conspirator Dr. Karl Sack (Judge Advocate-General of the German Army) to torpedo Himmler's plot against General Werner von Fritsch.
General Hans Oster recruits Nebe into the conspiracy for the September 1938 coup attempt. Nebe supplies his colleagues in the know with vital information regarding SS strength, logistics, and safehouses throughout the Berlin area.
During 1941-42, Nebe is assigned to Einsatzgruppen-B in occupied Russia. He manages to save thousands of Russian civilians from execution by falsifying figures and claiming credit for slaughters that have never been carried out. Nebe is soon suspected by fellow SS-Einsatzgruppen colleagues of being "soft"; mass executions being undertaken by SS Sonderkommandos in his absence.
In late 1942, using a special code-language, Nebe informs co-conspirators of secret conferences he has attended chaired by Himmler to develop a clandestine extermination program referred to repeatedly as 'The Final Solution'. The program involves the extermination of European Jewry and all other categories of people deemed by the F�hrer as unfit to exist. Measures such as transportation by rail in sealed wagons and gas chambers are discussed.
On 20 July 1944, he is on hand in Berlin at the side of co-conspirator General Paul von Hase to support Stauffenberg's July 20th uprising. Nebe organizes police raiding parties awaiting orders to arrest key Reich ministers. The orders never arrive.
After successfully evading the Gestapo for half a year using a variety of disguises, Nebe is finally caught in February 1945.
On 2 March 1945, Nebe is sentenced to death by the People's Court and hanged.
-- Jewish Virtual Library
Historians have a uniformly negative view of Nebe and his motives, despite his participation in the 20 July plot. Robert Gellately writes that Nebe's views were virulently racist and antisemitic. Martin Kitchen casts Nebe as an opportunist, who saw the SS as the police force of the future, and as an "energetic and enthusiastic mass murderer, who seized every opportunity to undertake yet another massacre", yet he "was clearly unable to stand the strain and was posted back to Berlin".
Comprehensive reports filed by the Einsatzgruppen have been analyzed by historian Ronald Headland as "historical 'Messages of Murder'" that provide insights into the worldview of its leadership. Headland writes that the reports "bear witness to the fanatic commitment of the Einsatzgruppen leaders to their mission of extermination"; their ideology and racism are evident in the "constant debasement of the victims" and "ever present racial conceptions concerning Jew, Communists, Gypsies and other 'inferior' elements". Headland concludes that Nebe was an ambitious man who may have volunteered to lead an Einsatzgruppe unit for careerist reasons, to get a "military decoration", and to curry favor with Heydrich. Any misgivings he may have entertained as to the feasibility of the undertaking failed to prevent him from overseeing the murder of close to 50,000 people in the five months he spent as commander of his unit.
Gerald Reitlinger describes Nebe's reasons for joining the Einsatzgruppen as "placation" and a desire to hold on to his position in the Criminal Police Department, which, since 1934, had been "invaded by amateur Gestapo men" and was later taken over by Heydrich. "If Nebe did in fact retain his office till 1944, it was because of the five months he spent in Russia, or, as his friend Gisevius politely referred to, at the front".
Alex J. Kay writes that "the role, character and motivation of those involved both in planning�and in some cases carrying out�mass murder and in the conspiracy against Hitler deserve to be investigated more closely". He places Nebe in this category, with Franz Halder, chief of the OKH,
Franz Halder (30 June 1884 � 2 April 1972) was a German general and the chief of the OKH General Staff from 1938 until September 1942, when he was dismissed after frequent disagreements with Adolf Hitler. Until December 1941 Halder's military position corresponded to the old Chief of the General Staff position, which during World War One was the highest military office in the German Imperial Army. Halder's diary during his time as chief of OKH General Staff has been a source for authors that have written about such subjects as Adolf Hitler, the Second World War and the NSDAP (the Nazi party). In William Shirer's "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich", Halder's diary is cited hundreds of times.
In 1902, Halder joined the 3rd Royal Bavarian Field Artillery Regiment in Munich. He was promoted to lieutenant in 1904, upon graduation from War School in Munich, then he attended Artillery School (1906�07) and the Bavarian Staff College (War Academy) (1911�1914), both in Munich.
In 1914, Halder became an Ordnance Officer, serving in the Headquarters of the Bavarian 3rd Army Corps. In August, 1915 he was promoted to Hauptmann (Captain) on the General Staff of the 6th Army (at that time commanded by Rupprecht, Crown Prince of Bavaria). During 1917 he served as a General Staff officer in the Headquarters of the 2nd Army, before being transferred to the 4th Army.
Between 1919 and 1920 Halder served with the Reichswehr War Ministry Training Branch. Between 1921 and 1923 he was a Tactics Instructor with the Wehrkreis VII in Munich.
In March 1924 Halder was promoted to major and by 1926 he served as the Director of Operations (Oberquartiermeister of Operations: O.Qu.I.) on the General Staff of the Wehrkreis VII in Munich. In February 1929 he was promoted to Oberstleutnant (lieutenant colonel), and from October 1929 through late 1931 he served on the Training staff in the Reichswehr Ministry.
After being promoted to Oberst (colonel) in December 1931, Halder served as the Chief of Staff, Wehrkreis Kdo VI, in M�nster (Westphalia) through early 1934. During the 1930s the German military staff thought that Poland might attack the detached German province of East Prussia. As such, they reviewed plans as to how to defend East Prussia.
After being promoted to Generalmajor in October 1934, Halder served as the Commander of the 7th Infantry Division in Munich.
Recognized as a fine staff officer and planner, in August 1936 Halder was promoted to Generalleutnant. He then became the director of the Manoeuvres Staff. Shortly thereafter, he became director of the Training Branch (Oberquartiermeister of Training, O.Qu.II), on the General Staff of the Army, in Berlin between October 1937 and February 1938. During this period he directed important training maneuvers, the largest held since the reintroduction of conscription in 1935.
On 1 February 1938 Halder was promoted to General der Artillerie. Around this date General Wilhelm Keitel was attempting to reorganize the entire upper leadership of the German Army. Keitel had asked Halder to become Chief of the General Staff (Oberquartiermeister of operations, training & supply; O.Qu.1 ) and report to General Walther von Reichenau. However, Halder declined as he felt he could not work with Reichenau very well, due to a personality dispute. As Keitel recognized Halder's superior military planning skills, Keitel met with Hitler and enticed him to appoint General Walther von Brauchitsch as commander-in-chief of the German Army. Halder then accepted becoming Chief of the General Staff of the Army (Oberkommando des Heeres) on 1 September 1938, and succeeded General Ludwig Beck.
A week later, Halder presented plans to Hitler on how to invade Czechoslovakia with a pincer movement by General Gerd von Rundstedt and General Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb. Instead, Hitler directed that Reichenau should make the main thrust into Prague. Neither invasion plan was necessary once Mussolini persuaded Hitler and British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain back to the bargaining table in Munich. In the run up to the war, Halder � in an attempt to avoid what they were certain would be a catastrophic war for Germany � was the main actor in a plot with several other generals in the Wehrmacht and Abwehr to remove Hitler from power. A plot was put in place, ready to go at Halder's command, which would be given if Hitler gave the order to proceed with the planned invasion. The plot included a plan to kill Hitler and say "he died trying to escape" (they all agreed he would be too dangerous to keep alive). However, on 29 September Chamberlain capitulated to Hitler�s demands, and the British and French surrendered the largely German populated Czech region of Sudetenland to Germany, with Hitler promising to stop there. (Which promise Hitler broke the following spring). Halder put an immediate stop to the coup attempt, only hours away from reality, as peace had been preserved � for the moment. Chamberlain's appeasement at Munich meant the end of the plot, which shook Halder to the core and left him weeping according to Halder's former adjutant, Burkhard M�ller-Hildebrand. There would be no war with France and England over the Sudetenland. Hitler's popularity reached an all-time high. A coup then was not possible, nor desirable. The catastrophe Halder and the other generals feared was averted. On 1 October German troops entered the Sudetenland.
Halder participated in the strategic planning for all operations in the first part of the war. For his role in the planning and preparing of the invasion of Poland he received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 27 October 1939.
On 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland, the generally accepted start of World War II. On 19 September, Halder noted in his diary that he had received information from then SS-Gruppenf�hrer Reinhard Heydrich that the SS (Einsatzgruppen) was beginning its campaign to "clean house" in Poland of Jews, intelligentsia, Catholic Clergy, and the aristocracy. This led to future criticism by historians that Halder knew about the killings of Jews much earlier than he later acknowledged during post-World War II interviews, and that he failed to object to such killings. Halder noted in his diary his doubts "about the measures intended by Himmler".
During November 1939, Halder conspired with General Brauchitsch. Halder declared that he would support Brauchitsch if he were to try to curtail Hitler's plans for further expansion of the war, but Brauchitsch declined (the so-called Zossen Conspiracy). Brauchitsch and Halder had decided to overthrow Hitler after the latter had fixed "X-day" for the invasion of France for 12 November 1939, an invasion that both officers believed to be doomed to failure. During a meeting with Hitler on 5 November, Brauchitsch had attempted to talk Hitler into putting off "X-day" by saying that morale in the German Army was worse than what it was in 1918. This statement enraged Hitler, who then harshly berated Brauchitsch for incompetence. After that meeting, both Halder and Brauchitsch told Carl Friedrich G�rdeler that overthrowing Hitler was simply something that they could not do, and that he should find other officers if that was what he really wanted to do. Equally important, following heavy snowstorms, on 7 November 1939 Hitler put off "X-Day" until further notice, removing the reason that had most motivated Brauchitsch and Halder to consider overthrowing Hitler. On 23 November 1939, G�rdeler met with Halder to ask him to reconsider his attitude. Halder gave G�rdeler the following reasons why he wanted nothing to do with any plot to overthrow Hitler:
That the men who staged the November Revolution and signed the armistice that took Germany out of a losing war were hated all over the Reich as the "November Criminals". General Erich Ludendorff had launched the Kaiserschlacht in March 1918, which led directly to Germany's defeat in November 1918. This should have hurt Ludendorff's reputation, yet most people in Germany still considered Ludendorff one of Germany's greatest heroes. So even if Hitler were to launch an invasion of France that signally failed, most people would still support him, and unless Hitler was discredited, which seemed unlikely, anyone who acted against him to end the war would be considered a "new November Criminal". Therefore, the Army could do nothing.
That Hitler was a great leader, and there was nobody to replace him.
That most of the younger officers in the Army were extreme National Socialists who would not join a Putsch.
That Hitler deserved "a last chance to deliver the German people from the slavery of English capitalism".
Finally, that "one does not rebel when face to face with the enemy".
Despite all of G�rdeler's best efforts, Halder would not change his mind.
While Halder opposed Hitler�s expanded war plans, like all officers he had taken a personal loyalty oath to Hitler. Thus, he felt unable to take direct action against the F�hrer. At one point, Halder thought the situation to be so desperate that he considered shooting Hitler himself. A colonel close to Halder noted in his diary that "Amid tears, Halder had said for weeks that he had a pistol in his pocket every time he went to Emil [cover name for Hitler] in order to possibly gun him down".
At the end of 1939, Halder oversaw development of the invasion plans of France, the Low Countries, and the Balkans. In late 1939-early 1940, Halder was an opponent of Operation Weser�bung, which he believed was doomed to failure, and made certain that the OKH had nothing to do with the planning for Weser�bung, which was entirely the work of OKW and the OKM.] Halder initially doubted that Germany could successfully invade France. General Erich von Manstein's bold plan for invading France through the Ardennes Forest proved successful, and ultimately led to the fall of France. In early April 1940, Halder had a secret meeting with Carl Friedrich G�rdeler, who asked him to consider a Putsch while the Phony War (the lull in the war between the invasion of Poland and the invasion of France) was still on, hoping that the British and French were still open to a negotiated peace. Halder refused G�rdeler's request. G�rdeler told Halder that too many people had already died in the war, and his refusal to remove Hitler at this point would ensure that the blood of millions would be on his hands. Halder told G�rdeler that his oath to Hitler and his belief in Germany`s inevitable victory in the war precluded his acting against the Nazi regime. Halder told G�rdeler that "The military situation of Germany, particularly on account of the pact of non-aggression with Russia is such that a breach of my oath to the F�hrer could not possibly be justified", that only if Germany was faced with total defeat would he consider breaking his oath, and that G�rdeler was a fool to believe that World War II could be ended with a compromise peace.
On 19 July 1940, Halder was promoted to Generaloberst, an equivalent of a modern NATO Four-Star General. In August, he began working on Operation Barbarossa, the invasion plan for the Soviet Union. Shortly thereafter, to curtail Halder�s military-command power, Hitler limited his involvement in the war by restricting him to developing battle plans for only the Eastern Front. On 17 March 1941, in a secret meeting with Halder and the rest of the most senior generals, Hitler stated that Germany was to disregard all of the rules of war in the East, and the war against the Soviet Union was to be a war of annihilation (Vernichtungskrieg). Halder, who was so vocal in arguing with Hitler about military matters, made no protest. On 30 March 1941, in another secret speech to his leading generals, Hitler described the sort of war he wanted Operation Barbarossa to be (according to the notes taken by Halder):
"Struggle between two ideologies. Scathing evaluation of Bolshevism, equals antisocial criminality. Communism immense future danger...This a fight to the finish. If we do not accept this, we shall beat the enemy, but in thirty years we shall again confront the Communist foe. We don't make war to preserve the enemy...Struggle against Russia: Extermination of Bolshevik Commissars and of the Communist intelligentsia...Commissars and GPU personnel are criminals and must be treated as such. The struggle will differ from that in the west. In the east harshness now means mildness for the future".
Though General Halder's notes did not record any mention of Jews, the German historian Andreas Hillgruber argued that, because of Hitler's frequent statements at the same time about the coming war of annihilation against "Judeo-Bolshevism", his generals could not have misunderstood that Hitler's call for the total destruction of the Soviet Union also comprised a call for the total destruction of the Jewish population of the Soviet Union.
In 1941, contrary to his post-war claims, Halder did not oppose the Commissar Order. Rather, he welcomed it, writing that: "Troops must participate in the ideological battle in the Eastern campaign to the end". As part of the planning for Barbarossa, Halder declared in a directive that, in the event of guerrilla attacks, German troops were to impose "collective measures of force" by massacring entire villages. Halder's order was in direct contravention of international agreements banning collective reprisals. In December 1941, Hitler fired von Brauchitsch and assumed the command of OKH himself. Halder was not happy about this, but chose to stay on as the best way of ensuring that Germany won the war. Halder appeared on the 29 June 1942 cover of "Time" magazine.
During the summer of 1942, Halder told Hitler that he was underestimating the number of Soviet military units. Hitler argued that the Red Army was nearly broken. However, Halder had recently read a book about Stalin's defeat of Anton Denikin between the Don bend and what was then Tsaritsyn during the Russian Civil War. That battle resulted in Tsaritsyn being renamed Stalingrad. Halder was convinced the German Sixth Army was in the same position that Denikin was back then. Furthermore, Hitler did not like Halder's objections to sending General Manstein�s 11th Army (then finishing the siege of Sevastopol, at the other end of the front) to assist in the attack against Leningrad. Halder also thought that an attack into the Caucasus was ill-advised. Finally, because of Halder�s disagreement with Hitler�s conduct of the war, Hitler concluded that the general no longer possessed an aggressive war mentality. The final straw came after Halder learned of an intelligence report showing Stalin could muster as many as 1.5 million men north of Stalingrad and west of the Volga. He told Hitler that the situation along the Don was a disaster waiting to happen if Stalin turned that force loose on Stalingrad. In response, Hitler gave a speech announcing that he intended to find a replacement for Halder. Halder walked out stating "I am leaving", and was retired into the "F�hrer Reserve" on 24 September 1942.
Halder was replaced by Kurt Zeitzler on the same day.
On 23 July 1944, following the failed 20 July assassination attempt on Hitler's life by German Army officers, Halder was arrested by the Gestapo. Although he was not involved in the 20 July plot, intense interrogations of the conspirators revealed that Halder had been involved in earlier conspiracies against Hitler. Halder was imprisoned at both the Flossenb�rg and Dachau concentration camps. Halder's wife Gertrud chose to, and was allowed to, accompany her husband into imprisonment. On 31 January 1945, Halder was officially dismissed from the army. His service to Germany during Hitler's reign was plagued by complexity and personal misgivings but his professed role in possible intrigue during his tenure as the Chief of Staff and his survival make for a remarkable story, especially when one considers the plight of others who fell into disfavor or mistrust with Hitler. As one historian remarked when comparing his fate to that of many of his comrades among the General Staff, Halder was indeed "fortunate". In the last days of April 1945, together with some members of the families of those involved with the 20 July plot and other 'special' prisoners, he was transferred to the South Tyrol, where the entire group of nearly 140 prisoners was liberated from their SS guards by members of the Wehrmacht, and then turned over to US troops on 4 May after the SS guards fled. Halder spent the next two years in an Allied prisoner of war camp.
During the 1950s, Halder worked as a war historian advisor to the U.S. Army Historical Division, for which he was awarded the Meritorious Civilian Service Award in 1961. During the early 1950s Halder advised on the redevelopment of the post-World War II German army.
and Georg Thomas, head of the Defence, Economy and Armament Office in the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW) (Supreme Command).
Georg Thomas (20 February 1890 � 29 December 1946) was a German general in the Third Reich. He was a leading participant in planning and carrying out economic exploitation of the Soviet Union. Thomas's role in plotting against Hitler has led some historians to describe him as a member of the German resistance, while others find his record more ambiguous.
Thomas was born in Forst (Lausitz), Brandenburg. The factory owner's son and later general joined Infantry Regiment 63 as an ensign and a career soldier in 1908. From 1928, he dealt with armament questions at the Army Weapons Office in the Reich Defence Ministry in Berlin. Thomas continued to work as the Chief of Staff for the Army Weapons Office in the Reich Defence Ministry from 1928-1938, where he intensively studied the dynamic of national economics and war preparations, pushing forward the idea of a "defense economy" - that is, the marshaling of Germany's resources for the purpose of war under a central planning commission. Despite his misgivings with National Socialism following the dismissal of Colonel General Baron Werner von Fritsch on trumped up allegations of homosexuality, Thomas remained an important member of the German General Staff. Nevertheless, it was upon von Fritsch's removal in 1938 that Thomas experienced his first major inner conflict with National Socialism. It is speculated that he stayed aboard from here forward to foment plans for a coup. In 1939, he became head of the Defence Economy and Armament Office in the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW). He was a member of the board of Kontinentale �l AG (an oil company whose purpose was to exploit petroleum resources in occupied countries) as well as Reichswerke Hermann G�ring, a major iron and steel company.
Thomas, who since 1940 had been a General of Infantry recognized early on that Germany's ability to wage a lengthy war was limited by the state of its economy. Since he still had contacts with his former superior Ludwig Beck, as well as with Carl Friedrich G�rdeler and Johannes Popitz, he got to work as early as 1938-39 on the planning for a military coup d'�tat against Adolf Hitler. When the threat of war with the Western Powers loomed great in the wake of Hitler's bold political moves to secure the Austrian Anschlu�, the acquisition of the Sudetenland, and then with the impending Blitzkrieg into Poland awaiting the German General Staff, Thomas produced an extensive report for Hitler assessing the risks. Thomas' analysis was replete with graphics and statistics demonstrating the military-economic superiority of the Western Powers, at which Hitler balked and exclaimed that, "he did not share General Thomas' anxiety over the danger of a world war, especially since he had now got the Soviet Union on his side" (consequent the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact). Not only was Thomas worried about an attack provoking the British and French but so were Generals von Brauchitsch, Colonel-General Halder, and Quartermaster General von St�lpnagel, yet Hitler refused to countenance any delays or reluctance from his military staff about his plans and more earnestly pushed forward the attack despite their sound arguments otherwise.
During the planning phase of Operation Barbarossa, General Thomas' pragmatic and realistic nature once again gripped him as he thought a full-scale war with the Soviet Union should be delayed until the logistical concerns were remedied. Along said lines, Thomas informed Colonel-General Franz Halder, then Chief of the OKH General Staff, that the attack on the Soviet Union would experience logistical delays due to the fact that Russian railways were of a different gauge than German ones. Thomas also warned Halder of the insufficiency of German transport vehicle tires for the task ahead of them, and most significantly, Thomas revealed to Halder that they (the Germans) only had two months worth of fuel oil and petrol to support the advancing assault. Inexplicably, Halder did not convey this information to Hitler and when Thomas attempted to do this himself, General Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel stepped in and prevented the report from going any further. Reassurances soon made their way to General Thomas when no less than Reichsminister Hermann G�ring told him not to worry about using up Germany's resources since "they would soon be masters of France, Belgium, and Holland," likewise adding that they would plunder all the available resources in the "captured territories".
In November 1942, Thomas resigned from the Defence Economy and Armament Office. Albert Speer and his Armament Ministry, meanwhile, had taken over almost all the expertise relating to armament issues. Of note, during the autumn of 1943 (Paulus surrendered at Stalingrad in January 1943), Hitler asked for a projection over the progress the Germans might expect to make in the near term. Chief of the Operations Staff for the OKW, Colonel-General Alfred Jodl submitted the report to Hitler as commanded, but Hitler became irate when the estimates were given to him, reflecting back sardonically on earlier calculations made by General Thomas who "rated the Soviet war potential as high". As a result of the negative assessment about the campaign's future in the East, Hitler forbade any more war studies by the OKW. From what the sources indicate, General Thomas tried unsuccessfully on several occasions to bring the German General Staff and Hitler back to reality about their long-term prospects for success. The pragmatism of Thomas likely contributed to his disillusionment with the regime and its leadership, perhaps leading him to believe that a coup was necessary to stop Germany from being totally annihilated. Nonetheless, Thomas participated in the planning and brutal exploitation of the Eastern theater; thereby making his actions and intentions duplicitous and difficult to interpret. Many historians have taken exception with depicting General Thomas as a resistance fighter, one even remarked that Thomas' resistance "was one against a policy leading to defeat, rather than against the regime as such," despite that he was later implicated in Operation Valkyrie.
After the failed attempt on Hitler's life at the Wolf's Lair in East Prussia on 20 July 1944, all the old plans from 1938-39 were found, leading to Thomas's arrest on 11 October 1944, followed by stays in the Flossenb�rg and Dachau concentration camps. In late April 1945 he was transferred to Tyrol together with about 140 other prominent inmates, where the SS left the prisoners behind. They were liberated by the Fifth U.S. Army on 5 May 1945
Thomas died in Allied custody in 1946.
Several apologetic accounts produced by bomb plotters described Nebe as a professional police officer and a dedicated member of the German resistance. In 1947, Hans Gisevius described Nebe's position at the head of Einsatzgruppe B as a "brief command at the front". Gisevius changed his story in the 1960s, when Nebe's role with the Einsatzgruppen was exposed. In "Wo ist Nebe?" (Where is Nebe [1966]), Gisevius claimed that Nebe was reluctant to accept the posting but had been persuaded to take it by the opposition leaders Hans Oster and Ludwig Beck, who had wanted Nebe to retain a key role in Heydrich's apparatus. Gisevius also claimed that Nebe exaggerated the number of victims in reports to Berlin by adding a zero to the number of those killed.
Historian Christian Gerlach, writing about the 20 July conspirators and their complicity in "War Crimes of the Wehrmacht", refers to Nebe as a "notorious mass murderer". He discusses the role of Henning von Tresckow and his adjutant Fabian von Schlabrendorff, who were members of the resistance, and writes:
"Schlabrendorff claimed that he and Tresckow had convinced themselves that under the mask of the SS leader lurked a committed anti-Nazi..., who invented pretexts for sabotaging Hitler's murderous orders. We succeeded in saving the lives of many Russians. The Russian population often expressed their thanks to us".
According to Schlabrendorff, Tresckow personally brought Nebe to the army group [of conspirators]. Nothing was said about the 45,467 murder victims of Einsatzgruppe B by November 1941, the point at which Nebe returned to Berlin.
Gerlach doubts that Nebe falsified Einsatzgruppe B reports, to "sabotage Hitler's murderous orders". Gerlach puts Schlabrendorff's claims in the context of bomb plotters' memoirs and "existing discourse" on the opposition group within the high command of Army Group Center: "Especially with reference to the murder of the Jews, [it is said that] 'the SS' had deceived the officers by killing in secret, filing incomplete reports or none at all; if general staff offices protested, the SS threatened them. (...) This is, of course, nonsense".
The historian Waitman Wade Beorn writes: "...some have argued that [Nebe] deliberately inflated the numbers of Jews he reported killed. Yet all evidence indicates that he was quite content to play his role in Nazi genocide and that his subsequent displeasure with the regime may have stemmed from the imminent Nazi defeat but not opposition to the Holocaust".
Just as quickly as the coup in Berlin had unravelled, so did the entire network of conspirators. Himmler turned the SD and the Gestapo loose in a bloodlust vengeance against anyone who was even remotely suspected of complicity in the assassination and the coup. When it was fully over, between six hundred and one thousand Germans had lost their lives. Some were executed just days before the war ended in a Nazi purge of all enemies.
Many of these men and women might have survived had it not been for the German penchant for keeping meticulous records of everything, even the conspiracies to kill Hitler. At the behest of both Beck and Oster, the Abwehr center of the conspiracy had kept copies of every memorandum, coup plan, lists of people to be arrested, and most incredible of all, the names of virtually everyone involved in the conspiracies since the first coup of 1938. It is probable that they hoped to give the world an accurate description of how these Germans opposed Hitler, but when this cache was discovered in a security zone safe on 22 September 1944, it spelled death for hundreds of people who otherwise might never have been suspected.
This record of the assassination plans altered the probe of the 20 July bombing. Originally the Gestapo worked under the impression that the attempt on Hitler's life was provoked by army officers who were unhappy with the course of the war, but now they knew that the planning had been going on for six years by officers and civilians who were anti-Nazi, and they now knew there had been several other attempts on Hitler's life. As a result, hundreds of new names were added to those slated to appear before the infamous People's Court for quick trial and execution.
The Nazis also ruthlessly applied their 'kith and kin' method of dealing with opponents. This meant that every member of a traitor's family, including those by marriage, was to be hunted down and exterminated. When it came to the Stauffenbergs, Hitler himself ordered that the entire family be "made harmless." On 3 August 1944, Himmler, now the undisputed master of Germany with all police, SS, and Home Army forces under his direct control, said the entire Stauffenberg family "will be exterminated down to its last member".
Colonel Stauffenberg's wife and four children were arrested and imprisoned. Freed by the Allies at the end of the war and pregnant at the time of her arrest, she gave birth to her fifth child while in prison
In 2005, the Military Channel's show "Unsolved History" aired an episode titled 'Killing Hitler' in which each scenario was re-created using live explosives and test dummies. The results supported the conclusion that Hitler would have been killed had any of three other scenarios occurred::
both bombs detonated;
20th June to 1st July 1946
One Hundred and Fifty-Ninth Day: Thursday, 20th June, 1946
This whole plot was part of Speers mitigation which formed his defence at the Nuremburg trials. He originally dropped the bombshell by asking Franz von Papen's attorney to ask the head of the SS Security Service Otto Ohlendorf during his cross examination if he had ever heard of any plot by Speer to assassinate Hitler, obviously he had not but he achieved his purpose by bringing it to the attention of the court.
The subject was raised at a later sitting and examined in depth.
For more info read "Speer:The final Verdict" by Joachim Fest, "The Bunker" by James P O'Donnell and "Inside the Third Reich" by Albert Speer
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i don't know
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Who in 1497, discovered Newfoundland and claimed North America for Engalnd?
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John Cabot - Newfoundland
Moving to secure the community
John Cabot
Quoted from We Were Not the Savages
On June 24, 1497, John Cabot laid claim on behalf of England's King Henry VII to what thereafter would be called Newfoundland. The fact that the land was then owned and occupied by human beings whose residency stretched back for millennia was not viewed by Cabot or England as a legal impediment to this claim. In addition to appropriating another Nation's land, Cabot's explorations revealed for future European exploitation the region's fabulously endowed fishing grounds. These events soon led to a full-scale European invasion of northeastern North America.
In retrospect, the speed at which the news of the wealth of the Newfoundland fishing grounds spread around Europe in an age without mass communications seems incredible. This news spread so fast and proved so alluring that within a very short period of time European fishermen began arriving en masse. By 1506, only nine years later, the fishery was so large that the Portuguese government was taxing it. This uncontrolled and largely unpoliced foreign fishery would prove to be extremely bad news for the region's Amerindian peoples. In fact, the nature of the bad news was visited upon one Amerindian Nation almost immediately. The intruders launched a murderous assault on Newfoundland's harmless and non-aggressive Beothuk (or Red People) in retaliation for the "crimes" they were committing by removing items, such as nails, from the fishermen's fish-drying stations along the coast. As early as 1506, many of the Beothuk were being sold as slaves in Europe. In time these barbarities led to the extinction of the Tribe...
...the Mi'kmaq earned the dubious distinction of being among the first North American Natives to come into major contact with Europeans. Because of the scarcity of reliable information related to events in the area during the early 1500s, one can only speculate about what the Mi'kmaq were thinking about the intrusion. Assuming that their fishing and trading activities would have made them aware of the horrors being suffered by the Beothuk, one can conclude that they probably had a strong premonition of bad things to come. It is not much of a stretch to further conclude, given the well-documented and horrific assaults against lightly armed Amerindians by heavily armed Europeans at many locations in the Americas, that bad things were already happening. It doesn't appear that the Mi'kmaq were involved at the time in open hostilities with the fishermen, but they could easily have fallen victim to the slave trade.
Fishermen participating in this repugnant activity would have put unaccompanied individuals and small groups of Mi'kmaq at high risk, because selling Amerindian captives to Europe's slave traders was a very lucrative sideline for some of them. Therefore, one can assume that more than a few Mi'kmaq mysteriously disappeared while out fishing and hunting and, unbeknownst to their fellow citizens, ended up being killed or sold into slavery.
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John Cabot
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Who was appointed commander-in-chief of the Parliamentary forces in the English Civil War in 1645?
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John Cabot - The Canadian Encyclopedia
Parsons, John. "John Cabot". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Toronto: Historica Canada, 2008. Web. 8 Jan 2008.
Parsons, John. "John Cabot". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Toronto: Historica Canada, 2008. Web. 8 Jan 2008.
APA 6th Edition
Parsons, J.. R. The Canadian Encyclopedia. (2008). John cabot. Retrieved January 17, 2017 From http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/john-cabot/.
Parsons, J.. R. The Canadian Encyclopedia. (2008). John cabot. Retrieved January 17, 2017 From http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/john-cabot/.
Chicago 16th Edition
Parsons, John. "John Cabot." In The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada, 1985—. Article published January 8, 2008
Parsons, John. "John Cabot." In The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada, 1985—. Article published January 8, 2008
Turabian
Parsons, John. 2008. John Cabot. The Canadian Encyclopedia http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/john-cabot/ (accessed January 17, 2017).
Parsons, John. 2008. John Cabot. The Canadian Encyclopedia http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/john-cabot/ (accessed January 17, 2017).
While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions.
MLA 7th Edition
John Parsons "John Cabot" The Canadian Encyclopedia. Eds. . Toronto: Historica Canada, 2008. Web. 17 Jan. 2017.
John Parsons "John Cabot" The Canadian Encyclopedia. Eds. . Toronto: Historica Canada, 2008. Web. 17 Jan. 2017.
APA 6th Edition
John Parsons, R. The Canadian Encyclopedia. (2008). John Cabot. Retrieved January 17, 2017, from http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/john-cabot/
John Parsons, R. The Canadian Encyclopedia. (2008). John Cabot. Retrieved January 17, 2017, from http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/john-cabot/
Chicago 16th Edition
John Parsons. "John Cabot" In The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada, 1985–. Article published January 7, 2008. http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/john-cabot/.
John Parsons. "John Cabot" In The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada, 1985–. Article published January 7, 2008. http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/john-cabot/.
Turabian
either Cape Bonavista , Newfoundland or Cape Breton Island .
Cabot claimed the land for England and returned to Bristol, arriving in August. Early in 1498, Henry VII authorized a second expedition consisting of 5 ships and 300 men. After landing in Greenland, Cabot sailed southward, probably as far as Chesapeake Bay, but failing to find the rich lands he had envisaged. Because supplies were running low, he turned back towards England.
It appears that Cabot perished on this voyage, though one or more of his ships may have returned to Bristol. Most historians maintain that he was probably lost off the coast of Newfoundland. Because the fact that Cabot had found a new continent soon became known in Europe, Cabot made what has been called "the intellectual discovery of America." His voyages provided the basis for England's claim to North America and led to the opening of the rich northwest Atlantic fishery.
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i don't know
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Politics. Who was the Russian President after Yuri Andropov and before Mikhail Gorbachev?
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Mikhail Gorbachev - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Mikhail Gorbachev
none (Soviet Union abolished, Boris Yeltsin as President of Russia )
Born
( help · info )
, Mihail Sergeevič Gorbačëv, IPA : [mʲɪxʌˈil sʲɪrˈgʲejɪvʲɪʨ gərbʌˈʨof], commonly written as Mikhail Gorbachev; born March 2 , 1931 ) was leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991. His attempts at reform helped to end the Cold War , and also ended the political supremacy of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and dissolved the Soviet Union. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990.
Contents
[ edit ] Early life
Mikhail Gorbachev was born on 2 March 1931 in the village of Privolnoye near Stavropol , the son of a Russian agricultural mechanic Sergey Gorbachyov and Maria Pantelyeva. [1] He faced a tough childhood under the totalitarian leadership of Josef Stalin ; his grandparents were deported for being wealthy farmers known as kulaks [ citation needed ]. He lived through World War II , during which, starting in August 1942, German troops occupied Stavropol . Although they would leave by February 1943, the occupation increased the hardship of the community and left a deep impression on the young Gorbachev. [1] From 1946 through 1950, he worked during the summers as an assistant combine harvester operator at the collective farms in his area. [1] He would take an increasing part in promoting peasant labour, which he describes as "very hard" because of enforced state quotas and taxes on private plots. Furthermore, as peasants were not issued passports, their only opportunity to leave their peasant existence was through enlisting in 'orgnabor' (organised recruitment) labour projects, which prompts Gorbachev to ask "what difference was there between this life and serfdom?". [2]
[ edit ] Political career
Despite the hardship of his background, Gorbachev excelled in the fields and in the classroom. He was considered the most intelligent in his class [ citation needed ], with a particular interest in history and math. After he left school he helped his father harvest a record crop on his collective farm . So, he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labour , aged just 16 (1947). It was rare for someone his age to be given such an honour. It was almost certainly this award, coupled with his intelligence that helped secure his place at Moscow University , where he studied law from September 1950. [1] Gorbachev may never have intended to practice law however, but simply have seen it as preparation for working in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). He became a candidate member of the Party that same year. [1] While living in Moscow, he met his future wife, Raisa Maksimovna Titarenko . [1] They married on the 25th September 1953 and moved to Gorbachev's home region of Stavropol in southern Russia when he graduated in June 1955, where he immersed himself in party work. [1] Upon graduating, he briefly worked in the Prokuratura (Soviet State Procuracy) before transferring to the Komsomol , or Communist Union of Youth. He served as First Secretary of the Stavropol City Komsomol Committee from September, 1956, later moving up to the Stavropol Krai (regional) Komsomol Committee, where he worked as Second Secretary from April 1958 and as First Secretary from March 1961. [1] Raisa would give birth to their first child, a daughter, Irina, on 6th January 1957. [2]
He attended the important XXIInd CPSU Party Congress in October 1961, where Khrushchev announced a plan to move to a communist society within 20 years and surpass the US in per capita production. Gorbachev was promoted to Head of the Department of Party Organs in the Stavropol Agricultural Kraikom in 1963. [1] By 1966, at age 35, he obtained a correspondence degree as an agronomist-economist from the Agricultural Institute. [1] His career moved forward rapidly - in 1970, he was appointed First Party Secretary of the Stavropol Kraikom, becoming one of the youngest provincial party chief in the Soviet Union. [1] In this position he helped to reorganize the collective farms, improve workers' living conditions, expand the size of their private plots, and give them a greater voice in planning. [1] His work was evidently effective, because he was made a member of the CPSU Central Committee in 1971. In 1972, he headed a Soviet delegation to Belgium , [1] and two years later, in 1974, he was made a Representative to the Supreme Soviet , and Chairman of the Standing Commission on Youth Affairs. He was subsequently appointed to the Central Committee Secretariat for Agriculture in 1978, replacing Fyodor Kulakov, who had backed his rise to power, after Kulakov died of a heart attack. [1] [2]
In 1979, Gorbachev was promoted to the Politburo (first as a candidate member before receiving full membership in 1980). There, he received the patronage of Yuri Andropov , head of the KGB and also a native of Stavropol , and was promoted during Andropov's brief time as leader of the Party before Andropov's death in 1984. With responsibility over personnel, working together with Andropov, 20 percent of the top echelon of government ministers and regional governors were replaced, often with younger men. During this time Grigory Romanov , Nikolai Ryzhkov , and Yegor Ligachev were elevated, the latter two working closely with Gorbachev, Ryzhkov on economics, Ligachev on personnel. He was also close to Konstantin Chernenko , Andropov's successor, serving as second secretary. [3]
His positions within the new CPSU created more opportunities to travel abroad and this would profoundly affect his political and social views in the future as leader of the country. In 1975, he led a delegation to West Germany , and in 1983 he headed a Soviet delegation to Canada to meet with Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and members of the Canadian House of Commons and Senate . In 1984, he travelled to the United Kingdom , where he met with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher .
[ edit ] General Secretary of the CPSU
Gorbachev in one-on-one discussions with U.S. President Ronald Reagan .
Upon the death of Konstantin Chernenko, Mikhail Gorbachev, at age 54, was elected General Secretary of the Communist Party on 11 March 1985 , defeating Grigory Romanov who was considered the other favourite.
He became the Party's first leader to have been born after the Russian Revolution of 1917 . As de facto ruler of the Soviet Union, he tried to reform the stagnating Communist Party and the state economy by introducing glasnost ("openness"), perestroika ("restructuring"), and uskoreniye ("acceleration", of economic development), which were launched at the 27th Congress of the CPSU in February 1986.
[ edit ] Domestic reforms
Domestically, Gorbachev implemented economic reforms that he hoped would improve living standards and worker productivity as part of his perestroika program. However, many of his reforms were considered radical at the time by orthodox apparatchiks in the Soviet government.
[ edit ] 1985
In 1985, Gorbachev announced that the Soviet economy was stalled and that reorganization was needed. Initially, his reforms were called " uskoreniye " (acceleration) but later the terms " glasnost "(liberalization, opening up) and " perestroika " (reconstruction) became much more popular.
Gorbachev was not operating within a vacuum. Although the Brezhnev era is usually thought of as one of economic stagnation, a number of economic experiments (particularly in the organisation of business enterprises, and partnerships with Western companies) did take place. A number of reformist ideas were discussed by technocratic-minded managers, who often used the facilities of the Young Communist League as discussion forums. The so-called 'Komsomol Generation' would prove to be Gorbachev's most receptive audience, and the nursery of many post-communist businessmen and politicians, particularly in the Baltic States .
After becoming General Secretary, Gorbachev proposed a "vague programme of reform", which was adopted at the April Plenum of the Central Committee . [2] He made a speech in May in Leningrad advocating widespread reforms. The reforms began in personnel changes; the most notable change was the replacement of Andrei Gromyko with Eduard Shevardnadze as Minister of Foreign Affairs. Gromyko , disparaged as 'Mr. Nyet' in the West, had served for 28 years as Minister of Foreign Affairs and was considered an 'old thinker'. Robert D. English notes that, despite Shevardnadze's diplomatic inexperience, Gorbachev "shared with him an outlook" and experience in managing an agricultural region of the Soviet Union (Georgia), which meant that both had weak links to the power military-industrial complex . [4]
The first major reform programme introduced under Gorbachev was the 1985 alcohol reform, which was designed to fight wide-spread alcoholism in the Soviet Union . Prices of vodka , wine and beer were raised, and their sales were restricted. People who were caught drunk at work or in public were prosecuted. Drinking on long-distance trains and in public places was banned. Many famous wineries were destroyed. Scenes of alcohol consumption were cut out from the movies. The reform did not have any significant effect on alcoholism in the country, but economically it was a serious blow to the state budget (a loss of approximately 100 billion rubles according to Alexander Yakovlev ) after alcohol production migrated to the black market economy.
[ edit ] 1986
Perestroika and its attendant radical reforms were enunciated at the XXVIIth Party Congress between February and March 1986. Nonetheless, many found the pace of reform too slow. Many historians, including Robert D. English, have explained this by the rapid estrangement of the 'New Thinkers' and conservatives in the Soviet elite; conservatives deliberately blocked the process of change. This was exposed in the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster . As English states, Gorbachev and his allies were "misinformed by the military-industrial complex" and "betrayed" by conservatives, who blocked information concerning the incident and thus delayed an official response. [4] Jack F. Matlock Jr. stresses that Gorbachev told the authorities to give "full information" but the "Soviet bureaucracy blocked the flow". [5] This brought international ire for the Soviets and many blamed Gorbachev. Despite this, English suggests that there was a "positive fallout" to Chernobyl , as Gorbachev and his fellow reformers received an increased impetus for domestic and international reform. [4]
Domestic changes continued apace. In a bombshell speech during Armenian SSR's Central Committee Plenum of the Communist Party the young First Secretary of Armenia's Hrazdan Regional Communist Party, Hayk Kotanjian, criticised rampant corruption in the Armenian communist party highest echelons implicating Armenian SSR Communist Party First Secretary Karen Demirchian and called for the latter's resignation. Symbolically, exiled intellectual Andrei Sakharov was invited to return to Moscow by Gorbachev in December 1986 after six years exiled in Gorky . During the same month, however, signs of the nationalities problem that would haunt the later years of the Soviet Union surfaced as riots occurred in Kazakhstan after Dinmukhamed Kunayev was replaced as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan .
[ edit ] 1987
The Central Committee Plenum in January 1987 would see the crystallisation of Gorbachev's political reforms, including proposals for multi-candidate elections and the appointment of non-Party members to government positions. He also first raised the idea of expanding co-operatives at the plenum. Later that year, May would be a month of crisis. In an incredible incident, a young West German, Mathias Rust , managed to fly a plane into Moscow and land near Red Square without being stopped. This massively embarrassed the military and Gorbachev made sweeping personnel changes, beginning at the top, where he appointed Dmitry Yazov as Minister of Defence. [2]
Economic reforms took up much of the rest of 1987, as a new law giving enterprises more independence was passed in June and Gorbachev released a book, Perestroika: New Thinking for Our Country and the World, in November, elucidating his main ideas for reform. Nevertheless, at the same time, the personal and professional acrimony between Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin increased; after Yeltsin criticised Gorbachev and others at the October Plenum, he was replaced as First Secretary of the Moscow Gorkom Party. This move only temporarily removed Yeltsin's influence. [2]
[ edit ] 1988
Time magazine cover of January 4, 1988 featuring Gorbachev as Man of the Year.
1988 would see Gorbachev's introduction of glasnost , which gave new freedoms to the people, such as a greater freedom of speech. This was a radical change, as control of speech and suppression of government criticism had previously been a central part of the Soviet system. The press became far less controlled, and thousands of political prisoners and many dissidents were released. Gorbachev's goal in undertaking glasnost was to pressure conservatives within the CPSU who opposed his policies of economic restructuring, and he also hoped that through different ranges of openness, debate and participation, the Soviet people would support his reform initiatives. At the same time, he opened himself and his reforms up for more public criticism, evident in Nina Andreyeva's critical letter in a March edition of Sovetskaya Rossiya . [2]
The Law on Cooperatives enacted in May 1988 was perhaps the most radical of the economic reforms during the early part of the Gorbachev era. For the first time since Vladimir Lenin 's New Economic Policy , the law permitted private ownership of businesses in the services, manufacturing, and foreign-trade sectors. The law initially imposed high taxes and employment restrictions, but these were later revised to avoid discouraging private-sector activity. Under this provision, cooperative restaurants, shops, and manufacturers became part of the Soviet scene. It should be noted that some of the SSRs ignored these restrictions. In Estonia , for example, co-operatives were permitted to cater to the needs of foreign visitors and forge partnerships with foreign companies. The large 'All-Union' industrial organisations started to be restructured. Aeroflot , for example, was split into a number of independent enterprises, some of which became the nucleus for future independent airlines. These newly autonomous business organisations were encouraged to seek foreign investment.
In June 1988, at the CPSU's XIXth Party Conference, Gorbachev launched radical reforms meant to reduce party control of the government apparatus. He proposed a new executive in the form of a presidential system, as well as a new legislative element, to be called the Congress of People's Deputies . [2]
[ edit ] 1989
Elections to the Congress of People's Deputies were held throughout the Soviet Union in March and April 1989. On March 15 , 1990 , Gorbachev was elected as the first executive President of the Soviet Union [2] with 59% of the Deputies' votes being an unopposed candidate. The Congress met for the first time on the 25th May. Their first task was to elect representatives from Congress to sit on the Supreme Soviet . Nonetheless, the Congress posed problems for Gorbachev - its sessions were televised, airing more criticism and encouraging people to expect evermore rapid reform. In the elections, many Party candidates were defeated. Furthermore, Yeltsin was elected in Moscow and returned to political prominence to become an increasingly vocal critic of Gorbachev. [2]
The rest of 1989 was taken up by the increasingly problematic nationalities question and the dramatic collapse of the Eastern Bloc . Despite international detente reaching unprecedented levels, with the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan completed in January and US-Soviet talks continuing between Gorbachev and George H. W. Bush , domestic reforms were suffering from increasing divergence between reformists, who criticised the pace of change, and conservatives, who criticised the extent of change. Gorbachev states that he tried to find the centre ground between both groups, but this would draw more criticism towards him. [2] The story from this point on moves away from reforms and becomes one of the nationalities question and the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union.
[ edit ] Collapse of the Soviet Union
Main article: Collapse of the Soviet Union
While Gorbachev's political initiatives were positive for freedom and democracy in the Soviet Union and its Eastern bloc allies, the economic policy of his government gradually brought the country close to disaster. By the end of the 1980s, severe shortages of basic food supplies ( meat , sugar ) led to the reintroduction of the war-time system of distribution using food cards that limited each citizen to a certain amount of product per month. Compared to 1985, the state deficit grew from 0 to 109 billion rubles; gold funds decreased from 2,000 to 200 tons; and external debt grew from 0 to 120 billion dollars.
Furthermore, the democratization of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe had irreparably undermined the power of the CPSU and Gorbachev himself. Gorbachev's relaxation of censorship and attempts to create more political openness had the unintended effect of re-awakening long-suppressed nationalist and anti-Russian feelings in the Soviet republics . Calls for greater independence from Moscow's rule grew louder, especially in the Baltic republics of Estonia , Lithuania , and Latvia , which had been annexed into the Soviet Union by Stalin in 1940. Nationalist feeling also took hold in the Soviet republics of Georgia , Ukraine , Armenia and Azerbaijan . Gorbachev had unleashed a force that would ultimately destroy the Soviet Union.
[ edit ] Emerging Nationalism in the Republics, 1986-90
In December 1986, the first signs of the nationalities problem that would haunt the later years of the Soviet Union's existence surfaced as riots occurred in Alma Ata and other areas of Kazakhstan after Dinmukhamed Kunayev was replaced as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan . Nationalism would then surface in Russia in May 1987, as 600 members of Pamyat , a nascent Russian nationalist group, demonstrated in Moscow and were becoming increasingly linked to Boris Yeltsin , who received their representatives at a meeting. [2]
Glasnost hastened the development of the nationalities problem. Violence erupted in Nagorno-Karabakh - an Armenian-populated enclave within Azerbaijani SSR - between February and April, when Armenians living in the area began a new wave of protests for the arbitrary transfer of the historically Armenian region from Armenia to Azerbaijan in 1920 upon Joseph Stalin's decision. Armenians were also protesting against the underdevelopment and deteriorating living conditions in the Armenian-populated areas of Azerbaijan. In retaliation, Armenians were massacred in Sumgait , Azerbaijan . A temporary solution imposed by Gorbachev from Moscow did not last, as fresh trouble arose in Nagorno-Karabakh between June and July. Turmoil would once again return in December, this time in Armenia itself, when the Leninakan Earthquake hit the region on December 7th. Poor local infrastructure magnified the hazard and some 25,000 people died. [2] Gorbachev was forced to break off his trip to the United States and cancel his planned travels to Cuba and Britain. [2]
Elections to the Congress of People's Deputies , which took place throughout the Soviet Union in March and April 1989, returned many pro-independence republicans, as many CPSU candidates were rejected. The televised Congress debates allowed the dissemination of pro-independence propositions. Indeed, 1989 would see numerous nationalistic expressions protests. Initiated by the Baltic States in January, laws were passed in most non-Russian republics giving symbolic precedence for the republican language over Russian. April would see violent crackdown of nationalist demonstration by the Soviet troops in Tbilisi , Georgia . There would be further bloody protests in Uzbekistan in June, where Uzbeks and Meskhetian Turks clashed in Fergana. Apart from this violence, three major events that altered the face of the nationalities issue occurred in 1989. Firstly, Estonia and Lithuania officially declared their sovereignty in May, followed by Latvia in July (the Communist Party of Lithuania would also declare its independence from the CPSU in December). This brought the Union and the republics into clear confrontation and would form a precedent for other republics. Following this, in July, on the eve of the anniversary of the signing of the Nazi-Soviet Pact , it was formally revealed that the treaty did indeed include a plan for the annexation of the Baltic States to the Soviet Union (as happened in World War Two) and the division of Poland between Germany and the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union's unsavoury past was exposed and gave impetus to the nationalists within the Baltic States who could now even more legitimately claim that they were subject to oppression from Moscow. Finally, the Eastern Bloc collapsed spectacularly in 1989, raising hopes that Gorbachev would extend his non-interventionist doctrine to the internal workings of the Soviet Union. [2]
[ edit ] Crisis of the Union, 1990-91
1990 began with nationalist turmoil in January. Azerbaijanis rioted and troops needed to be sent in to restore order; many Moldavians protested in favour of unification with the newly-democratic Romania; and Lithuanian demonstrations continued. The same month, in a hugely significant move, Armenia asserted its right to veto laws coming from the All-Union level, thus intensifying the 'war of laws' between republics and Moscow. [2]
Soon after, the CPSU , which had already lost much of its control, began to lose even more power as Gorbachev deepened political reform. The February Central Committee Plenum advocated multi-party elections; local elections held between February and March returned a large amount of pro-independence candidates. The Congress of People's Deputies then amended the Soviet Constitution in March, removing Article 6, which guaranteed the monopoly of the CPSU . The process of political reform was therefore coming from above and below, and was gaining a momentum that would augment republican nationalism. Soon after the constitutional amendment, Lithuania declared independence and elected Vytautas Landbergis as President. [2]
On March 15th, Gorbachev himself was elected as the first and only President of the Soviet Union by the Congress of People's Deputies and chose a Presidential Council of 15 politicians. Gorbachev was essentially creating his own political support base independent of CPSU conservatives and radical reformers. The new Executive was designed to be a powerful position to guide the spiralling reform process, and the Supreme Soviet and Congress of People's Deputies had already given Gorbachev increasingly presidential powers in February. This would be again a source of criticism from reformers. Despite the apparent increase in Gorbachev's power, he was unable to stop the process of nationalistic assertion. Further embarrassing facts about Soviet history were revealed in April, when the government admitted that the NKVD had carried out the infamous Katyn Massacre of Polish army officers during World War II ; previously, the Soviets had blamed the Nazis . More significantly for Gorbachev's position, Boris Yeltsin was reaching a new level of prominence, as he was elected Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR in May, effectively making him the de jure leader of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic . Problems for Gorbachev would once more come from the Russian parliament in June, when it declared the precedence of Russian laws over All-Union level legislation. [2]
Gorbachev's personal position continued changing. At XXVIIIth CPSU Congress in July, Gorbachev was re-elected General Secretary but this position was now completely independent of Soviet government, and the Politburo had no say in the ruling of the country. Gorbachev further reduced Party power in the same month, when he issued a decree abolishing Party control of all areas of the media and broadcasting. At the same time, Gorbachev was working to consolidate his Presidential position, culminating in the Supreme Soviet granting him special powers to rule by decree in September in order to pass a much needed economic plan for transition to the market. However, the Supreme Soviet could not agree on which programme to adopt. Gorbachev pressed on with political reform - his proposal for setting up a new Soviet government, with a Soviet of the Federation consisting of representatives from all 15 republics, was passed through the Supreme Soviet in November. In December, Gorbachev was once more granted increasing executive power by the Supreme Soviet , arguing that such moves were necessary to counter "the dark forces of nationalism". Such moves led to Eduard Shevardnadze's resignation; Gorbachev's former ally warned of an impending dictatorship. This move was a serious blow to Gorbachev personally and to his efforts for reform. [2]
Meanwhile, Gorbachev was losing further ground to nationalists. October 1990 saw the founding of DemoRossiya , the Russian nationalist party; a few days later, both Ukraine and Russia declared their laws completely sovereign over Soviet level laws. The 'war of laws' had become an open battle, with the Supreme Soviet refusing to recognise the actions of the two republics. Gorbachev would publish the draft of a new union treaty in November - which envisioned a continued union called the Union of Sovereign Soviet Republics - but, going into 1991, the actions of Gorbachev were steadily being overtaken by the centrifugal secessionist forces. [2]
January and February would see a new level of turmoil in the Batlic States. On January 10, 1991 Gorbachev issued an ultimatum-like request addressing the Lithuanian Supreme Council demanding the restoration of the validity of the constitution of the Soviet Union in Lithuania and the revoking of all anti-constitutional laws. In his Memoirs, Gorbachev asserts that, on January 12th, he convened the Council of the Federation and political measures to prevent bloodshed were agreed, including sending representatives of the Council of the Federation on a "fact-finding mission" to Vilnius. However, before the delegation arrived, the local branches of the KGB and armed forces had worked together to seize the TV tower in Vilnius; Gorbachev asked the heads of these power industries if they had approved such action, and there is no evidence that they, or Gorbachev, ever approved this move. Gorbachev cites documents found in the RSFSR Prokuratura after the August Coup, which only mentioned that "some 'authorities'" had sanctioned the actions. [2] A book called Alpha - the KGB's Top Secret Unit also suggests that a "KGB operation co-ordinated with the military" was undertaken by the KGB Alpha Group . [6] Archie Brown , in The Gorbachev Factor, uses the memoirs of many people around Gorbachev and in the upper echelons of the Soviet political landscape, to implicate General Valentin Varennikov , a member of the August coup plotters, and General Viktor Achalov , another August coup conspirator and later a putschist against Yeltsin in 1993. These persons were characterized as individuals "who were prepared to remove Gorbachev from his presidential office unconstitutionally" and "were more than capable of using unauthorised violence against nationalist separatists some months earlier". Brown criticises Gorbachev for "a conscious tilt in the direction of the conservative forces he was trying to keep within an increasingly fragile... coalition" who would later betray him; he also criticises Gorbachev "for his tougher line and heightened rhetoric against the Lithuanians in the days preceding the attack and for his slowness in condemning the killings" but notes that Gorbachev did not approve any action and was seeking political solutions. [7]
As a result of continued violence, at least 14 civilians were killed and more than 600 injured from January 11th-13th, 1991 in Vilnius , Lithuania. The strong Western reaction and the actions of Russian democratic forces put the president and government of the Soviet Union into an awkward situation, as news of support for Lithuanians from Western democracies started to appear. Further problems surfaced in Riga , Latvia, on the 20th and 21st January, where OMON (special Ministry of the Interior) troops killed 4 people. Brown suggests that Gorbachev's response this time was better, condemning the rogue action, sending his condolences and suggesting that secession could take place if it went through the procedures outlined in the Soviet constitution. According to Gorbachev's aide, Shakhnazarov (quoted by Brown ), Gorbachev was finally beginning to accept the inevitability of losing the Baltic States , although he would try all political means to preserve the Union. Brown believes that this put him in "imminent danger" of being overthrown by hard-liners against the secession. [7]
Gorbachev thus continued to draw up a new treaty of union which would have created a truly voluntary federation in an increasingly democratised Soviet Union. The new treaty was strongly supported by the Central Asian republics, who needed the economic power and markets of the Soviet Union to prosper. However, the more radical reformists, such as Russian SFSR President Boris Yeltsin , were increasingly convinced that a rapid transition to a market economy was required and were more than happy to contemplate the disintegration of the Soviet Union if that was required to achieve their aims. Nevertheless, a referendum on the future of the Soviet Union was held in March (with a referendum in Russia on the creation of a presidency), which returned an average of 76.4% in the 9 republics where it was taken, with a turn-out of 80% of the adult population. [7] Estonia , Latvia , Lithuania , Armenia , Georgia and Moldova did not participate. Following this, an April meeting at Novo-Ogarevo between Gorbachev and the heads of the 9 republics issued a statement on speeding up the creation of a new Union treaty. Meanwhile, Boris Yeltsin was elected President of the Russian Federation by 57.3% of the vote (with a turnout of 74%). [2]
Gorbachev accused Boris Yeltsin , his old rival and Russia 's first post-Soviet president, of tearing the country apart out of a desire to advance his own personal interests.
[ edit ] The August 1991 Coup
Main article: Soviet coup attempt of 1991
In contrast to the reformers' lukewarm approach to the new treaty, the hard-line apparatchiks , still strong within the CPSU and military establishment, were completely opposed to anything which might lead to the breakup of the Soviet motherland. On the eve of the treaty's signing, the hardliners struck.
Hard-liners in the Soviet leadership, calling themselves the ' State Emergency Committee ', launched the August Coup in 1991 in an attempt to remove Gorbachev from power and prevent the signing of the new union treaty. During this time, Gorbachev spent three days (August 19 to 21) under house arrest at a dacha in the Crimea before being freed and restored to power. However, upon his return, Gorbachev found that neither union nor Russian power structures heeded his commands as support had swung over to Yeltsin, whose defiance had led to the coup's collapse. Furthermore, Gorbachev was forced to fire large numbers of his Politburo and, in several cases, arrest them. Those arrested for high treason included the " Gang of Eight " that had led the coup, including Kryuchkov , Yazov and Yanayev . Pugo and Akhromeyev committed suicide. Most of these men had been former allies of Gorbachev's or promoted by him, which drew fresh criticism. [2]
[ edit ] Aftermath of the Coup and the Final Collapse
Between the last day of the coup and September 22nd, Estonia , Latvia , Ukraine , Belarus , Moldavia , Georgia, Azerbaijan , Kirgizia , Uzbekistan , Tajikstan and Armenia declared their independence. Simultaneously, Boris Yeltsin ordered the CPSU to suspend its activities on the territory of Russia and closed the Central Committee building at Staraya Ploschad . Symbolically, the Russian flag now flew beside the Soviet flag at the Kremlin . In light of these circumstances, Gorbachev resigned as General Secretary of the CPSU on August 24th and advised the Central Committee to dissolve itself. Gorbachev's hopes of a new Union were further hit when the Congress of People's Deputies dissolved itself on September 5th. Though Gorbachev and the representatives of 8 republics (excluding Azerbaijan , Georgia, Moldavia , Ukraine and the Baltic States ) signed an agreement on forming a new economic community on 18 October, events were overtaking Gorbachev. [2]
The final blow to Gorbachev's vision was effectively dealt by a Ukrainian referendum on December 1st, where the Ukrainian people voted for independence. The Presidents of Russia , Ukraine and Belarus met in Belovezh Forest, near Minsk , Belarus , on December 8th, founding the Commonwealth of Independent States and declaring the end of the Soviet Union in the Belavezha Accords . Gorbachev was presented with a fait accompli and reluctantly agreed with Yeltsin , on December 17th, to dissolve the Soviet Union . Gorbachev resigned on Christmas Day and the Soviet Union ceased to exist on the 1st January 1992. Gorbachev suffered the indignity of Yeltsin taking over his office on December 27th. [2]
Gorbachev had aimed to maintain the CPSU as a united party but move it in the direction of social democracy . The inherent contradictions in this approach - praising Lenin , admiring Sweden 's social model and seeking to maintain the annexation of the Baltic states by military force - were difficult enough. But when the CPSU was proscribed after the August coup , Gorbachev was left with no effective power base beyond the armed forces. In the end Yeltsin won them around with promises of more money.
[ edit ] 'New Thinking' Abroad
In contrast to his controversial domestic reforms, Gorbachev was largely hailed in the West for his 'New Thinking' in foreign affairs. During his tenure, he sought to improve relations and trade with the West by reducing Cold War tensions. He established close relationships with several Western leaders, such as West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl , U.S. President Ronald Reagan , and Margaret Thatcher - who famously remarked: "I like Mr Gorbachev - we can do business together". [8]
Gorbachev understood the link between achieving international detente and domestic reform and thus began extending 'New Thinking' abroad immediately. On April 8 , 1985 , he announced the suspension of the deployment of SS-20s in Europe as a move towards resolving intermediate-range nuclear weapons (INF) issues. Later that year, in September, Gorbachev proposed that the Soviets and Americans both cut their nuclear arsenals in half. He went to France on his first trip abroad as Soviet leader in October. November saw the Geneva Summit between Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan - though no concrete agreement was made, Gorbachev and Reagan struck a personal relationship and decided to hold further meetings. [2]
Ronald Reagan , Nancy Reagan , Raisa Gorbachyova and Mikhail Gorbachev December 8 , 1987 , after the signing of the INF Treaty .
January 1986 would see Gorbachev make his boldest international move so far, when he announced his proposal for the elimination of intermediate-range nuclear weapons in Europe and his strategy for eliminating all nuclear weapons by the year 2000 (often referred to as the 'January Proposal'). He also began the process of withdrawing troops from Afghanistan and Mongolia on the 28th July. [2] Nonetheless, many observers, such as Jack F. Matlock Jr. (despite generally praising Gorbachev as well as Reagan), have criticised Gorbachev for taking too long to achieve withdrawal from the Afghanistan War , citing it as an example of lingering elements of 'old thinking' in Gorbachev. [5]
On October 11 , 1986 , Gorbachev and Reagan met in Reykjavík , Iceland to discuss reducing intermediate-range nuclear weapons in Europe. To the immense surprise of both men's advisors, the two agreed in principle to removing INF systems from Europe and to equal global limits of 100 INF missile warheads. Incredibly, they also essentially agreed in principle to eliminate all nuclear weapons in 10 years (by 1996), instead of by the year 2000 as in Gorbachev's original outline. [5] Continuing trust issues, particularly over reciprocity and Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) , meant that the summit is often regarded as a failure for not producing a concrete agreement immediately, or for leading to a staged elimination of nuclear weapons. In the long term, nevertheless, this would culminate in the signing of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in 1987, after Gorbachev had proposed this elimination on 22nd July 1987 (and it was subsequently agreed on in Geneva on the 24th November). [2]
In February 1988, Gorbachev announced the full withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan. The withdrawal was completed the following year, although the civil war continued as the Mujahedin pushed to overthrow the pro-Soviet Najibullah regime. An estimated 15,000 Soviets were killed between 1979 and 1989 as a result of the Afghanistan War .
Also during 1988, Gorbachev announced that the Soviet Union would abandon the Brezhnev Doctrine , and allow the Eastern bloc nations to determine their own internal affairs. Jokingly dubbed the " Sinatra Doctrine " by Gorbachev's Foreign Ministry spokesman Gennadi Gerasimov , this policy of non-intervention in the affairs of the other Warsaw Pact states proved to be the most momentous of Gorbachev's foreign policy reforms. Moscow's abrogation of the Brezhnev Doctrine led to a string of revolutions in Eastern Europe throughout 1989, in which Communism collapsed. With the exception of Romania , the popular upheavals against the pro-Soviet Communist regimes were all peaceful ones. (See Revolutions of 1989 )
It is unlikely that Gorbachev ever intended for the complete dismantling of Communism in the Warsaw Pact countries. Rather, it is far more probable that he intended merely to throw his support behind progressive Communists eager to implement perestroika and glasnost in their own countries. Nevertheless, the loosening of Soviet hegemony over Eastern Europe effectively ended the Cold War , and for this, Gorbachev was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on October 15 , 1990 .
[ edit ] Political activities after resignation
Gorbachev founded the Gorbachev Foundation ( http://www.gorby.ru/en/default.asp ) in 1992. In 1993, he also founded Green Cross International , with which he was one of three major sponsors of the Earth Charter . He also became a member of the Club of Rome .
1995 saw Gorbachev receive an Honorary Doctorate from Durham University for his contribution to "the cause of political tolerance and an end to cold war-style confrontation". [9]
In 1996, Gorbachev re-ran for President in Russia, but only received half of 1% of the vote, most likely due to animosity following the Soviet Union 's collapse. While on a pre-election tour at that time he was given a punch in the face by an unknown man.
Gorbachev with Russia's second president, Vladimir Putin
In 1997, Gorbachev starred in a Pizza Hut commercial made for the USA to raise money for the Perestroika Archives .
On November 26 , 2001 , Gorbachev also founded the Social Democratic Party of Russia —which is a union between several Russian social democrat parties. He resigned as party leader in May 2004 over a disagreement with the party's chairman over the direction taken in the December 2003 election campaign.
In early 2004, Gorbachev moved to trademark his famous port wine birthmark , after a vodka company featured the mark on labels of one of their drinks to capitalize on its fame. The company now no longer uses the trademark. [10]
In June 2004, Gorbachev represented Russia at the funeral of Ronald Reagan .
In September 2004, following Chechen militant attacks across Russia, President Vladimir Putin launched an initiative to replace the election of regional governors with a system whereby they would be directly appointed by the President and approved by regional legislatures. Gorbachev, together with Boris Yeltsin , criticized Putin's actions as a step away from democracy. [11]
In 2005, Gorbachev was awarded the Point Alpha Prize for his role in supporting German reunification . He also received an honorary Doctorate from the University of Münster . [12]
In November 2006, Gorbachev was admitted to a hospital in Germany after he reported that he was not feeling well. He had an operation on a blood vessel.
The neutrality of this section is disputed .
Please see the discussion on the talk page .
Gorbachev is obviously well regarded in the West for having ended the Cold War. In Germany, for example, he is acclaimed for allowing German reunification to proceed. However, in Russia, his reputation is very low because he is perceived to have brought about the collapse of the country and is held responsible for the economic misery that followed. He was also blamed for weakened Russia after collapse of the Soviet Union. Boris himself was aware of the same. He regretted the fact that his own people didnot love him. Nevertheless, polls indicate that a majority of Russians are pleased with the result of the individual aims of perestroika, Gorbachev's chief legislative legacy, and the greater political freedom that came about as a result [ citation needed ].
The war in Afghanistan had been going on since the late 1970's, draining Soviet resources. This took a huge toll on the Union's ability to keep order. Furthermore, some insist that armament buildups in the West also prompted likewise military expenditures that, when added to the expenditures in Afghanistan, could not be maintained. The Soviet economy infrastructure was in serious trouble by 1985 (when Gorbachev took office) and these events had a huge impact on Gorbachev's decisions to liberalize. In the end, these attempts to "open" and restructure the Soviet Union proved to be a failure. The Soviet Union lost influence in its European satellite nations and then broke apart, ending a nearly 50 year stalemate between East and West.
[ edit ] Trivia
In the West, Gorbachev was colloquially known as 'Gorby', in part because of a perception that he was less austere than his predecessors.
The ё letter is often replaced by е in writing, hence Gorbachev is a common English transliteration even though it's universally pronounced as Gorbachyov.
In 1987, Gorbachev acknowledged that his liberalizing policies of glasnost and perestroika owed a great deal to Alexander Dubček 's "socialism with a human face". When asked what the difference was between the Prague Spring and his own reforms, Gorbachev replied, "Nineteen years". [13]
In 1989, during an official visit to China during the demonstrations in Tiananmen Square , shortly before the imposition of martial law in Beijing, Gorbachev was asked for his opinion on the Great Wall of China : "It's a very beautiful work", he replied, "but there are already too many walls between people". A journalist asked him, "would you like the Berlin Wall to be taken down?" Gorbachev replied very seriously, "Why not?"
[ edit ] Religious affiliation
Gorbachev was baptized in the Russian Orthodox church as a child. He campaigned for establishment of freedom of religion laws in the former Soviet Union.
Gorbachev has also expressed pantheistic views, saying, in an interview with the magazine Resurgence, "Nature is my god." [14]
At the end of a November 1996 interview on CSPAN's Booknotes, Gorbachev described his plans for future books. He made the following reference to God: "I don't know how many years God will be giving me, [or] what his plans are.". [15]
[ edit ] Naevus flammeus
Gorbachev is the most famous person in modern times with visible naevus flammeus . The crimson birthmark on the top of his bald head was the source of much satire among critics and cartoonists. (Among his official photos there was at least one on which this birthmark was removed.) Contrary to some accounts, it is not rosacea .
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Other Biographies
In 1990 Mikhail Gorbachev won the Nobel Peace Prize for helping to end the Cold War. Time Magazine named him Man of the Year and Man of the Decade. Former President Richard Nixon believed the Soviet leader should have been named Man of the Century for "risk[ing] his power…to save his reforms." But in the Soviet Union, Gorbachev could not control the reforms he had implemented, poor economic conditions worsened instead of improved, and he was eventually driven out of power.
Mikhail Gorbachev was born to peasants on March 2, 1931, in the famine-stricken Caucasus region. In 1950 he received a coveted invitation to Moscow State University, where he studied law and joined the Communist Party. He became a full member in 1952.
Gorbachev did not rise in the ranks of the Kremlin hierarchy until 1982, when premier Yuri Andropov adopted him as his protégé. On March 11, 1985, following the deaths of Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko, Gorbachev was elected General Secretary of the Communist Party. At 54, younger and healthier than his predecessors, the reform-minded Gorbachev was openly critical of Party excesses.
Gorbachev inherited from his predecessors severe domestic problems and an escalated Cold War. In 1983, to protect against the Soviet nuclear threat, Ronald Reagan had approved massive military buildup and proposed the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), believing that only defense, not the threat of mutual annihilation, could prevent nuclear war. An expensive arms race in space threatened to tax a weak Soviet economy and overwhelm Soviet technological capabilities.
Domestically, Gorbachev began to implement reforms that he hoped would improve living standards and worker productivity. By adding a measure of democratic freedoms, he hoped to achieve glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructure). Gorbachev established ties with Western leaders, underscoring the common interests of Soviets and Europeans by discussing missile reductions.
But Reagan didn't trust the Soviet Union. In 1983 he had labeled the Soviet Union "the evil empire." Two years later, at the first arms summit in Geneva, Gorbachev put a human face on the enemy for the President. That November, Reagan said of Gorbachev, "There was warmth in his face and his style, not the coldness bordering on hatred I'd seen in most senior Soviet officials I'd met until then." He sensed then "the moral dimension in Gorbachev." Gorbachev, in turn, called Reagan a great American and a great leader.
In the three years and four summits that followed, Gorbachev and Reagan worked toward ending the Cold War, and developed a warm relationship. But there would be setbacks. When a nuclear reactor at Chernobyl exploded on April 26, 1986, the Soviet Union did not provide a full account of the accident until May 14. Gorbachev's commitment to glasnost was questioned when he failed to apologize for the disaster in his long-overdue address.
In the 1985 Geneva summit, progress on arms control had foundered over Gorbachev's insistence on scrapping SDI, and Reagan's commitment to its development. The October 1986 summit between Reagan and Gorbachev, in Reykjavik, Iceland, also ended in a stalemate. At this second summit, Reagan still refused to budge on SDI, and Gorbachev refused to make further concessions without compromise. But at the third summit, in Washington, DC, in December 1987, Gorbachev yielded to Reagan's terms. The USSR was in dire economic straits, and Gorbachev needed a respite from the arms race.
When Reagan and Gorbachev signed the INF Treaty in Washington, in 1987, the first treaty to reduce the number of nuclear weapons, the United States and Western Europe rejoiced. Later when they called each other "friend" in Moscow, many saw it as "the ratification of their mutual desire for peace." For the Soviet Union, however, the end of the Cold War triggered new problems. Gorbachev's economic reforms were failing, and the far-flung Soviet republics were using glasnost to demand independence.
By the time Gorbachev was elected president in the USSR's first multi-candidate elections in March 1989, his popularity was in sharp decline. Rather than boosting the Soviet economy, his democratic reforms had an unintended outcome: the collapse of Communism throughout Eastern Europe. Receiving the Nobel Prize did nothing to raise Gorbachev in his people's esteem, and in 1991 Gorbachev was kidnapped by hard-line Communists in an armed coup. He was restored to power with the help of his enemy Boris Yeltsin, but Gorbachev's leadership was irreparably damaged. On December 25, 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as president of the Soviet Union, but only after dissolving it.
Two years after his resignation, Gorbachev founded Green Cross International. In GCI Gorbachev created a mechanism for converting military bases to civilian use, remedying the effects of nuclear contamination (particularly on children), and destroying chemical weapons stockpiles in an environmentally responsible way.
In 1996 Gorbachev ran for reelection but received only about one percent of the vote. Just as America has not forgotten Gorbachev, neither has Russia; the two countries simply remember different things.
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What is the women's equivalent of the Ryder Cup?
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Solheim Cup 2013
Solheim Cup 2013
Dates: 13-18 August 2013
Tickets: Ticket registration available on the LPGA website
In August 2013 the world will be watching Parker, Colorado as it hosts one of the biggest global sporting events - The Solheim Cup. The golf tournament features the top female golfers from Europe and America teeing off against each other as teams. It is the womens equivalent of the Ryder Cup.
The Solheim Cup 2013 will take place in Colorado Golf Club, Parker, Colorado. It is estimated that 100,000 spectators will attend the event.
Use the Solheim Cup 2013 location map below to plan your visit to the event.
View all Solheim Cup 2013 Accommodation in towns and areas in and around Parker, Colorado.
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Solheim Cup
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Conakry is the capital of which West African Republic?
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Team USA Prevails in CGP Ryder Cup Finale
Team USA Prevails in CGP Ryder Cup Finale
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We capped off the CGP Summer Tour with a Ryder Cup-style match play event. Team USA represented our country patriotically yesterday at Triggs Memorial, delivering an impressive win. Perhaps the US Women--who lost to 18-10 in the Solheim Cup , the women's equivalent to the Ryder Cup Event--could have used our help!
As history tells us, the American golfers play well when wearing ugly shirts (remember those epics shirts our boys sported in the '99 Ryder Cup at the Country Club - see here )
In preparing for the event, Jimmy Silva (wearing the legendary shirt on top right), went to the Salvation Army and made an all time best bargain purchase spending a whopping $1 on his patriotic short sleeved button down. With matching red pants, it was clear that team USA was not going down to their European counterparts.
Everyone enjoyed our 3-match format which included a 6-hole scramble match, a 6-hole best ball match, and a culminating 6-hole match play finale. Team USA got off to a hot start taking an early lead in the scramble format and never looked back as they breezed to a 10-6 win taking home Saturday tickets to the Deutsche Bank Championship .
Team Europe faired well walking away with some yellow Srixon Balls, but was never able to mount a charge against the powerhouse Team USA.
Course Review
Triggs Memorial is a quintessential classic New-England Donald Ross design. With rolling fairways and Ross' trademark table top greens, Triggs is a challenging but totally fair track that is definitely worth playing especially for you CGP members who can play the #3 ranked course (according to our friends at Golfweek) in Rhode Island for a staggering $25 dollars!
I must be honest, the course was not in the greatest shape, but the golf lover in me was able to look past the somewhat shaggy greens and occasional dry spot and appreciate the natural fescue, short walks from hole-to-hole, strategically placed bunkers, and diversity in shape and type of the holes that still make this 1932-designed course a gem in my eyes.
The course has a wonderful mix of birdie holes (all the par 5's can be reached in two) strategically mixed with some long par 3's and a daunting start and finish to the round with a slew of ~400 yards or longer par 4's. The course is utterly fair overall as everything is right in front of you and as always the case with Ross courses, you must keep the ball below the hole.
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Who in 1975 were the first ever winners of the Cricket World Cup?
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Cricket World Cup Winners
Home > Events > Cricket > Cricket World Cup > Winners
World Cup Results
In the eleven ICC Cricket World Cups held so far, five different teams have won the tournament. Australia is the most successful World Cup team having won the tournament five times, and were runner up another two times.
West Indies won the first two tournaments, and India have also won it two times. Pakistan and Sri Lanka have won one tournament each. Sri Lanka (1996) and India (2011) are the only hosts to win, when they co-hosted the tournament.
Winners List
The following is a list of the winning country and runner up for each Cricket World Cup. Click on the country names for more country information, or click on the year for more information about the tournament for that year.
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West Indies
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"In which magazine was Dickens' ""Oliver Twist"" first serialised?"
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1975 cricket World Cup Home | Timeline | World Cup 2015 | ESPN Cricinfo
Men of the Finals: When Clive Lloyd took the biggest stage by storm, in the title match of the first tournament
Vignettes: 1
West Indies' last wicket stole victory in a thrilling last-over finish at Edgbaston
Vignettes: 2
Alvin Kallicharran met fire with fire and smashed Dennis Lillee for 35 runs in 10 balls
Vignettes: 3
England were wary of Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson going into the World Cup semi-final, but they were swung out by a 23-year old rookie
Vignettes: 4
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Over which course is the 'Whitbread Gold Cup' run?
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Big Race History: Bet365 Gold Cup - Course Specialist
Big Race History: Bet365 Gold Cup
Published April 22, 2014 | Posted by Andrew Pelis
Tidal Bay winning the Bet365 Gold Cup of 2012
Image reproduced with the kind permission of Sandown Park Racecourse
The Bet365 Gold Cup is the traditional end of season highlight at Sandown Park at the end of April.
The Grade 3 handicap chase often attracts a top class line-up despite being a handicap and is open to horses aged five years and older.
It is run over a distance of about 3 miles and 5½ furlongs and there are 24 fences to be negotiated. Because of the race’s timing, it often attracts a fascinating mixture of Gold Cup and Grand National class runners, competing alongside the season’s novice chasers.
The inaugural race took place in 1957 as the Whitbread Gold Cup and maintained this sponsorship until 2001. To many people the race is still referred to as ‘The Whitbread’ and Whitbread Brewers’ Chairman Colonel Bill Whitbread was a big supporter of National Hunt racing who had twice ridden in the Grand National as an amateur rider.
The race has been won by some of the great names in jumps racing including Taxidermist, Pas Seul, Arkle, What A Myth, Larbawn, Titus Oates, The Dikler, Diamond Edge, Desert Orchid and Mr Frisk.
The 1973 race took place at Newcastle Racecourse over an extended distance of 3 miles and 6 furlongs and on three occasions the first past the post has been thrown out: Proud Tarquin in 1974, Cahervillahow in 1991 and Givus a Buck in 1993.
Despite the race’s competitive nature, four horses have won the race twice: Larbawn in 1968 and 1969, Diamond Edge in 1979 and 1981, Topsham Bay in 1992 and 1993 and Ad Hoc in 2001 and 2003.
Diamond Edge’s two victories contributed towards trainer Fulke Walwyn’s total record haul of seven successes in the race; Walwyn’s The Dikler was one of three wins for jockey Ron Barry, the most successful jockey in the race.
Much Obliged won the inaugural race and the following year Taxidermist really launched the career of one of racing’s greats Mr John Lawrence, later known as Lord Oaksey, the founder of the Injured Jockeys’ Fund. Taxidermist was a good horse and followed-up in the Hennessy Gold Cup later that autumn.
In 1961, the previous year’s Gold Cup winner Pas Seul took the prize for Bob Turnell in what became a golden era for the race. Other Gold Cup winners to win the Whitbread in the 1960s were Arkle, Mill House and What a Myth and then the two Gifford brothers, Macer and Josh, both rode Larbawn to victory to end the decade.
Fulke Walwyn trained Charlie Potheen and another Gold Cup winner The Dikler to back-to-back victories and Charlie Potheen became only the third horse (after Gold Cup winners Pas Seul and Arkle) to win the race carrying 12 stone or more. Walwyn’s third win in the 1970s came courtesy of the powerful and popular Diamond Edge, a real tearaway with class in spades, who would win a second Whitbread in 1981 and a Hennessy – and took part in the greatest Whitbread of them all as we shall see.
Royal Mail won a dramatic renewal in 1980 and Josh Gifford proved he could train as well as ride Whitbread winners when Shady Deal took the 1982 running. Shady Deal’s rider Richard Rowe would repeat that accomplishment thanks to Eulogy in 1999. The Irish chaser Drumlargan was a rare Irish winner in 1983.
But the race many people still recall was the 1984 renewal. Diamond Edge was back at the grand old age of 13 and racing off top weight, after only one comeback race in two years. His 12 rivals included some classy horses like Ashley House and the novice Lettoch, both representing Michael Dickinson in his battle for the trainer’s title with Fred Winter, who ran Plundering – whoever out of the two won the race would win the championship.
But Fulke Walwyn was not content to just send his old warrior into battle and added a second challenger in the shape of the Queen Mother’s Special Cargo.
Donegal Prince was an early faller and badly hampered Lettoch whilst Polar Express and Diamond Edge bowled along up front from Special Cargo on a glorious late spring afternoon. As the field went out on their final circuit Ashley House joined Diamond Edge with Plundering taking closer order ahead of Special Cargo and in that order the field set off down the back straight.
Having jumped the Railway fences and heading towards the famous Pond Fence, Diamond Edge still had the lead from Plundering, with Ashley House, the closing Lettoch and Fortina’s Express – and that quintet had drawn clear of Special Cargo.
At the Pond Fence Diamond Edge appeared a spent force as the young upstarts Plundering and Lettoch went on – and it looked as if the fate of the trainer’s championship lay in their hands.
A fine leap took Lettoch into the lead from the under pressure Plundering with Diamond Edge back in third as Ashley House appeared to back pedal and then came Fortina’s Express ahead of the well-held Special Cargo – and in that order they turned for home.
Two-out Lettoch led from Plundering with Diamond Edge a little closer and still in touch. In behind things were tightening up as Ashley House blundered away his chance while under extreme pressure Fortina’s Express and Special Cargo started to stay on.
At the last fence Plundering rallied on the stands side and joined Lettoch, while in behind Diamond Edge and Special Cargo were closing. All four took the last in their stride and then began that agonising climb to the line at Sandown Park – so often a game changer. And so it proved in the most dramatic of fashions in 1984. For as Plundering and Lettoch fought out their own private duel wide apart, without warning Diamond Edge, the two-time winner, that old gun slinger, joined the fight and turned a two horse race into a three-way battle.
With yards to run Plundering looked beaten and the momentum was very much with Diamond Edge who was yard by yard pegging back the young legs of Lettoch. But incredibly, sneaking up the inside from nowhere, Special Cargo had sprouted wings, while Plundering was closing again!
In a driving finished three horses flashed past the post virtually in a line; the one certainty being that Plundering was fourth. He too would have his day in the sun winning this race in 1986.
The result of the photo finish seemed to take forever to be official with thousands praying that Diamond Edge had performed the impossible and come back aged 13 to become the race’s first triple winner.
But the result instead went to Fulke Walwyn’s other runner, Special Cargo. In the most pulsating finish Kevin Mooney had found reserves of stamina that the old horse would never again match. But on the day it mattered most Special Cargo got the verdict from Lettoch who had tragically broken down and Diamond Edge. The Queen Mother had been meant to present the winning owner with the trophy but instead found herself on the receiving end!
Nothing could ever quite match that race again although Desert Orchid’s 1988 success over Kildimo raised the Sandown Park roof.
Two years later Mr Frisk pulled off the remarkable feat of winning the Grand National and Whitbread Gold Cup in the same year and a year later there was controversy as Cahervillahow was disqualified in favour of Dockland’s Express. The same horse also ran in the 1993 renewal when Givus a Buck was disqualified in favour of Topsham Bay, another dual winner of the race.
In 2000, the novice chaser Beau relished soft ground and produced an outstanding demolition of a big field of seasoned chasers and the following year Ad Hoc won the first of his two victories in the final Whitbread before the race sponsors changed.
In recent years the race has provided a glorious last hurrah for a number of veterans with Monkerhostin, Church Island and Tidal Bay all enjoying Indian Summers at Sandown Park.
Desert Orchid winning in 1988
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Sandown Park Racecourse
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Which fish has a curling prehensile tail?
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Arkle
Arkle and Pat Taaffe
Photo by Rex Coleman
Arkle b g 1957 (Archive - Bright Cherry, by Knight of the Garter). Sire Line Phalaris . Family 41 .
To regard Arkle's sire, the superbly bred wartime runner Archive, as useless as a racehorse would not have been entirely uncharitable. The pinnacle of his racing achievements was second place in a division of a one mile maiden race at the now defunct Stockton racecourse. By Nearco, out of the St. Leger winner Book Law, it should not have been like that if one followed the theory of breeding the best with the best. His pedigree was classical to the core, and laced with speed and stamina. But poor Archive possessed neither of these qualities. When his racing career ended it would have been no surprise had he been dispatched to the glue factory, which he certainly would have had he been from an earlier age. Fortunately, fate intervened and he lived to sire the greatest steeplechaser the world had ever seen.
Arkle was bred by Mrs. Mary Baker, of Malahow in County Meath. Her late husband had often talked of sending Bright Cherry, herself an excellent race mare, to Archive. Despite his lack of class on the racecourse she liked his classic breeding – and he was inexpensive. Had he been the prolific winner his breeding might have suggested, he would have commanded a considerable fee at stud – and there would have been no Arkle. As it was Archive was available for the price of a gypsy’s pony.
And so Bright Cherry made the visit to Archive at Loughtown Stud, Co. Kildare, and about eleven months later, on 19th April 1957, dropped his foal at the Ballymacoll Stud just before the sun rose over the Wicklow Mountains. Arkle, as yet un-named, created no great impression as a youngster other than being a kind horse, very intelligent, and easy to get on with. Had they known what they had on their hands, the Bakers would no doubt have kept him. But he had to go, and at Goff’s August 1960 sale he was knocked down to the Duchess of Westminster for 1150 guineas, not a great price but over double his reserve. The Bakers were happy.
Named after a Scottish mountain that bordered the Duchess of Westminster’s Sutherland estate, the young Arkle, trained at Killsalaghan by Tom Dreaper, prospered under his patient master. Nothing electric: unplaced in a couple of bumpers; some promising efforts over hurdles; a crashing fall whilst schooling (the only time he ever fell) and then came the Honeybourne Chase, a two-and-a-half mile novices ’chase at Cheltenham.
Like so many good Irish horses, spectacular reports preceded him. How they loved to frighten the English. More often than not their claims were discredited, but this did not deter the Irish from backing him as if money was going out of style. And Dreaper’s infant paid them back in spectacular fashion, cruising to a twenty length victory.
Arkle at Cheltenham in 1965
� A. J. Byles
Four months later and rising six-years-old he was back at Cheltenham for the National Hunt Festival and the Broadway Novice’s Chase. It was another annihilation. The Irish were already envisioning him as the winner of the next year’s Gold Cup, and a further opportunity to plunder the bookmakers' satchels. But two days later their jaws must have dropped in shocked disbelief when Arkle’s stable companion, Fortria, was humbled by the English giant, Mill House, in the Gold Cup. Although past his best Fortria was top class, but Mill House had made him look pretty ordinary. It was a magnificent performance. The scribes were hailing Mill House as the best since Golden Miller. He was, after all, only a six-year-old, the same age as Arkle, and could easily equal Golden Miller’s record of five Gold Cups.
But seasoned observers were not convinced; the issue would not be settled until these two rising stars had met. This was to be in the Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury. Such was their reputation by then – Arkle had been unbeaten in four races, including hacking up in a flat race, since Cheltenham – that their rivalry had become almost nationalistic.
One can imagine the patronising tongues wagging around the Newbury parade ring: “Yeah. Arkle’s a good horse, alright. But look at Mill House – he could pick Arkle up and carry him.” Mill House was indeed an enormous beast, nearly seventeen hands, and massively built. And sure enough, as the crowd left Newbury on that cold November evening there was no doubt that Mill House was the champion. Arkle could only finish third – over eight lengths behind.
The Irish were dumbfounded. They knew how good Arkle was. Mill House must be a wonder horse. But unnoticed through the mist that hung over the racecourse, Arkle had slipped on landing at the last open ditch, three fences from home, almost sliding to a halt, and blundering his way out of any chance he may have had. This excuse when made known was greeted with the usual expected scepticism. “Fences were there to be jumped; unlucky as he may have been, Arkle had failed to do so.” One sensed this may have been a brave defence by those backers of Mill House who knew what the outcome might have been had Arkle not slipped.
Whatever the personal views, the outcome had been inconclusive, setting up what was to be an unforgettable epic in the annals of steeplechasing when they met again in the Cheltenham Gold Cup. There were only two other runners: King’s Nephew and Pas Seul, a previous Gold Cup winner now well past his prime. Neither was considered a threat and both took little part in the contest, which became a match between the two favourites.
Mill House cut out the early work. In the stands one could sense the pounding hearts… and the silence, punctuated with the gasps of oohs and aahs with each mighty leap. Arkle matched him stride for stride, and turning down the hill, with three fences to jump, began to relentlessly cut down his lead. As they turned for home Willie Robinson on Mill House went for his whip; and Pat Taaffe began to shake up Arkle. Robinson drove Mill House for all he was worth, but he had given his all. Arkle took the lead just before the last fence, and landing safely, the stands exploded in a crescendo of cheering, as Arkle raced home a five lengths winner.
Arkle’s supremacy became overwhelming. No burden seemed capable of stopping him. In their next meeting, the following year’s Hennessy Gold Cup, Arkle was set to concede three-pounds to Mill House. Even this failed to bring them closer together; poor Mill House being humbled by a twenty-eight length defeat.
It is probable that Arkle wasn’t fully fit for the Hennessy, as he turned out a week later for Cheltenham ’s Massey Ferguson Gold Cup, over a distance short of his best and with a three-pound penalty for his Hennessy win. With 12st. 10lb. this was going to be no pushover. Buona Notte, a super novice, and Flying Wild, a top class race mare who looked more like an Oaks winner than a ’chaser, in receipt of twenty-six pounds and thirty-two pounds respectively, would see to that.
But Arkle was no respecter of weight concessions. Grabbing hold of his bit, and near pulling poor Taaffe’s arms out, he confiscated the lead four fences from home. Racing down the hill, as the weight began to tell, the grey mare Flying Wild came at him; then Buona Notte. Towards the last they both headed him. Buona Notte crashed through the birch, almost knocking the stuffing out of himself, but recovered and closed on the mare. And Arkle, having looked a beaten horse, also got going again, grinding away at the strength-sapping hill under his tremendous burden. It was the most thrilling of finishes, Flying Wild holding on by a short head from Buona Notte, with Arkle just a length away.
Even in defeat Arkle had been magnificent. Somehow it did not seem to matter that he had been beaten. He had conceded lumps of weight – not to two bottom of the handicap plodders, but to two high class ’chasers, both capable of winning top class races – and yet he had suffered only a narrow defeat. To many he was the moral victor.
Winning the Whitbread Gold Cup at
Sandown Park in April, 1965
� A. J. Byles
Over the next two years Arkle was unbeaten, winning two more Cheltenham Gold Cups, a second Hennessy Gold Cup, Kempton Park’s King George VI ’Chase, Sandown Park’s Whitbread Gold Cup, and a newly framed race: the Gallaher Gold Cup, in which he gave Mill House sixteen pounds and a twenty-four length beating – and broke the course record by seventeen seconds. In handicapping terms this put him nearly three stone (42 lb.) superior to Mill House. Was it possible that one Gold Cup winner was almost three stone superior to another?
� A. J. Byles
Arkle leading Mill House past the members' car park on his way to winning the Gallaher Gold Cup at Sandown Park in November, 1965
Defeat finally came trying to win his third Hennessy Gold Cup. It was the Handicapper that beat him; though even he couldn’t have foreseen his misdemeanour. The lightly weighted grey, Stalbridge Colonist, was in with only 10 st. Although a winner of almost a dozen races the previous season, he had never won a race beyond two-and-a-half miles, and the previous weekend had finished forty lengths behind Arkle’s stable mate, Dicky May, in a race at Ascot. And there was Arkle, with his usual 12 st. 7lb. It had hardly troubled him before – why now? But Stalbridge Colonist, with the benefit of the super lightweight jockey Stan Mellor on his back, launched himself at the last fence - and had the temerity to outjump Arkle half a length and, more importantly, the impetus to take him clear. For a moment it appeared that Stalbridge Colonist would win easily but, battling on gamely (one could never accuse Arkle of giving in without a fight), Arkle began to close. His prodigious burden, however, proved just too much - yet he went down by only half a length.
Did this mean that Arkle, in his first race of the season and possibly a shade unfit, was on the wane? Not in the slightest. Within a few weeks he was back in England (Arkle trained in Ireland) this time for the S.G.B. Handicap ’chase at Royal Ascot. Such was his popularity that the attendance was over a third up on the previous year’s meeting. Arkle did not disappoint them. He took the lead at the first fence and was never headed, winning by fifteen lengths and conceding 35 lb. to the runner-up. Another magnificent weight-carrying performance made it fitting that his name could now be added alongside the great champions that had won on the Royal Heath.
Arkle following his win in the S. G. B.
Handicap 'chase at Royal Ascot in 1966
� A. J. Byles
It now seemed a mere formality that Arkle would win a fourth Cheltenham Gold Cup. There was just Kempton Park’s King George VI Chase to overcome – a conditions race he had won the year before – in which he only had to concede 21 lb. to his six opponents. But almost from the start Pat Taaffe sensed something was wrong. Arkle was jumping to the left on a right handed track (in hindsight he had done the same over the last few fences at Ascot ). It was clear that Arkle, if not struggling, was not the Arkle we knew. Invisible from the stands, Arkle had clipped the guard rail at the second fence with his off-fore, splitting the pedal bone. But a cracked pedal bone was certainly not going to stop him now.
Woodland Venture, the most likely danger, and an old adversary, Dormant, whom Arkle had distanced in the same race the previous year, both had a go at him. But Arkle never surrendered his lead easily, and he still led at the end of the first circuit. At the first fence in the back straight – and Kempton’s fences were not to be trifled with – Arkle went straight through it; in much the same way he had done at Cheltenham when winning his third Gold Cup. A gasp from the crowd; followed by a sigh as his remarkable balance rescued him. Biddlecombe drove Woodland Venture into the lead, but Arkle was having none of it, and by the next fence he was back in front.
By the second last, when Arkle would have normally taken leave of his field, Woodland Venture was still hanging on, and he challenged for the lead again. Almost upsides of Arkle as they took off, Woodland Venture crashed to the ground, leaving Arkle alone. Only one fence left and he would be home.
But creeping out of the depth of winter mist was Dormant, who under normal circumstances would not have caught Arkle if he had run to the end of the world. Dormant now appeared to be closing on Arkle at a phenomenal rate. The crowd was willing Arkle on – completely unaware of the excruciating pain that was stabbing into his off fore every time it touched the ground.
At the last fence Dormant was six lengths in arrears and even in receipt of 21 lb. his task looked formidable. But on the run-in the race took a dramatic change. Arkle’s stride faltered and shortened as Dormant relentlessly cut down his lead. It was only twenty yards from the winning post that Dormant finally caught him, but so slow was Arkle going now (he had almost slowed to a trot as he passed the winning post) that Dormant had a length to spare.
As Pat Taaffe – who worshipped the only perfect horse he had ever sat on – was led in, the anguished expression on his face told the whole story: Arkle had broken down. It was an anguish shared by all who had followed this great horse.
His injury was serious enough: the pedal bone was split over two inches. One must wonder at the pain he must have experienced racing over three miles – never attempting to pull-up, but fighting to the bitter end. Little wonder the public took him to their hearts.
A fourth consecutive Gold Cup was now out of the question; in fact the possibility of never seeing him on a racecourse again - and thus the end of an era - dawned on us.
Arkle coming in lame after his last race, the King George VI 'chase at Kempton Park, in December, 1966
� A. J. Byles
As famous as Arkle had been on the racecourse, it was excelled by his fame as a patient. Regular bulletins appeared in the press and on television and radio. Get-well cards and letters adorned his box. Such was his celebrity that an address was unnecessary; cards and letters simply addressed "Arkle, Ireland" found their way to his box.
Arkle made good progress. The bone healed; special races were framed for him to assist his preparation for a fourth Gold Cup; not a stone was left unturned to get him back on the racecourse. But the Gold Cup came and went – won by Arkle’s stable companion Fort Leney, and the next one, won by the twelve-year-old What a Myth - both rated at least three-stone (42 lb) inferior to Arkle.
Just a few months short of two years since that sombre day at Kempton, when Arkle passed a winning post for the last time, the Duchess of Westminster announced his retirement. In some way our disappointment was tempered by the relief that this equine masterpiece would never again be risked to reproduce the brilliance he had shown over almost four spectacular seasons. He was nearly twelve years old and the possibility of him having to struggle against nonentities, who in his prime would have been dispatched with ease, would have been too much to bear.
And that was very nearly the end of Arkle. He made a few more public appearances at the Horse of the Year Show where he delighted his public. Ears pricked, listening to the applause of the crowd, perhaps he may have thought he was going racing again. On one evening he fed on apples and pears from a fruiterer’s cart, and on another, the show’s hydrangeas, in much the same way as the Duke of Westminster’s Ormonde had fed on geraniums and orchids at a Grosvenor House Party nearly a century before.
Spring came, and with it an increasing stiffness in his hindquarters. It became so bad that he was having trouble moving, and there was the possibility of him lying down and being unable to get up. One can imagine the thoughts of the Duchess of Westminster as she saw him for the last time – lying down, those powerful memories flashing before her. Perhaps she would have remembered the afternoon of March 7th 1964 – Gold Cup Day. It was the day she saw the greatest steeplechaser she had seen in a lifetime win the race of the year: Mill House and Arkle, stride for stride, racing for the final turn to face the famous Cheltenham hill; Robinson on Mill House going for his whip, and Taaffe shaking up Arkle. She would remember the relief as Arkle took the lead at the last fence and raced away as if the whole of Ireland was shouting him home.
It was a Sunday afternoon, around teatime. Just six years had passed by to that fateful day: 31st May 1970; Arkle took his final injection and passed into the hand of legend.
Arkle was buried at the Duchess of Westminster's
farm at Bryanstown, near Maynooth,
County Kildare, Ireland.
� A. J. Byles
Arkle is pictured above with his lad Johnny Lumley. He did not ride and was given both Arkle and Flyingbolt when he went to work for Tom Dreaper. Flyingbolt (Airborne), a flashy chesnut with a vile temper, was also one of the best. In 1966 at Cheltenham he won the Champion Chase and the next day finished third in the Champion Hurdle.
There were great steeplechasers before Arkle: The Lamb and Manifesto; and of the latter day marvels, Easter Hero, Cottage Rake, and of course Golden Miller, among many others. There have been great runners since; but Arkle’s performances on the racecourse have left his name, after nearly half a century, one to conjure with. A measure of his greatness rests with his course record carrying 12 st. 7lb. over three miles at Sandown Park, set in 1965, which still stands to this day, and what other equine masterpiece has forced such a change in the rules of racing? Handicaps were framed with two sets of weights: one if he ran and one if he did not, to prevent all the runners from being lumped together on the lowest weight.
Arkle was incomparable. Not only was he a great athlete, but he had an inexplicable presence that captivated all who were touched by him. The adulation with which he was regarded extended beyond the racing public. There was no doubt he was arrogant, as could be testified by the way he would appear to swagger round the parade ring or savour the applause after one of his victories. And the heights he would sometimes clear his fences - was he not just taking the rise out of the opposition? Yes, arrogant he may have been. But he had plenty to be arrogant about.
It is no hyperbole that Arkle – a freak of nature – was the greatest steeplechaser since Messrs O’Callaghan and Blake raced their horses from St. John's Church, Buttevant to St. Mary's Church, across from Doneraile Park, St. Leger over two centuries ago, and so set the sport of steeplechasing a-galloping. There may have been others fit to name in the same breath but none has left us with a legacy of such supremacy.
Maybe, in some distant time, there will be an equal, but certainly in the lifetime of the writer of these lines, it seems doubtful that we shall ever see his like again.
Anthony Byles
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Where is the 'king George VI' horse race held?
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William Hill King George VI Chase 2011 - YouTube
William Hill King George VI Chase 2011
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Uploaded on Jan 15, 2011
William Hill King George VI Chase 2011 at Kempton Park
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Kempton Park
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After Paris, which is the next largest French speaking city?
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Silviniaco Conti wins William Hill King George VI Chase at Kempton - Telegraph
Horse Racing
Silviniaco Conti wins William Hill King George VI Chase at Kempton
Noel Fehily on 7-2 shot Silviniaco Conti overcomes Cue Card to give trainer Paul Nicholls an eighth triumph in the William Hill King George VI Chase at Kempton
Noel Fehily on Silviniaco Conti wins the King George VI Chase at Kempton Photo: GETTY IMAGES
By JA McGrath , at Kempton
4:12PM GMT 26 Dec 2013
Comments
No jockey in the weighing room was more deserving of a big-race winner such asBoxing Day’s William Hill King George VI Chase at Kempton Park than Noel Fehily, who displayed commendable judgment and persistence on the grand stayer Silviniaco Conti.
Renowned as a horseman, the Irishman called on skills that boosted his reputation as “the closest thing to Ruby Walsh in this country”.
Three years ago, Fehily, 38, was forced to miss a scheduled ride on Kauto Star in the King George after sustaining a badly broken wrist in a fall at Newbury several weeks before the big day.
Complications with ligaments kept him on the sidelines for nine months.
“When something like that happens, you don’t think you’ll ever get another chance,” Fehily admitted.
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“This means a lot to me. I grew up watching Desert Orchid in the King George, and now I’ve won it myself.”
It certainly made up for the time lost through not only the smashed wrist, but also six months for a shoulder injury, and another six months with a broken leg.
It is no wonder that Fehily, the son of a Cork farmer, could never get going long enough to make his mark in recent seasons.
His big-race wins include a Tingle Creek Chase aboard Master Minded and a Champion Hurdle on Rock On Ruby, but the interruptions because of broken bones and other scrapes cost him dearly.
Run at a solid pace throughout, this King George was further proof that Kempton’s three-mile trip is as exacting as anywhere in the country.
Stamina in the very soft ground won it for Silviniaco Conti, whose victory in the 2012 Betfair Chase at Haydock had offered a glimpse of his potential.
He then fell three out when travelling well in Bobs Worth’s Gold Cup last March, and his runs since have been respectable, if unspectacular.
Fehily had a plan, and that was to stick close to trailblazing Cue Card right from the off.
He was at his girth most of the way.
Three fences out, as the bold-jumping Cue Card kicked for home, Fehily believed his winning chance had evaporated, yet a dozen strides later he knew he was back in the fight with every likelihood of overhauling the leader, who was suddenly coming back to him.
“He [Silviniaco Conti] was staying on. He’s so tough,” Fehily reflected.
With renewed enthusiasm, the seven-year-old raced to Cue Card and took it up before the last of the 18 fences and galloped on to win by 3½ lengths in a manner so convincing that most bookmakers quickly elevated him to Gold Cup favouritism.
It would be stupid to question Cue Card, whose jumping was superb at various stages, and very difficult to argue that he did not stay.
He battled on gamely for his second place, and while the winner jumped to the top rung of ante-post betting lists for the Gold Cup, logically there should not be much between the first two on better ground, though Fehily believes Silviniaco Conti would go even better. “It was soft enough for him,” he said.
Sportingly, Colin Tizzard accepted that Cue Card had been beaten by a superior stayer, but the trainer was never going to be rushed into nominating a Cheltenham target for his stable star, not yet anyway.
“I’m just chuffed for my horse,” Tizzard said. “He’s run right up to his Haydock run.
"Obviously, Paul Nicholls’s horse has improved for the run at Haydock, but this is a race that is always won by a stayer.”
Sceptics will want to erase Cue Card from the Gold Cup, and dispatch him immediately to the Ryanair, which he won at the last Cheltenham Festival.
But, there is much soul-searching to be done before connections commit to a target, and Cue Card’s jumping prowess and overall class are two factors that will weigh heavily in favour of another clash with Silviniaco Conti over an extended three miles.
History shows that Paul Nicholls is the dominant King George trainer, having now won eight runnings of the Boxing Day feature, with three different horses.
Francois Doumen, the much-travelled Frenchman, won four King Georges with four different horses, while David Elsworth won it four times with just one – Desert Orchid.
That Fehily should land another major prize for Nicholls when Daryl Jacob is fighting to consolidate his role as the stable’s No 1 jockey is timely, if a little unsettling for the incumbent.
There are plenty of horses to go round, but Silviniaco Conti will now be a flagship horse for the Nicholls yard, and the first jockey would not be human if he did not want to be on him.
The Nicholls-trained Al Ferof ended up staying on well for third and may well press on to realise his owner John Hales’s ambition to run him in the Gold Cup.
Mount Benbulben battled on for fourth, but arguably the biggest disappointment was the David Pipe-trained Dynaste, who weakened to finish last of the five finishers.
Riverside Theatre unseated Barry Geraghty at the fifth, where Champion Court was hampered and unseated Ian Popham.
The biggest surprise was Long Run unseating Sam Waley-Cohen at the last fence when well held.
The dual-King George winner, who was visored for the first time, had sat third throughout and been kept wide by his rider for most of the way.
He has long enjoyed a reputation for being reliable and safe over his fences.
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"What do Americans mean by ""Banana Oil""?"
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Snake - Idioms by The Free Dictionary
Snake - Idioms by The Free Dictionary
http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/snake
Also found in: Dictionary , Thesaurus , Medical , Legal , Financial , Acronyms , Encyclopedia , Wikipedia .
banana oil
Superfluous, disingenuous, or nonsensical talk, especially that which is meant to flatter someone or exaggerate something. Look, I know I won't get past the first round of this tournament, so you can stop feeding me banana oil.
See also: banana , oil
a snake in (one's) bosom
Someone whom one has befriended, taken care of, or treated well but proves to be traitorous, untrustworthy, deceitful, or ungrateful. (Used especially in the phrase "nourish/nurse/nurture a snake in one's bosom.") Well, it turns out that Margaret was quite a snake in my bosom. I put my neck on the line to get her a job in our company, and then she turns around and tries to get me fired! I thought our love was not only mutual but indestructible; and yet, I have nursed a snake in my bosom all these years: my darling husband has cast me out and run off with a younger woman.
See also: bosom , snake
nurse a snake in (one's) bosom
To befriend, look after, or take care of someone who proves to be traitorous, untrustworthy, deceitful, or ungrateful. I thought the profligate had seen the light and was seeking redemption, and so I took him into my care. But before long, I knew I had nursed a snake in my bosom, as I awoke one morning to find myself robbed blind! I thought our love was not only mutual but indestructible; and yet, I have nursed a snake in my bosom all these years: my darling husband has cast me out and run off with a younger woman.
See also: bosom , nurse , snake
nurture a snake in (one's) bosom
To befriend, look after, or take care of someone who proves to be traitorous, untrustworthy, deceitful, or ungrateful. I thought the profligate had seen the light and was seeking redemption, and so I took him into my care. But before long, I knew I had nurtured a snake in my bosom, as I awoke one morning to find myself robbed blind! I thought our love was not only mutual but indestructible; and yet, I have nurtured a snake in my bosom all these years: my darling husband has cast me out and run off with a younger woman.
See also: bosom , nurture , snake
nourish a snake in (one's) bosom
To befriend, look after, or take care of someone who proves to be traitorous, untrustworthy, deceitful, or ungrateful. I thought the profligate had seen the light and was seeking redemption, and so I took him into my care. But before long, I knew I had nourished a snake in my bosom, as I awoke one morning to find myself robbed blind! I thought our love was not only mutual but indestructible; and yet, I have nourished a snake in my bosom all these years: my darling husband has cast me out and run off with a younger woman.
See also: bosom , nourish , snake
snake oil salesman
Someone who sells, promotes, or is a general proponent of some valueless or fraudulent cure, remedy, or solution. (Can also be formed as "snake oil saleswoman" if referring to a woman, or "salesperson" to be gender neutral.) I find it hard to believe anyone would fall for those snake oil salesmen on TV selling holistic medicines and therapies. A lot of people have been swayed by the presidential candidate's plan for economic growth, but if you ask me, she sounds like a snake oil saleswoman.
See also: oil , salesman , snake
snake in the grass
One who feigns friendship with the intent to deceive. Did you hear that Daria's best friend stole money from her bank account? What a snake in the grass.
See also: grass , snake
go at something like a boy killing snakes
Rur. to do something with a great deal of energy. Once Mary decided to take that test, she went at her books like a boy killing snakes. I hired Joe to weed my garden, and he went at it like a boy killing snakes.
See also: boy , killing , like , snake
If it was a snake it woulda bit you.
Rur. It was very close to you. Jane: Where's the phone book? Tom: Right there! If it was a snake it woulda bit you. Bill: I can't find my other shoe. I've looked all over the house. Mary: It's right behind you. If it was a snake it would have bit you.
See also: bit , if , snake
like fighting snakes
Rur. chaotic; challenging. (As if every time one snake is subdued, another one attacks.) It's like fighting snakes to get anything done at this time of year. Arguing with you is like fighting snakes.
See also: elephant , pink , seeing
snake along
to move along in a curving line, looking like a snake; to move along in a line, moving as a snake moves. The train snaked along, gaining speed as it went downhill. The line of people waiting to buy tickets snaked along slowly.
See also: snake
snake in the grass
a sneaky and despised person. How could I ever have trusted that snake in the grass? John is such a snake in the grass.
See also: grass , snake
a snake in the grass
someone who pretends to be your friend while secretly doing things to harm you It's upsetting to learn that someone you once viewed as a good colleague is in fact a snake in the grass.
See also: oil , snake
banana oil
Nonsense, exaggerated flattery, as in I should be on television? Cut out the banana oil! The precise analogy in this idiom is not clear, unless it is to the fact that banana oil, a paint solvent and artificial flavoring agent, has no relation to the fruit other than that it smells like it. Possibly it is a variation on snake oil, a term for quack medicine that was extended to mean nonsense. [1920s]
See also: banana , oil
snake in the grass
A treacherous person, as in Ben secretly applied for the same job as his best friend; no one knew he was such a snake in the grass . This metaphor for treachery, alluding to a poisonous snake concealed in tall grass, was used in 37 b.c. by the Roman poet Virgil ( latet anguis in herba). It was first recorded in English in 1696 as the title of a book by Charles Leslie.
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Flattery
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Which country has Slovakia to the north, The Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia & Montenegro and Croatia to the south, and Austria to the west?
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Snake - Idioms by The Free Dictionary
Snake - Idioms by The Free Dictionary
http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/snake
Also found in: Dictionary , Thesaurus , Medical , Legal , Financial , Acronyms , Encyclopedia , Wikipedia .
banana oil
Superfluous, disingenuous, or nonsensical talk, especially that which is meant to flatter someone or exaggerate something. Look, I know I won't get past the first round of this tournament, so you can stop feeding me banana oil.
See also: banana , oil
a snake in (one's) bosom
Someone whom one has befriended, taken care of, or treated well but proves to be traitorous, untrustworthy, deceitful, or ungrateful. (Used especially in the phrase "nourish/nurse/nurture a snake in one's bosom.") Well, it turns out that Margaret was quite a snake in my bosom. I put my neck on the line to get her a job in our company, and then she turns around and tries to get me fired! I thought our love was not only mutual but indestructible; and yet, I have nursed a snake in my bosom all these years: my darling husband has cast me out and run off with a younger woman.
See also: bosom , snake
nurse a snake in (one's) bosom
To befriend, look after, or take care of someone who proves to be traitorous, untrustworthy, deceitful, or ungrateful. I thought the profligate had seen the light and was seeking redemption, and so I took him into my care. But before long, I knew I had nursed a snake in my bosom, as I awoke one morning to find myself robbed blind! I thought our love was not only mutual but indestructible; and yet, I have nursed a snake in my bosom all these years: my darling husband has cast me out and run off with a younger woman.
See also: bosom , nurse , snake
nurture a snake in (one's) bosom
To befriend, look after, or take care of someone who proves to be traitorous, untrustworthy, deceitful, or ungrateful. I thought the profligate had seen the light and was seeking redemption, and so I took him into my care. But before long, I knew I had nurtured a snake in my bosom, as I awoke one morning to find myself robbed blind! I thought our love was not only mutual but indestructible; and yet, I have nurtured a snake in my bosom all these years: my darling husband has cast me out and run off with a younger woman.
See also: bosom , nurture , snake
nourish a snake in (one's) bosom
To befriend, look after, or take care of someone who proves to be traitorous, untrustworthy, deceitful, or ungrateful. I thought the profligate had seen the light and was seeking redemption, and so I took him into my care. But before long, I knew I had nourished a snake in my bosom, as I awoke one morning to find myself robbed blind! I thought our love was not only mutual but indestructible; and yet, I have nourished a snake in my bosom all these years: my darling husband has cast me out and run off with a younger woman.
See also: bosom , nourish , snake
snake oil salesman
Someone who sells, promotes, or is a general proponent of some valueless or fraudulent cure, remedy, or solution. (Can also be formed as "snake oil saleswoman" if referring to a woman, or "salesperson" to be gender neutral.) I find it hard to believe anyone would fall for those snake oil salesmen on TV selling holistic medicines and therapies. A lot of people have been swayed by the presidential candidate's plan for economic growth, but if you ask me, she sounds like a snake oil saleswoman.
See also: oil , salesman , snake
snake in the grass
One who feigns friendship with the intent to deceive. Did you hear that Daria's best friend stole money from her bank account? What a snake in the grass.
See also: grass , snake
go at something like a boy killing snakes
Rur. to do something with a great deal of energy. Once Mary decided to take that test, she went at her books like a boy killing snakes. I hired Joe to weed my garden, and he went at it like a boy killing snakes.
See also: boy , killing , like , snake
If it was a snake it woulda bit you.
Rur. It was very close to you. Jane: Where's the phone book? Tom: Right there! If it was a snake it woulda bit you. Bill: I can't find my other shoe. I've looked all over the house. Mary: It's right behind you. If it was a snake it would have bit you.
See also: bit , if , snake
like fighting snakes
Rur. chaotic; challenging. (As if every time one snake is subdued, another one attacks.) It's like fighting snakes to get anything done at this time of year. Arguing with you is like fighting snakes.
See also: elephant , pink , seeing
snake along
to move along in a curving line, looking like a snake; to move along in a line, moving as a snake moves. The train snaked along, gaining speed as it went downhill. The line of people waiting to buy tickets snaked along slowly.
See also: snake
snake in the grass
a sneaky and despised person. How could I ever have trusted that snake in the grass? John is such a snake in the grass.
See also: grass , snake
a snake in the grass
someone who pretends to be your friend while secretly doing things to harm you It's upsetting to learn that someone you once viewed as a good colleague is in fact a snake in the grass.
See also: oil , snake
banana oil
Nonsense, exaggerated flattery, as in I should be on television? Cut out the banana oil! The precise analogy in this idiom is not clear, unless it is to the fact that banana oil, a paint solvent and artificial flavoring agent, has no relation to the fruit other than that it smells like it. Possibly it is a variation on snake oil, a term for quack medicine that was extended to mean nonsense. [1920s]
See also: banana , oil
snake in the grass
A treacherous person, as in Ben secretly applied for the same job as his best friend; no one knew he was such a snake in the grass . This metaphor for treachery, alluding to a poisonous snake concealed in tall grass, was used in 37 b.c. by the Roman poet Virgil ( latet anguis in herba). It was first recorded in English in 1696 as the title of a book by Charles Leslie.
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i don't know
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