not unlike a whale's head—this last suggesting its generic name—but tipped with a formidable hook. The shape of the bill has also prompted the Arabs to call it, according to their idiom, the “father of a shoe.” It forms large flocks and frequents dense swamps. The flight is heron-like, and the birds settle on trees. The food consists of any small animals or carrion. The nest is a hole in dry ground, roughly limed with herbage, and from two to twelve chalky white eggs are laid. (A. N.)
SHOEBURYNESS, a promontory on the coast of Essex, England, the point at which the coast-line trends north-eastward from the estuary of the Thames; It gives name to a school of gunnery, where officers are instructed and experiments carried out. The railway station (39 m. E. from London, the terminus of the London, Tilbury and Southend railway) bears the same name, but the parish is South Shoebury; North Shoebury is a parish situated nearer to Southend-on-Sea. The church of St Andrew retains some ornate Norman work, but is mainly a Perpendicular reconstruction. On the seaward side of the Ness there is a large ancient earthwork which is attributed to the Norsemen through a. reference in the Saxon Chronicle (894) under the name Sceobrig. The parish is in the S.E. parliamentary division of the country. Pop. (1901) 4081.
SHOFAR, Schofar or Shofer, the ancient ram's horn trumpet of the Hebrews, sometimes also translated cornet in the English Bible. The shofar consisted of a natural horn turned up at the bell end, and, having a short conical bore of very large calibre, it would be capable of producing at most the fundamental octave and twelfth. The shofar has continued in use in the Jewish synagogue until the present day, being blown with great solemnity once every year at the impressive service held on the Day of Atonement. The shofar was more generally used by the Israelites than the other horn Keren, and although figuring largely as a signal instrument in battle, and used for rousing the people against the foe, it can hardly be regarded as a military instrument, but rather as the token of God's presence in their midst, to give them the victory as in the case of Joshua and Gideon. It was the shofar that was used to call the people together on a solemn feast day (Ps. lxxxi. 3). (K. S.)
SHOGUN (Japanese for “generalissimo”), in Japan, originally merely the style of a general in command in the field, a title which only gradually came into existence at the beginning of the 8th century, the mikado himself having previously been regarded as the only authority. The rise of a military class and of shoguns (generals) was a development coincident with the division of supremacy between the Minamoto and Taira clans (see Japan: History). In 1192 the emperor Takahira made the Minamoto leader, Yoritomo, a Sei-i-tai-shogun (“barbarian-subjugating generalissimo”) or general-in-chief, and this office became stereotyped in the hands of successive great military leaders, till in 1603 Lyéyasu Tokugawa became shogun and established the Tokugawa dynasty in power. The shogunate from that time till 1867 exercised the de facto sovereignty in Japan, though in theory subordinate to the mikado. The revolution of 1867 swept away and abolished the shogunate and restored the mikado's supreme authority.
The term “Tycoon,” which was commonly used by foreigners in the 19th century, is merely a synonym for shogun, being the English rendering of the Japanese taiko or taikun, “great lord.”
SHOLAPUR, a city and district of British India, in the Central division of Bombay. The city is 164 m. S.E. from Poona by rail. Municipal area, about 8 sq. m.; pop. (1901) 75,288. Since 1877 it has ceased to be a military cantonment. Its great fort, of Mahommedan construction, dates from the 14th to 17th centuries. The large bazaar is divided into seven sections, one of which is used on each day of the week. There are two municipal gardens, with fine tanks and temples. It is an important centre of trade, with three cotton mills.
The District of Sholapur has an area of 4541 sq. m. Except in Karmala and Barsi subdivisions, in the north and east, where there is a good deal of hilly ground, the district is generally flat or undulating; but it is bare of vegetation, and presents everywhere a bleak treeless appearance. The chief rivers are the Bhima and its tributaries—the Man, the Nira and the Sina—all flowing towards the south-east. Lying in a tract of uncertain rainfall, Sholapur is peculiarly liable to seasons of scarcity; much, however, has been done by the opening of canals and tanks, such as the Ekruk and Ashti tanks, to secure a better water-supply, the Ekruk tank near Sholapur city is the second largest irrigation work in the Deccan. In 1901 the population was 720,977, showing a decrease of 4% in the decade. The principal crops are millet, pulse, oil seeds and cotton. There are manufactures of silk and cotton cloth, and blankets. The chief trading mart is Barsi. Pandharpur is a popular place of pilgrimage. The Great Indian Peninsula railway runs through the district, with a junction for the Southern Mahratta railway, and another junction for the Barsi light railway, recently extended to Pandharpur.
Sholapur passed from the Bahmani to the Bijapur kings and from them to the Mahrattas. In 1818, on the fall of the peshwa, it was ceded to the British, when it formed part of the Poona collectorate, but in 1838 it was made a separate district.
SHOOTING, as a British field sport, may be said to have existed for at least two hundred years, though it is only within the last half century that it has attained its present importance. In many parts of Great Britain the importance of the sporting rights of an estate now more than counterbalance its agricultural value, while enormous sums are annually devoted to the artificial production of game. Taking all contingent expenses into consideration, the average cost of every head of game killed may be taken as not less than three shillings. A hand-reared pheasant can scarcely be brought to the gun for less than seven to eight shillings; and these birds in particular—and partridges and wild duck to a lesser, but steadily increasing, extent—are reared in tens of thousands every year. So far, the grouse alone among recognized British game-birds has defied all attempts at artificial production, but it is probable that in course of time this will also yield to the modern taste for big bags.
The enormous head of game now preserved, and the correspondent development of the art of gunmaking, has to a great extent revolutionized the sport of shooting, the modern tendency being all in favour of “driving,” i.e. bringing the game to the sportsman, instead of the sportsman to the game. While this has undoubtedly raised the standard of marksmanship, it has equally deteriorated the exercise of such minor woodcraft as is required for small game shooting under present conditions.
In this article it is only possible to touch on the various forms of the sport of shooting most in vogue. First must be placed grouse-shooting, admittedly the finest form of sportGrouse-shooting. with the gun obtainable in the British Islands. It is customary to speak of this as though it were merely confined to Scotland, but grouse are found in every English county north of the Trent, as well as in Shropshire, Wales and Ireland, while in a good season as many are probably killed in Yorkshire alone as in any two Scotch counties put together. Practically all English grouse are killed by driving, the practice of which is fast extending to Scotland. On the undulating English and Lowland moors this has undoubtedly resulted in largely increasing the stock of grouse, but it is questionable whether it has been equally successful on the more rugged hills of the Highlands. Save in a few specially favoured localities, such as the Moy Hall moors in Inverness—shire, grouse-driving in Scotland has by no means produced the marvellous results achieved on the English moors, while far too many lessees of Scottish shootings resort to the suicidal policy of only driving their birds when the latter have become too wild to lie to dogs.
In laying out a moor for driving care should be taken to avoid placing a row of butts against a sky line: where possible these should be placed in a depression of the ground, which not only serves to conceal them from the birds, but also ensures higher and more difficult shots. For these reasons, on very flat stretches of ground the butts are sometimes excavated after the manner of a rifle pit with a low parapet, but in the writer's experience these are not to be specially recommended. It is in all cases advisable to refrain from placing a line of butts on very stony or
