Shreve, Henry Miller (b. Oct. 21, 1785, Burlington county, N.J., U.S.—d. March 6, 1851, St. Louis, Mo.) U.S. inventor and explorer. He grew up on the western Pennsylvania frontier and began making trading voyages after his father’s death in 1799. In the War of 1812 he was skip¬ per of the Enterprise, the second steamboat on the Mississippi, carrying supplies for Andrew Jackson’s army. Though it was the first steamboat to reach Louisville, Ky. (1815), the trip convinced Shreve of the need for a new design for river steamers. His design for the Washington —with a flat shallow hull, a steam engine on the main deck, and a second deck— established the Mississippi steamboat type. To clear rivers of debris, he later designed the first snag boat. His camp on the Red River in Louisi¬ ana grew into a permanent settlement as Shreveport.
Shreveport City (pop., 2000: 200,145), northwestern Louisiana, U.S. It is located on the banks of the Red River. In 1837 Shreveport was founded on land bought from the Caddo Indians. The city became a Con¬ federate state capital and army headquarters during the American Civil War. It developed rapidly after oil was discovered in 1906 and is now a commercial and industrial centre for a three-state region. Barksdale Air Force Base is near the city.
shrew Any of more than 300 species of small insectivores constituting the family Soricidae. About 40% of these species live in Africa, but shrews are also found throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Shrews are absent from Australia and most of South America. They have tiny eyes and ears, a movable snout, and long, hook-tipped incisors. Typically 2 to 3 in. (6 to 8 cm) long, with a shorter tail, many shrews weigh only about 0.5 oz (14 g). Some are considered the smallest mammals, weighing only a few grams, with bodies less than 2 in. long. Most species live in ground lit¬ ter, but some live in burrows or trees and a few are semiaquatic. Because they are so small, shrews have the highest metabolic rates of any mam¬ mals (with pulses as high as 800 beats per minute). They spend most of their time searching for food, as they can survive only a few hours with¬ out eating. Their normal prey is invertebrates such as worms, though some will eat other small animals as well. Some species have toxic saliva (pain¬ ful to humans). Raptors and snakes eat shrews, but mammals avoid them. Tree shrews (family Tupaiidae) belong to a separate mammalian order (Scandentia) unrelated to true shrews.
Shrewsbury Town (pop., 1995 est.: 63,000), borough of Shrewsbury and Atcham, administrative and historic county of Shropshire, England. It is the county seat of Shropshire. Located on the English-Welsh border, Shrewsbury is encircled by the River Severn. Founded in the 5th century
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Shrewsbury ► shuffleboard I 1745
ad by the Welsh kingdom of Powys, it became part of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia at the end of the 8th century. An 11th-century grant to Roger de Montgomery, who founded its abbey, made it one of the first English earldoms. Prosperity came to the area in the late Middle Ages after centuries of fighting with the Welsh ended and trading in Welsh wool and flax began. The town was the birthplace of Charles Darwin.
Shrewsbury, Charles Talbot, duke and 12th earl of (b. July 24, 1660—d. Feb. 1, 1718, London, Eng.) English statesman. He inher¬ ited his father’s title at age seven and was raised as a Catholic. He became a Protestant in 1679 and in 1688 was one of seven men who invited Wil¬ liam of Orange to seize power from James II. After aiding the successful rebellion, Shrewsbury served William III as secretary of state (1689-90, 1694-99) and was created a duke in 1694. Shifting his allegiance from the Whigs, he served in a Tory administration as lord lieutenant of Ire¬ land (1710-14) and was appointed by Queen Anne as lord high treasurer (1714). He obtained recognition of George I as the legitimate royal heir and assured the peaceful succession of the house of Hanover.
Shridhara (fl. c. 750, India) Highly esteemed Hindu mathematician who wrote several treatises on Indian mathematics. His extant works are the partially preserved Pcitiganita (“Mathematics of Procedures”), Gan- itasara (“Essence of Mathematics”), and Ganitapanchavimashi (“Math¬ ematics in 25 Verses”). Pcitiganita consists of versified mathematical rules, without proofs. The first part treats arithmetic operations (includ¬ ing the calculation of squares, square roots, cubes, and cubic roots) for both integers and fractions, reductions of fractions, and proportions. The second part presents mixture problems and various series before it breaks off in the midst of rules for plane figures. He composed Ganitasara and Ganitapanchavimashi as epitomes of a larger work, which may or may not have been Patiganita. He gave the first correct formulas in India for the volume of a sphere and of a truncated cone.
shrike Any of about 64 species of solitary, predatory songbirds (family Laniidae), especially any of the 25 species of the genus Lanius. Shrikes kill insects, lizards, mice, and birds with their bill or may impale their prey on a thorn (earning them the name butcher bird). Most species are gray or brownish and have a harsh call; several Eurasian species have reddish or brown markings. The great gray shrike (L. excubitor ), called northern shrike in Canada and the U.S., is about 10 in. (25 cm) long and has a black mask. The only other New World species is the similar but smaller loggerhead shrike (L. ludovicianus) of North America.
shrimp Any of approximately 2,000 decapod species (suborder Natan- tia) having a semitransparent body flattened from side to side and a flex¬ ible abdomen terminating in a fan¬ like tail. The appendages are modified for swimming, and the antennae are long and whiplike.
Shrimps occur in shallow and deep ocean waters and in lakes and streams. Species range from less than an inch (a few millimeters) to about 8 in. (20 cm) long. Larger spe¬ cies are often called prawns. Shrimps swim backward by rapidly flexing the abdomen and tail. They eat small plants and animals; some species eat carrion. Many species are commercially important as food. See also FAIRY SHRIMP.
Shripati (fl. c. 1045, Rohinikhanda, India) Indian astronomer-astrologer and mathematician. He wrote Ganitatilaka (“The Ornament of Mathemat¬ ics”) and the astronomical works Siddhantashekhara (“The Crest of Established Doctrines”), Dhikotidakarana (“Procedure Giving Intellec¬ tual Climax”), and Dhruvamanasa (“Permanent Mind”). Siddhantashek¬ hara includes two chapters on mathematics; as one of the few surviving documents from this period, it sheds important light on the state of Indian algebra between Brahmagupta and Bhaskara II. For horoscopic astrology, Shripati wrote Jatakakarmapaddhati (“Way to the Computation of Nativ¬ ity”) and Jyotisharatnamala (“A Jewel Necklace of Astral Science”), which were highly influential on the development of astrology in India.
Shropshire Vshrap-shir\ Administrative (pop., 2001: 283,240), geo¬ graphic, and historic county, western England. It is divided by the River Severn; its county seat is Shrewsbury. Remnants left by Neolithic, Bronze Age, and early Iron Age inhabitants have been found in the region. In the
1st century ad the Romans built a fortress at Viroconium, one of the larg¬ est towns in Roman Britain. The Saxon conquest brought the construc¬ tion of Offa's Dyke, marking the England-Wales border. After the Norman Conquest of 1066, a double line of castles was established as fortifica¬ tion against the Welsh. In the 13th century the high quality of Shropshire wool brought prosperity to the region. In the early 18th century it became the greatest iron-producing area in England. Iron founding and agricul¬ ture remain important. The administrative county of Shropshire comprises five districts: Bridgnorth, North Shropshire, South Shropshire, and the boroughs of Oswestry and Shrewsbury and Atcham.
Shroud of Turin See Shroud of Turin
shrub Any woody plant that has several stems, none of which is domi¬ nant, and is usually less than 10 ft (3 m) tall. When much-branched and dense, it may be called a bush. Intermediate between shrubs and trees are arborescences, or treelike shrubs (10-20 ft, or 3-6 m, tall). Trees are gen¬ erally defined as woody plants more than 20 ft (6 m) tall, having a domi¬ nant stem, or trunk, and a definite crown shape. These distinctions are not reliable, however; for example, under especially favourable environmen¬ tal conditions, some shrubs may grow to the size of an arborescence or even a small tree.