Programming .NET 3.5 By Jesse Liberty, Alex Horovitz
July 2008
Pages: 476

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Colophon

The animal on the cover of Programming .NET 3.5 is a giant petrel, a large seabird from the genus Macronectes, which encompasses both the southern, or Antarctic, giant petrel (Macronectes giganteus) and the northern giant petrel (Macronectes halli). While much of the two species' habitat range overlaps and both are restricted to the southern hemisphere, only the southern petrel nests as far south as Antarctica. They are also physically similar; most individuals have gray plumage, though they can range from black and brown, to white in some southern petrels. They have long, pale-orange bills, but northern petrels can be distinguished by their reddish-pink billtips, versus the light-green tip of the southern petrels. Giant petrels are so named due to their impressive size; they can grow up to 34 inches long with wingspans of around 77 inches, and they weigh as much as 11 pounds.



Although they are sometimes mistaken for albatrosses, giant petrels-unlike the
albatross-forage on both sea and land. At sea, they feed on fish, squid, crustaceans,
and refuse from ships. On land, they feed primarily on penguin, whale, seal, or
seabird carrion, earning them a reputation as the "vultures of the Antarctic." They
are capable of killing birds as large as the king penguin and can be quite vicious in
their attacks.



Whalers have nicknamed the giant petrel "stinker" due in part to its carrion-feeding
tendencies, but also to one particularly nasty talent: it is able to spit, with great precision,
a foul-smelling glob of oil and regurgitated food at attackers. Giant petrels are
very susceptible to disturbance during breeding season and will abandon their nests
if threatened, so one theory is that the birds may have developed this spitting ability
as a way to ward off intruders.

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