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blue jay

(Encyclopedia)blue jay, common name for a familiar bird (Cyanocitta cristata) of central and E North America, allied to the crow, the raven, and the magpie, belonging to the family Corvidae. Almost a foot (30 cm) l...

stilt

(Encyclopedia)stilt, common name for some members of the family Recurvirostridae, shore birds including the avocet. Stilts, as their name implies, have the longest legs of any bird except the flamingo. They frequen...

Soweto

(Encyclopedia)Soweto [acronym for south-west townships], city, now part of City of Johannesburg metropolitan municipality, Gauteng prov., NE South Africa. Located 10 mi (16 km) SW of Johannesburg, Soweto grew as bl...

airedale terrier

(Encyclopedia)airedale terrier ârˈdāl [key], breed of dog developed in England in the 19th cent. It is the largest of the terrier group, standing about 23 in. (58.4 cm) high at the shoulder and weighing from 40 ...

carpetbaggers

(Encyclopedia)carpetbaggers, epithet used in the South after the Civil War to describe Northerners who went to the South during Reconstruction. Although regarded as transients because of the carpetbags in which the...

Winchester, cities, United States

(Encyclopedia)Winchester wĭnˈchĕˌstər, wĭnˈchĭstər [key]. 1 Town (1990 pop. 11,524), Litchfield co., NW Conn., in the Litchfield Hills; settled 1732, inc. 1771. It includes Winsted (1990 pop. 8,254), an in...

Kuban

(Encyclopedia)Kuban ko͞obănˈ, –bänˈ, Rus. ko͞obäˈnyə [key], river, c.570 mi (920 km) long, rising in the Greater Caucasus on the western slopes of Mt. Elbrus, S European Russia, and flowing north in a wi...

Randolph, Asa Philip

(Encyclopedia)Randolph, Asa Philip, 1889–1979, U.S. labor leader, b. Crescent City, Fla., attended the College of the City of New York. As a writer and editor of the black magazine The Messenger, which he helped ...

pigment

(Encyclopedia)pigment, substance that imparts color to other materials. In paint, the pigment is a powdered substance which, when mixed in the liquid vehicle, imparts color to a painted surface. The pigments used i...

Edward III

(Encyclopedia)Edward III, 1312–77, king of England (1327–77), son of Edward II and Isabella. Edward's long reign saw many constitutional developments. Most important of these was the emergence of the Commons ...