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Wall, Richard

(Encyclopedia)Wall, Richard, 1694–1778, Spanish statesman. Born in France of Irish parents, Wall entered the Spanish military service as a young man and later held important diplomatic posts. He helped negotiate ...

molting

(Encyclopedia)molting, periodical shedding and renewal of the outer skin, exoskeleton, fur, or feathers of an animal. In most animals the process is triggered by secretions of the thyroid and pituitary glands. Near...

Nadar

(Encyclopedia)Nadar gäspärˈ-fālēksˈ to͞ornäshôNˈ [key], 1820–1910, French pioneer photographer and writer, b. Paris; he adopted the legal trademark of “Nadar” as a young man. A multitalented young b...

Elgar, Sir Edward William

(Encyclopedia)Elgar, Sir Edward William ĕlˈgär [key], 1857–1934, English composer. He received his training from his father, who was an organist, music seller, and amateur violinist. In 1885 he succeeded his f...

racer

(Encyclopedia)racer, name for several related swift, slender snakes, especially those of the genus Coluber. All of the racers are nonpoisonous, nonconstricting, day-active snakes. The black racer, C. constrictor, i...

Ransom, John Crowe

(Encyclopedia)Ransom, John Crowe, 1888–1974, American poet and critic, b. Pulaski, Tenn., grad. Vanderbilt Univ. and studied at Oxford as a Rhodes scholar. He is considered one of the great stylists of 20th-centu...

skink

(Encyclopedia)skink, a lizard of the family Scincidae, a large, diverse group found in a range of environments in temperate and tropical regions throughout most of the world. Skinks are generally small or medium-si...

Laube, Heinrich

(Encyclopedia)Laube, Heinrich hīnˈrĭkh louˈbə [key], 1806–84, German writer. Prominent in the liberal Young Germany movement, he wrote historical novels, among them the cycle Der deutsche Krieg [the German w...

King, Henry

(Encyclopedia)King, Henry, 1592–1669, English poet. He became bishop of Chichester in 1642. Elegies constitute nearly half his work, his most notable being “The Exequy,” written on the death of his young wife...

henna

(Encyclopedia)henna, name for a reddish or black hair dye obtained from the powdered leaves and young shoots of the mignonette tree, or henna shrub (Lawsonia inermis), an Old World shrub of the loosestrife family. ...