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quagga

(Encyclopedia)quagga kwăgˈə [key], extinct type of zebra. It formerly inhabited open plains in S Africa, where its range overlapped that of the plains zebra, or common zebra (Equus quagga, formerly E. burchellii...

hybrid

(Encyclopedia)hybrid hīˈbrĭd [key], term applied by plant and animal breeders to the offspring of a cross between two different subspecies or species, and by geneticists to the offspring of parents differing in ...

Hillary, Sir Edmund Percival

(Encyclopedia)Hillary, Sir Edmund Percival, 1919–2008, New Zealand mountain climber and explorer. He went on many mountain-climbing expeditions before 1953, when he and Tenzing Norgay of Nepal were the first peop...

Bulgakov, Mikhail Afanasyevich

(Encyclopedia)Bulgakov, Mikhail Afanasyevich mēkhəyēlˈ əfənäˈsyəvĭch bo͝olgäˈkəf [key], 1891–1940, Russian novelist and playwright. He wrote satirical stories (The Deviliad, 1925, tr. 1972) and come...

phalarope

(Encyclopedia)phalarope fălˈərōpˌ [key], common name for members of the family Phalaropodidae, shore birds, called “little swimming sandpipers.” Phalaropes, small, dainty birds with webbed toes, are the mo...

District of Columbia, University of the

(Encyclopedia)District of Columbia, University of the, at Washington, D.C.; coeducational; land-grant and federally supported; est. 1976 with the merger of three existing colleges; predominantly African American. I...

Field of the Cloth of Gold

(Encyclopedia)Field of the Cloth of Gold, locality between Guines and Ardres, not far from Calais, in France, where in 1520 Henry VIII of England and Francis I of France met for the purpose of arranging an alliance...

Gloucester, Thomas of Woodstock, duke of

(Encyclopedia)Gloucester, Thomas of Woodstock, duke of, 1355–97, English nobleman; youngest son of Edward III. He was betrothed (1374) to Eleanor, heiress of Humphrey de Bohun, earl of Hereford, and became earl o...

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