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Blasket Islands

(Encyclopedia)Blasket Islands, group of rock islets, Co. Kerry, SW Republic of Ireland; a lighthouse is on one of the islets. Most of the inhabitants of the islands were moved to the mainland in 1953. Great Blasket...

Admiralty Islands

(Encyclopedia)Admiralty Islands, group of 40 volcanic islands, c.800 sq mi (2,070 sq km), SW Pacific, in the Bismarck Archipelago and part of Papua New Guinea. Lorengau, the chief port and administrative center of ...

Darwin's finches

(Encyclopedia)Darwin's finches or Galapagos finches gəläˈpəgōsˌ [key], species of small perching birds, constituting the subfamily Geospizinae of the tanager family. Not related to the true finches, this grou...

Straits Settlements

(Encyclopedia)Straits Settlements, collective name for certain former British colonies in Southeast Asia. The three British East India Company territories of Pinang, Singapore, and Malacca (see Melaka) were given a...

D'Entrecasteaux Islands

(Encyclopedia)D'Entrecasteaux Islands däNtrəkästōˈ [key], volcanic group, SW Pacific, SE of New Guinea, part of Papua New Guinea. Comprising the Fergusson, Goodenough, and Normanby islands, the group, with a t...

Coral Sea Islands

(Encyclopedia)Coral Sea Islands, external territory of Australia, comprising scattered small islands and reefs spread over c.400,000 sq mi (1,035,995 sq km) of the South Pacific Ocean, E of the Great Barrier Reef, ...

Channel Islands, California

(Encyclopedia)Channel Islands or Santa Barbara Islands sănˈtə bärˈbrə, –bərə [key], chain of eight rugged islands and many islets, extending c.150 mi (240 km) along the S Calif. coast from Point Conceptio...

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